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I will pick up on that. I recently visited a citizens advice bureau in Glasgow and was told that it is embedding its services in GP practices. It has found that its engagement and the work that it does are better when a healthcare professional tells a patient that they have to see the citizens advice bureau than it is when citizens turn up to its office to ask for help. If we were to extend putting CABs in GP practices, especially ones such as Dr Marshall’s, would that free up time not just for GPs but for allied health professionals, because the social aspect would be being provided by a specialist service?

It is Sue Webber who has the follow-up question, convener, which I will—

It is for Clare Morrison.

For anyone who did not watch the first evidence session, I declare an interest as a practising GP.

My question on our first theme is about the new GP contract that came in in 2018. The idea of the new contract was to widen services and allow people to get more without necessarily seeing their GP, and the GP was very much supposed to be the expert general practitioner. However, what we have found with the contract is that there seems to be huge variability across the country. My question is especially for Dr Yadav, as he is from a more rural community. Has the contract impeded your ability to work and access for patients?

I have to say that my practice nurses are better than me when it comes to chronic disease management. They are very skilled members of staff.

Dr Williams and Dr Yadav both spoke about a staffing crisis in GPs. Approximately 800 new GPs are coming online by 2027, but the worry is that they will be wiped out through retirements or changing working practices. To ensure that patients have access to the people they need to see, what can we do, along with increasing practice nurses, to improve recruitment and retention of not only GPs but all staff?

It is important that I say that I am a practising working GP and was doing GP work on Monday. It is interesting to hear about receptionists, because without our receptionists there would be zero access to us. It is distressing to hear about the abuse that our receptionists get when they tell me what some people have said to them. I know that it comes from frustration, but there is a level of abuse that is unacceptable; it seems that the line is often crossed.

I want to go back to a point that Margaret McKay made. In April 2018, the new GP contract came into effect. Among other things, it aimed to reflect the role of GPs and to reduce their workload in order to allow them to concentrate on things that only GPs can do, so that they can be the expert medical generalist. Has that shift been communicated to patients? What more can do we do to get it across to patients?

Alison, I am staggered by something that you have just said. I did not realise that this was the case. Let us say that we have increased the price from, say, 30p to 50p—they are arbitrary numbers, but let us say that it has gone up to 50p. The extra cash does not go to the national health service or rehab programmes—it goes back into the supply chain, perhaps back to the manufacturers. Is that correct? Is that what you said?

The UK Government has specifically amended the internal market act to carve out pricing policies in relation to the sale of goods. The act now makes it crystal clear that pricing policies in relation to the sale of goods, such as minimum unit pricing, are out of the mutual recognition principles. Considering those changes, do you have any further concerns about the act?

Thank you, convener. We have heard a lot about minimum unit pricing and the potential benefits of increasing the price, given the benefits that have already emerged. However, the World Health Organization has three themes: affordability, advertising and availability. I do not want to touch on advertising, because that will be a theme of later questions, but I want to ask directly about availability. I was offered a drink when I got my hair cut and when I went into a cafe, and I am offered drinks when I go and watch a film. Alcohol is ridiculously easily available—it is everywhere. What can we do to reduce its availability? Do you agree that we need to reduce that?

As I understand alcohol supply, the alcohol will go from the manufacturers to wholesalers, which then supply shops. Many wholesalers are in England and supply Scottish shops. Surely labelling has to have a four-nations approach, because otherwise Scotland might be in danger of not having access to other wholesalers, which was one of the big issues with the deposit return scheme. Is it not a good thing for there to be a four-nations approach to labelling, so that we get it right for everyone?