Chamber and committees

Good morning. From quickly looking at the data on people choosing option 1 to option 4, it looks like option 1, which involves a person being an employer and having someone coming and supporting them with care, is chosen least. Option 3 is basically a mixture of choices from option 1 through to option 4. In our papers, there are issues relating to stress that might be caused by being an employer. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on that. I will go to Julia Smith first. Option 1 seems to be chosen least, and it looks like option 3 involves the local authority choosing. Is there stress associated with having a personal assistant?

Good morning. I want to pick up on what Dr Pete Cheema said about education being the way forward. I have been looking at the work of Henry Dimbleby and Chris van Tulleken on the problems that are caused by ultra-processed foods and how education is not the only answer, because we need to tackle stigma and to support people to lose weight.

In relation to alcohol dependence, what opportunities are there for supermarkets—I am thinking of the big ones that are not here today—to change their model of selling to one that is similar to what goes on in Ireland, for instance, where there are shop-inside-the-shop off-licences? Would that give us an opportunity to look at how we support people?

Has the pandemic affected our ability to capture further evidence? It obviously informed the way in which some evidence was gathered. As Justina Murray described, there were higher levels of drinking during the pandemic. Do we need to continue with minimum unit pricing in order to get further robust evidence? I see that Alison Douglas has her hand up.

Thank you.

Good morning, everybody. Over the weekend, I was reading about minimum unit pricing policies that have been implemented in other European countries. I declare an interest as a registered nurse and former liver transplant nurse. Other countries are adopting MUP in some form or another. Other European countries have some form of taxation on alcohol, anyway. There is a report called “No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives”. I would be interested to hear about what we can learn from other countries. The impact of the pandemic would then be a second question.

The issue is not just one of education. For example, we had to introduce laws on the wearing of seat belts in cars in order to get people to wear them. Should regulation not be part of the process of tackling alcohol harm in Scotland?

My question is about your thoughts on alcohol advertising. I read an article in The Lancet that basically said that one third of the people on the planet die because of fossil fuels, alcohol, ultra-highly processed food and tobacco. What needs to happen with advertising to reduce the harm from alcohol?

I am going to declare an interest, too, as a registered nurse. I worked with physician assistants and what are now physician associates when I worked in a level 1 trauma centre in California, including in anaesthesia. Therefore, I have been interested in following this debate and, indeed, have looked at the American perspective. In May 2021, the House of Delegates passed a resolution to formally name physician associates as associates. I know that there are issues and concerns that the training of physician associates or anaesthesia associates might impede the ability of junior doctors to find time for their training. Has that been considered so that we can allay concerns that it might impact the training of our junior doctors?

I forgot to remind everybody that I am a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. I should have said that at the beginning.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I am interested in the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee formula and the review of that. I know that it is specifically calculated to support remote and rural places. Can you give us an update on the undertaking of a review of NRAC and a timescale for when we might expect to have the review in front of us?