The risks to mothers and babies that were outlined in the HIS report and on the BBC’s “Disclosure” programme are incredibly worrying. The cabinet secretary is reducing specialist neonatal provision at Wishaw and elsewhere, and mothers and the sickest babies from that area could have to travel for three hours to Aberdeen because Glasgow is regularly full—in fact, Glasgow sends its overspill to Wishaw. Mothers in Caithness and Stranraer are having to travel hundreds of miles to give birth, and I met some of them recently.

I ask the cabinet secretary, therefore, to include provision for remote and rural areas in the task force work and to review the best start programme, as we could have five specialist neonatal units and not the three that the Government has settled for.