Local Government and Communities Committee, 20 Jun 2007

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Official Report 132KB pdf

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Proposed Sunbeds Licensing (Scotland) Bill

We have in front of us a paper on Kenneth Macintosh's bill proposal. I am glad that he is able to attend the committee and I see that he is being assisted by Rodger Evans from the non-Executive bills unit. I invite Ken to say a few words.

I am pleased to have been invited to the committee's first meeting to put the proposed sunbeds licensing (Scotland) bill on the agenda. I thank you for your understanding over the fact that I am trying to join my colleagues on the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee this morning, although some of them have been held up in traffic on the M8.

For those who do not know about it, the bill is an attempt to tackle the rising incidence of skin cancer in Scotland. I know that we are not due to discuss policy but, to put it simply, given that we have laws to protect children from alcohol and tobacco, we should also protect them from the risk of developing skin cancer.

The proposed bill was consulted on recently—what the committee has to decide this morning is whether there should be further consultation. I hope that the committee will agree with my statement of reasons why no further consultation is required on the bill. It went out for consultation last summer and received more than 50 responses, which is a good, healthy response for a member's bill. It also received good cross-party support from more than half the back-bench MSPs who were able to support such bills in the previous parliamentary session. I hope that the bill will receive similar support in this session.

I am happy to answer any questions on the proposed bill.

I remind members that we have not been asked to discuss the bill's principles. We have been asked to decide whether the bill should go out to further consultation.

Could Ken Macintosh give us information about the organisation and size of the sunbed industry? The bill seeks to regulate the industry. I would like to explore the extent of the consultation with operators because the bill could have considerable implications for commercial operations. Did the consultation draw responses from people who are involved in the industry? If so, what was the scale of those responses relative to the number of operators in the industry in Scotland?

There is an industry operators association that operates a voluntary code. It is difficult to get firm figures on its membership, but it would probably accept that it represents less than 25 per cent of sunbed operators in Scotland. It does not therefore cover all the independent operators in Scotland, which might be another reason for passing the bill. However, the organisation's response was favourable in that it recognised a need for regulation. I also received a couple of individual responses from sunbed operators, and I have spoken to some sunbed operators in the past. The committee should be aware that sunbed operations are, on the whole, very small; in some cases, they are quite marginal businesses. Although they would be directly affected by the bill, not many of them have taken the time to respond. I had a good response from local government, health bodies, the skin cancer community and some sunbed operators.

So an association that represents less than a quarter of the industry gave the collective view of its members. How many individual operators responded?

I think only three.

You said that there are one-man, or one-woman, operations. Are there also chains of salons, with a salon on every high street?

Yes. In fact, Consol Suncenter, which responded to the consultation and which is against my proposal, operates a chain of unstaffed salons. It has invested in computer technology, so it is obviously concerned about regulations that would make unstaffed salons illegal. There are a number of chains as well as small operators. The area is unregulated and there has been an explosion in the number of operators over the past 10 years. Previously, there were few operators, but there are now many, including a couple of chains that operate widely.

Would the proposed bill in effect close down Consol Suncenter's current operations?

I would hope not. I hope that the more reputable companies, such as Consol, would make suitable changes to their operations. If the Parliament agreed that sunbed operations should be staffed—as I hope happens—I hope that the operators would make the necessary changes to their operations.

So Consol has a chain of unmanned salons and there are other businesses that operate unstaffed salons.

Exactly.

How do the numbers work out? Consol responded to the consultation, so that is fine for its interests, but I am concerned about other small businesses out there that do not perhaps fully appreciate that your proposal—I will not go into its merits—might result in their businesses closing. I want to be satisfied that you have done as much as possible to make them aware of that and to allow them to comment.

Absolutely. To give you an example, about a year and a half ago I spoke to a group of about eight small operators who were brought together by West Lothian Council. It is fair to say that they were all happy at the idea of driving up standards in the industry, particularly the proposal to remove what they would describe as cowboy operators. There is a mixed response from the industry, but it is not entirely hostile to my proposal.

I have a couple of questions for clarification. The introduction in the clerk's briefing paper on Ken Macintosh's proposal refers to

"providers of cosmetic tanning facilities"

—salons, to most of us—"or equipment". I want clarification on the latter point. Are you saying that a company that sold tanning equipment, whether a small company or a large one such as Woolworths, would have to be licensed? In particular, would that mean that the staff, who are often part-time or temporary, would have to have a good knowledge of the equipment and be able to impart that to a customer before they could purchase a sunbed to use in their own home?

Just to make it clear, the proposed bill would not affect equipment in that sense. The bill is designed to introduce a form of regulation over sunbed parlours. There is such regulation in Europe. The European Community relatively recently issued a directive that will introduce extra legislation on the quality of tanning equipment, particularly the power output.

The effect of my proposed bill would be similar to what local authorities do when they issue licences for pubs, butchers and so on. In fact, the previous Executive passed a similar piece of subordinate legislation two years ago that introduced a licensing scheme for tattoo parlours. That was done for public health protection reasons, which is similar to the reasons behind my proposal.

The proposed bill would not affect the sale of equipment. It would not affect the use of sunbeds in the home. It is purely about regulating sunbed parlours. Perhaps members do not know that Scotland—particularly the west of Scotland—has become the sunbed capital of Europe over the past 10 years. That is not something of which we should be proud, because it is a dangerous development.

Is the committee content that no further consultation is needed?

Members indicated agreement.

Before we end the meeting, David McLetchie is required to make a declaration of interests.

As other members have done, I have lodged my entry in the register in draft and it is being finalised. The only professional bodies of which I am a member that might be pertinent to business that might come before the committee are the Law Society of Scotland and the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet. Beyond that, I do not think that I have any interests that may conflict with the work with which we are likely to deal.

Before you close the meeting, convener, could we find out whether the committee is minded to meet weekly? It would be good to make that a formal arrangement as opposed to taking a suck-it-and-see approach, as we will be fairly overwhelmed in the autumn if we do not meet weekly from the start.

We will put that on the agenda for next week.

I thank members for attending, participating and making my job easy.

Meeting closed at 10:36.