The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 2045 contributions
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
Okay. I think that it was Pamela Smith who said that we have had chronic stress issues from 2008 onwards Where is that coming from? Is it because of economic problems? Is it because of austerity? Is it because of poverty? What is causing chronic stress?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
I was going to say that we have large numbers of people in work who are claiming benefits, so it is not about their being labour inactive, but about the quality of the life that they are living.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
You are the head of economy and poverty at Public Health Scotland. Are you talking just about the quality of data that we have in the health system? In my constituency we have 5,155 children living in poverty. That is clearly data at a granular level. Does Public Health Scotland have that level of data, which could be included in a whole-system approach?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
I have just an observation that will take two seconds, but Professor Sheikh will speak first then I will come back in.
10:00COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
My next question is for Tom Waters—I think that is the name, but I have the wrong glasses on and I cannot see at distance.
One of the statistics in the IFS written submission is that long Covid is increasing the number of people who are in work but on sick leave, which leads to reduced hours. Do we know what the impact will be economically as a result of people who are still regarded as employed but who are not working to the same extent, or at all, because of long Covid?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
Thank you. I just wanted to get that clarity on the record. Do I have time for another question?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
Why is that not happening?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
I want to go back to something that you said earlier. I have a feeling that this might be controversial. We have talked about economic inactivity and certain areas of inactivity. Before we started our inquiry, we probably thought that the inactivity existed across all levels, but it now looks as if people are just getting out of the workforce. They are stopping work altogether and retiring. If they are getting out of the workforce, they must be able to afford to not work.
We have heard some suggestions from you and from last week’s witnesses that we should not bother to pursue those folk, but do we know that the people who are saying, “I don’t want to work” can afford not to work?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
This is just an observation, and you can correct me if I am wrong. We have an extensive range of data. Singapore reports much lower rates of mental ill health and wellbeing and so on. Does that mean that we know about it but Singapore actually just does not?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 10 November 2022
Jim Fairlie
We know that the Scottish workforce is ageing more rapidly than the workforce in the rest of the UK, which could be a contributing factor to historically higher levels of inactivity in the Scottish workforce. We are talking about why people are retiring, given that more of them seem to be retiring now. Is there a risk that the pandemic will have a disproportionate effect on our workforce in Scotland? That is for either of the Toms.