Chamber and committees

I have a final question. Are the two independent doctors allowed to confer with each other? I do not know whether the bill makes that explicit. Could they be a doctor at the hospital and a doctor in the GP practice, or could they be two GPs in the same practice? What makes them independent? Are they not allowed to confer with each other during the process?

That is fine—thank you.

Another issue that has come up is the language around someone being “unable to recover” from a condition versus a condition being “untreatable”. The language needs to be very precise. We have had conversations around the bill’s use of “unable to recover”, where treatment options have been explored, agreed on and then not proceeded with.

Tell me about the use of “unable to recover” rather than “untreatable”. Somebody who has an eating disorder, for instance, might consider that they have no option to recover from that, but that is not the case, which I say as a healthcare practitioner—I am still a nurse. How do we make sure that the language of the bill is definitive in referring to a terminal illness as a condition that someone is “unable to recover” from?

I think that other members will come to capacity, so I will leave it there.

I have a quick question regarding palliative care versus the choice of assisted dying. We have heard evidence from other countries that, even though someone may have opted to go through a process of assisted dying, they might still say, “No, I won’t proceed,” and then continue, knowing that they can still choose that, with a palliative care process. Is that your experience from your research?

I just wanted to clarify that.

I congratulate Christine Grahame on securing the debate. I know that she has been an advocate on matters relating to the Lockerbie air disaster for many years, and she laid out the history very well in the short time that she had. I thank her for her work, and for her support for Jim Swire and the other families in their search for truth and justice in relation to the Lockerbie bombing, and for Jim Swire’s search for truth and justice in relation to the murder of his daughter, Flora.

It was the worst terrorist bombing in the UK. Lockerbie is part of my South Scotland region and I spent my teenage years growing up 8 miles from the town. I know the strong emotions that are still felt locally and the huge impact that the bombing had on Lockerbie and the wider area. There are many parts of the motion with which I agree, and I pay tribute to the families of the justice for Lockerbie campaign.

On the night of the bombing, I was working in the operating theatre at Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary. When I first heard the news, the report said that a military plane had crashed over the border here in Scotland. My dad called my sister—we were flatmates at the time—and said that he had been out checking the dairy cows in the maternity paddock as they were about to calve. He was just going about his routine dairyman duties. He said that he had heard a

“boom in the night sky overhead just after 7pm ... mebbes an explosion”.

After he phoned us, we turned on the news; there would be news for many months.

These are some of my memories. My sister and I were summoned to the hospital where we both worked. Under professional, calm, efficient and effective instruction from the senior charge nurse, the theatre team were initially told to anticipate mass casualties, and we prepared for that. We prepped theatres 1 and 2 for major trauma, theatre 3 for orthopaedic trauma and theatre 4 for minor injuries, and we primed intravenous fluids and set up trolleys for general anaesthesia and intubation for arterial lines and for central venous access line placement.

At 10 pm, the theatre staff were crowded in the coffee room, glued to the news as the facts were beginning to unfold. There would be no casualties coming to theatre. This was not a military plane crash—it was Pan Am flight 103, which, with 259 humans on board, had exploded at 7.02 pm, four days before Christmas. Later, we found out that 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie were also killed.

That night will always stick with me. I pay tribute to the people of Lockerbie and of Syracuse, including Lockerbie academy and Syracuse University, for everything that they do to keep the memory of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing alive. I attended the 35th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing at Lockerbie academy, with the launch of a photographic exhibition of the people of Lockerbie going about their normal lives, rebuilding.

For many families, the search for justice continues. The upcoming US court case, involving the trial of a Libyan man, is scheduled for May this year in Washington DC. A section of the fuselage from Pan Am flight 103 was transported to the US as evidence. I understand that US prosecutors will use evidence from the first trial and new information that has been obtained since then. Given that the man who has been charged has denied building the bomb, it is important that, under the Lockerbie Victims Access Act, the court is directed to make “reasonable efforts” to provide video and telephone access to the case for people affected by the bombing.

I agree with the First Minister’s response to Christine Grahame at First Minister’s question time last month. I think that it is right to allow the US trial to progress and therefore not to make any comment that could prejudice proceedings.

In closing, I acknowledge the work of the emergency services at the scene during that time, which I am sure was traumatic. I reiterate my respect for the resilience of the families of the justice for Lockerbie campaign, and for the people of the town for keeping the memory of the victims alive.

I have worked with the organisers of many festivals in Galloway, such as the Big Burns Supper, Stranraer oyster festival, Kirkcudbright festival of light and Wigtown book festival. One thing that they raise is the need for festivals in rural areas to receive the same recognition and funding as those in the central belt do. The cabinet secretary mentioned the festivals expo fund. Will he describe further that fund and how it will support festivals beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow, including in Galloway and the Borders?

Good morning, everybody. My question relates to what Richard Cooke was talking about with regard to the structures and how we manage deer. How do we currently manage deer in Scotland? Is it different in the Highlands versus in the south-west, for instance? Everybody can answer, but I am looking at Richard first, because he started that ball rolling.

I am an MSP for South Scotland.