Meeting of the Parliament 21 May 2014
—rather than just inventing things for the purpose of getting a few headlines. Those are the facts, and they are a matter of public record.
The reality is that in other cases Alex Neil, as health secretary, will take decisions that are about health services that affect NHS Lanarkshire and its provision. On 17 December last year, Alex Neil established the expert governance and improvement support team to help the health board to make improvements in patient safety and quality of care. That decision included Monklands hospital, in his constituency. If we follow Labour’s bizarre logic, there should have been calls for a vote of no confidence when he made that decision. These decisions are about the whole of NHS Lanarkshire, and they affect half a million people—almost one in 10 of the entire Scottish population.
As you know, Presiding Officer, it is important that ministers avoid not only actual conflicts of interest but the perception of any such conflict. That is why, after Alex Neil was asked a supplementary question in the chamber on 26 September 2012 that was specifically about mental health services at Monklands general hospital, he chose to take advice from his officials. He then followed that advice and removed himself from the process to ensure that there was no suggestion of a conflict of interest. That was entirely appropriate, and he reported it to Parliament on both 14 November 2012 and 19 December 2012.
That does not change the fact at the very heart of the issue. There was no conflict of interest because the issue was about more than just Alex Neil’s constituency. It was about what was best for the people and for the patients of NHS Lanarkshire.