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We can certainly look at the work that we do alongside charities that work with prisoners. From previous roles in the Government, I know about the work that families do to support those connections and to maintain relationships between prisoners and their families on the outside. Although that work is not particularly focused on suicide prevention, it clearly has a role to play in that regard.

I am happy to start, but I am pretty sure that nearly everyone will want to contribute.

We agree that it is not appropriate to take a one-size-fits-all approach and that we need to really understand the particular circumstances that are enhancing the risk in those communities in order to find the solutions in relation to prevention.

There is some good work going on across the piece in preventing male suicide. We recently confirmed additional funding of £100,000 for the changing room—extra time programme, which is run by SAMH and is done via football. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care visited during mental health awareness week. The awareness week theme this year was mental health and physical activity, so it was a perfect match. The cabinet secretary was blown away by the work that the programme is doing and how it is reaching out to men who are at risk of suicide by using the power of football—which, as you can imagine, is something that I am very passionate about—to give them time and space to come together in a way that they normally would not, and to talk openly about challenges.

We work with other organisations that specifically reach men, such as Andy’s Man Club and Men Matter Scotland, and we are very grateful for the work that they do to support us in understanding why men are more at risk of suicide and to reach a particular group that is perhaps stereotypically a little less inclined to ask for help and support.

On the LGBT prevention work, it is difficult because, as the committee will have heard from academics earlier on in the course of its evidence taking, the body of evidence, although improving, is perhaps a little scanty in relation to some of those specific characteristics. In that situation, all that we can do is work very closely with trusted organisations that we know work in that area effectively and are alongside those populations and try to find bespoke answers that work for them and support them in their work.

I have not heard of any delay—I think that we are on schedule.

We should be good—I mean, summer is quite a loose term, isn’t it? In the civil service, every season is quite long. I am not sure whether an outturn is part of that, though.

I know that Dr Cook wants to come in, but I should say that, with regard to the picture with data and its collection, we have a general concern about the quality and availability of mental health data and we are working hard to improve those aspects in our mental health and wellbeing strategy.

Often, when a suicide occurs, there is an extra level of investigation. A lot of learning comes from that. A common theme that emerges is the transfer of information across interfaces. We absolutely recognise that that is an important piece of work that needs to be embedded generally, with key information or data being made available across the interfaces as people work their way through the system.

I think so. Mental health and wellbeing is a key focus for the Government, and it is a high priority for every ministerial portfolio in our work with local government. I do not think that you will find a minister and spokesperson who work more closely together than me and Paul Kelly, as we do in very many areas, which reflects the priority that both spheres of government give to this work. We work together on suicide prevention, and we have launched a joint strategy on it. We have worked together on the mental health and wellbeing strategy, and on the delivery plan and workforce planning for it.

We have also developed together a groundbreaking strategy to reduce self-harm, which is a really important area for suicide prevention: self-harm is one of the biggest risk factors for suicide. We listened carefully to our lived experience community about what, specifically, was required in order to meet their needs and reduce their risk. The will is there, and effort is being put in. There are always challenges—every sphere of government has financial challenges at the moment—but there is no doubt that this is a high priority for all of us; we can see that in the numbers.

I begin by welcoming the committee’s inquiry. Tragically, suicide continues to impact all parts of society, so we all have a role to play in preventing suicide. That includes us individually as ���˿��� and collectively as a Parliament. Suicide is, indeed, everyone’s business. I strongly believe that we must all talk more openly about suicide and deepen our understanding of its complexity. By doing that, we can tackle the stigma that surrounds suicide and help to find new ways to support people when they have thoughts of suicide.

I am very proud of the work that is happening right across Scotland to reduce suicide and I want to record my personal thanks to everyone who is already playing their part in helping to keep people safe and to support their recovery. I am impressed with the volume and range of evidence that the committee has already considered and I am pleased that our creating hope together suicide prevention strategy, has been described as “innovative” and “ambitious.” The strategy was developed through Scotland-wide collaboration with communities and the many partners who are working to prevent suicide. Listening to people with lived experience of suicide was key, as was learning from the past 20 years of suicide prevention in Scotland and around the world. That helped us to understand how Scotland’s approach could be more progressive.

First, the strategy recognises the importance of creating societal shifts, which we describe as outcomes, so that our environment protects against suicide, we are all better equipped to respond to someone who may be suicidal, and that anyone who is or has been affected by suicide in any way gets the right support. Secondly, we must tackle the inequalities and life circumstances that increase suicide risk, which are often called “social determinants”. Those include people living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, or living with addiction; people having care experience; having been in prison; and being LGBT, neurodivergent, or coming from some minority ethnic communities.

Much of Government’s policy and investment are already addressing those factors by, for example, tackling child poverty through our progressive Scottish child payment; addressing unemployment through our multimillion-pound investment in employability services; supporting people who are affected by substance use through our national mission; and improving Scotland’s mental health and wellbeing through the delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy, including through evidence-based approaches such as our world-leading distress brief intervention programme and action on self-harm. Although those policies are already helping to prevent suicide, we are going further by actively weaving suicide prevention into wider action across Government and society.

I will talk about our progress on delivering our strategy. Our first annual report will be published this summer, with an assessment from our national suicide prevention advisory group, whose members represent and advocate for many of the groups that are disproportionately affected by suicide.

I will touch on a few highlights. We have improved suicide awareness and the availability of peer support across our communities, used clinical evidence and our “Time Space Compassion” approach to suicidal crisis to drive improvements in statutory services and created new systems to capture data and evidence so that we can seize every opportunity to intervene and support someone who is suicidal. For example, we have introduced a suicide review and learning system.

The progress has been achieved thanks to our new collective delivery model, suicide prevention Scotland, which brings together partners and communities across Scotland to collaborate and learn about suicide prevention. It also includes our strategic outcomes lead partners, Samaritans Scotland, Scottish Action on Mental Health, Penumbra, Change Mental Health and Public Health Scotland, which are bringing their valuable leadership and expertise to bear to support delivery.

Looking ahead, our delivery plan for 2024-25 will be published shortly. That plan will continue the breadth and pace of work, including our drive to meet the needs of people who are at higher risk of suicide. It is backed by a significant commitment to double our investment in suicide prevention to £2.8 million by 2026, which is well on track. The wider financial context is extremely challenging, and I am sure that we will discuss how Government is continuing to prioritise mental health.

I thank our lived and living experience panels, whose unique insights continue to direct all our work. I restate the strategy’s aim, which is for any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life or is affected by suicide to get the help that they need and feel a sense of hope.

I put on record the correct annual cost of the suicide bereavement support service, which is £309,688 in 2024-25.

I look forward to our discussion and the outcome of the inquiry, which is welcome.

It is clear that poverty increases suicide risk—the link between the two is clear—and it is very challenging to tackle poverty in this environment. We have had 14 years of austerity. That political choice, which was made in Westminster, has had a profound impact on our public services and on our welfare system. Then we had the pandemic, which has stretched the health and social care system. We have also had Brexit, which has had a profound impact on our economy and on our societies. As we have come out of the pandemic, we have faced a cost of living crisis. There are real challenges in tackling poverty.

However, despite that, we in Scotland are taking measures that are making a difference. We are all very proud of the Scottish child payment, which prioritises money going into families with young children, recognising the profound impact that poverty has at an early age. That has lifted 100,000 children out of poverty. Obviously, that is a very long-term investment, and it is not a specific suicide prevention measure, but tackling poverty is a suicide prevention measure—make no mistake about it.

I have spoken openly before, particularly when I was the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, about the challenge of the interventions that we make here in Scotland, as it feels like we give with one hand and it is taken away with another. We have one hand tied behind our back, because the focus and approach is so different from our Westminster Government. That makes tackling poverty very challenging.

You have given me the opportunity to talk about the mental health and wellbeing communities fund, which is, as you say, a small sum of money. It has been £15 million per year since 2021 and, in the first two years of the fund, nearly 3,500 grants were dispersed, so we are talking about very small sums of money sprinkled like stardust across the country and doing really impactful, magical work.

The beauty of that fund is that it works closely with communities. It goes through a third sector interface, which means that it goes through people who really know what is happening in the community. I take pleasure in the fact that, everywhere I go, I can see the impact of that money in literally every community in Scotland.

I will fight for that money to continue, as you might expect, but I am pushing against an open door because we recognise the impact that it has and it meets a number of our targets. It is not solely about suicide prevention; it is about strengthening communities and, by doing that, we can achieve a huge number of our aims as local and central Government.

At Government level, there is certainly a recognition that our third sector organisations need to be valued and supported, and that multiyear funding would be a way of improving their sustainability. They spend a great deal of energy living hand to mouth and lose a lot of talent because of the way that they are funded. There was a commitment within Government to move towards more sustainable and longer-term funding, but then the pandemic hit, and there has been a challenge in getting back on course for that.

There is no lack of understanding at Government level of how difficult that is for our third sector organisations, and there is no lack of appreciation for the incredible and impactful work that they do. However, getting from the emergency footing that we have been on in the past few years to that more sustainable—