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As I always do, I am enjoying Paul Sweeney’s speech. Do we need to build confidence among our patient base, particularly in primary care, about use of technology? Would that be an advantage for the practitioners, as well?

The member makes my point: we can talk about systems and examples in bits and pieces, but the reality is that, at this time, we should be much further advanced. That would make an incredible difference to our practitioners. I know that the member is a practitioner, so she will hear that at times when she works within the NHS. All the staff speak to me about that.

I know that I need to conclude. We support the Government in making the changes. The opportunities are endless. However, if we want to keep up with the rest of the UK and the world, we must be honest about where we are so that we can move forward and support our staff and our patients in realising this opportunity.

I welcome the member’s intervention. That absolutely is the case. Practitioners on the ground, no matter what their profession, tell us every day that data systems being able to speak to each other would make a such a difference to patient experience and patient outcomes.

There has to be an ambition to upgrade NHS systems and equipment. That can be done only if there is leadership from the Government. I hope that the Government welcomes the Labour amendment’s call for

“a shared care record system and empowering patients through an NHS app.”

I, too, thank Audrey Nicoll for bringing the debate to the chamber.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the importance of international women’s day 2025, with its theme, as we have heard, of accelerate action. The motion highlights some incredibly important points, with the focus on building momentum and urgency to address the unequal barriers and serious challenges still being faced by women in this country and around the world.

The health inequalities that women face are widespread and deeply frustrating. This is not a new issue, especially for women from deprived areas, and it is an issue that members have heard me speaking about before. Such inequalities are unacceptable. When we think about health outcomes for women, we hear women’s voices saying that they are not always understood or believed when they approach services. It is important that we get the opportunity to raise such issues in the chamber.

Women from the most deprived areas are still less likely to attend breast or cervical screening appointments, with at least an 11 per cent difference in uptake—not to mention the fact that female life expectancy varies drastically from the most to the least deprived areas. Although that is improving, it continues to create inequality among women, and I think that all of us will want to work tirelessly to overcome that challenge.

There is something in the idea of community-based provision of women’s health services going to the individual, instead of services depending on the individual to be able to go to them. I bring that up, because I have spoken to a lot of women, as I am sure we all have, during the weeks running up to international women’s day. Because women often put others before themselves, it is difficult for them to attend appointments, and the closer an appointment can be to a woman, the more likely they are to attend.

As we all know, women are more likely to experience poverty and gender-based violence. That is a reality. We have spoken about it previously in the chamber, and all members are absolutely determined to change it. Domestic abuse rates are rising, and we need to do more to tackle violence against women and girls. According to the annual statistics on domestic abuse for 2022-23, the police reported that 83 per cent of victims of domestic violence were female and that four in five incidents involved a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. It is important that we do more work on that; indeed, we have had debates on it previously.

There is a real national need for education. I am trying to bring together some of the previously raised points, on which we agree, about educating men and young boys on how they should relate to women, their attitudes and their actions. Some of our male colleagues in the Parliament are real champions in that respect.

It is also important for me to discuss international women’s day on a global scale, focusing on the impact of the displacement and devastation being experienced by millions of women and girls not just throughout the world but, in particular, through the violence in Ukraine and Palestine. One could not be more accurate in saying that those women need acceleration and action.

Families have been ripped apart in Palestine. As a result of the ceasefire agreement this year, some were able to reunite, but, with the recent action by Israel further hindering Gaza’s ability to provide clean water and food for its numbers of children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women, malnutrition is a problem. The figure for those affected was sitting at about 4,000, but, clearly, it is expected to increase. Across the world, women need us to shout and raise our voices, because it is women who suffer hugely when there is war and devastation in their country.

I know that I am running out of time, but I just want to mention that there is hope. When we bring women together, we can all work towards positive outcomes. If we raise our voices in the Parliament and in our communities, we can make a difference.

Good morning. You will know that, in 2023, the committee conducted an inquiry into female participation in sport and our report identified a number of barriers. What is sportscotland doing to encourage female participation in sport? What else do you think might need to be done, perhaps in co-ordination with the Scottish Government, to continue that work?

Is there something that we can do more locally? I am very aware that women and girls participate in netball but that we then lose them. Doing some work to try to support netball in communities might be helpful.

I will highlight a specific example of possible bias in funding. Recently, I met Zoe Lee from Netball Scotland. We know that netball is predominantly a female sport, but a Scottish team does not play in the United Kingdom league, although the teams would love to and are supportive of doing so. We should consider the way that female sports attract funding. If young women and girls could see female netball players, that might help with their participation in sport. What can sportscotland do to try to address that?

Thank you very much.

The 2022 census found that more than 60 per cent of school-age children in Scotland now identify as non-religious. In an increasingly secular and religiously diverse country, it is critically important that young people of all faiths and none have their beliefs and choices respected in school. Parents have always had the right to opt their children out of religious observance, and all state schools are legally required to provide that opt-out to parents; however, pupils have no equivalent right, no matter their age, maturity or personal beliefs. Can the cabinet secretary provide clarity on the timeframes for when we might get the information that she mentions in her answer? Is it her view that we should conform to the UN committee’s recommendations?

I did not have time to touch on the point that Elena Whitham is making about rural communities. How might we bring more such services to those communities? That is perhaps a bit more difficult.