Chamber and committees

Are we content to proceed with the suggestions that have been made?

Members indicated agreement.

I thank all of you very much.

The next meeting of the committee will be on Wednesday 14 June 2023, when we will take evidence from the Lord Advocate among others.

That concludes the public part of this morning’s meeting. We will now move into private session.

Item 3 is consideration of new petitions. For those who might be joining us for the first time this morning to see the progress of a petition, I want to make clear, as I usually do, that, ahead of our consideration, we invite the Scottish Government to comment and the Parliament’s independent research body, SPICe, to look at the petition. That helps to inform the committee so that we can discuss matters in a meaningful way.

The first new petition, PE2012, which was lodged by Angela Hamilton, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to remove the need for follicle-stimulating hormone blood tests in women aged 40 to 45 who are experiencing menopause symptoms before hormone replacement therapy can be prescribed to relieve their symptoms and replenish hormone levels. Angela tells us that she is aware of many women aged 40 to 45 who have all the symptoms of perimenopause, but, because their blood tests do not confirm that, they are dismissed by doctors and left to endure debilitating symptoms that affect all aspects of their lives.

In responding to the petition, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health highlights National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance that HRT can be offered without the need for a blood test when other symptoms are present but that a blood test may be required to rule out other illnesses. The minister also mentions that NHS Education for Scotland has been commissioned to create a bespoke training package focused on menopause, including perimenopause and menstrual health, and that there is now a specialist menopause service in every mainland national health service health board, with a buddy system in place for island health boards.

Angela has provided a submission that shares the experiences of women with perimenopause symptoms who have sought help from their general practitioners and been left feeling dismissed and let down. Colleagues will remember that that is a common theme in petitions. She also raises concerns about NICE guidelines not being consistently followed by local health boards and a specific concern about the prescription of antidepressants for women with menopause symptoms.

This is a different area of women’s healthcare. Unfortunately, there are similarities in the patient experience. There is an appeal to the committee to see what more we might be able to do about that. I suggest that we keep the petition open in the first instance and write to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to seek its view on the action called for. Are there any other suggestions?

I realise that there is not much that can excite the blood this late on a summer afternoon, but I hope that a change to the members’ expenses scheme will be just the ticket.

I rise to move the motion on behalf of the corporate body. Members will be aware that they are able to transfer up to £5,000 from their engagement provision to their office cost provision or from their office cost provision to their engagement provision. However, although the office cost provision and the engagement provision have risen by the appropriate inflation index, the amount that can be transferred has not. As a consequence, the real value of the sum that can be transferred has been declining each year.

Members have brought the matter to the attention of the corporate body. It seems a reasonable request that that index should also be uprated by inflation. The consequence of passing the motion today will be that the sum that can be transferred in the current year, on which some members rely, will increase from £5,000 to £6,060, and by an inflationary sum in subsequent years.

It is revenue neutral to Parliament and all within the umbrella of the overall provision that members have, but it introduces a degree of flexibility that I hope that members will welcome and support.

I move,

That the Parliament, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 81(2), 81(5)(b) and 83(5) of the Scotland Act 1998, determines that the Reimbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme, which was agreed to by resolution of the Parliament on 2 March 2021, be amended to—

(a) insert, in paragraph 1.2.4, after “considers appropriate.” and before “Such increases”—

“Any such uprating shall also be applied to the limit on the amount by which Members may vary their office cost and engagement provisions up or down subject to the overall agreed combined annual limit, as set out in paragraph 4.3.1 and 5.1.3.”

(b) insert, in the second sentence of paragraph 4.3.1 after “financial year,” and before “subject to”—

“or by such sum as determined following the uprating of the variation limit applied under paragraph 1.2.4,”

(c) insert, in the second sentence of paragraph 5.1.3 after “financial year,” and before “subject to”—

“or by such sum as determined following the uprating of the variation limit applied under paragraph 1.2.4,”

I wonder whether Mr Greer will agree with me on this. Alexander Stewart and I, on behalf of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, have just come from Glasgow, where we met three 12-year-old girls who were victims of violence by other girls. Two were left unconscious in pools of blood and gore. In each case—I have not heard this reflected in the debate—the incidents were filmed by friends of the perpetrator. The police and the school accept the prima facie evidence, but say that nothing can be done. Despite the evidence, the violence continues. Is that not a problem that we have to get to grips with?

Will the minister also recognise the tremendous contribution that our national companies make in promoting Scotland? In this, its 60th anniversary season, Scottish Opera’s production of “Ainadamar” has been picked up by the Metropolitan Opera in New York and its production of Puccini’s “Il Trittico” is to be picked up by a number of opera houses across the rest of Europe and the world. Those performances enhance Scotland’s reputation as a centre of international culture.

This is really quite an old-fashioned members’ business debate in that it is entirely unique to my constituency and the immediate surrounding area. I know that there is a fashion these days to bring national issues into members’ business debates, but this one is very local and is just about my constituency. I thought that I had better get in there quick, because if Boundaries Scotland has its way, I will no longer have a constituency. [Laughter.]

I was reminded a few weeks ago, on the Monday holiday after the coronation, which was a day about giving service, that the King’s mother’s coronation all those years before had underpinning it the concept of duty. Duty is less fashionable these days, but these two things—duty and service—are incredibly well represented in East Renfrewshire Good Causes and in the person of Russell Macmillan, who is in the public gallery this afternoon, along with his wife Yvonne.

Russell set up the charity in 2007, the same year in which I was elected, and he has run the charity successfully in the 16 years since. Why did he do that? As he lay in bed in hospital after surgery that had cured his type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes and kidney failure, he decided that he would do something in return for the life that had been given to him. He does so as a man who is registered blind.

Russell has characterised East Renfrewshire Good Causes by saying that the charity

“will start where the state stops.”

In the 16 years since he set it up, he has single-handedly raised £1.7 million for charitable causes. [Applause.] That has assisted the lives of 6,000 people by delivering “acts of kindness”—as Russell puts it—in memory of the organ donor who saved his life.

East Renfrewshire Good Causes provides real practical improvements for people in an almost limitless way, and supports individuals in hard times with essential tasks. Although the charity began in East Renfrewshire, it is now helping in Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and East Ayrshire. The charity started out in August 2007 with the provision of a new wheelchair for use in assisting carers with a disability to go out for some respite.

It has gone on to provide a very wide range of supports, including wet-floor shower adaptations for elderly individuals; tablet devices for people with learning disabilities at Cosgrove Care; assistance with travel costs for people who have been diagnosed with cancer so that they can travel to hospital for treatment, and with transport costs to enable vulnerable young people to get to and from school or nursery; baby monitoring equipment for infants with complex medical needs; play spaces and equipment for young people with additional support needs; food and toiletries for people who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation; grants to support families who are experiencing financial difficulty in providing clothing for their children; and mobility equipment, such as scooters, to allow people who are living with a disability or elderly individuals to maintain their independence.

What is remarkable is that Russell, in the way that he operates the charity, is able to respond very quickly to emerging circumstances, and he can complete essential tasks in a short space of time. The key thing that Russell has done is not to second-guess where a need exists but to seek referrals from all those who are professionally qualified to establish where that need exists and then to direct the funding speedily and directly to them.

That has a positive effect in many other ways. Russell’s assistance with practical home improvements enables those people who are—to use the current term—bed blocked in hospital to get out relatively sooner, through instructing local contractors to undertake vital remedial works to properties, which allows the person to get home.

Russell has also worked in concert with others, such as my colleague Jim McLean, the councillor for Newton Mearns South and Eaglesham, who has himself raised more than £1 million for his local community in his lifetime and who was one of those who worked with Russell to secure a £100,000 contribution from the National Lottery, which is helping with the raising of funds just now as well.

Russell is prepared to do anything, anywhere. He appeared on “Songs of Praise” last year, explaining how his strong Christian faith has guided him in the work that he does. In 2011, he appeared in a short-lived ITV game show hosted by Gethin Jones, where he won £121,000 for his charity.

He has also secured partnerships with local developers. Cala Homes and Wimpey, which are developing a major new facility in Eastwood, in Maidenhill, are working with him, making a roof donation of £50 to Russell’s charity for every property that is built, which has contributed a further £17,100. He has also worked with technology companies to ensure that they are able to deliver and assist people.

What is interesting is that Russell says that the problem is not in the raising of funds but in being able to get the funds to people. I say to the minister that, in that respect, Russell has an ambition and a request, which is for us, as politicians, to make the pathway between those people who are able to undertake assessments and the referrals to him much easier.

Bizarrely, some of those organisations and professional services feel that, in making a referral to Russell’s charity, there is implicit criticism of them for not being able to provide the funding for the service that he is able to provide, as if that is somehow a failing on their part. That is not his concern. He is concerned simply that, with the funds that he has, he is able to offer assistance quickly and directly to the people who matter.

There will be examples of what Russell does elsewhere. I see in the chamber Paul O’Kane and Tom Arthur, who both represent East Renfrewshire, and there is Bob Doris, whose constituency is across in Glasgow. Others will be benefiting from Russell’s fantastic efforts in Eastwood, but I hope that there are people elsewhere who are similarly minded and motivated. It is absolutely extraordinary what such an individual can do, coming from circumstances in which many of us would have thought only of ourselves and our immediate situation: how we were going to cope, whether life would be the same and whether it was worth it. Instead, Russell sat there at that moment and thought, “I’m going to turn the life I’ve been given back to the advantage of others.”

I commend and applaud that, and I believe that it is exactly the sort of public-spirited initiative that we, as politicians, should applaud and support.

I want to go back over some of that territory. You have spoken about the fact that it is felt that it is a “non-starter” to consider retraining pathologists and that the desire for that does not exist among that community. You have alluded to the shortage of radiologists. To be perfectly candid, it is not a public secret that Scotland is acutely short of radiologists. For example, the 62-day cancer standard is not being met by any of Scotland’s health boards. The waiting time for all the key diagnostic tests, including radiology, is not being met anywhere in Scotland. The statistics from December 2022 show that just 45.8 per cent of patients waited less than six weeks for their diagnostic test.

This is not necessarily a question that you can answer, but I wonder whether similar pressures were advanced in the arguments that took place when your service was set up. The Government might say in response to the petition, or to any initiative that we might subsequently seek to promote, that faced with an acute shortage of radiologists, its first priority should be the living and that any such proposal would divert and potentially further undermine our ability to satisfy or meet currents needs, or even to close the gap, as regards current provision. Was a similar sentiment advanced when you set up your service?

We do, in fact. I was getting ahead of myself by saying that I would bring in my colleague Alexander Stewart, because my colleague Fergus Ewing, who spoke a moment ago, has some questions directly on the finance side.

That is very helpful. Thank you very much. I bring in my colleague Alexander Stewart, who will ask some questions about tissue samples.