Chamber and committees

I thank my colleague Clare Adamson for again raising awareness of pancreatic cancer. I have tried to participate in the debate on the subject each year in which I have been a member of the Parliament and in memory of my mother, who died from the disease in 1985—some 40 years ago—at the age of only 52. Although it remains one of the most stubborn cancers, progress is being made, with the emphasis on early detection of the vague symptoms that it presents. This will be the last time that I make such a contribution, but I will look in next year to hear the debate and to continue my support for the work that is being done to battle the cancer.

I am grateful to Pancreatic Cancer UK for its briefing. Among the stats and information that it provided, one thing stood out for me—that 80 per cent of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed too late. Some members have mentioned that. I hope that that frightening statistic will alert the public to take seriously some of the vague symptoms that can appear. Early detection and diagnosis hold the key to more treatment options and lead to better survival rates.

Clare Adamson and other members have described those vague symptoms, and we need to repeat them—it is always worth doing that. Unexplained weight loss, indigestion, stomach and back pain, new-onset diabetes and even yellowing of the skin have already been mentioned by members, but we have to get that message through to the public. Folk should visit their GP to begin the process of being checked out if they experience those symptoms. Interestingly, around one in five people over the age of 60—as I am—will already have a pancreatic cyst, but only a small percentage of those will develop into pancreatic cancer.

I will take a brief look at some of the research that is going on. At the University of Glasgow, there is work being done to identify the features of higher-risk cysts in order to help doctors make the important treatment decisions. At the University of Liverpool, a test has been developed to identify type 3c diabetes, which may be an early indicator and an early warning sign. As Clare Adamson mentioned, Imperial College London is developing a breath test—a world first—that GPs could perform directly, after which they could make further referrals if need be. At the University of Essex, a new blood test is being developed that can help with early detection. Those are just a few examples of the fantastic work that is going on, which I hope will make a real difference to survival rates from the cancer.

We hear that family inheritance also plays a part. One in 10 cases are connected with inheritance. Even more work is being done on that, through the family history checker. I wish that some of that work had been funded 40 years ago.

I turn to some asks of the Government—basically, that it offers more support for diagnostic capacity across Scotland. If we are alerting the public to issues and conditions that may be a cause for concern, we need to provide people with easy, localised access to get the help that they might need. We need a centralised service to co-ordinate the family inheritance effort and to identify high-risk individuals across multiple cancer types.

Perhaps, in this day and age, we also need a wee bit more help from artificial intelligence, with the analytics and data analysis that are making great strides in medical science elsewhere. I know that the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow are deploying AI techniques in their research, and I wish them good luck with that work. I wish all who are engaged in the research the very best of luck, and I ask the Scottish Government to help as best we can to support the research that might help us to begin to win the battle against pancreatic cancer.

Lastly, I thank my colleague Clare Adamson for again bringing the issue to the attention of the Scottish people, through their Parliament.

First, I thank Richard Leonard for mentioning the Fenwick Weavers Society, which, in 1761, established the world’s first co-op. The rest of his speech made me wonder whether I had wandered into the wrong debate, but I enjoyed it, nevertheless.

The Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill must be one of the shortest bills that I have seen during my time in Parliament—all in, the main content of the bill is only seven pages long, so it was a bit of a surprise that our Economy and Fair Work Committee managed to write 53 pages about it.

The aim of the bill is fairly straightforward: it requires all of our councils and relevant public bodies to prepare and publish a community wealth building action plan and to implement it. It is simple enough.

Some members of the committee asked why we need a bill to put something in place that some authorities are already implementing, and when great work is taking place not just in the pilot areas but in other areas. The short answer, though, is that it is to ensure that all councils do it, because we know that some do not. It also allows us to have a consistent approach to embedding the principles of community wealth building throughout Scotland.

Having been lucky enough—if that is the right phrase—to have lived through the past attempts at community wealth building in my council many years ago, the work that I see taking place now seems to be the right approach. I remember well huge community planning partnership meetings, packed with officials, stakeholders and councillors, and the poor community groups sitting by the side, waiting patiently for their turn to speak, hoping that some progress would be made for them. That approach did not work, in my view. It was too big and overarching, and it was not really localised. It was all driven from the top down—an approach that has been mentioned a few times this afternoon.

In contrast, what I see happening now works. In North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire, I have seen small local groups coming forward, and dedicated and talented officials who, instead of driving the process from the top down, work with local people to help them to progress their vision. That is absolutely the key to success. When that approach is in place, community groups see it working and more of them come forward to participate.

I have been fortunate to have visited communities with colleagues from the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee and from the Economy and Fair Work Committee and seen for myself the work that is taking place. The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee visited Millport, in Great Cumbrae, to see the amazing work there to restore the old town hall. I visited it again on its open day just a few weeks ago. We also saw some local projects that were under way to establish a small gin distillery in the town and a new camping business.

The convener of the Economy and Fair Work Committee mentioned Irvine. The committee heard from local people from the Ardrossan Community Development Trust, which was doing great work to regenerate the promenade, introducing things such as accessible deck chairs for the community and building inclusive play parks.

Just down the road in my area in East Ayrshire, a number of projects are under way that fit in with the community wealth building approach, backed up with £3 million-worth of investment to help the work along. One such example is the net zero accelerator project, which supports local businesses to cut their energy costs and reduce emissions. The project has been recognised nationally and has received an award at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities excellence awards. To date, it has supported 50 businesses to reduce more than 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while creating more than 100 jobs and unlocking around £37 million in contract value for participating firms. It is a real green dividend that is paying off locally.

All those examples are working under the umbrella of community wealth building. They work because they are being driven by local people, ably supported by officials who care about and support their communities.

The bill really is as short as I said at the beginning of my speech, but sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference. I urge all colleagues in Parliament to get behind the bill at stage 1 and give all of our communities across Scotland a chance to participate in that exciting work.

To ask the Scottish Government how AI might shape the future curriculum in Scotland. (S6O-05148)

The minister might be aware of the discussion on AI that has been taking place at the Economy and Fair Work Committee. The opportunities for the use of AI in education in the areas of lesson planning, marking, research and materials preparation are very attractive, but there are clear risks, too. Will the Government’s revised strategy, which is due in spring next year, embed a clear sense of responsibility and ethical standards in any AI framework for our schools? Could the minister see the day when young people at school will be able to use their own personalised AI assistants to help them on their learning journey?

Mr Griffin must surely recognise that one of the biggest barriers to delivering Scotland’s housing fund is the dire economic mismanagement by his Labour colleagues at Westminster, which is about to be laid bare in the next few weeks. Will the cabinet secretary advise how damaging United Kingdom Government policies, such as increases to employer national insurance and limits to legitimate immigration, are directly impacting on our housing and construction sectors?

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to deal with and improve land use issues, in particular dereliction and abandonment, in the urban setting. (S6O-05093)

I have tried over many years to coax and cajole land and building owners to do something about the abandoned assets that they own in our towns, and have asked them to either clean and tidy them up, repurpose them or even sell them. Mostly, they ignore those pleas, since the councils usually act only if a property becomes a danger to the public. Abandoned land and derelict buildings can be the norm in many towns in Scotland.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that it may be time for a different approach to those issues, with a move away from legislation and the serving of notices towards the promotion of a more co-operative approach? That would bring owners, retailers, the community and local councils together to bring about positive change in order to steadily improve the environment in the urban landscape in particular, in which we all share an interest.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider making improvements to the Glasgow to Kilmarnock Sunday evening rail service. (S6O-05082)

The cabinet secretary will be well aware that Kilmarnock gave Scotland its first public railway line in 1812 and has an iconic place in Scotland’s railway history. However, in this day and age, more than 200 years later, my constituents have to put up with what must be one of the poorest services in Scotland on Sunday evenings. Having a train from Glasgow at 7 pm and a final one three hours later, at 10 pm, is hardly an example of a modern service and falls far behind the service enjoyed by many other towns, some of which are much smaller than Kilmarnock. Will the cabinet secretary give serious consideration to sorting out that anomaly before both she and I leave this place, so that my constituents can look forward to a service that meets the demands of modern times and at least matches what is in place elsewhere in Scotland?

We met Alexander Dennis’s senior management team at our Economy and Fair Work Committee not so long ago, and I was hugely impressed with their commitment to find a solution to save the business and jobs in Scotland. Does the Deputy First Minister share that view, and is she confident that, going forward, Alexander Dennis is in safe hands with good management and fantastic staff?