Motions, questions and answers

That the Parliament understands that Scotland has a 25-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas, with overall life expectancy decreasing to 76.5 years for males and 80.7 years for females when it was last measured between 2020 and 2022; notes the view that, with 50% of health inequalities linked to social and environmental factors, greater investment in preventative services is instrumental in improving the health and wellbeing of communities; understands that, in 2022, the Health Foundation carried out an independent review of health inequalities in Scotland to provide a detailed and thorough analysis of the trends and wider factors that have influenced people’s health, including in the Mid Scotland and Fife region, over the previous two decades; notes that this was following reported concerns regarding widespread and persistent health inequalities, which, it considers, were almost certainly widened farther because of the COVID-19 pandemic; believes that, while it is fair to observe that improvements may also have stalled across the whole of the UK, Scotland currently has the lowest average life expectancy at birth of all of the four nations, and one of the lowest in western Europe; notes the view that, as the older population is expected to grow by 30% by 2045, with the potential for accelerated growth across rural and island communities, it is essential that key services, including health and social care, education and transport, need to be resourced to adapt with growing and changing demands, and further notes the view that having a healthy population should be one of Scotland’s most important assets and can have a vital input into people’s wellbeing and building a thriving society and economy.