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It is important that we consider Scotland in comparison with the rest of the globe, if we have had that information in the past week.

I know that there are constant staff pressures on the national health service at the moment, but do we have any indication of when screening services—for example, breast screening for over-70s—will be fully back up and running?

My other question relates to test and protect staff who have been working for the past 18 months and have been in touch with me in the past couple of days. They feel that the announcement last Tuesday was a kick in the teeth. Forgive me if this is wrong information, but the information that was relayed from them was that the health boards told them that funding was in place for test and protect until September. Therefore, there was an assumption that they would be in the roles until September and not out of a job in April. Can you give any clarity on that and the funding options?

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee.

This morning, we will conclude our evidence taking on the inquiry into excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic. I welcome to the meeting Humza Yousaf, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, and Professor Jason Leitch, national clinical director for the Scottish Government.

Cabinet secretary, would you like to make some short opening remarks before we move to questions?

Thank you very much. What is your interpretation of the data on excess deaths during the pandemic? In particular, what is your view on Public Health Scotland’s submission, which says that

“from July 2021 onwards the pattern changed, with almost all causes of death being in excess”?

That concludes our consideration of this agenda item and our time with the cabinet secretary. I thank him and his supporting official for attending.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow a changeover of witnesses.

Good morning and welcome to the eighth meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. This morning, we will continue our inquiry into excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

I welcome Rob Gowans, policy and public affairs manager at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland; Lawrence Cowan, director of communications at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland; Peter Hastie, policy and public affairs manager at Macmillan Cancer Support; Dr Lynda Fenton, consultant in public health medicine at Public Health Scotland; and Dr Francisco Perez-Reche from the institute for complex systems and mathematical biology in the school of natural and computing sciences at the University of Aberdeen. Thank you for giving us your time and for your written submissions.

This is the second of two sessions that we are holding to take evidence from stakeholders as part of our inquiry before we hear from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on 17 March.

Each member will have approximately nine to 10 minutes to speak to the panel and ask their questions. If you would like to respond on a particular issue that is being discussed, please type the letter R in the chat box and we will do our best to bring you in. I am keen to ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to speak. I apologise in advance that, if time runs on too much, I may have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interest of brevity.

All our witnesses are appearing remotely. I ask you to briefly introduce yourselves, starting with Rob Gowans.

Thank you, Mr Fairlie.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time this morning. If you would like to raise any further evidence with the committee, you can do so in writing. The clerks will be happy to liaise with you on how to do that.

I suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Under agenda item 2, the committee will continue to take evidence at stage 1 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill. The focus of this evidence session will be on the named person nomination provision contained in part 3 of the bill.

I welcome to the committee Dr Arun Chopra, the medical director of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, and Dr Roger Smyth, chair of the legislative oversight forum of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland. I thank them for giving us their time and for their written submissions.

I will give members the opportunity to ask the witnesses questions. If one of the witnesses would like to respond to an issue that is being discussed, they should type R in the chat box and we will try to bring them in.

As our witnesses join us remotely, I ask them to introduce themselves.

What are the potential benefits and risks associated with the proposal to remove the requirement for a nominee as a named person to have their signature witnessed by a prescribed person?

Thank you for that helpful historical insight. Perhaps I can bring in Dr Chopra.