Contents
- Attendance
- Scottish Primary Care Information Resource
- Sport for Everyone
- Subordinate Legislation
- Child Protection in Sport
Subordinate Legislation
Sale of Nicotine Vapour Products (Prescribed Documents) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/13)
The third item on the agenda is subordinate legislation, and we have before us one instrument that is subject to negative procedure: the Sale of Nicotine Vapour Products (Prescribed Documents) (Scotland) Regulations 2017. No motion to annul the instrument has been lodged, and the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has not made any comments on the instrument.
As members have no comments to make, does the committee agree to make no recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
Sale of Tobacco (Registration of Moveable Structures and Fixed Penalty Notices) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 [Draft]
The fourth item on the agenda is an instrument that is subject to affirmative procedure. As is usual for affirmative instruments, we will take evidence on the instrument from the cabinet secretary—I am sorry; I meant the minister, and her officials, on the instrument.
A promotion!
Give it time.
Once we have asked all our questions, we will move to a formal debate on the motion on the draft Sale of Tobacco (Registration of Moveable Structures and Fixed Penalty Notices) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017. I welcome the Minister for Public Health and Sport, Aileen Campbell, and her officials from the Scottish Government: Johanna Irvine is a principal legal officer; Morris Fraser is team leader on tobacco control policy in health improvement; and Elaine Mitchell is a senior policy officer on tobacco control policy in health improvement. I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.
Good morning and thank you for inviting me to give evidence to the committee on the draft regulations. The approval of the Scottish statutory instrument will allow the regulations to become live on 1 April.
The SSI is non-controversial and will make two minor but necessary changes to the existing tobacco regulations. The changes will apply to retailers who sell nicotine vapour products from moveable structures rather than from shops; “moveable structures” include pop-up shops and vans. The details include the registration number, description and size of vehicles and the locations where the retailers will operate. They are designed to restrict sale to under-18s of nicotine vapour products from moveable premises.
Registration of such businesses will help trading standards officers to enforce the law, and monitoring and controlling sale of the products will deliver positive public health benefits. NVPs are relatively recent technology and not enough is known about the possible health impacts caused by their long-term use. Until such evidence is available, the Scottish Government has adopted an open but precautionary approach. We aim to limit exposure of children and adult non-smokers to NVPs while allowing the products to be made available to adults who smoke and who wish to use them as an alternative to tobacco products. The measures in the SSI will help us to achieve that aim.
Thank you, minister. Are there any questions?
Good morning, minister. I welcome the regulations. Given that most such products are sold in shops that are popping up everywhere—a number are also sold in normal tobacco shops—what steps are being taken to address that? Someone can buy an empty shop one week and open it as a vaping shop the next. What steps are being taken to ensure that the regulations will be implemented in all premises?
That is part of the precautionary approach that we are taking. If the SSI is approved today, it will come into force on 1 April and will place on pop-up shops and moveable premises the onus to become registered. A pop-up shop or a van, for example, will have to be registered, and the register will lie with the Scottish Government. We expect that that will help us to oversee sale of NVPs in Scotland, and we anticipate its bringing health benefits in line with those that we achieved through the approach that we took to tobacco sales.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
11:45
I have a wider question which comes more from the perspective of my constituents who are trying to quit smoking and who are using NVPs as transition products. What is the Government’s view on NVPs as transition products for people who are trying to quit smoking and who are reducing their nicotine intake?
We take a precautionary approach because, as I have said, we understand that people use the products as a means to stop smoking. However, the clinical evidence in that regard is limited. Yes—the products are important for that purpose, but the instrument is about making sure that NVPs are regulated, that we stop young people taking up vaping, and that we restrict non-smoking adults’ exposure to vapour.
We want to balance that precautionary approach with the understanding that people use the products to come off smoking and that smoking is worse than using a vapour product.
What work is being done to look into the evidence? I know that the tobacco industry has not been able to undertake—or to fund—that research. Is the Scottish Government or are universities in Scotland undertaking that research?
We continue to keep a watching brief. Morris Fraser might like to outline some of that more explicitly.
Yes. Scotland is a world leader in research into the effects and potential effects of electronic cigarettes and nicotine vapour products more generally. We are lucky to have such well-respected experts—in particular, organisations such as Ash Scotland and, probably more important, Cancer Research UK, who keep us informed, pull together evidence from all over the world for us and continually look for new evidence of impacts on health. We are well connected with those people; in fact, the minister has a subgroup of experts who evaluate research. We have that group meet at least twice a year to keep us up to date.
A lot of people are interested in how that research develops. There are certainly questions about the products—I am sure that a number of members’ constituents have been in touch about them.
We move to agenda item 5, which is the formal debate on the affirmative SSI on which we have just taken evidence. Members should not put questions to the minister during the formal debate and officials may not speak in the debate.
Motion moved,
That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the Sale of Tobacco (Registration of Moveable Structures and Fixed Penalty Notices) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Aileen Campbell]
As no members wish to contribute, I invite the minister to sum up, if she wishes to.
I simply welcome the committee’s interest in the topic. I will continue to keep you abreast of any developing research as it comes to light.
Motion agreed to.
I suspend the meeting for a changeover of witnesses.
11:47 Meeting suspended.11:48 On resuming—
National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (Independent Clinic) Amendment Order 2017 [draft]
Agenda item 6 is another affirmative instrument—the draft National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (Independent Clinic) Amendment Order 2017.
I welcome Aileen Campbell, the Minister for Public Health and Sport and, from the Scottish Government, Dr Sara Davies, who is a public health consultant, and Ailsa Garland, who is a principal legal officer.
I invite the minister to make an opening statement.
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to give evidence on the instrument, which will exempt clinics that are provided by health boards, special health boards and the Common Services Agency from the definition of “independent” clinic in the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978.
The committee will be aware that independent clinics were brought within the regulation of Healthcare Improvement Scotland through a series of Scottish statutory instruments that came into force on 1 April last year. At that time, the definition of independent clinic in the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 was amended and a number of exceptions to the definition were set out. The instrument that is before the committee will simply add to those exceptions to cover clinics that are provided by health boards, special health boards and the Common Services Agency, which is the legal name of NSS Scotland. That means that those clinics will not be required to be registered with Health Improvement Scotland.
Clinics that are covered by the SSI include blood donation clinics that are not sited in a hospital, or NHS 24 clinics that are, similarly, not sited in a hospital and which would be operated by health professional groups that are regulated by the legislation.
I highlight to the committee that the intention of the SSI is simply to ensure that the NHS services are clearly removed from the legislation. I am happy to take any questions that the committee may have.
There are no questions, so we move to agenda item 7, which is the formal debate on the affirmative SSI on which we have just taken evidence. Members should not put questions to the minister during the formal debate and officials may not speak in the debate.
Motion moved,
That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (Independent Clinic) Amendment Order 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Aileen Campbell]
Motion agreed to.
I suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.
11:50 Meeting suspended.11:52 On resuming—
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