Chamber and committees

How can I follow the powerful speeches by Oliver Mundell and Emma Harper? I will try.

I am pleased to participate in this members’ business debate, brought to the chamber by my colleague Emma Harper, highlighting eating disorder awareness week. I thank her for bringing this important subject for debate. Like her, I am pleased to welcome the guests in the gallery from Beat. I also take the opportunity to recognise the work that former MSP Dennis Robertson did in initiating the debates on eating disorders, which have been taking place for more than 10 years, and in raising awareness.

Eating disorders are incredibly challenging mental illnesses that affect one person in 50. They include but are not limited to binge eating disorder, bulimia and anorexia. People with eating disorders typically develop severe physical health problems and their quality of life can be severely impacted by those illnesses. Therefore, it is welcome that the Scottish Government is committed to carrying out a national review of eating disorder services to improve the support for people who live with an eating disorder. Recovery is possible with access to the right treatment and support. We politicians must do all that we can to raise awareness of eating disorders to ensure that people do not suffer in silence but are aware of the options that are available to them.

I note that the national review will provide a more complete picture of the current system of support for people with eating disorders and make recommendations about how services and the wider support system should be constructed to ensure that people have access to the right treatments so that support can be provided to all those who are affected by an eating disorder, whether individuals or their wider support network and families.

This year’s theme for eating disorder awareness week is medical training. An average medical student receives less than two hours’ training on eating disorders throughout their degree, with a fifth of medical schools offering no training on the subject. That lack of training for students must be addressed, and I am pleased to see that Beat and other eating disorder charities are engaging with universities to ensure that our medical professionals receive adequate training and have an understanding of the difficulties that face those with eating disorders. However, that training should not just be rolled out to medical students. All healthcare and social service professionals should have an awareness of eating disorders, know how to identify someone affected and know where to signpost them should they wish to receive treatment.

Absolutely. Everybody should be made aware of the trigger signs and have the information at hand about where to get support so that they can pass it on.

In addition to the work that Beat undertakes to raise awareness of eating disorders, I have been made aware of an excellent support group in my area, North East Eating Disorders Support (Scotland), which is a self-help group that welcomes all adults who are affected by an eating disorder whether as a sufferer, partner, relative or friend. I believe that it continues to meet on the first Monday of every month at 7:30 pm. I will give the group a wee plug. It allows people who are suffering with an eating disorder to interact with others who are in a similar situation, share experiences in a safe and confidential setting and offer support to each other while looking towards recovery.

It is essential that anyone who is, or who believes that they might be, suffering from an eating disorder seeks help and support as soon as possible. I make that absolutely clear. Support is available and I encourage folk to reach out, take that help and begin the journey to recovery.

Transport is the largest source of climate change emissions, of which car use contributes the largest amount. In our ambition to reach net zero, we must reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030, promote active travel and improve our public transport networks.

The flexibility of the workplace parking levy is one of the benefits of the legislation. Local authorities are best placed to know what works for them and to create a scheme that benefits their area.

I will give way, finally.

The SNP group in Aberdeen has already said that it will not introduce the car parking levy. That is local democracy. My colleague Douglas Lumsden is laughing—this from a man who has a private car parking space in the middle of Aberdeen city centre because he is a councillor while his own council staff have to pay car parking charges. I will not take lectures from the Conservatives.

It is right that the Scottish Government has introduced a blanket exemption for blue badge holders, healthcare workers at national health service premises and parking places at hospices. However, local authorities will be able to use their local knowledge and provide additional exemptions where those are required to fit the local circumstances by listening to the requirements of the area through consultation and community empowerment. Nottingham City Council, the only local authority in England to have introduced a workplace parking levy, has created a system that works for its area.

I am pleased that any revenue that is raised by the workplace parking levy will be reinvested in local transport strategies and the promotion of more affordable, greener transport choices.

I will finish off, Presiding Officer. I am sorry that I will probably be a little bit over time, if you do not mind.

In his motion, Mr Simpson criticises the Scottish Government for its investment in electric vehicle infrastructure at a time when commitments have been made to provide up to £60 million to local authorities over the next four years. That funding has the potential to double the size of the public charging network in Scotland. The workplace parking levy is about funding alternative transport options.

With all that in mind, I will support the minister’s amendment at decision time.

Empowering local authorities to take ownership of the workplace parking levy is key to ensuring that the legislation fits each local circumstance.

Yesterday, I said that what fits in Aberdeen might not fit in Edinburgh. That is true even between areas in Aberdeen: what suits Aberdeen Donside might not suit Aberdeen Central or Aberdeen South. Local authorities need to consult our citizens and businesses to ensure that the legislation meets the needs of their workers, and they need to undertake the necessary impact assessments and decide whether a scheme fits with their local objectives.

Graham Simpson rose—

I would like to get started, if the member does not mind.

Time and time again, I hear from my Tory and Labour administration colleagues in Aberdeen City Council, where I serve as a councillor, that power is centralised to Holyrood and that we need more powers coming to local authorities, because they think that they know what is best for the city of Aberdeen. We now see those powers being given, along with the flexibility to tailor the levy to local circumstances, but their Holyrood party colleagues are putting more emphasis on the Government creating further exemptions and strings on the legislation and, in effect, taking away that power.

I think it is up to local authorities to make that decision. I am still a serving councillor—I will be until May—so I am going to say that. You mentioned the police, but in my patch—in my ward, as well as my constituency—we have a police station in Mastrick that does not have a parking place. The police park in the area around the police station. People say that the police, teachers or whoever would be pushed out, but that is not necessarily the case.

It should be down to local authorities to make those decisions. They should be empowered to decide what is appropriate for their areas and what the impact would be. The minister said in her answer to a question that Nottingham has exempted places with 10 parking spaces or fewer. Our local authorities would have the ability to choose that approach, which would protect small businesses. Our councillors are very good at listening to their local communities. They are at the coalface of politics and they are the ones who hear when things are right and when things are being done wrongly. I have every faith in them being able to make those decisions.

I will not be a serving councillor by the time the regulations come in, but I think that they are the right thing to do.

Are you asking me whether I would like the minister to make that decision?