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That is lovely. Thank you.

Many points have been well made today, and a lot of my questions have been answered. I take the points about lobbying and ensuring that we get the system change across the UK that is desperately needed. In the meantime, what can we in the Scottish Parliament do in terms of our responsibilities? It has been suggested that we can maximise the benefits that are available to us here, and that we can look at making system change in Scotland. I am interested to hear from witnesses about carers in particular. We want people to know that they are entitled to benefits, healthcare and access the systems that are in place. How can we best do that with the powers that we have?

I am interested in 20-minute neighbourhoods and, in particular, how we ensure that, if we build them, they are affordable wellbeing neighbourhoods for people. How affordable are the green spaces and the leisure activities, for example? Do they have co-operatives that provide affordable food? To ensure that that happens, we need to work more across departments. Does Emma Fyvie feel that that is developing in Clackmannanshire?

Also, does Dr Purdon feel that there is enough cross-departmental working in relation to food and whether it is affordable and in the right place? Do the planning departments make sure that they take those things on board?

I absolutely believe that tackling poverty and putting money into the pockets of communities that need it is really important, so I agree with a lot of what has been said so far. I am interested to know about services and service provision. I have heard anecdotally that it has taken a bit longer for services to open up in some of our more deprived communities. We know that there are staffing problems and that it is perhaps more difficult to attract health staff and support workers into those communities. Is there any evidence of that, and has that been looked into?

Claire Sweeney could perhaps respond to my second question. We know that, if we tackle health inequalities, that helps everybody in our society. Do we look to ensure that the money that we are spending is being directed to those groups of individuals who need it most? I would be interested to know how we measure that.

Either—I am interested in how they feel that the approach is working at a local level and at a national level.

I thank David Walsh for his contribution. I whole-heartedly agree about austerity, but I want to be clear that it is the current Westminster Government’s position on austerity that has had those effects. We have very different powers in Scotland and we can use them in very different ways, depending on which policies come to us from the UK. If policies across the UK were different from those in Scotland, could that be helpful for us in Scotland, because we could make alternative arrangements?

Good morning, minister. Thank you for the introductory statement. I am keen to push you on timetabling and dates. I have two questions. I would like to hear a clear commitment with some dates for or an idea of when things will progress with the overall change to a national care service through the bill.

On implementation, I listened this morning to the evidence that we took in September, when people said that we need some actions now, which you have talked about. It is great that you have allocated funding and it was good to hear that your department is very busy—that is excellent. However, it is important for people to know what actions will be taken and what the timeframe is for that. What concrete things are you working on that will enable people to see a difference in the next year of the parliamentary session?

We obviously agree that the cost of living crisis is very significant, and we do not disagree about the impact of the Westminster Conservative Government. I thank the cabinet secretary for the commitment that we will use all the powers that we have in Scotland. That is very helpful.

The Auditor General spoke about the progress of Public Health Scotland’s work. Can you give a bit of feedback on how that work is going?

Although the previous couple of themes have covered the issue, I note that the Auditor General was critical of the Government’s overall strategy for addressing health inequalities, particularly around disability and among people from deprived backgrounds. The pandemic is acknowledged but the report also very much acknowledges that those are on-going health inequalities.

Has the Government managed to pull together an overarching strategy to look at health inequalities? If so, what will it measure? On top of that, has the Government considered other measures that it can use—perhaps other powers that it has but is not currently using—to make a difference in an area that is of the highest importance to it?

In the interests of time, I would just like to hear the cabinet secretary make a commitment on the important issue of allied health professional staff. They have a really important role to play in the reform of the NHS, but they face significant recruitment and retention problems. I raise that to ensure that the team sees it as an important part of the overall plan for the NHS.