Chamber and committees

Thanks, convener, and good morning, panel.

Given the changing demographics that we are seeing, how can we continue to move more services towards the community—not just into primary care but into some of our smaller hospitals in remote and rural locations? They are often much closer to communities than, for example, Raigmore is to Sutherland.

That is great. Thanks, convener.

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to its wider approach to tackling domestic abuse, including its work to develop Scotland’s first national multi-agency domestic homicide review model. (S6O-02723)

My party has welcomed the introduction of a new pilot scheme to support victims of domestic abuse to escape from abusive situations. Given that nearly a quarter of homelessness presentations among women in Scotland were due to abuse, when will the scheme commence in South Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire, and how can the fund really make a difference to gender-based inequality?

I thank Willie Coffey for securing this debate, and for sharing his personal story, and I pay tribute to Clare Adamson for her work.

I also thank the organisations that are involved in the support of those with pancreatic cancer, including Pancreatic Cancer UK, which has provided tireless and invaluable support to those with cancer and is the UK’s leading funding specialist into pancreatic cancer research. It is driving innovative research to find breakthroughs that will change how we understand, diagnose and treat pancreatic cancer. As Beatrice Wishart has said, Pancreatic Cancer Action also does great work in raising awareness of symptoms and the stories of those with direct experience of pancreatic cancer.

Although the survival rates have improved enormously for most cancers, that is sadly not the case for pancreatic cancer. Currently, more than half of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within three months. Early detection and awareness of symptoms are essential in identifying most cancers early, but with pancreatic cancer, that is difficult due to the generally vague symptoms that it presents. Symptoms of mild back pain, indigestion, tummy pain and nausea symptoms that sound like stomach upset are often dismissed.

When I met a constituent at a parliamentary reception earlier this session, I was given a card with a short version of their family’s story. It has stayed on the pin board in my office ever since. I want to share that card—and their words—today, because it so clearly demonstrates how difficult and devastating this cancer can be. It says:

“Until 2013, we knew nothing about pancreatic cancer. In December 2012, our daughter, who turned 25 that month, had extreme vomiting which was initially thought to be norovirus. Due to her getting no better and losing weight rapidly, she saw a GP on the 7th of January 2013. Due to extremely high bilirubin levels, she was immediately admitted to hospital where she had a number of tests carried out.

On 18 January 2013, our world fell apart when our daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable pancreatic cancer. She had a four-year-old daughter at the time, and they both moved in with us to enable us to care for our daughter and granddaughter. She deteriorated rapidly, and on 2 June 2013 she passed away, leaving a heartbroken family. No parents, child, brother and grandparents should have to go through this."

As we have heard from many others in the debate, early detection saves lives. Currently, three in five people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and the vague symptoms mean that it is difficult for GPs to identify those who need urgent referral for further investigation. We need new tools to help GPs to identify pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage. As has been mentioned, technology such as the breath test, which is being developed in tandem by Pancreatic Cancer UK and Imperial College London, looks very promising. Such innovations will be essential in addressing the inequalities that are currently experienced in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

The new Scottish diagnostic pathway improvement project is an initiative that has been set up to improve care and speed up the diagnosis time for pancreatic and hepatocellular carcinoma. The pathway is demonstrating positive results, with the time that it takes for scan results to come back to the referring clinician being reduced to just two days from an average of around eight. That allows treatment and support to start more quickly and for support to be put in place to prevent people from quickly deteriorating.

Due to the current late diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, we need to do everything that we can to improve survivability for those who develop the disease. Beyond that, we need to ensure that those whose cancer is not survivable have all the support that they require. The early experience that I shared of a constituent of mine shows that this is more than just a health issue; we need to ensure that when people have very little time left, they can get access to the support that they need to make the most of the time that they have left with their families, and that their families have the support that they need after their loved ones have passed away.

Work to ensure that the public know the symptoms, that those who suspect that they have pancreatic cancer get easy and quick testing and that those who are diagnosed get the quick treatment that they require needs to be prioritised to ensure that, as Willie Coffey has said, we save time and save lives.

I want to build on what we have just heard from Professor Banks. I have hosted a couple of round-table discussions on vaping, at which parents and professionals have raised concerns about flavours, price promotions and the fact that vapes are being marketed to children, and how those issues interlink in the context of marketing to children.

From a very quick look at a vape-selling website—to access which, incidentally, it takes only one click on a button to say, “Yes, I’m 18”—I found that the flavours available include Rainbow, Orange Gummy Bear, Grape Gummy Bear and Prime; any parent who is watching will know how popular that soft drink is with children and young people. Other flavours include Vimto Crush, which, of course, is a brand of juice that is often given to children, and Supermix, which shares its name with the Haribo sweets. There are even Christmas flavour special editions popping up. There are also multibuy and cashback offers on disposable vapes.

To what extent does the panel believe that a ban on disposable vapes would make a difference to children and young people and stop some of that marketing?

The pervasiveness of marketing and product placement has also been raised. The Advertising Standards Authority website says that

“ads for nicotine-containing e-cigarettes that are not licensed as medicines ... are prohibited”

on

“On-demand television”

as well as newspapers and magazines, the internet and advertising by email and text message. In reality, however, young people are exposed through product placement on TV shows and seeing people use vapes in YouTube videos, on Instagram and in Twitch streams. On top of that, I am sure that we have all seen shops with windows full of vapes, and signs on doors advertising that vapes are back in stock. Back in the day, they would have been advertising that Pokémon cards were back in stock—which definitely shows my age.

What it means is repeated exposure for young people every day as they walk around their local environment. Could more be done to limit that exposure, and do social media companies in particular need to take action to make sure either that there is a content warning on videos that nicotine products are being used or that it becomes against community guidelines to use them on Twitch streams or in YouTube videos?

I, like the First Minister, strongly support our emergency legislation to cap rents and reduce evictions, which was led by Patrick Harvie last year.

I welcome last week’s Court of Session decision to reject a challenge to that legislation. It was said that the challenge fell

“far short of what is required in order ... to demonstrate that the Act disproportionately interferes with the”

property

“rights of landlords.”

With that court decision in mind, does the First Minister agree that it is time for landlord bodies to accept the overwhelming need for action to control high rents and improve tenants’ rights, and that they should work constructively with the Government on the housing bill when it is introduced in this parliamentary year?

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is supporting renters who are struggling with the cost of living. (S6F-02520)

On the back of the Deputy First Minister’s recent visit to Marshill farm, in my region, to highlight Scottish Government funding for the Scottish organic dairy goals 2023 project, how can the project identify meaningful measurements of natural capital in carbon and address issues relating to organic protein in central Scotland?