I have none, either, but I am delighted to return to the committee. I sat on its predecessor committee for three years in the previous session, so I look forward to our work, convener.

I will ask a supplementary question. You have talked about data, which is vitally important. Trade associations and federations might collect data for their sectors. How well do you manage with that? Some sectors are very proactive in ensuring that they have data for their sector, but others do not seem to have that robustness. It is about trying to manage that so that there is much better understanding. As you have identified, in different parts of the country, some federations and organisations are much more robust at putting that together.

The possibility of different things happening in different locations might become a real issue for the market and for suppliers and consumers, depending on the approach that is taken and how that is planned. It will be interesting to see what data you collate on that in the future.

Over recent weeks, there have been continued disturbances at the new prison facility HMP and YOI Stirling, which are causing local residents great distress. The incidents include screaming, shouting, swearing and banging coming from the prison at all times of the day and night since it opened. Together with the Scottish Prison Service, what action will the Scottish Government put in place to tackle and rectify those disturbances, which locals describe as creating a living hell, and to support the vulnerable offenders?

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I congratulate my colleague Liz Smith on securing this members’ business debate on a very essential and highly concerning issue.

As has been said a number of times, Ms Smith’s motion rightly mentions Duncan Scott, who was raised in Clackmannanshire in our Mid Scotland and Fife region and has become one of Scotland’s most successful swimming champions in recent memory. Yet, thanks to the closure of the Alloa leisure bowl, the town no longer has a swimming pool which, honestly, is a disgraceful situation. The nationalist Scottish Government and, in turn, the nationalist-run Clackmannanshire Council are jointly culpable for that travesty. Clackmannan Development Trust said at the time that it was

“Another devastating blow to the wee county with the loss of more jobs; and of course, the loss of all the health, fitness and social activities that the leisure bowl provided for the past 30+ yrs.”

Around 52,000 residents in the county are now unable to find a swimming pool or swimming facility there. One resident said that it was

“So disappointing! The loss of opportunity for children in Clackmannanshire to develop the life skill in swimming, and the loss of fitness, leisure and recreation facilities for residents who do not have the money or transport to travel out with the county. Sad times!”

These are sad times, indeed. The Scottish Government’s squeezing of council budgets, interlinked with Clackmannanshire Council’s total lack of vision and forward thinking, has meant that no contingency plan was in place at all for a pool in the county. When schools were built in the wee county, not one of them provided a swimming pool. Another resident summed up the situation by saying that schools not building swimming pools was a disgrace and

“a double whammy for Clackmannanshire children.”

Save our pools is a national campaign to highlight the importance of swimming pools and to secure long-term financial investment from the Government for the sustainability of our pools and sport.

We already know, but it is right to point out again, that swimming pools are the nation’s natural health and safety service. Around 14 million people of all ages and abilities swim each year in the United Kingdom, which helps to ensure that they are healthy individuals and, in turn, saves the national health service millions of pounds. We know the difficulties around health inequality in my region of Mid Scotland and Fife and in other regions; sport and swimming give huge health opportunities.

I have been a strong advocate of water safety, too, for many decades. It is only right to point out that swimming pools are natural places for people to learn how to swim, which can lead to an opportunity to save lives. Without pools, we are putting children and other individuals’ lives at risk.

For nearly two decades, I had the privilege of being a councillor in Perth and Kinross, and I was the chair of Perth and Kinross Leisure for a term, where we promoted swimming and safety in water. We have heard about the difficulties of Perth leisure pool, which must be retained and maintained but hangs by a thread because of the funding issues that are coming down the line. Serious questions will have to be asked about that.

I have had the privilege, too, of being the convener of community safety in Perth and Kinross Council for four years. We worked hand in hand with emergency services to do all that we could to publicise the message of safety in water and ensure that it was out there in the community, which did a huge amount to ensure that there were not as many tragedies. However, we find that more and more tragedies occur today—recently, my region saw the horrific loss of a popular and bright young teenager in the River Teith.

As we have heard, the UK Government has pledged more than £60 million to keep swimming pools afloat in England. Scottish Swimming has called on the SNP Government to allocate the money that the UK Government has provided to prevent swimming from becoming unaffordable and unreachable by many in our community.

In a press release, Scottish Swimming said:

“There is cross-party political backing for swimming pools in Scotland”.

That must be looked at and kept going, and we will do all that we can. That money needs to be translated into funding for what is happening in Scotland; the consequentials should be used to ensure that our pools survive.

I echo the points that have been made. I ask the minister to acknowledge them in her summing up and to protect and save our pools as she has a duty to do.

There is a lot more work to be done. It is quite evident that the numbers are stark for the accessible and adapted properties that are out there in the market for people who use wheelchairs or have mobility issues.

We should write to the Scottish Government, highlighting the stakeholder submissions that we have received and urging it to review the existing wheelchair accessible housing target guidance. It is important to ask whether it can consider national planning obligations on house builders and private developers for a minimum number of wheelchair accessible homes and whether it accepts the case for a national definition of a wheelchair accessible home. We can ask questions on and look into those areas to attempt to unravel the issue.

There is obviously a massive gap in the market and those people are not being catered for as they perhaps should be by housing developers and organisations that look after housing processes.

We could seek more information on fertility treatment for single women. I suggest that we write to the Fertility Network Scotland, the British Fertility Society and Fertility Scotland to seek their views on the action that the petition calls for. We also have the opportunity to write to the national fertility group to seek an update on the work to understand the capacity implications of any future expansion of access to NHS IVF treatment for single women, as you suggested in your opening remarks, convener.

It would be useful for us to write to Road Safety Scotland, IAM Road Smart, the RAC Foundation, the Road Safety Foundation and the road safety charity Brake to seek their views on how effective Transport Scotland’s road safety improvement schemes and road safety campaigns are likely to be in reducing road casualties, and whether measures should be put in place during the period before dualling work is completed. They will all have views and opinions on that, and it would be useful for us to clarify those.

I was impressed by the presentation that we had from the petitioner and others, and this is a major issue that continues to receive a huge amount of publicity, almost weekly. There is much more that the committee can do to progress the aims of the petitioner and the community.

We have had an extensive response. I think that we should close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders. The Scottish Government considers both matters that are raised in the petition to be operational matters, which in itself creates issues. The SCTS provides an overview of the most commonly used court procedures and rules on its website, and staff provide assistance to people engaging in such actions. The SCTS has adopted the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman’s model complaints handling procedure and provides general information on the procedures on its website.

In reality, the SCTS is already doing a number of things to try to manage the situation, and I do not believe that there is any further action that we can take with reference to the petition at this time.

I thank Tess White for her evidence, which has highlighted some areas of real concern. I think that we could further investigate some areas. I suggest that we write to the Scottish Government requesting an update on how it is progressing recommendation 26 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s report, which Tess White spoke about. We should also ask whether the Scottish Government plans to amend section 24 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 and request that its report and options appraisal to expand mother and baby unit capacity be shared with the committee when they are published in autumn 2023. I think that that would give us much more information about where we are and would help to progress the petition.