Seòmar agus comataidhean

With respect, the funding is critically important—I fully accept that—but what I have laid out to you is a timescale that a surveyor and people working within the industry would set to deliver the project, which I think, from the moment you issue the first order, would be approximately nine years. That is why I am confused that the issue only came to light in 2023, when it probably should have come to light back in 2017. Did Mr Yousaf, who was the transport minister in 2017-18, come to you and tell you that there was a problem then? If he did not, we have probably found out where the delay started from.

Thank you, convener. At the outset, I highlight that Caithness Health Action Team strives hard to ensure that healthcare is delivered across the Highlands, but particularly in Caithness, from where it is more difficult for people to get to Raigmore and the centralised health service that is currently run by NHS Highland. There is no doubt that, up there, people feel isolated from that healthcare, as it can take at least an hour and a half under blue light, and probably two and a half hours under normal driving conditions, to get to it.

I remind the committee that, in 2023, extra money was given by the Scottish Government, and NHS Highland chose to use it for closed-loop therapy mainly for adults. Some money went to paediatric services, but there was a concentration on adults and, consequently, some children missed out. As the petitioner has made clear, there are approximately 25 children across the Highlands waiting for a diabetic insulin pump. My estimate of the cost of the pumps alone is about £75,000, which is not a huge amount of money, although there are some ancillary costs involved, as the convener has made clear: the costs are not only from the equipment but from the staff.

Providing the pumps would make a huge, huge difference to children as they come to terms with the diabetes that they must face, sometimes not fully understanding its effects. It would not require much additional money to ensure that all the children in the Highlands have insulin pumps. In fact, it would come at less than the cost of some of the administrative directors who sit on the board of NHS Highland. I therefore think that the committee could encourage NHS Highland to explain where the funding—the extra money that was given to the Government—went originally, why children were not made a priority and whether there are additional funds, with a mere £75,000 needed to provide pumps for all the children.

I will leave it to the committee, but I will just end by saying that it is difficult to overstate how remote people in the Highlands sometimes feel to healthcare, which is centralised. Giving people the ability to manage their own treatment would be truly revolutionary.

I would be careful where you go with that, Ms Sturgeon.

Putting that to one side—

This will be my final question. I do not doubt your determination to deliver the target, but clearly it was infeasible by 2017-18, even under the figures that you have given. Surely that would have been the time to tell people across the Highlands that it was not going to be delivered. I think that there will be very few people in the Highlands who, since then, have not seen or do not know somebody killed as a result of the road. I think that we—or, I should say, you—have been dishonest in that the target was not deliverable by the date that your Government promised on 6 December 2011.

Thank you.

Okay. If we use the figure that you used earlier—which was, interestingly, the same figure that I came up with—the estimate was that it would be a six-year project to build it. From my experience of compulsory purchase orders and how they actually work, they can take a minimum of three years to get through, by the time you have gone through the whole process of issuing notices, getting confirmation from the Government, issuing the orders, speaking to the owners, and a public inquiry, if that is the way it goes. That means that it would take nine years altogether. Therefore, if you were going to be building the A9 by 2025, alarm bells should have been ringing in 2017-18 that the process was not moving along at the necessary pace. Would you agree with that synopsis?

Thank you. If no other member wishes to speak, I will call the minister.

You are entirely correct but, if there are more policemen and policewomen on the streets, it is unlikely that crimes will be committed in the first place.

My argument is simple, and it is disappointing that the Government cannot support my proposal, especially as rural areas are blighted by this particular problem. There are areas of my farm at home where I do not put young calves next to the road, because the chances are that they will eat plastic bottles and choke on them. If that does not kill them, the veterinary bills will be considerably more than £500.

I will note the committee’s vote but, if the minister is not going to support amendment 119, I ask her to come up with a figure and consider working with me later to work out an appropriate minimum figure.

The question is, that amendment 119 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

There will be a division.

For

Lumsden, Douglas (North East Scotland) (Con)
Mountain, Edward (Highlands and Islands) (Con

Against

Doris, Bob (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (SNP)
Dunbar, Jackie (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP)
Lennon, Monica (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Macpherson, Ben (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (SNP)
Ruskell, Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)