Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, May 12, 2022

Official Report 434KB pdf

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Cross-Party Group

Our second item is consideration of an application for recognition from the proposed cross-party group on heart and circulatory diseases. I welcome to the meeting Colin Smyth, who is one of the co-conveners of the proposed group.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to outline the group’s application. A CPG on heart disease and stroke existed in previous parliamentary sessions, and I had the privilege of being a co-convener during session 5. I am proud of the groundbreaking work that the group undertook, which included two major inquiries—one on atrial fibrillation and one on hypertension. Many of the group’s recommendations are now being taken forward.

We took some time to consider the focus of any such CPG in this parliamentary session and how we could best build on the achievements of the previous group, which is why the request to establish the group comes slightly later than the start of the new session. After discussion with colleagues, we decided to propose a cross-party group that focuses on heart and circulatory diseases, given the scale of those issues, instead of trying to cover two major conditions. Although there has been a considerable decline in mortality rates due to advances in the treatment of acute cardiac disease, it is sad that coronary heart disease remains Scotland’s biggest killer.

Being conscious that there are many cross-party groups, we want to focus in this parliamentary session on heart disease and specific work on issues such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. We also want to carry out more joint working with other CPGs. One major issue that we want to consider is sex-based inequality in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and how we monitor the Government’s women’s health plan in relation to heart disease. That is an area that would lend itself to joint working with, for example, the cross-party group on women’s health.

There has been considerable interest from members in the proposed new group, and we have three co-conveners from three different parties. If the group is given the go-ahead, the next step will be for us and stakeholders to circulate details of the group. We anticipate significant interest, particularly from individuals who live with heart conditions. They were an important stakeholder group in previous CPGs and influenced our work considerably.

I will leave it at that, convener. I am open to the committee’s questions.

That is kind of you. Do members have any questions?

Colin, you mentioned working across other cross-party groups. Do you foresee that as being by correspondence only or do you foresee having joint meetings on certain areas so that people can share and build on the experiences that they bring to those meetings?

We are very keen to have joint meetings and even joint pieces of work. I mentioned that the previous group held two major inquiries. We are clear that the issues that we face lend themselves to working with other cross-party groups. Those issues include air pollution, active travel and, as I mentioned earlier, women’s health issues—there is a specific problem with the detection rates for heart disease in women. We want to consider having joint meetings with other cross-party groups, at the very least, but, ideally, we want to do some joint work on particular issues. That would obviously require discussion with those groups.

I am heartened to hear that, because, although cross-party groups can work independently, there are areas of ground on which they can work together. I am glad that one of the conveners is working towards that.

It is welcome to hear that you are resurrecting the cross-party group. I recently visited a business in my constituency that makes LoSalt, and it is targeting how to reduce our salt intake in the United Kingdom and Scotland. We often talk about doing so with sugar. Would you consider that? The guidelines on salt intake have changed; we need to be down to 5g but, at the moment, most people’s intake is 9g, I think.

I have learned something new today.

One of the important things about the cross-party group is that we ask for and circulate ideas for work that we can carry out, particularly from people who live with relevant conditions. You raise an important issue and I will take a note of it. We know that heart disease impacts on all our constituents—sadly, it is the biggest killer in Scotland—so we want to hear people’s ideas of what work we need to carry out. There are a lot of important issues that lend themselves to being addressed by the group.

It is fascinating how often members of the committee suggest ideas for CPGs that come before us. Perhaps that is the privilege of overseeing them.

I assume that Collette is not making it a requirement of approval that the CPG acts on her idea.

We will see whether she notes an interest in a moment.

Thank you, Mr Smyth, for applying for recognition for the cross-party group.

My blushes have just been spared. The initial papers that I had did not list any individuals or organisations as members of the group and I was going to ask why that was the case. However, the clerking team has just furnished me with an outstandingly impressive list of stakeholders. I am pleased to see that you are reaching out to all the relevant individuals and groups.

The next step would be to circulate details more widely. We anticipate that a lot of individuals will be interested in joining us. We are keen that people living with relevant conditions are at our meetings and support our work. They are an important group.

How do you propose to act as a channel of communication between people who are affected by heart disease, health professionals and the research community? Each of those groups is quite a distinct stakeholder.

We will have representation of all those stakeholders on the group. That was certainly the case with the previous cross-party groups. People who were involved in research, health professionals and, importantly, people who lived with relevant conditions all attended our groups. We carried out inquiries on atrial fibrillation and hypertension in the previous session of the Parliament. We did extensive round-table work involving those groups and invited them to give evidence so that we could learn from them. That will be an important factor. If you look at the extensive list of organisations, as Bob Doris called it, you will see that they represent many of the stakeholders that you highlighted.

Thank you very much for attending, Colin. The committee will consider whether to approve the application for recognition at the next agenda item, and the clerks will inform you of the committee’s decision in due course.

Item 3 is consideration of whether we wish to approve the application for the cross-party group on heart and circulatory diseases. If members have no comments, do we agree to accord recognition to the group?

Members indicated agreement.