To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the reported concerns of not-for-profit social care providers regarding the impact of increased employer national insurance contributions on the sector in Scotland. (S6F-03615)

Not-for-profit social care providers play a vital role in delivering care across Scotland, and I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of everyone working in the sector. The Scottish Government firmly shares the concerns about the profound impact that the increase in national insurance will have in Scotland, which is estimated to cost the adult care sector at least £85 million per year. We have outlined that to the United Kingdom Government and asked it to reimburse the national insurance increase for charities and social care providers in Scotland. We will continue to press the UK Government to do the right thing and reimburse that cost, and I ask all other parties in Parliament to do the same.

The increase to contributions has been described as “catastrophic” for Scotland’s social care sector. Will the First Minister join me in calling on Anas Sarwar’s Labour colleagues in Westminster to fully reimburse costs to the Scottish Government for Labour’s short-sighted plans to increase employer national insurance contributions in order to enable us to protect our social care services across the country?

I certainly make that call. We have made that point to the United Kingdom Government, because Scotland’s care providers will face a significant increase in the cost of their operations as a consequence of that activity, and we depend on those individual organisations to contribute to the delivery of social care in Scotland.

The danger of the increase in employer national insurance contributions is that it is, essentially, ushering in austerity by the back door. Although there is a welcome increase in investment in public expenditure, there is also a commensurate increase in costs in the delivery of public services. I ask the United Kingdom Government to recognise that, so that we can take forward the effective investment in the care services on which our public depend.

Labour has let down the Scottish social care sector with its tax on jobs, but does the blame for the worsening crisis in care not rest with John Swinney just as much as it does with Keir Starmer? Since 2021, the care sector has been in limbo, waiting for the national care service, which has swallowed up £30 million that could have been spent to mitigate Labour’s national insurance hikes.

Will the First Minister now take this opportunity to confirm that the national care service is dead and buried, and allow ministers, councils and care providers to focus all their attention and money on the worsening crisis in Scotland’s social care?

I assure Mr Hoy that there is no lack of focus in my Government on addressing the challenges around delayed discharge and social care. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and I spend a great deal of time on that question, and it has been a substantial issue for discussion with our local authority colleagues as we have undertaken the budget dialogue that I promised would be undertaken.

There are conclusions to be arrived at about the national care service but, fundamentally, what the national care service is designed to do—this is an important point that Mr Hoy cannot ignore—is address the fact that there is huge variation in the availability of social care services in different parts of the country. In some parts of the country, the availability is absolutely first class, and in other parts of the country it is poor. That is not good enough for the citizens of Scotland, and I intend to fix that.