Hansard

No, I will not. I am sorry, but I have given way for the final time.

Lord Brodie has taken independent evidence as to the current situation with the hospital. The Government has also sought assurance from Healthcare Improvement Scotland as to the current safety of the hospital, and it has set out its consideration of the current safety of the hospital, which gives us assurance as to its safety.

Lord Brodie and his team have led the inquiry in exactly the spirit that I have set out. The inquiry is not beholden to the Government, the health board or any political party. It is beholden only to the law, the evidence and the people affected by these events. Thousands of documents have been reviewed. Detailed technical evidence has been heard. Witnesses across the system—clinicians, engineers, managers, civil servants and ministers—have had their evidence examined. Serious and troubling issues have emerged, and I do not shy away from that. However, it is precisely because the issues are serious that it is so important that the inquiry is allowed to complete its work properly without interference or political direction.

The Scottish Government has complied fully with the inquiry. We have provided all evidence relevant to its terms of reference that has been requested. That includes ministerial communications, briefings, submissions, minutes of meetings, Cabinet papers and records, from the earliest conception of the hospital programme through the development of the business case, the construction phase and the approvals that followed. All ministerial decision making connected to the project has already been made available at the request of the inquiry. Those documents have been supplemented by testimony from senior officials and from former and current ministers. If Lord Brodie considers that further information, clarification or testimony is required, the Government will provide it—I can confirm that unequivocally today.

I turn to the substance of the Greens’ amendment. I am sympathetic to the focus that has been placed on ensuring patient confidence in safety. In that regard, I asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland in March last year to conduct a further review of the progress made by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in meeting health and safety requirements and recommendations, as set out in the action plan from the Queen Elizabeth university hospital assurance of infection prevention and control inspection of June 2022.

In addition, there was a focused inspection of the emergency department in July 2024 as part of the wider NHS GGC emergency department review, which resulted in a number of actions, which have also been addressed. HIS subsequently confirmed that it was reassured by the response to that review by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde—assurance that has continued through a series of further inspections. Taking that commitment to patient safety further, the Scottish Government has introduced a patient safety charter as an additional part of the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023, taking into account the concerns and experiences that resulted in the proposals for Milly’s law.

It is hugely important that the work of the commissioner leads to honesty, learning and improvement, and it is for that reason that the Government will support the Greens’ amendment today.

We cannot support the Conservatives’ amendment, for the same reasons regarding political interference in the inquiries that I have set out in regard to Mr Sarwar’s motion. However, I give Mr Whittle my assurance again that this Government is absolutely committed to transparency. I have been crystal clear with NHS boards about my expectations of protections for whistleblowers—I have set that out repeatedly to Mr Kerr when he has questioned me on the matter—and I am clear that any further issues raised by patients, families and whistleblowers beyond the inquiry will be listened to.

The final hearings have now concluded. We are at a critical point in the process. The families who have waited so long for answers deserve nothing less than a report that is careful, thorough and gets to the truth. However, we must not pre-empt the inquiry’s work, nor should we undermine its authority. When the report is published, Scottish ministers will consider its conclusions with the seriousness that they demand. We will respond in full, and we will take action wherever it is required to ensure that lessons are learned and patient safety is strengthened.

I move amendment S6M-20561.1, to leave out from “condemns” to end and insert:

“pays tribute to the brave patients, families and whistleblowers who have campaigned tirelessly for justice in the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry; recognises the pain, trauma and grief faced by patients and their families at the heart of this inquiry, and notes that the inquiry was established in 2019 to ensure that every individual impacted is able to get the truth that they deserve; notes the fundamental importance of the independence of inquiries, which are enshrined in legislation, under the control of an independent chair, and which operate transparently, reaching conclusions that are not to be influenced by ministers or other vested interests, and agrees, therefore, that the independent Scottish Hospitals Inquiry Chair must be given the time and space to consider all the available evidence.”