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Are you directing that question to Bill Scott first?

If anyone else wants to come in, they can use the chat box.

Our final questions are on the priorities for recovery. I suppose that we have been talking about that all morning, but we have some specific questions on it.

Ima Jackson, I see that you want to come in on this point, but I have a final question for you.

We had a number of informal sessions with a wide range of people, and the issue of people with no recourse to public funds came up time and again—they are probably the most disenfranchised group of people, comprising asylum seekers and people who are trying to get some sort of status in the United Kingdom with regard to decisions that are made by the Home Office. Their voices are not often heard in relation to decision making, but they are probably disproportionately affected by health inequalities and inequalities in general. How do groups such as yours facilitate getting them around the table?

Thank you.

We have gone over our time. We must have a break before we get the next panel in, but I know that Ed Pybus wants to come in.

I have received notice that Stephanie Callaghan wants to ask Bill Scott a specific question. We must round off, so please make it quick.

I want to follow up on that. It was interesting to see the list of partner groups that BEMIS deployed to speak to their own communities. I know that the vaccine information fund was a one-off, but is there an opportunity for you to say to the Scottish Government, “Those partner groups undertook that healthcare intervention. Could we put other funding into their hands so that they can undertake additional healthcare interventions?”

Before I bring in Carol Mochan, I have a question for Danny Boyle. At the end of your presentation, you said that there are legacy recommendations. Something struck me when I listened to you talk about the vaccination information campaign that you and partners undertook. In terms of preventative healthcare, you might be able to use some of the lessons that you learned from that campaign to encourage more people from particular ethnic groups that do not access screening in the numbers that could come forward to do so. Is there anything in those legacy recommendations that could be applied to other health interventions?

I said that I would leave human rights to the very end, because it has run through a lot of what we have been talking about. The human right to live your life well is fundamental.

It is difficult to talk about conversations from our informal evidence sessions when three out of four of the witnesses who are here today were not party to those, so I will not use specifics. However, I was struck by people we spoke to who are seeking asylum and people who are advocating for family members and friends who are in prison, and we also heard about Gypsy Travellers and people with no recourse to public funds. The thread going through a lot of our conversations was that people do not feel that they are getting access to their basic human rights.

What would a human rights approach to tackling the structural inequalities look like? What specific interventions could be made to make human rights the thread that runs through the delivery of absolutely all our services, regardless of whether people have recourse to public funds and whoever they are in society in Scotland? What would that look like? It is a huge question, so you can see why I left it till the end.

I was particularly struck by what people told me about our prison population not getting access to healthcare, including medication, even if they have clinical health conditions when they go into or come out of prison. That will stay with me for a long time—frankly, it blew my mind. Other people from marginalised communities also feel that they do not have access to healthcare. Could there be interventions to ensure that they get that access?

Item 2 is the first formal evidence session of our inquiry into health inequalities. This session will focus on progress in addressing and tackling health inequalities in Scotland since 2015, when our predecessor committee published a report on that topic.

I thank everyone who took part in our informal evidence sessions last Friday and yesterday. The evidence that we heard at those sessions will feed into a formal evidence session, which will take place on 14 June, but do not be surprised if it comes up throughout all our evidence sessions, because it was very powerful testimony from people with lived experience. I thank Claire Stevens for organising the attendance of a lot of the people whom we spoke to, because their voices really need to be heard. Regardless of the formal session on 14 June, I imagine that people will make reference—albeit with names redacted—to some of the things that we heard, particularly from the people who feel that they lack access to healthcare.

I welcome to the committee David Finch, who is assistant director of the healthy lives directorate of the Health Foundation. David is attending online; I believe that he has had a little difficulty with the connection, so I hope that that connection is being made as I speak.

I also welcome Gerry McCartney, who is professor of wellbeing economy at the University of Glasgow, and is attending in person; Claire Stevens, who is the chief executive of Voluntary Health Scotland, who helped us to organise our informal sessions and is attending in person; and David Walsh, who is public health programme manager at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, and joins us online.

I was going to ask all the witnesses about the progress that has been made since 2015 and I do want that to be in the back of your minds. I know that you all have an opening statement to make, but I will say up front that health inequalities is a massive subject and it would be remiss of the committee if all we did was talk about the problems. I want our inquiry to look at how and where we can find solutions, actions and recommendations in areas of devolved competence.

With that in mind, I will start with the opening statements. David Finch is not online yet, so we will go first to Gerry McCartney.