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Scottish Liberal Democrat mental health spokesperson Emma Walker has today demanded the SNP "boost the CAMHS budget" and support ailing mental health services, after the First Minister faced critical questions from young people on mental provision as part of Youth Link and Children in Scotland's 'First Minister's Question Time Next Generation'.

Commenting on the resignation of Ross McEwan from RBS, Liberal Democrat Scottish Affairs spokesperson Jamie Stone MP said:

"The Chief Executive has resigned saying he has "delivered the strategy" he set out when taking over. However, the people of Scotland will agree that the only things he has delivered are countless bank closures and a huge loss of customer confidence.

Commenting on a new report by MSP Murdo Fraser for Conservative think tank Bright Blue, which calls for a "new quasi-federal settlement" and the abolition of the House of Lords in favour of a regional senate, Tavish Scott MSP said:

"Scottish Liberal Democrats have campaigned for a federal UK and the abolition of the undemocratic House of Lords for many years.

Liberal Democrat Scottish Affairs spokesperson Jamie Stone MP has today said that today's figures on food bank usage must be a wakeup call to Theresa May as new figures showed a sharp rise in Scotland.

End of year figures from the Trussell Trust show an increase in food bank use in Scotland with 210,605 three-day emergency food supplies being given to people in crisis between April 2018 and March 2019.

Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael has today said that new figures from market research firm Censuswide Scotland, showing that a third of people living in England would reject Scottish bank notes as fake, show the need for Scottish currency to be given equal status and called for a public information campaign to make the public aware of Scottish notes.

Responding to the First Minister's statement on independence and Brexit, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"The First Minister hasn't done the one decent thing that people in Scotland want her to do, which is to take her campaign for independence off the table.

"Nicola Sturgeon should look at the damage caused by Brexit and the division it has caused and learn a lesson. Breaking up is hard to do.

Speaking after the Scottish Parliament backed a motion criticising the SNP's poor handling of the NHS and highlighting challenges with the recruitment and retention of GPs, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

"On the same day the First Minister has committed her government to dedicate years of debate to independence, the parliament has come together to condemn her government's treatment of GPs.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Tavish Scott MSP has said that the publication of a new Education Committee report today "paves the way" for Scottish National Standardised Assessments to be scrapped as he warned that the Scottish Government had no evidence for the imposition of testing prior to their introduction. Ministers "created policies to match their speeches, at the expense of teachers and pupils alike."