Sarah Boyack
Scottish Labour · Scotland
“It must ensure that people get support to make their homes warm and energy efficient; support on solar, heat pumps and heat networks; affordable and accessible buses that they can rely on, with links to our railways; investment in our land to restore our peatlands; and a joined-up approach to food production and biodiversity.”
“Referring to what Ariane Burgess said, I have also been campaigning on the need to urgently address our climate and nature emergencies and to create decent jobs and empower local communities at the same time. For me, being in here is about delivering change that will benefit my constituents.”
“That taught me that constructive hard work and using the powers of our Parliament could deliver real change. For me, it was about investing in our railways—Airdrie to Bathgate, Larkhall to Milngavie and Stirling to Alloa, and supporting work on the Borders railway—as well as new CalMac ferries, improving island airports and tackling potho…”
“I hope that it is okay that I borrow a minute from my colleague. In the run-up to the 2016 election, I worked on a member’s bill to introduce a transient visitor levy.”
“In the climate change plan, we also set out greater detail on our methodology in order to provide greater transparency on the key assumptions and dependencies. However, Sarah Boyack is absolutely right, and that is where constructive criticism comes in— constructive criticism that recognises all the things in the plan that we need to do.”
“We need an urgent focus on implementation. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a key message from those who gave evidence to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and other parliamentary committees was that it is all about delivery and that the draft plan did not go far enough?”
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“The problem is, however, that the tech is not making its way to patients quickly enough. I constantly receive correspondence from constituents who are simply unable to access that life-changing technology. My own freedom of information request revealed that there are almost 1,000 people who are sitting on waiting lists for an HCL system in NHS Lothian. It is incredibly disappointing that, even in our own capital city, we are unable to make progress on rolling out HCL systems at the scale that is needed. It is vital that we invest in that technology, and we must not let the up-front costs of such tech cloud the massive impact that it has both on patient outcomes and on the NHS more widely. We all know that our NHS boards are under immense pressure and that staff are doing their best in challenging circumstances.”
“I thank my colleague Foysol Choudhury for securing the debate; his motion could not be more timely. The progress that has been made on diabetes technology illustrates the very best of human ingenuity. Before 1921, a diabetes diagnosis was a death sentence. Now, just over 100 years later, we have modern technology—such as the hybrid closed-loop system, which can monitor and administer insulin without any input from the patient—that allows those with type 1 diabetes to live longer lives and to eat what they want, and even to win Olympic medals. Diabetes no longer has to be the burden that it once was. The technology is incredibly effective. It can fundamentally change a patient’s life and can bring blood sugar down to safe levels, thereby avoiding further complications.”