Chamber and committees

That the Parliament marks Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, which takes place every November, and World Pancreatic Cancer Day, which falls on 19 November 2026; acknowledges the previous Members' debates on pancreatic cancer, which, it believes, have highlighted the case for the condition being treated as an urgent health priority; commends the ongoing work of charity organisations over the last 10 years to improve outcomes of what it understands is Scotland’s deadliest common cancer; recognises the progress that has been made in recent years, including promising developments in earlier diagnosis research and greater recognition of less survivable cancers; notes the view that more work is needed to secure sustainable funding for best practice national pathways for pancreatic cancer diagnosis, treatment and care, so that patients can benefit from long-term improvements; acknowledges the potential of game-changing innovations, such as the breath test for diagnosing the condition and personalised medicine, and the need for policy leads to support their integration into standard care practice; notes the view that all patients nationally should be able to benefit from the provisions of the UK-wide Rare Cancers Act 2026, including through improved access to clinical trials and new treatments; acknowledges calls for Scotland to appoint a national lead to take its work in this field forward alongside UK counterparts; believes that the last 10 years has brought greater public awareness and political attention to pancreatic cancer and notes the view that the next 10 years should deliver tangible improvements to ultimately increase survival rates and save lives across Scotland; thanks all lived experience advocates who bravely use their unique perspective to help shape and inform pancreatic cancer progress, and wishes everyone involved with Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month every success in raising awareness of this devastating disease.

As an amendment to motion S7W-01517 in the name of Neil Gray (Strengthening Scotland’s Cyber Resilience), insert at end “; welcomes the UK Government’s Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill as a step towards building nationwide protocols for protecting critical infrastructure, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that areas within its devolved competence are adequately resourced to establish any additional security measures or reporting mechanisms that may be required.”

As an amendment to motion S7M-01517 in the name of Neil Gray (Strengthening Scotland’s Cyber Resilience), insert at end “considers that, despite a substantial framework of strategies, significant gaps remain in the implementation of cyber resilience across Scotland’s public sector; expresses concern that only 64% of Scottish public sector organisations have reported carrying out cyber resilience exercises in the previous 12 months; believes that the priority should now be the effective implementation, testing and enforcement of existing cyber resilience standards and to resist the tendency to create further strategies and frameworks to achieve simple objectives; understands that resource constraints are limiting the ability of organisations to implement lessons learned from incidents and exercises to address identified weaknesses, and calls on the Scottish Government to establish clear minimum standards for regular testing of cyber defences and incident response arrangements across the public sector, and to ensure that public bodies have sufficient financial, technical and specialist resources to address identified vulnerabilities."

As an amendment to motion S7M-01517 in the name of Neil Gray (Strengthening Scotland’s Cyber Resilience), insert at end: "; recognises that cyber resilience depends on the security and resilience of the physical infrastructure on which digital services rely; understands the risks to critical digital infrastructure of accidental, environmental and deliberate disruption, including sabotage and the actions of hostile actors, and recognises the particular importance of resilient and diverse connectivity for Scotland’s island and remote communities.”

As an amendment to motion S7W-01517 in the name of Neil Gray (Strengthening Scotland’s Cyber Resilience), insert at end “; recognises that digital sovereignty is an increasingly important aspect of cyber resilience, including the risks arising from excessive dependence on a small number of multinational technology companies and foreign-owned digital infrastructure; further recognises the importance of strong privacy, human rights and democratic safeguards; supports diversified, interoperable and secure digital infrastructure, open standards, responsible public procurement and investment in Scotland’s cyber security skills, research and public-interest technological capability; notes steps being taken at a European level to strengthen digital sovereignty; agrees that the UK Government should be more proactive in pursuing digital sovereignty, and believes that the Scottish Government should begin work to develop a Scottish digital sovereignty strategy, given that this will be necessary in the event of independence.”

That the Parliament condemns the Green Party of England and Wales's decision to adopt what it sees as an explicitly anti-Jewish policy and to characterise Zionism as racism; considers that this is an extreme and divisive position, which treats support for Israel as inherently illegitimate; recognises that Zionism is often defined as the movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to their historic homeland; affirms what it sees as the right of the State of Israel to exist as the national home of the Jewish people and the right of Jewish people in Scotland to identify as Zionists without fear of intimidation or discrimination; believes that opposing racism must include opposing attempts to portray an entire national movement as inherently racist; condemns antisemitism in all its forms; calls on Ross Greer MSP and Gillian McKay MSP to condemn the motion passed by their sister party, and further calls on political parties in Scotland to reject anti-Zionism.

That the Parliament congratulates Bill Russell Woodburn Youth Project on its award of £19,740 from the National Lottery Community Fund; understands that the children and young people live in highly deprived areas of Woodburn and Dalkeith; welcomes that the group will continue to support young people in their youth project, including care experienced young people, and thanks all the staff for their continued hard work and dedication.

That the Parliament congratulates Fife Gingerbread and Starcatchers on their CashBack for Young Parents programme being shortlisted in the Creative Regeneration category of the 2026 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration; recognises the programme's innovative work supporting parents under the age of 25 and their children during the crucial early years of development through a combination of creative learning, practical support and community connection; commends the positive impact that, it believes, the partnership is having on young families across Fife; notes the importance of creativity, early intervention and community-led regeneration in tackling social and economic inequalities, and wishes everyone involved every success at the SURF Awards ceremony in December 2026.

That the Parliament congratulates Fife Gingerbread’s Lone Parent Positive Workplaces project on being shortlisted in the Removing Barriers to Employability category of the 2026 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration; understands that Fife Gingerbread leads the project in partnership with One Parent Families Scotland and Strathclyde Business School; acknowledges that the project has been developed together with lone parents to address structural barriers that can prevent lone parent families from accessing fair, flexible and sustainable employment; recognises that the project aims to transform how employers recruit, support and retain lone parents through developing direct guidance for employers on building inclusive, trauma-informed workplace cultures; is grateful to Public Health Scotland (PHS), Greener Kirkcaldy, and Fife Sports & Leisure Trust for all their work on the pilot's practical models, which included 26-week paid traineeships, guaranteed interviews and progressive flexible job design; believes that this project has been the exemplification of best practice, innovation and achievement in interventions that improve the lives of people living in Scottish communities, and extends its very best wishes to everyone involved for continued success.

That the Parliament congratulates Lothian Children’s Deaf Club on its award of £15,757 from the National Lottery Community Fund; notes that the group will use the funding to provide a BSL training and learning project to support deaf children and their families; welcomes that the two-year project will support families to learn BSL informally and support the family to communicate together, and thanks all the staff for their continued hard work and dedication.