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Lovely.

I appreciate the drive that you have put into that. I hope that the committee will get a chance to find out what developments there are, particularly if you are working with the Government.

Given the time, I will move on to ask about the national team. We have had some papers saying that there is a hope to develop a very top-end training complex. How far ahead are you with that, and given some of the discussions we have had, I would like to know whether that will involve only the men’s game, or whether it will involve the women’s game? Who will be able to use that facility?

Good morning. My question probably leads on from what Laura Wilson was talking about, as it is about the models of training for staff in the NHS. For a lot of professions across the NHS, we have a very university-based style. We have heard a lot of evidence about that and about how we encourage people in remote areas to train and stay in their own area, in order to build a workforce that cares a lot about that community.

I would be interested to hear from each witness, when it comes to their profession and the wider NHS, what models they think that we could use, or what the universities could do, to get a better balance for people.

I am sorry to interrupt, but do you have any good examples of where that has happened, or is it something that still needs to happen?

Mhairi Templeton, I do not know whether you have any examples.

That would be great—thank you.

Do we have any good examples of what is working in optometry?

That is lovely, thank you. I put to Dr Kennedy the same general question about models of training. I am also interested in the extra medical training places that have been provided. Was the remote and rural aspect part of the process of working out what medical training was needed?

I, too, thank my colleague Alex Rowley for bringing this important issue to the Parliament’s attention.

I am proud to say that I grew up in, live in and now represent a coalfield community. I thank the visitors in the public gallery, who, like me, believe in those communities, not only because of our history of mining and powering the country but because our history built resilient people and bold communities with warmth, talent and tenacity. They deserve the wealth that has been generated from the labour of our parents, our grandparents and the wider communities.

It is almost 40 years since the rapid closure of the mining industries began, and former coalfield communities in my South Scotland region are still feeling the consequences. We have heard about the inequality in work opportunities and about the need to claim benefits. We have heard about the inequalities in educational opportunities and about the mortality rate. I repeat that the mortality rate in the Scottish coalfields is 25 per cent higher than the Scottish average. Make no mistake: that is by economic design. We in this place—we here—have to take responsibility to change the direction of that, and that is what the debate is about.

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust does such important work in my region, and we have heard about other work from members across the chamber. I live in Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, and the trust is a central part of our community. It functions as a model of how to effectively build progress in conjunction with communities, rather than by imposing things on those communities. We have heard that the Parliament recognises that; Alex Rowley spoke about that. There have been 112 motions in the Parliament recognising those benefits.

When mining went—or, rather, when mining was so cruelly taken away—many Ayrshire mining communities were simply left to struggle. As anyone in Ayrshire knows, mining was a core part of our identity and remains so to this day. It has not been forgotten because of economic change. Without mining, many towns and villages would never have come to be, so there is a lasting cultural memory for many of those who still live there. The mine was the centre of their work or their parents’ work, so they see themselves first and foremost as part of mining communities.

Let us be clear that those communities did not create, but rather fell victim to, the social and economic problems that we all know affect other former coalfield areas. Unemployment, a lack of Government investment and the acceptance of a decline in services are scars that take a long time to heal, and their effect on the day-to-day lives of generations of local people and families is still clear to see.

Organisations such as the Coalfields Regeneration Trust stepped into the void. During rapid and unthinking deindustrialisation, those organisations have pioneered projects such as Yipworld, the Zone, Auchinleck Community Development Initiative, the EPIC East Ayrshire Pipe Band Academy and the Netherthird Initiative for Community Empowerment. We need such projects in our communities and, without their help, we would be in a worse state. People who live there know that—no one needs to say it because we see it every day. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust is essential to our communities.

I will repeat points that have been made. We need the Government to support a capital endowment for community regeneration, we need the Scottish Government to change its procurement rules and we must restore funding for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. We know that we must do those things. In the words of Mick McGahey, let us stand firm and fight.

Will the member take an intervention?

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests as a member of Unite the Union and a lifelong activist in the trade union movement.

I join the majority of Parliament in condemning a disgraceful piece of legislation—the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. We should be united in our opposition to cheap power grabs and we should speak with one voice against the UK Government’s increasingly hostile and archaic agenda against workers. I am sure that it will not be long before the Scottish public let it know exactly what they think of that and of the dreadful way in which it treats the ordinary people of this country.

Trying to stifle legitimate democratic engagement and workers’ representation across the UK is the kind of thing that we would expect from an authoritarian Government that is desperate to cling on to power. However, I fear that that is not far from what Sunak’s Tories really are. The public will speak in 2024, and the Tories’ attempts to force through unworkable and unjust legislation will not change that. If they think that the problems in our society are caused by trade unions merely asking for a fair deal for workers, they are not opening their eyes at all. Public services, including our health services and our railways, are seriously underfunded, so all that they are saying is a smokescreen to stop people noticing the problems in our society that are caused by the dreadful Tory UK Government.

We cannot ban our way out of productivity and healthcare crises. We have to build something with the people who work in such fields at our side. I whole-heartedly agree with the Scottish Government that the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 is designed to undermine legitimate trade union activity. In fact, I would go further and say that the intention is to destroy such activity and to ensure that generations to come do not have effective trade union representation.

That is why I am pleased that the Scottish Government has assured us today that there will be no minimum service level agreements or work notices in Scotland. That commitment is very welcome. I am sure that it is particularly welcomed by ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper, which are important services that are owned and controlled by the Scottish Government.

In Scotland, we have a proud and noble history of workers’ struggles. There is indeed a struggle. It is even called “the struggle”. Sometimes, there is a struggle within our own labour movement, as has been discussed. However, that struggle pushes us to go further and to come together as trade unionists. I therefore ask the trade unionists on the benches opposite me to come together with us on the issue. In other times, we have stood together on picket lines to ensure that workers’ rights are upheld. We will stand at any chance to do that. I therefore ask members to support the Scottish Labour amendment.