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I want to ask a couple of questions that have come up in evidence that we have heard today. The first came from our committee adviser, Professor Peter Donnelly, who told us, when we were in our private session, that there has been a 20 per cent rise in excess deaths compared to what we would normally expect at this time of year and that that cannot be explained by an increase in the Covid rates. He said that it is an issue that needs urgent consideration. In his view, the rise is down to pathologies and diseases that are going undetected and untreated, including later stage cancers, for example. Do you agree that that is a serious issue? If so, what is being done to try to better understand why it is happening and address it?

Thank you. Those are very helpful answers. I know that my colleague Jim Fairlie will pursue the issue in due course and I am sure that the committee will want to return to it because it is so significant.

I have a separate question about vaccination passports and the consideration that the Scottish Government is giving to extending the scheme. I will not get into rehearsing all the arguments for and against; we have debated them before and we will debate them again. However, the specific issue of extending the vaccination passport scheme to other hospitality groups or, for example, theatres has come up in evidence today.

We know that people will have made bookings for Christmas parties, office lunches and, as it is panto season, family trips to the theatre, as my family has done. People tend to book those things well ahead. If such premises are brought under the remit of the vaccination passport system and people have not been vaccinated at this point, there will not be time for them to get vaccinated prior to Christmas. They will then presumably look to cancel their bookings and get their money back. That will be a significant challenge for theatre operators and the hospitality trade.

Does the Scottish Government recognise that challenge and, if it goes down that route, does it recognise that those businesses will legitimately look for substantial financial compensation to make up for that loss of income?

Thank you. I put the same questions to Mr McCullough.

Thank you.

I am still getting communications from constituents—I am sure that you are too—who are unable to get vaccination certification via the app. They are people who either were part of a trial and the app is not able to provide that certification, or who were vaccinated in other jurisdictions, perhaps overseas. Again, the app does not permit them to produce that certification. They are concerned that, if the vaccination passport scheme is rolled out further, it will put them at a disadvantage. What is being done to make sure that people in those categories can get the certification that they need?

Thank you.

Good morning. I have one question for each of the witnesses. I will start with Donald Morrison.

My question is a follow-up to one of the convener’s questions. She relayed an experience of a constituent of hers. A number of constituents have raised other issues with me, but there is a bit of a theme here. Constituents are saying that private patients have access to treatments that are not available to NHS patients, and that has led to some of them becoming private patients, if they are in the fortunate position where they can afford to pay. There is, of course, a danger of creating a two-tier system. Will you explain to us why it is that a private patient can get access to appointments and treatments that NHS patients cannot access?

Thank you, Dr Macaskill. Dr Buist, you have talked about challenges with surging demand on GPs as we go into the winter and the pressures as a result of the fact that we simply do not have enough GPs in Scotland to address the public demand. Clearly, we cannot produce a GP out of thin air. It takes, I think, six or seven years to train a GP. Is it the case that we are facing a legacy of issues that we should have addressed many years ago and that it is going to take a long time to catch up?

Thank you, Mr Morrison; that is helpful.

I have a slightly different question for Donald Macaskill. When you talked earlier about issues in the care sector, you specifically referenced workforce issues. I have spoken to people in the care sector who say that one of the major issues has been the number of experienced and qualified staff who are leaving the care sector to get jobs in other sectors, such as retail, because the pay and conditions are better. I am interested to understand from you how much of an issue that is. If it is an issue, what needs to be done to fix it? How do we ensure that pay and conditions in the care sector improve and that people do not leave to get jobs elsewhere?

Thank you, Dr Macaskill. You talk about the increase in the base salary to £10.02. Do you have a sense of what level it should be at in order to ensure that we do not face the issue that you have been talking about of staff haemorrhaging out of the sector?