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Plenary, 28 Nov 2001

28 Nov 2001 · S1 · Plenary

Item of business

Community Care and Health (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Fergusson, Alex Con South of Scotland Watch on SPTV

I take part in the debate with great personal pleasure. That is partly because, as I am now on the wrong side of 50, I am keen to ensure that as much as possible is free for the elderly. It is also partly because it gives me an opportunity to warmly welcome the minister and his deputies to their new posts. They will not need me to remind them of the importance of their task. I am sure that all members wish them well for the future.

I take part in the debate with pleasure particularly because, however hard Nicola Sturgeon may find it to accept, I have always been uncomfortable with the notion that, if someone works hard all their life, saves what they can, perhaps manages to buy their own home and to put something aside to leave to their family, all their efforts may be negated should they be unfortunate enough to be in need of long-term care in their old age. That becomes all the more perverse when we realise that someone who has been profligate all their life, never saved a penny or even thought about retirement has their long-term care costs met in full by the state. That seems to me to be utterly wrong. In effect, hard work is being penalised and profligacy is being rewarded. That completely undermines the ethic of personal responsibility on which any free society rests and, in reality, provides people with a huge disincentive to make sensible provision for their future.

I was delighted when we as a party accepted the principle proposed by the Sutherland commission that personal care—let us be clear that we are talking about the cost of personal care only, not the hotel costs of board and lodging—should be provided free at the point of delivery by the NHS. That is right and proper and the Scottish Conservative party will play its full part in bringing it about.

I will spend a short time on annexe B of the Health and Community Care Committee's report. My point concerns an item of supplementary written evidence from Age Concern Scotland that concentrates on the vexed question of notional capital—a suggestive and condemnatory phrase—which determines whether someone has disposed of capital specifically to avoid any charges for their care. The case studies that are listed by Age Concern Scotland—no doubt most members have been made aware of similar cases in our regions and constituencies—show that the concept of notional capital has led to appalling cases of apparent injustice that take a considerable time to solve and undoubtedly cause a great deal of added stress to someone who is already ill. In our view, that is an untenable situation that I hope can be corrected during the passage of the bill.

The south of Scotland region, which I represent, and the region of Dumfries and Galloway, in which I am lucky enough to live, have a very high age profile. There is a disproportionate number of the elderly in those regions. I suspect that that situation applies to rural Scotland in general. Many people choose, after all, to retire to the country for the peace and tranquillity that the countryside offers. The bill is of great importance to rural Scotland.

Rumours have circulated from time to time that the provision of free care for the elderly will somehow bring hordes of pensioners from south of the border to live in the sort of free-care havens that might be offered in rural Scotland. We utterly reject that theory. If teachers have not been tempted north by the McCrone settlement—and evidence shows categorically that they have not—there is no reason to suggest that pensioners would be similarly tempted to live in a part of the United Kingdom with which they are unfamiliar and in which they would, therefore, feel somewhat uncomfortable.

We greatly welcome the provision of free personal and nursing care, but we have always made it clear that that should be looked upon as a solution for the short to medium term only. Much more work needs to be done to find the best long-term solution, which should encourage people to make more provision for themselves in a way that would benefit the thrifty without rewarding the profligate. Such a solution might well include encouraging people to make provision during their working lives not only for their pensions but for care costs. For that to succeed, assets that people build up during their working lives must be protected.

People need incentives; they respond to them. Without incentives, people will not bother to make provision for care. Forcing people to sell their assets to pay for care is no incentive, so the current situation must be addressed.

I look forward to following the passage of this bill through Parliament, and I warmly welcome its publication.

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Plenary, 28 Nov 2001

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