Chamber and committees

Margaret Davidson touched on the polluter pays principle. I ask Simon Fieldhouse to answer the question from a Dumfries and Galloway perspective.

I will stick with this important topic. The committee is keen to find out how councils are working with partners to promote recycling and a shift to the circular economy. We have heard today from council leaders that the business sector is important. I was struck by what Councillor Aitken said about Glasgow being seen as a leader on the circular economy. I do not want to sound too negative, but it is a reality check that Scottish household waste recycling rates are the worst in the UK. Only 42 per cent of household waste was recycled in 2020, and Glasgow sits near the bottom of the league table. What lessons are being learned from other parts of the UK?

In a previous meeting, Zero Waste Scotland told us that Scotland’s waste system is somewhat fragmented. What are councils doing to share best practice in meeting the challenges? We have heard why recycling rates have been low and about what needs to change. Please talk about your own experiences. I would also like to know about energy from waste, and particularly about incinerators. Zero Waste Scotland told us that incineration is not low carbon and that we are too reliant on incineration and landfill. Do your councils support a moratorium or potential ban on incinerators? Are you consulting your communities about that?

Thank you, Councillor Aitken. I will pass back to the convener, because I am getting a message that we are running out of time. I would like to hear from Councillor McVey and Councillor Laing, but perhaps they can follow up in writing with any points that need to be covered.

That is helpful. I will pivot back to the issues of the circular economy and recycling. As part of the inquiry, the committee is keen to understand how councils are working with a range of partners on those aims. In the earlier evidence session, we heard from our city colleagues about the challenges with recycling. Why are recycling rates quite low? What needs to change? There is a lot of focus on the role of incinerators and the waste hierarchy. What is the view—if there is one—in your authorities on the potential for a moratorium or ban on such facilities? I will ask Margaret Davidson to come in first.

I ask Simon Fieldhouse to comment on that issue from an operational point of view. Councillor Davidson talked about moving beyond just bidding for projects. I know that we get lots of money for pilot projects, but perhaps the sustainable funding is not there. Do you agree with Councillor Davidson that a more strategic approach would be helpful in the net zero journey?

I will ask about the circular economy and recycling, as I did with the previous panel, but first I have a question for Councillor Davidson. I was quite struck by the comment in your opening remarks that you need more “strategic help” from the Scottish Government and that you need more listening. I have been following a bit of a row in the press about a pre-Christmas letter to the First Minister from all the council leaders asking for an urgent meeting. I understand that that meeting has not been granted. Will you elaborate on what you mean when you ask for more listening? Can you give an example of where you would like more strategic support from the Scottish Government?

It has been a pleasure to listen to the debate so far. I congratulate Rachael Hamilton on securing it and attracting so many members to take part.

I was struck by Emma Roddick’s observation that it is good to have this debate outwith endo awareness month. We have to continue to do that. If anyone is listening who has an interest because they live with endo, whether or not it is diagnosed, it is important that they do not just feel encouraged but see that we are determined to take action.

Like other members, I welcome the women’s health plan, which is a positive development in Scotland that I hope will represent a real breakthrough. My party campaigned for such a plan. We now need to consider how we will achieve the important ambition of reducing the waiting time for diagnosis from around eight and a half years to 12 months by the end of this parliamentary session.

When the minister responds, I hope that she will be able to give us a little more detail and reassurance in that regard, because none of us wants to build up people’s hopes and expectations, only for them to continue to be disappointed throughout their lives. That is key.

I have been reflecting on some of the things that I was involved with during endo awareness month in March last year. Evelyn Tweed shared a personal story about being told as a young woman—a teenager—just to get pregnant. That reminded me that I tweeted that it is appalling that women are still being told to get pregnant as a way of treating their endometriosis, after hearing, on BBC Radio Scotland, young women in their 20s share their experience of that happening.

It is good that Dr Sandesh Gulhane is taking part in the debate. He will probably want to share what he has heard tonight with general practitioner and clinician colleagues. We have first-class endometriosis specialists and clinicians in Scotland, but we are not cascading the knowledge and good practice enough and, too often, women and other people who experience endometriosis, including trans and non-binary people, are just not believed.

That brings me to a point that other members made about menstrual health and wellbeing education. I know from correspondence that I had with Jeane Freeman and others in Government that the Government takes the view that it cannot mandate things on the curriculum. However, we have to get serious about working with schools to ensure that young people have all the information and tools that they need at an early age.

I join Rachael Hamilton in paying tribute to Sir David Amess for all that he did in Parliament to shine a light on endometriosis. The all-party parliamentary group does important work. I am the chair of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on women’s health, and I hope that we can continue to work together. It was Kenny Gibson—who gave us a pocket history of previous debates in this Parliament—who encouraged me to set up the cross-party group on women’s health, and I thank him. I hope that more men will get involved.

We should focus on the things that we get right in Scotland. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 receiving royal assent and making it on to the statute book. I thank everyone who lives with endometriosis for sharing their experience in the context of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which was about not just ensuring that we improve access to period products, but sharing people’s stories so that we can get it right in the workplace, in education settings and here, in the Parliament.

I encourage my MSP colleagues to become endometriosis-friendly employees, as I have done. It is really easy to do and they can take this important conversation into their constituencies or regions. They can get in touch with Endometriosis UK, which will tell them how to sign up.

I again thank Rachael Hamilton. It is great that everyone has taken part in tonight’s debate. I hope that we will hear from the minister that there is a plan to put these important ambitions into practice.

To ask the First Minister how many missing person investigations have been carried out in 2021. (S6F-00633)

I thank the First Minister for her response. Paul Harley from Coatbridge has been missing since 2014, but there has been a potential sighting of him and, in today’s Daily Record, his son Paul has sent the message to his dad that, “It’s never too late to come home”.

It is important that the missing and their loved ones are supported. The charity Missing People is working hard to reunite more families this Christmas. Will the First Minister help to get the message out that the charity’s trained helpline staff can be reached by a call or text on 116 000? Will the Scottish Government do everything that it can to support the charity’s mission, which is for every missing child and adult and every loved one left behind to find help, hope and a safe way to reconnect?

I welcome the statement, because constituents in my region are very concerned about the environmental and health impacts that are being discussed. Almost 17 million cubic metres of sewage was pumped into Hamilton waste water treatment works alone between 2016 and 2020, so it is a big concern locally. I have asked the minister this before and she was asked again by a colleague today: will she agree to bring in binding targets?

Wet wipes were mentioned in relation to plastic pollution, but will she commit to bringing in a ban on plastic-based wet wipes in the near future?