Health and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Official Report 486KB pdf

Retiring MSPs

As this is the last meeting of the Health and Sport Committee in this session of Parliament, I will now offer those members who are not seeking re-election an opportunity to say a few words reflecting on their time on the committee.

It will be hard for me to say just a few words, convener, but I am happy to say something in my last contribution.

Like many members, I have served on a number of committees during a couple of parliamentary sessions. However, I can say that I have enjoyed my time on this committee the most. I have always been interested in health, but what was fascinating was the dynamic within the committee. Irrespective of our party-political views, we all got on extremely well together. For example, I remember when Emma Harper, Brian Whittle and I visited Westminster and became full members of the Scottish Affairs Committee for one meeting, which is very unusual in my experience in Parliament. I noted in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way that we and the officials were all staying at the Mad Hatter hotel on Blackfriars Road, but I do not know whether that reflects on the committee at all.

With regard to our annual report, I think that we have worked very hard as a committee. We have had excellent officials, led by David Cullum, and I have personally learned a lot from the witnesses not only in the formal sessions but in the informal sessions, such as when the convener and I went to Inverurie and spent a whole day effectively planning the health service of the future. That was a very unusual experience. It is important to have an open and accessible Parliament, and I am sure that MSPs in the next session of Parliament will consider that issue carefully.

Finally, I want to thank you, convener. You have been an excellent convener and have worked extremely well. I want to thank the other members of the committee, the clerks and the witnesses. I have spent an enjoyable three years in this committee, and I can safely say that it has been the best committee that I have been a member of. I thank everyone for their co-operation and ask everyone to keep in touch. It has been a pleasure to be a member of this committee.

As David Stewart has done, I would like to praise everyone on the committee and also David Cullum, the clerks and the Scottish Parliament information centre. The information that they have given us has been fantastic. Aside from its convener and its members, a committee is only as good as its clerks and the information that it receives.

As David Stewart has said, we all come from different political parties. As is the case for members of any committee, we have not always seen eye to eye. However, this committee has worked very hard to ensure that, at the end of the day, we have had consensus. That has been down to good convenership and the attitude of our members. I joined the committee not at the beginning of the session but in the middle of it. I have found the way in which it has reached out to members of the public—ordinary people—very interesting. That has been the most enjoyable aspect of my time here. The committee has had to get through so many Scottish statutory instruments and so much legislation, which has made it a busy time for us. However, it has worked so well. It has been an absolute pleasure to be on the committee—especially under you, convener.

I wish the clerks and everyone else who will be continuing to work with the committee the best for the next session. I thank them so much for all the help that they have given me and other members. The legacy paper that we have produced has been very honest and up front. It is critical on some points but not on others, and it is a great paper. I hope that the next Health and Sport Committee will pick up on some of our suggestions, which will be important for the health of the nation of Scotland.

Thank you very much, Sandra and David.

This is also my final meeting of a parliamentary committee, so I would also like to thank my fellow committee members, past and present, for working together to deliver our shared strategy and vision over the past five years. I mention in particular my deputy convener, Emma Harper, and the committee’s previous convener, Neil Findlay.

It is also the final meeting for the clerk to the Health and Sport Committee, David Cullum. He has been a senior official of the Scottish Parliament for more than 20 years, having set up and led the non-Executive bills unit, since when he has also been editor of the Official Report and, in the previous session, clerk to both the Education and Culture Committee and the Local Government and Regeneration Committee. My personal thanks go to David for his support and for bringing his experience and strategic perspective to the service of the Health and Sport Committee this session. I know that everyone will join me in wishing him a long, active and enjoyable retirement starting very soon indeed.

My thanks also go to the rest of the clerking team. The children who have been either brought into the world or nurtured through lockdown by members of that team would fill a workplace creche on their own. However, despite those distractions and challenges we have had tremendous support over the past five years. I could not possibly name all the excellent clerks who have worked with us, but I mention in particular Lara Donaldson, who has done a great job in keeping the rest of us on the right track.

We have also had tremendous support from the SPICe researchers; the press office; and the external engagement team, who have been as innovative as we wanted them to be, and more; and all the other departments without which the Parliament could not do its job.

To date, every session of the Parliament has seen new challenges and questions for its committees. I am sure that the next session will be no different. As both David Stewart and Sandra White have said, this committee has worked hard, focused on the bigger picture to influence change and engaged with the wider public. I hope that our work will be of value to our successor committees in the next session.