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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 8 August 2025
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Displaying 685 contributions

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 26 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

The committee has recently heard about the impact of MUP from people with lived and living experience. For me, that has added, to the evaluation, a real-world context such as we have welcomed in many other areas of the committee’s work. Those voices need to be amplified and to continue to be involved. I am pleased that the minister has indicated her willingness to continue to put that at the heart of policy development, as we move forward.

We need to ensure that there is an appropriate mix of support and treatment for people who require them, and that we tackle barriers for groups who currently have difficulty in accessing treatment. I accept and trust the minister’s assertion that minimum unit pricing is not a silver bullet. One of the most important actions that we need to take is to tackle the alcohol environment that we have in Scotland. For me, that should include our examining how advertising affects children and young people and at-risk adult drinkers, as well as our implementing a public health levy. I am pleased that provision for such a levy was included in the budget as a result of discussions between the Government and my party. Tackling alcohol harm must take a multipronged approach and must address all the barriers to services that people face.

I will be pleased to support both instruments.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 26 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

Recently, inflation has been much higher than it has been at other times. The impact of the uprating of minimum unit pricing will depend on the economic outlook. I am also quite interested in how we put lived and living experience, which has been so important the whole way through, at the heart of any analysis of uprating. Obviously, we are speaking in hypotheticals, but, if there is ever a case for making that uprating higher, for good reason, that experience, which has been so integral and useful so far, must be put at the heart of what we do.

10:15  

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 26 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

I appreciate that that work is at an early stage, but have the minister and the Government considered how that approach would work in practice? Would it be linked to an inflationary index or some other index? Would there be an implementation period, as there is this year, between the uprating being announced and the change on the shelves, to reflect the call from industry and businesses that they need that time in order to make the changes?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

I would challenge the assertion that trade union activity would ever influence people not to access services. Often, trade union activity outside hospitals is about pay. It is not about saying, “Don’t go and have your ear, nose and throat appointment;” it is about saying, “We want better pay to provide your ear, nose and throat treatment.”

Many of the people who are outside hospitals are clinicians. They know very well the impact that protests and so on have on people’s ability to access services. I believe that clinicians would be the last people outside hospitals wanting to influence anyone other than their own colleagues with regard to whether they should join their ask for better pay, better conditions or whatever else.

I do not suppose for a minute that people coming from far away—particularly given the airing that this legislation has had and the level of public awareness of it—would contact the police because they could not see what was going on. Because of the exemption in the bill for trade union activity, the police would take no action. There is a piece of work to do to ensure that the public are aware of what is and is not allowed under the bill.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

No—I apologise if I was not clear on that. This is about the functions of the zones. The committee has explored the example of images being projected on to the Chalmers sexual health centre. I cannot here and now think of an example of a particular behaviour whose impact would mean that we might have to extend a zone for a particular reason, but there are potential behaviours to consider. We have seen behaviours in other places around the world that, if they were imported here, might make the function of the zones within 200m difficult—that would depend on how the behaviours were manifested. That is why flexibility is so important. Oversight and our ability to respond in a timely manner are important, too.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

We heard from organisations and individuals about the literature that was given out, and the issue of the medical misinformation that it contained was cited in a variety of responses. Obviously, people have seen that literature at one point or another—some of the clinicians who appeared before the committee a couple of weeks ago spoke about it. The level of misinformation in some of the leaflets is quite scary, and some of the assertions in them presuppose that people do not get the appropriate information once they go into services. On that point, I note that, in the first evidence session on the bill, Alice Murray told the committee about the level of counselling that she had to go through as part of her abortion process.

We heard about the literature that is handed out, which is definitely one thing that causes alarm for those who access services.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

My answer to your question—if I have understood it correctly—would be that people who seek guidance from a hospital chaplain, of whatever denomination, are not covered by the bill, because that is a consensual conversation that the patient is seeking out. They are seeking out guidance, which is not covered by the bill. The issue could be included in guidance for health boards, but it does not need a specific exemption in the bill, because consensual conversations are not covered.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

The post-legislative scrutiny—we will stop using that phrase in a minute—of various acts that we have passed in this committee has proved very useful. To me, that route is the appropriate mechanism for ensuring that we can appropriately scrutinise the legislation’s effect and make sure that it is having the effect that we want it to have.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 19 March 2024

Gillian Mackay

I think that the bill has sufficient flexibility on that. Currently, we see protests only at specific types of settings, so it is right that the bill is limited to the 30 premises that are captured by the 1967 act. There would be a difference if GP surgeries or pharmacies started to be designated under that act, but they would still be captured with the relatively small number of premises that are included now. As drafted, the bill provides enough flexibility to ensure that, should we see behaviours at services where we do not see them at the moment, we could move to protect those services as appropriate.