 The next item of business is a statement by Shona Robison on Scottish Veterans Commissioner's report on veterans' health and wellbeing. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions, as I call the cabinet secretary. Ms Robison, 10 minutes are thereabouts, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank the Scottish Veterans Commissioner, Eric Fraser, for the work that he has done in producing his recent report on veterans' health and wellbeing, a distinctive Scottish approach. Our armed forces community veterans and their families are an asset to Scotland and the Scottish Government remains committed to providing them with the best possible support and opportunities. The appointment of the veterans commissioner led the way across the UK as a dedicated post to promote those interests. Last year, I met with the commissioner to discuss his forthcoming report. I was pleased that he recognised the strong track record in Scotland of ensuring veterans are given the best possible treatment care and support. We welcomed the report, which makes a number of recommendations for how we could refocus a re-energised Scotland's approach to looking after our ex-servicemen and women. The report was considered in detail at the recent meeting of the armed forces and veterans joint group. The group, which is chaired by the director-general of health and social care, includes representation from key armed forces and veterans stakeholders in Scotland. I look forward to hearing the outcome of their considerations. The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that all veterans living in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, including safe, effective and person-centred healthcare. Our current policy states that all veterans should receive priority treatment for health problems as a result of service to their country, subject to clinical priority for all patients. That means that veterans should receive priority treatment for on-going health problems as a direct result of their service unless there is an emergency case or other case that demands higher clinical priority. However, the report highlights that the concept introduced in the 1950s is outdated. The Veterans Commissioner recognises that we should be moving beyond the priority treatment policy and calls for a greater focus on the principles of excellence, accessibility and sustainable treatment for all veterans. The guiding principles for a veterans health suggested in Eric Fraser's report are entirely consistent with our ambition for safe, effective and person-centred healthcare set out in the healthcare equality strategy for NHS Scotland. The integration of health and social care in recent years has changed the delivery landscape for healthcare in Scotland, so we need to ensure that the mechanisms in place to support veterans healthcare are still fit for purpose. It is the Scottish Government's continuing aim to ensure that the healthcare needs of serving personnel and veterans are better understood and supported within the NHS. We are already progressing work, which addresses some of the recommendations highlighted in the report. The report makes the point that strong and visible leadership is needed to deliver high standards of healthcare. That leadership needs to be in place both nationally and locally. I have already mentioned the armed forces and veterans health joint group. I know that they will be keen to ensure that their membership and remit reflects the new landscape in which healthcare for veterans is delivered. At local level, we have a network of NHS champions for armed forces and veterans who are there to support armed forces personnel, veterans and their families to get access to high-quality services and treatment when required. To raise awareness of the policies already in place to support the healthcare needs of veterans, we recently issued updated information about this to the NHS veterans champions, NHS chief executives and to primary care leads. That includes guidance for GPs, which includes how veterans can share their full service medical record with their GP. We will look at how we can build effective working links between NHS and local authority armed forces champions to reflect the new integrated landscape. My officials have also worked with Veterans Scotland to update existing information for veterans about how to access healthcare on NHS inform. That will be followed by an awareness raising campaign to coincide with Armed Forces Day in June of this year. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of supporting veterans long-term healthcare needs. It is essential that appropriate support is available to veterans and that funding and services are sustainable. The Scottish Government is at the very earliest stage of considering a managed network approach as a potential longer-term solution to ensuring equitable and sustainable services for veterans across Scotland. Networks are a well-established way of driving improvement in the quality of care through a co-ordinated approach. A formal NHS national services Scotland application process exists, and NHS NSS are providing advice on the necessary next steps and timeframe before the proposal is progressed further. We would envisage a range of stakeholders and interests being involved as the proposal develops. One example of where we have provided additional support for those with the most severe and enduring healthcare needs is through the national specialist prosthetic service. In 2013, the Scottish Government made a commitment to invest £4.5 million over three years into the service. The service was developed to provide continuing care to those who would benefit most from these new technologies based on clinical need. The service continues to work with manufacturers to ensure that the very best services are available to our veterans in Scotland. I welcome the focus on mental health of veterans and their families in the commissioner's report. The report rightly focuses on a number of positives. Collectively, we should be proud of achieving those. The report recognises the significantly improved support for those suffering mental ill health after time spent in the armed forces. It recognises that, in recent years, veterans have been able to access a number of specialist and mainstream services, with Scotland being in the vanguard in many instances. It also recognises that the vast majority of those leaving the military do so without severe mental health problems and coat well with transition to civilian life. The clarity in the report of the importance of mental health fully accords with the guiding ambition in our mental health strategy. This is that we must prevent and treat mental health problems with the same commitment, passion and drive as we do with physical health problems. In that respect, we all have a responsibility to help to realise our vision of a Scotland where people can get the right help at the right time, expect recovery and fully enjoy their rights free from discrimination and stigma. However, while as much to be proud of, I agree with the commissioner that there is no room for complacency and that further improvements can be made. I note the key recommendation that the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, through a network on veterans health, produce a mental health action plan for the long-term delivery of services and support. I look forward to hearing the considerations of the armed forces and veterans joint group before taking next steps. However, I am confident that many of the key themes and the 40 actions in the Scottish Government's 10-year mental health strategy will impact positively on veterans and their families and that that will lead to improvement in many of the areas that the commissioners and veterans identify as important. The strategy seeks to ensure equal access to the most effective and safest care and treatment, a reduction in the variation of care that can be experienced, improvements in the quality of care and in measuring health outcomes and in tackling stigma and discrimination. To support improvements, I expect that in 2017-18, for the first time that NHS investment in mental health will exceed £1 billion, I also secured additional funding in the Scottish budget for an additional 800 mental health professionals over the next five years in key areas such as A&E and GP practices. That and other investments in mental health will help to drive improvement across the whole system, including for veterans and their families. I also acknowledge the commissioners called to protect specialist mental health services and he mentioned specifically those services provided by Combat Stress and Veterans First Point. The funding available to support veterans' mental health through Veterans First Point and Combat Stress will total over £5.8 million over the next three years. I hope that that demonstrates our commitment to improving mental health services for veterans and I look forward to considering what further help and support we can offer. I thank Eric Fraser again for his important work in highlighting not only the excellent services that are already in place but how we can continue to ensure equitable and high-quality services for our veterans. We have much to be proud of, but we should not be complacent. We will consider the findings and recommendations carefully, including how we respond to the challenges that have been raised. The next update to Parliament will be in the autumn of this year and will provide an opportunity to demonstrate what we have done and our future intentions in responding to the latest report on veterans' health and wellbeing. Thank you, cabinet secretary. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues that have been raised in the statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we must move on to the next item of business. I will be helpful if members who wish to ask a question press the request to speak, but it is now in a column, Morris Corry, Mr Corry, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. First, I thank the cabinet secretary for an advanced site of today's statement. I also thank Eric Fraser, the Scottish Veterans Commission, for producing his latest report. I welcome the recommendations that he has made in this report. UGov's survey for SAFA found some startling facts to do with veterans. It found that 34 per cent felt overwhelmed by negative feelings and that 27 per cent admitted to having suicidal thoughts after finishing their military service. It shows that we need to do more for mental health of our veterans' community. In the cabinet secretary's statement, she spoke of improving mental health services of veterans, which I welcome strongly. She also spoke of the funding of the veterans' first point provided by the Scottish Government, which plays such a vital role in the health care of veterans in the area that it operates in, in particular related to mental health. The cabinet secretary will know that this is a jointly funded programme, half from Government resources and half from health board resources, to fund veterans' first point. However, I have become aware that veterans' first point is being considered for cuts by some health boards, which would result in veterans' first point being lost in those areas. We have already lost veterans' first point in Highland and Grampian. Will the cabinet secretary commit today to ensuring that veterans' first point does not continue to decline in size any further, as my aspiration would be for the veterans' first point services to cover the entire country of Scotland and be available to all veterans there? I thank Maurice Corry for his question. I welcome Eric Fraser to the gallery. I have just been made aware that he is in the gallery. He is very welcome and I hope that he finds the proceedings interesting. I hope that Maurice Corry is aware of the background to the funding of veterans' first point. He will hopefully be aware of the history of LIBOR funding here. Clearly, at the end, when LIBOR funding came to an end last year, the understanding that local partnerships would then need to ensure that services became self-sustaining did not materialise and, therefore, we, as the Government, stepped in and offered that partnership funding. It is important to understand the background of the LIBOR funding issue. Veterans' first point is a network of NHS-led services across six areas in Scotland. Those areas are important. I have nothing to suggest that those areas are not going to continue with that joint funding. He mentioned the issue of Grampian and Highland. He will be aware that, in Grampian, they have since enhanced their services through a new venture with the defence medical welfare service to ensure the needs of older veterans and their families in the north-east have access to support when faced with challenges. In Highland, I do not know whether he is aware, but he has recently been awarded a further LIBOR grant of over £1 million. He is discussing how to move that forward with a national third sector provider, so I think that there will be hopefully good news emanating from Highland in that respect. He will also be aware that some other boards have never been part of that LIBOR funding, so they have always had their own services for veterans. That is okay. I want to make sure that, as Cabinet Secretary, that there are services supporting veterans, whether that is through veterans first point or other services. The importance is not who provides them or how they are provided, but that they are provided. We provide £825,000 to support the veterans first point services, and that has been funded by those boards. I will certainly follow up and make sure that those boards that have committed to match funding continue to do so. Can I declare that I am a veteran myself and put that on record? Thank you very much. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of the statement, and I join the cabinet secretary in recognising the contribution of our armed forces community, our veterans and their families. I welcome this report by Eric Fraser and the cabinet secretary's statement. This week is mental health awareness week, so I want to focus my remarks on that. One recommendation in the report is for a new national action plan, and the report highlights funding, particularly for specialist services, that at times is disjointed and, in some cases, ad hoc. It raises concerns about geographic inequalities in services. It also highlights a recurring theme from veterans that mainstream NHS service providers sometimes do not always understand their specific needs and experiences. It also goes on to raise the importance of the suicide prevention plan, as well as substance misuse strategy. Will all those issues be considered as part of that new national action plan, and what would be the timeframe of delivering that action plan? As I said in my statement, the Scotland's 10-year mental health strategy launched last year reinforces our commitment to the armed forces covenant and includes a range of actions to improve care, services and support for people with a mental health problem, including veterans and their families. Obviously, some of that work is already under way. On the process going forward, the recommendations are being looked at in detail. The mental health action plan is a key one, and we will take that forward through the network on veterans health. That is the best forum in order to take forward that. It is for them to set out the timeframe to ensure that they have enough time to make sure that the action plan is as good as it can be and will take forward the recommendations and the issues that are raised in the report. It is also worth pointing out that, in terms of specialist services, those are already provided at a very high quality and combat stress provide a 24-hour helpline for veterans or family members who need to talk about mental health. That is a very good service provided by a first-class organisation. Have I lived members wishing to ask questions, could ask with succinct questions and answers which reciprocate? Richard Lochhead, please, will be Edward Mountain. In thanking the Scottish Veterans Commissioner, Eric Fraser, for another very valuable report this time into the health and wellbeing of veterans and also the Cabinet Secretary for her supportive statement. I welcome the commitment to have a awareness raising campaign in June, and I also ask the Cabinet Secretary to recognise that, in rural areas in particular, we have to make every effort to make sure that veterans in places like Murray, where there are thousands, are aware of the services that are out there and perhaps she can speak to Veterans Scotland about how to do that in the foreseeable future. Cabinet Secretary, I think that the awareness raising campaign is an opportunity to make sure that the range of services that I have talked about in my statement and that the members have mentioned that veterans and their families are first of all aware of those. I think that Armed Forces Day next month provides an opportunity for those to be highlighted. I think that the awareness raising campaign will be very important in doing that, and we will fully support it. Edwin Mountain, followed by Graeme Dey. I declare that I am a veteran as well. The report identifies that many servicemen have been exposed to combat harsh physical conditions, stressful situations and a lifestyle that is detrimental in effect on their long-term wellbeing. The wellbeing and mental health of such servicemen is constantly being challenged by historic allegations being levied against individuals. Will the cabinet secretary agree with me that there should be a statute of limitations in relation to historic allegations? Will she write to the MOD supporting moves to enforce such limitations? Cabinet secretary, that really is a bit outwith the scope of my statement, I have to say, but I will certainly get the relevant minister to write to Edwin Mountain on that subject. The point that I agree with Edwin Mountain is that many veterans have those specific needs. However, many veterans come out and adjust very well to civilian life, but for those who need that support, whether it is with PTSD or other issues, what is important is that, first of all, the sharing of records happens quickly, so that the transition and the information on health is transferred quickly. That is an issue that needs to be improved. That would help to make sure that those veterans that need that specific support get it as quickly as possible. Graham Dave, followed by David Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Following on from that answer, does the cabinet secretary agree with me that for veterans to receive the appropriate care and support that they need, it is absolutely essential that the MOD pass on full and accurate medical records when requested? Something that I understand is still not a given. Cabinet secretary. We have been pressing UK Government ministers for some time about the need to improve the process of transferring medical records for personnel leaving the services. Officials are continuing to engage with NHS Digital about the cortisone programme, which will deliver an integrated, compatible data sharing capability with the NHS. The importance of the programme to assist the transfer of prior medical history and to ensure continuity of care after service cannot be overstated. I also welcome the constructive and positive report from the commissioner on veterans' health and wellbeing, and I welcome him to the gallery today. In my post-blog, I have had a number of issues from veterans, particularly those suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Is this an issue that the cabinet secretary is willing to share with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to look at some detailed work for those veterans who are suffering from this very complex and very difficult condition? Cabinet secretary. Yes, a range of evidence-based treatments are available for PTSD, determined obviously by clinicians and based on a detailed assessment and tailored to the needs of the patient. Those vary from low- to medium-level interventions that are available on the NHS to more specialised care and treatment that are more specialist in nature. We also, as I mentioned earlier, continue to fund the provision of specialist in community mental health services by combat stress, who have a lot of experience in that area, and, of course, they have a residential facility for those where that is the most appropriate treatment. Of course, we have funded that to the tune of £1.4 million this year, but I am very happy to make sure that we keep those matters under review. Thank you. The commission's report highlights early service leavers who voluntarily leave the military before completing the minimum four-year term as being at particular risk. Can the cabinet secretary outline what steps the Government is taking to ensure that that vulnerable group of people has access to the best quality of care over their lifetimes? Yes, it is very important that those early leavers, as Matt Ruskell described them, are a particularly vulnerable group and that they have to get the right services provided quickly. Partly that comes back to the sharing of information so that services can kick in very quickly. Of course, the services that are provided through whether that is veterans first point or through combat stress have a particular focus. A lot of that is also involving peer support, so that people who understand are able to help and support. There is a lot of third sector support there as well. In short, the answer is yes, but I think that the commissioners report points us to where we can do better for that particularly vulnerable group. It is a sort of collective shame that veterans are more likely than most to join the ranks of our homeless population. Given the causal link between mental ill health and homelessness, can I ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help homeless veterans, particularly those struggling with mental ill health? Alex Cole-Hamilton points to a particular vulnerable group of veterans. What I have laid out today is the issue of response around health and social care support, but he will be aware that there are many other supports that exist for veterans in Scotland. We have a strong track record of supporting the veterans community. The Scottish Veterans Fund has, since its creation in 2008, committed more than £1.3 million to more than 150 projects and organisations that support veterans across Scotland. Some of that will be in the area that Alex Cole-Hamilton is talking about—about housing and homelessness prevention. I am very happy to provide further detail to Alex Cole-Hamilton on the issue of homelessness more specifically. John Mason, followed by Brian Whittle. Further to the previous question, I wonder if the cabinet secretary will accept that, while it is not specifically health, an issue like employment is also an impact and does affect people's health, even though I accept that it is not under her specific remit. Keith Brown is the cabinet secretary for the economy, jobs and fair work, and, overall, the responsibility for veterans within Government gave a full update to Parliament last November on the recommendations in the commissioner's report on transition, the provision of housing information and employability skills and learning, and there will be a further update provided this autumn. There is a lot of work in that sphere of helping veterans to move on to create new opportunities back in civilian life and employability skills and learning. Opportunities are a very important part of that. If the cabinet secretary agrees with me that, in delivering the best treatment, care and support for our veterans, we should be constant of Sam H's assertion, the inclusivity and physical activity are key elements of ensuring good mental health, and we have witnessed the incredible impact, for example, of the Invictus games that I have had on this community. The raising of the awareness of the community, with that in mind, would the cabinet secretary join colleagues and I in our enthusiasm in calling for the Invictus games to be hosted in Scotland? Obviously, the Scottish Government acknowledges very much the power of sport and the impact that it plays in our lives and in the lives of injured servicemen and women. Over the coming weeks, we will be speaking to partners to scope out what a potential bid for Scotland to host a future games and tales. I am very happy to keep running with all informed as those decisions go forward. Can the cabinet secretary provide details on what is being done to ensure that physically injured veterans are benefiting from the latest technology in order to allow them to regain and maintain their mobility? In my statement, I talked about the investments that have been made in the prosthetics services, for example, in order to ensure that those are quickly turned around, but also that they are of high quality. A lot of investment has been made in supporting veterans' specific needs that have disabilities due to their service. The commissioners report lays out a number of recommendations that will improve not just the physical health, but also the mental health of veterans. Those are the ones that we are determined to take forward. Members will note my interest and personal experience of ADHD and other members have rightly raised questions about mental health of veterans. Those mental health issues are often impacted by or have underlying causes in new developmental disorders such as ADHD and ASD. The case study in the report is very useful in highlighting those issues. Can I ask what help and support will be extended by the Scottish Government to veterans with new developmental disorders such as ADHD in their improved mental health services for veterans? That is an issue that we would expect the new mental health action plan to consider, but I will certainly make sure that that message is passed on after the statement to make sure that that is captured in the work on the action plan going forward. Clare Haughey I ask the members to my register of interests and that I hold an honorary contract with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Recommendation 4 in the report would establish a national managed clinical network on veterans' health based on evidence from the existing managed clinical network for perinatal mental health. Will the cabinet secretary provide an early comment on her consideration of that particular recommendation? Cabinet secretary. We absolutely recognise the importance of supporting veterans' long-term health care needs. We are, as I said in my statement at the initial stages of exploring with NHS national services division, the option of developing a managed network approach as a longer-term solution to equitable and sustainable health services for veterans. There is a process involved there, which I laid out in my statement. NHS national services Scotland will shortly provide advice on the necessary set-up requirements and the next steps before we progress further. Again, I am happy to keep Clare Haughey informed of that as it goes forward. Thank you very much. That concludes questions. I am pleased to see all members had the opportunity to ask their questions. I will suspend briefly to allow the front branches to take the places please.