Seòmar agus comataidhean

The member knows from my colleague Mark Griffin that we will lodge amendments on that issue. We know that we are secure until the end of this financial year, but we are happy to debate the issue again tomorrow.

The introduction of the legislation is a welcome step forward. However, as members have mentioned, the bill will not help all tenants and is by no means a long-term solution to the challenges that Scotland faces in relation to the housing market.

Scotland’s councils have been starved of funding by the Scottish Government and the Tories in Westminster. In recent years, Labour in local government has been delivering nation-leading house-building programmes, despite the cuts. That is essential work, and we are proud to say that those programmes are delivering council housing once again, and are providing stability and security in the most uncertain of times.

As the member for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Elena Whitham, said, a home is more than bricks and mortar. That is why we must challenge the balance between landlords and tenants, as my colleague Richard Leonard mentioned. I hope that the Scottish Government recognises the short-term nature of the plans that are set out in the bill. I call on the Government to invest in our councils to ensure that they have adequate funding to build the required quantity and quality of houses that are needed in Scotland today. Furthermore, I hope that the minister listens to calls for the rent freeze to remain in place until a national system of rent controls comes into effect. We know that we can be bolder and go further. I call on the Scottish Government to show that ambition.

I pay credit to my colleague Mercedes Villalba, tenants organisations such as Living Rent, and the trade union movement for their relentless campaigning to force this U-turn. It is a welcome step that will have a positive short-term effect. Scotland is in desperate need of a reformed housing policy that delivers first and foremost for our working population. Today is a step forward, but there is room for us to go further.

I reaffirm my party’s support for the principle of the bill and I highlight our commitment to delivering a long-term housing strategy that meets the needs of our populations.

The minister knows that Labour’s position is that he could have lodged an amendment or had a discussion on those points at that time.

The proposed rent freeze from the SNP and Greens will not help those people whose rents were hiked over the summer after the Government’s failure to support a rent freeze in June. The average rent in Scotland was £780 in April, when Living Rent and my colleague Mercedes Villalba first raised the need with the First Minister; it now stands at more than £850, which we can agree is a significant increase in just six months.

Clearly, this is not the time for patting the back of a Government that, before the summer, said that the scheme was unworkable. It is a time to highlight the power of working people, of our trade unions and of their campaign to deliver this change. Inaction and empty promises were never going to be enough during a cost of living crisis, and I am pleased that the Scottish Government has come to that realisation.

I agree with the Scottish Government that the cost of living crisis is a result of years of irresponsible Tory economic policy, of austerity, of cutting taxes for the rich and increasing costs for the workers. However, in Scotland, we have powers to mitigate. We have powers in social security and through local councils to improve service delivery for those people who are most in need.

It is often suggested in Parliament that there is only one way out of this mess. In fact, what the past weeks, months and years have shown is that Scotland has two Governments that are often set on dividing communities. The fact that people power has brought about this change of heart in the Government highlights that the people of this country want to unite around policies that will improve their lives and set a brighter future for the next generations.

As members have highlighted, tenants and tenants organisations are knowledgeable enough to come to Parliament and give us sound advice that we should listen to the people of Scotland.

I have no interests to declare, but I refer members to my entry in the register of interests.

This is my first time on the committee. If we close a petition, does the petitioner have the right to come back on it? How does that work?

I have read the evidence in detail because I have also been approached by constituents about the issue. For me, the key was the fact that the petitioners have said that mesh should be used only where it is essential. We should drill further into that. People should be properly informed and consent to these procedures, because we know from previous work on the use of transvaginal mesh just how life changing these things can be. Therefore, it is an important issue, and I would like to see the petition go further so that we have clarity on the issue.

Okay. So the petitioner has options.

Will the member take an intervention?

As we can see from the contributions so far, the topic of the debate is very important to the public. It is at the forefront of the public’s concerns month after month, year after year. There is a reason for that, which is that people truly value our NHS and want it to succeed. They understand that it is our most valuable asset, as a country, and that if the NHS is running well, the country is on the right track.

That is why my party, and I am sure many members in the chamber and people in our communities, cannot understand why, when we are going into a winter that will undoubtedly see a significant increase in fuel poverty and malnutrition, as well as increased concerns about spiralling mental health due to the state of the economy, we are not having a serious rethink of the NHS recovery plan here in Scotland.

The fact is, that the SNP-Green Government has shown itself to be wholly incapable of taking responsibility for the scale of the crisis that is engulfing our health and social care service. I want to speak to SNP back benchers as well. It is our responsibility to scrutinise what is being done here in Scotland by the Scottish Government. We are discussing a serious point that has to be taken on board. No matter what the problem is, there is always an excuse from the Government. All the while, patients and staff want solutions and a sense of on-going progress.

To conclude, I say that we need solutions, and we need them now. Only if we are serious will we get the necessary things done to make sure that staff and patients have a better-performing NHS in Scotland.

I will tell the member how that can be mitigated: it can be done by voting Labour at the next general election.

When visiting hospitals in my region, I have seen hard-working people struggling to do an impossible task with too few staff, fewer resources and constant pressure. With that, and the worst cancer waiting times on record, how can we in this Parliament, and as a people, say that what we are achieving is good enough? It is time to take responsibility. I ask the Government, please, to take responsibility, and I ask the Government back benchers to put some pressure on the front bench to take responsibility. When we take responsibility, we can have a serious discussion about how we help to take away the pressures on the NHS. I am one of the first in this chamber to take on the Tories and debate what we need to do about the Tory Government.

In the short time that I have, I would like to highlight the unacceptable length of waiting times in women’s health services. Women are being forced to wait for dangerously long periods for gynaecological treatment. The data for April to June this year, which was published yesterday, highlights that only just over half of eligible referrals for cervical cancer started treatment within 62 days. That means that nearly half of those who were eligible did not start cancer treatment within two months. That is a shocking statistic and is a key breach of the Government’s pledges.

Those are serious issues that cannot be left for so long without serious risk to life and long-term health, yet it sometimes seems that, because the issues relate to women’s health, they are more likely to take a back seat. What makes me say that? After repeated promises in the chamber to have a women’s health champion, and despite being told more than once in the chamber that an appointment would be made in the summer, we are now approaching October and we still have no women’s health champion.

I say to the Government, to the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, and to the First Minister that they must meet their commitment to Scotland’s women and get this done.