Dundee Liberal Democrats - www.dundeelibdems.scot

Responding to Liz Truss describing Nicola Sturgeon as an "attention seeker" and the SNP's outraged response, Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"The people of Scotland deserved to be governed by grown-ups.

"Nicola Sturgeon will be secretly glad of these comments because it allows the SNP and the Conservatives to spend their time on a silly and undignified war of words, rather than focus on the difficult and complicated issues that both of their governments are failing to deal with.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today condemned the government's failure to take sufficient action to cut high suicide rates, after new figures revealed that men make up three quarters of all suicides and that suicide rates are 2.9 times higher in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP has today called on the Scottish Government to take urgent steps to tackle the declining number of police officers across Scotland.

The call follows the publication of new statistics showing that the number of full-time police officers in Scotland has dropped to 16,610, which is the lowest level since the third quarter of 2008.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has filed a series of parliamentary questions as he seeks to get to the bottom of "bogus" Scottish government claims over mental health staffing.

Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 says that the government will "Increase the workforce to increase access to dedicated mental health professionals in all A&Es, all GP practices, every police station custody suite, and to our prisons. Over the next five years increasing additional investment to £35 million for 800 additional mental health workers in those key settings."

A report on racism in Scottish cricket, carried out by equality and diversity group Plan4Sport, has found the governance and leadership of the sport to be institutionally racist. Commissioned by Sportscotland last year, the review highlighted 448 examples that demonstrated institutional racism. An anonymous survey was carried out as part of the review, with 62% of those who responded saying they had experienced, seen or had reported to them incidents of racism, inequalities or discrimination.

Responding to new figures showing that 6,046 people died from Alzheimer's and other dementias in 2021 with these deaths 1.3 times as likely to occur in the most deprived parts of Scotland, compared to the least deprived, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"Dementia has heart-breaking consequences for those diagnosed and their families. A co-ordinated package of support is critical to ensure people with dementia can understand and adjust to their diagnosis.

Responding to figures from Public Health Scotland showing the crisis in our A&E departments continuing, with just 67.9% of attendees at A&E services admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP commented:

Isles representatives, Alistair Carmichael MP and Liam McArthur MSP, have this week written to the Business Secretary, the head of Ofgem, and the trade body Energy UK to challenge the refusal of energy suppliers in the isles to connect new built homes to electricity supply. Local housing developers have voiced frustration in recent days that all relevant energy suppliers have refused to install energy meters in new build homes, believed to be due in part to uncertainty and volatility in the energy market.