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I recognise the steps that the cabinet secretary has described today, and I welcome the cross-Government approach. Is the Government monitoring the approach that has been taken on pandemic preparedness in other countries, which will help to promote understanding and ensure that Scotland gathers the best evidence base for developing its own future response?

You have already touched on the issue of assisted suicide, but do you have any comment on Office for National Statistics research that found that a diagnosis or first treatment for certain conditions was associated with an elevated rate of death from suicide? I know that you have touched on that, and that the evidence varies, but I am giving you another opportunity to talk about the issue. Are there any safeguards in the bill when it comes to giving people the ability to know that assisted death might be available to them? How would you respond to that?

Thank you.

I say without hesitation that the WASPI women deserve compensation and that, where an injustice such as this has occurred, it is the job of Government to rectify it. I thought that many years ago, when the problem first arose, and I continue to think it now.

I value the work of the WASPI women in my region and across Scotland, and I thank them for their determination in the fight for compensation. I am glad that the UK Government has apologised for this injustice. I recognise that as an important step towards a resolution that reflects the scale of the damage done. However, that is simply not enough. As my colleagues have stated, we will continue to urge our party in Westminster to look again at the ombudsman’s report. I am pleased that we will vote for the Government's motion tonight.

When I have met the WASPI women, I have heard their stories and their fears about the serious impact that the process has had and will continue to have on their lives Their stories have moved us all, and it would not be right for me to hide from comments that I have made in the past. Therefore, I have chosen to speak in this debate, as I have done in previous debates on this subject in the Parliament.

Having spoken in the debate last week, I might be repeating some of the points that I made then, but I believe it is important to set the scene for this generation. It is impossible to argue that women born between 1950 and 1960 have not had to fight their whole lives for equality. Many of those women started their working lives at a time when workplaces were not structured to support or welcome them. Now, at the end of their working lives, they are told that their efforts have not been recognised in the way that they would have been for a man of the same age.

As other members have said, it is likely that those women started their careers prior to the Equal Pay Act 1970. That was a time when they would have had to leave work when they got married or had children. Those women have now been disadvantaged further through serious mismanagement by the state when communicating how they would receive their pension. The ombudsman determined that the DWP’s decision making between 2005 and 2007 led to a 28-month delay in its starting to send letters about state pension age changes to women who were born in the 1950s, and that those delays were maladministration and led to injustice.

Scottish Labour recognises that WASPI women will be disappointed that no compensation will be offered and that an apology from the Government is not enough.

The pension changes that were introduced by the Pensions Act 1995 and the Pensions Act 2011 were not only poorly communicated but handled with no respect for the women affected. Women who were just years away from retirement suddenly found that they had to work longer, which caused financial and emotional distress.

As we know, over 300,000 women in Scotland have been impacted by this scandal. We have a responsibility to those women, including, where possible, a responsibility to speak for them, and I hope that we can do so tonight.

The decision to bring forward the age change across the UK in the 2011 act brought financial and emotional distress to women across Scotland. Those affected have had to adapt rapidly and, in many cases, to completely change their plans for the future to make up for that financial loss in anticipating what their retirement will look like.

As the motion states, in March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman revealed the Tory Government’s failings and said that these women deserve compensation. Therefore, the refusal that we have seen thus far from the UK Government to provide any compensation is unacceptable, as we have heard from members across the chamber.

Without the ability to properly plan for their future, the emotional impact has taken a concerning toll on these women, as many have said in telling their stories. For some, that has become insurmountable. This situation has serious mental health implications, which the WASPI women have fought repeatedly to expose in their campaign. It has led to serious struggles for these women to afford the necessities of life while also experiencing anger and disappointment—quite rightly—in a system that does not seem to value their contribution and does not work for them.

Although appropriate, the acknowledgment and apology from the UK Government does not do enough for these women, who have been left short and turned away throughout their lives. It is important that the apology was made but, in the case of those most adversely affected, the lack of any compensation is ultimately life changing. We must recognise that.

We can all recognise the economic disaster that the UK Government has to deal with, but, given the decades-long fight that these women have had to wage in order to expose Government failings, an apology is not going to suffice in rectifying the situation.

In a country where the gender pension gap is sitting at 39 per cent, we need to do more to heal the deep wounds of the past. The current decision by the UK Government is simply not acceptable to WASPI women and their families, who have provided so much to our communities and to the wider economy.

From the Age Scotland briefing, we know that women are far less likely to feel confident about being comfortable in retirement. That is deeply worrying. Much more needs to be done, so I am pleased that my party will support the motion tonight. I hope that the motion will be supported across the Parliament and that we can work together to get these women the compensation that they deserve.

I recognise that we have discussed that before in the chamber. I suppose that some of my frustration is about the urgency. We have a lot of the evidence, and we need to move on to delivery. Some of the initiatives that Brian Whittle mentioned about the delivery of training would be very helpful.

I want to mention apprenticeships and the opportunity to introduce tailored and flexible approaches to education and training. As I have said before in debates about the NHS, I strongly urge the Government to consider those opportunities and to move them forward, because I know that they have been discussed. Professional bodies want to engage with apprenticeships as they see the benefit for both patients and staff. Does the cabinet secretary have an update on that, with particular regard to allied health professionals? I met the British Dietetic Association, a professional organisation that is keen to support work on that, which understands the importance of having people in remote areas. Those sorts of initiatives would also create good quality jobs for people. The association absolutely sees the benefits of such initiatives, but the work on education needs to come together in order to make them happen.

In the interests of time, I will leave it there. I know that the cabinet secretary and his team understand the issues; it is about how we get some of the work over the line. I thank members for their contributions to the debate.

The Audit Scotland report that was published towards the end of last year states, in its findings, that the

“Government’s increased focus on drug harm through its National Mission programme is shifting the balance of attention from, and effort on, tackling alcohol harm.”

The Government has said that this is a twin public health emergency, and we accept that. However, sometimes the Government tends to set out a semi-complete list of disjointed actions relating to alcohol harm prevention. We need clearer actions and more urgency. Through its 2025-26 budget, is the Scottish Government considering ring fencing funding for improving access to alcohol treatment services?

As a South Scotland MSP, I am no stranger to the harsh realities that people who access health services in rural areas face, and like other members, I receive lots of correspondence on the issue. Living in remote and rural communities should not limit people’s access to basic and specialist care, but we know that it does.

I was going to cover maternity services, but other members have spoken about that very well. We need to understand patients’ wishes about local models of care, in particular for maternity services, because we all agree that women having to deliver babies in lay-bys is not safe. The pretence that we are doing something to make something else safer does not hold true in those circumstances.

I will move on to the other points that I want to raise. The intentions of the national centre for remote and rural health and care are very welcome, but I do not think that the initiative is widely understood by boards, clinicians and patients. If we want to maximise what the centre could do, we need to do some work on that.

I turn to the healthcare workforce. As another member said, the Health, Sport and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into remote and rural healthcare highlighted the critical importance of the local availability of suitably trained staff and of development opportunities to support the recruitment and retention of the healthcare workforce. That applies across the board but is particularly important for some of our professional workforce, such as nurses, allied health professionals, consultants and GPs. The Government must work with trade unions, professional bodies, training providers and NHS boards to discuss opportunities to improve the flexibility and delivery of training.

I welcome the four-nations approach that is being taken. For lessons to be learned, a collaborative approach is vital.

As the Deputy First Minister said, during the pandemic, certain groups in our society were particularly vulnerable, and Covid only exacerbated pre-existing inequalities. More work must be done on that. Can she assure Parliament that the Scottish Covid inquiry will investigate the issues around inequalities and bring to light the injustices that were felt by some of the most vulnerable in our communities? What timescale can we expect for that work?

I thank Christine Grahame for her intervention, and I know that my colleague Katy Clark and other members who support the WASPI women in this injustice will welcome it, too. It is really important to have such a good debate and to hear good points from across the chamber.

More needs to be done, compensation needs to be provided and we all need to stand with the WASPI women until it is secured.

This is an important debate, which brings an essential issue to the chamber. It recognises that, clearly and simply, the WASPI women deserve compensation.

I welcome the WASPI women who are in the public gallery. When meeting WASPI women directly, I have heard their stories and their fears about the serious impact that their disadvantage will have on their lives. Their stories have moved us all, and it would not be right for me to hide from the commitments that I have made in the past. It is impossible to argue that women who were born between 1950 and 1960 have not had to fight for equality their whole lives. Many of those women started their working lives at a time when workplaces were not structured to support or welcome them. As they started their careers, it is likely that they were employed prior to the Equal Pay Act 1970, at a time when many would have been expected to leave work when they got married or had children.

Those women have now been disadvantaged further through serious mismanagement in communications about how they would receive their state pension. That is clear. As we have heard, more than 300,000 women in Scotland have been impacted by the scandal. The decision to increase the age in the Pensions Act 2011 affected 2.6 million women across the UK, and it led to financial and emotional distress for women throughout Scotland. Those affected have had to adapt rapidly and, in many cases, to completely change their plans for their future retirement and make up for any financial losses, if they could anticipate what that would mean.

In March 2024, as we have heard, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman revealed the Government’s failing and said that the women “deserve compensation”. Therefore, I think that we all agree that the refusal by Governments to provide any compensation thus far is absolutely unacceptable. Without the ability to plan for the future properly, the emotional impact on those women has taken a concerning toll that, for some, can become insurmountable. That has serious mental health impacts, which WASPI campaigners have fought repeatedly to expose. There are numerous knock-on effects on the quality of life that the women are able to lead now, including serious struggles to afford the necessities of life while experiencing anger and disappointment at a system that does not seem to value their contribution at all—a system that does not work for people.

Although they are appropriate, the acknowledgement and the apology from the UK Government do nothing for the women who have been left short and turned away throughout their lives. We all recognise the economic disaster that the Government must deal with, but, given the decades-long fight that those women have had to put up in order to expose Government failings, an apology is not acceptable—it does not rectify such an injustice. In a country in which the pension age gap sits at 39 per cent, the Government’s response is simply not acceptable to WASPI women, who have provided so much to our communities and economy.