Chamber and committees

Do you accept that it can be quite a prospect for a crofter or a common grazings committee with a piece of land that has peat of wildly varying depths to identify how much of the land is relevant?

So, NatureScot will not have to work on some kind of precautionary principle whereby, if people do not know how much peat there is, it will assume the worst.

Section 16AA licences or wildlife trap licences can be suspended or revoked, and we have heard evidence from various stakeholders about whether there is a greater risk in relation to grouse moors. Will you say a bit more about section 16AA licences, why the provisions have been drawn in the way that they have been drawn, and whether they have been framed to cover issues other than raptor persecution?

Will you elaborate on the point about use and how the police will deal with that? I might be recalling this wrongly, but I think that someone indicated to the committee that a glue trap could, in many circumstances, be literally a plank of wood and a tin of glue. Are the proposals adequate to deal with home-made traps? Do they fall within the scope of what you intend?

So, it is about intent, is it?

My question is along similar lines. Can you say a bit more about the reasoning behind the distinction between peatland and non-peatland? I know that several of us on the committee have asked questions about that previously. Does the distinction relate to the release of carbon from a carbon sink directly, or is it about protecting and maintaining the type of vegetation that is found on pristine peatland? For the crofters and farmers who are having to identify, on mixed land, what is peatland and what is not, it would be helpful to have an idea of the rationale for the distinction.

Although it is not a great surprise to know that the Tories oppose plans to increase people’s rights—constitutional or otherwise—does the minister agree that there are neighbouring countries that we could look to? Although they are not analogous, the Åland Islands in Finland and the Faroe Islands in Denmark have their roles codified in constitutions, which is something to which we could look.

It is very welcome to see recorded crime at one of its lowest levels in 50 years. We know that, despite the increasing confidence that people have about reporting domestic abuse and sexual offences, those categories of crime remain seriously underreported. What can be done to increase the number of people who feel able to come forward with those complaints?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the publication, “Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23”. (S6O-02433)

I welcome this chance to highlight to Parliament the hugely important work that Epilepsy Scotland does as an organisation. Specifically, I want to mention the research and recommendations that it recently published on the impact of epilepsy on mental health.

Epilepsy is not an uncommon condition, and yet it continues to be very commonly misunderstood, and those misunderstandings often have a real impact on many people’s wellbeing. It is important, therefore, to make one distinction from the outset: epilepsy itself is not a mental illness. Much of the stigma that has, in the past, been applied to epilepsy has, in fact, been grounded in that very equation of those two things. It is a misunderstanding that, 150 years ago, stepped neatly into the space that was then just being vacated by earlier public assumptions that had placed epilepsy firmly in the supernatural realm.

Such widespread public ignorance of what epilepsy might be is complicated further by the fact that the condition takes so many widely varying forms. In any case, Epilepsy Scotland’s survey has shown us that 54 per cent of people with epilepsy feel that their condition has

“had a ‘significant impact’ on their mental health.”

One in three people reported depression and half described anxiety. A lack of awareness among the public is but one of the factors that lie behind those very concerning figures.

I will highlight just one of those issues, which is something that people in urban Scotland might recognise perhaps less than those in rural areas. Somebody losing their driving licence, which is a requirement for anyone whose symptoms are not controlled, means that their chances of finding employment, or at least employment that uses all their talents, decline very steeply. The survey found that 61 per cent of people described epilepsy as having had an impact on their employment.

Employment, or the lack of it, is, in turn, a factor that drives a sense of isolation. Again, the report bears that out, with 72 per cent of people reporting that epilepsy had affected their social life. One case study, Nicola in Orkney, had this to say:

“I really struggled with losing my driver’s licence. I lost all my independence and really had to rely on other people to take me places because we weren’t really on a bus route. So it was a case of making sure I had a lift from”

my

“partner ... or my mum or dad. They were really good ... but ... I hated asking all the time.”

I developed epilepsy when I was 17. I hesitate to claim that epilepsy had any direct effect on my own mental health—I was possibly not even fully aware of the issue, because I do not recall mental health even being a widely understood concept in those days. However, it was probably because I was very fortunate. At the worst point of my condition, I generally had only about eight or nine seizures a year—far fewer than many other people—and, after a process of medical guesswork, medication eventually bought my symptoms completely under control after about 15 years.

I am not quite certain that, when I was young, I treated my condition with the respect that it deserved, which was probably due to the pretty limited information that was then available to me about it and the only very occasional opportunities that I ever had to meet anyone who might remedy my ignorance.

My own seizures included one that happened when I was working on a ship, while another seizure conveniently gave me just enough warning for me to jump off my bike. One happened in a pub, before I had even had time to order a pint. Another happened doing a job interview, in which—I am pleased to say—I gained employment. One took place in a student political meeting, in which, I understand, debate raged during the several minutes of my unconsciousness as to whether or not someone should raise my hand to vote for me, there being quite a close vote at the time. One seizure occurred during some very misjudged hitchhiking through a war zone and resulted in my coming to in a Croatian military hospital, with no ill effects.

I am pleased to say that, since the days of my youth, the sources of information and support for people with epilepsy in Scotland have increased dramatically, in no small measure due to the work of Epilepsy Scotland, representatives and members of which are in the public gallery, as well as through the work of Scotland’s national epilepsy centre.

Epilepsy Scotland has, for instance, a helpline service that includes check-in calls. Officers with counselling qualifications will call someone once a week for 10 weeks to let them talk about their worries and any issues related to their epilepsy. However, there remains a huge amount still to be done, as Epilepsy Scotland’s report has now shown us.

The report concludes with some important recommendations, and I hope that the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health may be able to reflect on some of them in summing up, in the light of the Government’s commitment to step up support for mental health services more widely.

Among those recommendations are the need to continue to grow

“the number of mental health-trained professionals (including counsellors) available to people ... with epilepsy and to increase the level of understanding of epilepsy amongst those working in mental health services ... To increase the number of in-person support groups for people living with epilepsy and their families ... For”

all agencies

“to work collaboratively to create a strategy to improve the mental health of people living with epilepsy ... to increase public awareness of epilepsy to the wider public for improved societal understanding”

and

“To ask health boards ... to consider steps for routine screening of mental health issues in epilepsy clinics with immediate referral to mental health support where required.”

I take the opportunity again to commend the work of Epilepsy Scotland—a sentiment that I know will be shared by the cross-party group on epilepsy in this Parliament. In particular, I draw attention to the work that Epilepsy Scotland has done in its report. The report highlights effectively how epilepsy is a condition with a very human impact on very real people.