Chamber and committees

Does Carol Mochan share my view—I apologise for not bringing this up in my speech—that unions have done a huge amount of work to ensure that sun creams are used as part of the personal protective equipment in a lot of workplaces? Will she join me in thanking them for all the hard work that they have done in that regard?

I feel so honoured to be leading the debate this evening and I am proud to add my name to the calls for the United Kingdom Government to scrap VAT on sunscreen of factor 30 and above because those products are essential health items.

I thank colleagues from my party and the Labour Party who supported my motion. Their support has allowed the debate to go ahead.

I also welcome Amy Callaghan MP to the public gallery. Welcome to our—your—Parliament, quine, and mak yersel at hame.

Members have had the opportunity this afternoon to drop in to chat with Amy about the campaign and I thank colleagues from across the chamber who have taken the time to do so. I also whole-heartedly thank Amy for her campaigning on the issue, as she is herself a survivor of skin cancer. She has been a relentless advocate and her work is hugely welcome. If her bill passes, it will, without a doubt, save lives.

I also thank Melanoma Focus, Melanoma UK, Young Lives vs Cancer, the Teenage Cancer Trust and Skcin, who have backed Amy’s calls and continue to work for this vital change to VAT to be enacted as a matter of urgency.

Cases of melanoma have more than doubled since the early 1990s. Each year, 16,000 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed across the UK, resulting in 2,300 deaths. As many as 90 per cent of melanoma cases could be prevented by people staying safe in the sun, including using sunscreens of sun protection factor 30 and above with a four-star ultraviolet A protection rating. Wearing sunscreen is one of the simplest things that we can do to protect our skin against the risk of cancer, but one in eight of us do not wear it purely because of costs. Some people just cannot afford it.

Amy Callaghan’s campaign will stop families being priced out of buying sunscreen by making it more affordable for everyone. Amy’s bill is a simple and inexpensive one that could save countless lives.

Australia, the US and Canada have already removed VAT-style taxes from sunscreen and there is nothing preventing the UK from doing the same. Cases of melanoma skin cancer are increasing but most cases could be prevented if people were sun-smart, including wearing factor 30 and above sunscreen.

Public polling indicates that many folk find the cost of sunscreen just too high. With the current cost of living crisis deepening and summer fast approaching, the cost is likely to deter increasing numbers of folk from buying sunscreen. The major retailers Tesco and Asda have recognised cost as a prohibitive barrier to folk buying sunscreen. To its credit, Tesco reduced the price of its own-brand sunscreens by 20 per cent in 2021 to offset VAT. That move from Tesco followed a consumer poll in which 57 per cent of respondents said that the product was too expensive and 29 per cent claimed that they would wear sunscreen daily if it was a little bit cheaper. Asda called for VAT to be removed from sunscreen as part of a sun safety campaign in 2013. I join Amy Callaghan in calling on all supermarkets to take steps to make sunscreen as affordable as possible, in the absence of action from the UK Government.

Removing VAT from factor 30 and above sunscreens will make them more affordable for folk and it will send a powerful message to the UK Government about the importance of skin protection. With the impact of climate change meaning increasing temperatures in the UK, the measure is becoming increasingly urgent.

In the US, sunscreen products have been federally exempt from VAT-style taxes since 2012. In Australia, they are exempt provided that they are principally marketed for use as sunscreen and have an SPF rating of 15 or more. Melanoma Focus believes that the reduced VAT revenue from the policy would be offset by reduced melanoma skin cancer cases and reduced costs to the national health service.

The NHS England Getting It Right First Time review of dermatology highlights high and increasing skin cancer demand, with 200,000 surgical operations being carried out for suspected skin cancer every year and skin cancer rates doubling every 14 to 15 years. It highlights the need for additional workforce to meet current and future pressures and it recommends raising sun and skin awareness, which is needed to reduce pressure on dermatology services.

The message is simple: remove VAT from sunscreen, save lives and remove pressure from the NHS, which, as we know, is already under increased strain. It is, frankly, shocking that the UK Government cannot see that benefit and that it has not taken action to exempt sunscreen from VAT.

We know that VAT is a policy area that is reserved to the UK Government, but there is action that the Scottish Government can take. I ask the minister whether she could write to her counterpart in the UK Government to request that VAT be removed on sunscreen of factor 30-plus or that this Parliament be given the powers to do so in Scotland. I also ask her to consider working with retailers in Scotland to explore actions that could be taken to increase access to sunscreen. Those are simple steps, but they will save lives.

I again thank Amy Callaghan MP for all her work on the issue. I add my support to the campaign and call on the UK Government to take the action that is needed. I look forward to hearing the contributions from members.

As is to be expected, there is a range of opinions on the subject, but Scotland’s forests are an important carbon sink. The strategy of having the right tree in the right place is crucial, but does the First Minister share my view that expanding, restoring and improving forests and woodlands has a key role to play in achieving our net zero targets and restoring Scotland’s natural environment?

To ask the Scottish Government what recent engagement it has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding projects in Scotland that will contribute to meeting net zero targets. (S6O-02180)

Given that Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, told the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee last week that he

“would be overwhelmingly delighted should Acorn be successful through the track 2 process”

and that it was

“vital to Scotland’s 2045 net zero ambition ... that we get more carbon capture and storage on stream across the whole of the United Kingdom”,—[Official Report, Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, 27 April 2023; c 10.]

does the cabinet secretary agree that it is vital that the UK Government finally delivers long overdue carbon capture funding for the Scottish Acorn project?

I welcome the minister to his new role and to the committee meeting. Is remuneration or pay offered to board members?

I wish the minister every success in her new role. I think that this is the first opportunity that I have had to do so.

Social isolation and loneliness can impact everyone—people of any age at any time. It is therefore vital that the Scottish Government is taking action to properly tackle isolation and loneliness, which is, as has already been said, a public health issue.

In the first 100 days of this parliamentary session, the Scottish Government invested £1 million for immediate work by organisations that tackle loneliness, including for helplines, befriending and practical support. That funding will help to provide warm spaces, hot meals, group activities and fuel payments to folk who are most at risk of isolation, including older folk, young parents, carers and disabled people.

The funding is a lifeline for a range of organisations that are helping to keep people connected during this challenging time. Organisations that will receive grant funds include Age Scotland, which will continue to deliver its keeping the doors open grants programme, and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, which is recruiting Urdu and Punjabi-speaking volunteers to make kindness calls.

The work that is being funded includes that of Aberdeen Linking Lives, which operates across my constituency of Aberdeen Donside. Aberdeen Linking Lives is a befriending service aimed at adults who find themselves requiring some extra friendship and support, which is provided through weekly home visits or telephone calls. Linking Lives matches volunteers with folk who are referred to it, and all volunteers are carefully selected, trained and vetted. The service does really important work, and I look forward to visiting it in the near future. I would welcome it if the minister came along, too, but I realise that she will have an extremely busy diary.

The fund is just one of the many crucial steps that the Scottish Government is taking to tackle social isolation and loneliness as part of its “A Connected Scotland” strategy. Support for community groups to bring folk and communities together to tackle isolation was launched in March. The £3.8 million social isolation and loneliness fund is part of a new plan, “Recovering our Connections 2023 to 2026”, which aims to reduce inequality by bringing together folk from communities across Scotland. It will provide vital longer-term support for organisations and projects that are working on the ground to bring folk together and create connections in communities throughout the country. Everyone can play a part in tackling those challenges. The Scottish Government’s new plan reaffirms its commitment to building a connected Scotland for everyone, which I welcome.

We know that social isolation and loneliness can affect anyone, at any age or stage of life. During the pandemic, though, it became obvious that not everyone was affected equally. The pandemic meant that more folk across society suffered as a result of social isolation and loneliness, but it had a particular impact on disabled people, younger people and those who live alone. The biggest increase in loneliness during the pandemic was seen in older folk aged 60 or over, although the groups identified as experiencing the highest rates of loneliness were 16 to 24-year-olds, disabled people, those on lower incomes and those with a pre-existing mental health condition.

Regular polling data on the societal harms of the pandemic tells us that, during 2020 and 2021, around half the people surveyed reported feeling lonely at least some of the time in the previous week. Around one in seven people reported being lonely most, almost all or all of the time. That is supported by the findings of the Scottish household survey 2020, published in January 2022, which found that 35 per cent of adults reported feeling lonely at least some of the time in the previous week, while 44 per cent rarely or never met others socially. It is clear that the pandemic exacerbated isolation. Again, that highlights why the work that the Scottish Government is doing is so important.

Although the key levers that are required to tackle the root causes of poverty and the associated poor mental health are still held by the UK Government, the Scottish Government is doing everything that it can, with its limited powers, to support people right now. As Carol Mochan said, there is a clear link between isolation and poverty. That is why I am pleased that the Scottish child payment has been further expanded to eligible six to 15-year-olds and increased in value to £25 per child per week. Around 387,000 bairns are now forecast to be eligible in 2023-24. Based on modelling from March 2022, it is estimated that the payment will lift 50,000 bairns out of poverty and reduce relative child poverty by 5 percentage points in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government is offering free school lunches during term time to all pupils in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools. As part of the most generous free school meal offer in the UK, that is saving families an average of £400 per child per year. Scotland already has the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK, but it is only with independence that we can really ensure that that work reaches its full potential.

I welcome the work that the Scottish Government is doing, and I again take the opportunity to thank all the organisations that are working to tackle isolation across Donside and across Scotland.

You said that, in order for the UK to meet its net zero target by 2050, we need to meet our target in Scotland by 2045. The committee has heard that carbon capture and storage is vital for enabling us to—I think that you know what is coming, because you have your arms crossed.

What is the UK Government doing to develop a regulatory regime for hydrogen production and storage? Do you have a timescale for that?

May I push you a bit on that?