Chamber and committees

:Good morning, minister, and thank you for joining us this morning. In my first question, I want to build on your previous answer and Georgia de Courcy Wheeler’s contributions, too.

When you talked about broader needs-based support—I am thinking of those situations in which a diagnosis is not required but we still need to ensure that those have access to support—you mentioned tools, digital support, family support and so on. What specific steps is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that people who need those support mechanisms know about them, first of all, and then can access them? After all, this is not always about funding, although funding, especially for the third sector organisations that provide such mechanisms, is crucial. What is the Scottish Government doing beyond providing funding to ensure that people have access to the support that is out there without diagnosis?

:When that happens, what do you expect Police Scotland to do?

:I am sorry to interrupt you, but I want to focus on misinformation and disinformation, which you spoke about. In Dundee and Aberdeen, I have witnessed people being directly targeted on the streets because of their skin colour or ethnicity. However, because those incidents have happened at so-called protests, Police Scotland officers who have witnessed them have done nothing about them.

One of my concerns is that you have a high-level action plan and you have arrangements in place, including the community cohesion funding that you were just talking about, but we need all public sector bodies, including Police Scotland and other agencies, to act. I am concerned that there is no real understanding of where protest becomes criminal behaviour, including hate speech, inciting hatred and even blatant racism, and that we are not seeing our public agencies acting to de-escalate there and then. I am really concerned that the conversation does not seem to capture that and that we are therefore not enabling people to express their social and economic rights.

10:30

:Last night, we received the updated timeline for the different activities in legal aid reform, and I put my thanks for that on the record. I know that a lot of work is being done in this space and, although we do not yet have the legislation for legal aid reform, it is helpful to see the other elements that are going on laid out in your correspondence.

I will leave it there, convener. Thank you.

:I appreciate that the tool is coming in March, but that is not much comfort to the people who, week after week, are exposed to racist hate speech and see no action happen. It is deeply concerning that we are not seeing the action to back up all the rhetoric about there being no place for racism on our streets. I will leave it there, convener.

:I agree with Robby’s last point about getting to a point where we have a capacity in the NHS to deal with the issue.

I go back to something that you said earlier, minister, when you were talking about the holistic cross-sectoral approach for children and young people and the national autism implementation team for adults. Are you confident that the Scottish Government has the right steps in place to ensure that post-diagnostic support is consistent across Scotland? We know that consistency is an issue. Are you confident that those two approaches will deliver that?

:I appreciate that, but I think that those who run the EHRF would say that they have actually seen a 25 per cent cut, because its flat cash budget has not reflected inflationary uplifts over the past five years.

I will move to my next issue. In your opening comments, you spoke about the significant pressures that we face and mentioned divisive rhetoric. I am interested in knowing what actions the Scottish Government will take—other than through the anti-racism in education programme—to ensure that we are tackling the racist and anti-immigration behaviour that we see on our streets right now.

Good morning, minister. I am sorry that I cannot join you in person, but I thank you for that update. The 13 per cent uplift is welcome news. I have a couple of questions about that and on-going work.

I am interested in the 13 per cent figure that was arrived at. It was about 15 months ago that we discussed court fees for individuals to pay. There were some much higher increases in those fees, and one of the arguments was about full cost recovery. One of the things that came through clearly in our legal aid inquiry was that legal aid was not paying its way for solicitors. What assurances can the minister give that the 13 per cent increase will be enough to allow legal aid solicitors to cover their costs fully and to ensure that it is fair compensation for the vital work that they do?

:That was helpful. Some people get a diagnosis privately but then find that that diagnosis is not recognised by the NHS, either for medication—if that is the appropriate route—or for other things. Is there a simple, quick fix that we can implement to ensure that a diagnosis, wherever it comes from, can be recognised and become the gateway to further support, whether that is medication or other things?

:No, but thank you, that is helpful. We could go into a lot of areas in quite a lot of detail. You talked about the need for cross-governmental support, and we are talking not just about the Scottish Government but about local government and the whole Scotland picture. The committee has already had a conversation about the concern that has been raised about the other agencies that will be required to be able to act to support, whether that is in housing and homelessness prevention or preventing child poverty wherever we look. I am curious about your thinking around the on-going sustainability of funds such as the equalities and human rights fund that provide crucial support to organisations that work and are embedded in communities across Scotland and that see phenomenal returns on investment, but are seeing the pot dwindle. I suppose that is easiest way of putting it.