 Welcome everyone to the 12th meeting of the Standards, Procedure and Public Appointments Committee in 2022. I would remind those attending virtually to place an hour on the chat function of BlueJeans should they wish to raise any issues. Our first agenda item is for the committee to agree to take agenda item 5 in private. Agenda item 5 is the ongoing consideration of the evidence heard in relation to our inquiry into future parliamentary procedures and practices. Are members in agreement with that? Excellent. Thank you very much. Our second item is for the committee to consider an application for recognition of the proposed cross-party group on heart and circulatory diseases. Can I welcome Colin Smyth, MSP, to the meeting? Colin is one of the proposed co-conveners of the proposed group. Colin, would you like to make an opening statement about the intentions of the CPG, please? Thank you very much, convener, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity to outline this application for the group. A CPG for heart disease and stroke existed in previous parliaments, and I had the privilege of being the co-convener during the last Parliament. I'm proud of the groundbreaking work that the group undertook, including two major inquiries, one on atrial fibrillation and the other on hypertension, and many of our recommendations are now being taken forward. We took some time to consider the focus of any such CPG in this Parliament and how we can best build on the achievements of the previous group, which is why the request to establish this group is maybe slightly later at the start of the new Parliament. In discussion with Colin, we decided to have a proposed cross-party group that focused on heart disease and circulatory diseases, given the scale of the issues, rather than trying to cover two major conditions. We know that, while there's been considerable decline in mortality rates due to advances in the treatment of acute cardiac disease, sadly, coronary heart disease remains Scotland's biggest killer. I'm conscious that there are many cross-party groups. The approach that we want to take in this Parliament is, yes, very much focused on heart disease and some very specific work, for example, on issues relating to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but we also want to carry out some more cross-working with other CPGs. For example, one major issue that we want to consider is the sex-based inequalities and the detection, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, and how we monitor the Government's health plan in relation to heart disease specifically. That's an area that we'd lend itself to joint working with, for example, the cross-party group on women's health. There's been considerable interest from MSPs 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 ourselves and stakeholders to circulate details of the group, which was a previous case, and we anticipate a significant interest, particularly from individuals who are living with heart conditions. That was an important group within the previous CPGs, and they influenced our work considerably. I'll leave it at that, convener, but I'll be open to your questions. That's very kind of you. Do any committee members have any questions? Edward, can I come to you first, and then I'll come to Colette. Okay. Thank you, convener. Colin, you said that you're working across other cross-party groups. Do you see that as just being correspondence, or do you see on certain areas having joint meetings so that people can share and build on the experiences that they're bringing to those meetings? We're very keen to have joint meetings and even joint pieces of work. I mentioned that the previous group did two major inquiries. We're very clear that the issues that we face could be air pollution, so that lends itself to looking at the working with cross-party groups to deal with active travel, or, as I mentioned earlier, women's health issues, which there is a very specific problem in terms of detection rates of heart disease within women. I think that we want to look at having the very least meetings, joint meetings, with other cross-party groups, but ideally possibly even some joint work on particular issues, but obviously that would require discussion with those groups. Okay, thank you. I'm heartened to hear that, because I think that sometimes cross-party groups can work independently where there are errors of ground, they can work together, and I'm glad that one of the conveners is working towards that. So thank you, Colin. Thank you, Edward Collette and then Bob. Yeah, thanks very much, convener. It's very welcome to hear that you're resurrecting the cross-party group again. One of the things I actually went to visit recently was a business in my constituency called Low Salt, and one of the things that you're trying to target from UK and Scotland is how we try to reduce our salt, because we often talk about sugar, so I'm just wondering if that's something that you would consider looking at. I know that I've changed the guidelines on it, so that it would need to be down to five grams, and I think that the moment most people are intake is nine grams. Yeah, absolutely, and I've learned something new today already, but I think that one of the important things about the cross-party group is that what we ask for is obviously ideas for work that we carry out, and we circulate that, particularly from people who are maybe living with conditions, so I think that's a really important addition. I'll take a note of that, and we're really keen for people, because we know this impacts on all your constituents. It is, sadly, hard disease, the biggest killer in Scotland. We want to hear people's ideas of what work we need to carry out, because there's a lot of important issues out there that lends itself to this particular group. It is fascinating how often members of this committee suggest ideas for CPGs that come before us, but maybe that's the privilege of overseeing them. I think that my blushies have just been spared, but it does allow me to put on the record that I explain why, Mr Smith. First of all, thank you for bringing this cross-party group forward. The initial papers that I had had no individuals or organisations listed as members of the group, and I was going to ask why that was the case, but the clerking team has just furnished with a really outstandingly impressive list of stakeholders, so I'm very pleased to see that. I was going to put that on the record, but it's good to see that you're reaching out to all the relevant individuals and groups. I was going to ask why there were no organisations represented, but it's a really impressive list, so I just wanted to put that on the record, because we know. Certainly the next step would be to circulate details more widely and to anticipate that a lot of individuals will be interested in enjoying that important group of people living with conditions. We're keen to have them at our meetings and to support our work. Thank you, Colin. If there are no more questions, absolutely, apologies, Tess. Thank you, convener. Could you just explain how you propose to act as a channel of communications between people affected, the health professionals and the research community? So each of those three are quite individual stakeholders. I think, first of all, to ensure that we have representation on the group from all those stakeholders, and that was certainly the case with the previous cross-party groups. We had people involved in research, health professionals, and as I said, importantly, people living with conditions all attending our groups. When we carried out the two inquiries on atrial ffibrillation and hypertension in the last Parliament, we did a lot of round-table work involving those groups, quite extensive work involving those groups, inviting them to give evidence to the committee so that we can learn from them. That will be a really important factor. If you look at the list of extensive risks, as Mr Doris said, of organisations, they represent a lot of those stakeholders that you highlighted. Great. Thank you, Tess. Thank you very much for attending this morning, Colin. The committee will consider whether to approve the application for recognition at the next agenda item, and clerks will inform you of the committee's decision in due course. Thank you for attending today. Agender item 3 is indeed whether or not we wish to extend approval for this cross-party group for heart and circulatory diseases. Do any members have any comments, or can I invite us to agree recognition? I'm very grateful. Agender item 4 is a stage 2 proceedings on the Scottish Local Government elections candidacy rights of foreign nationals bill. Can I welcome George Adam, Minister for Parliamentary Business of the Scottish Government, who is joining us today remotely, along with his accompanying officials? I highlight the fact that officials are not to speak on the record during these formal proceedings. No amendments have been lodged for this stage, so the only requirement is to agree the four sections of the bill and its long title. Before doing this, can I thank George Adam for attending today and invite the minister whether he wishes to make any comments at this stage or is happy for the evidence that he sent us in the form of a letter and the early evidence given to this committee to stand as the official record of the Government's position? George Adam. Thank you, convener, and if you'll indulge me, I'll make a very brief statement on the Scottish Local Government elections candidacy rights of foreign nationals bill. As members will recall, this is a very limited single-purpose bill and it seeks to ensure compliance with treaties that the UK Government has agreed in relation to candidacy rights and local government elections. I welcome the Scottish Parliament's unanimous support of the bill at stage 1 and the committee's on-going scrutiny of the bill. As no amendments have been lodged for consideration at stage 2, convener, I have nothing further to add. I'm very grateful to that, George. Before I take the formal vote, do any committee members have any questions on the procedure to follow before we move that? Edward? Not on the procedure. Can I ask a question of the minister? I will then be happy for you to ask a question and then I will see whether or not I'll invite the minister to respond, Edward. It's just when we did the stage 1 and we took evidence from the minister, the minister said that he would be bringing forward an amendment at stage 2, which he hasn't done. I would be grateful to understand what his rationale for not doing what he said he was going to do. I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason, but I would like the minister to explain that to us. Well, certainly the minister has written to the committee and that letter stands in evidence, which explains the position, but I'm more than happy, George, if you'd like the opportunity to explain the anomaly, let me call it that. There's nothing really to add to the letter that's already available, convener, apart from the fact that it was our intention to bring that amendment forward, but in discussions with the UK Government we found that it would create problems and difficulties on their side, as opposed to our side, and they didn't see it themselves as a problem, so rather than having an argument with the UK Government over something that neither was really saw as a serious problem, we decided that it was best not to bring the amendment forward at this stage. I hope that that's a simple summary of the position. Are you content, Edward? I'm content for that to be on the record and the fact that there was no argument required. I'll now move to the formal element, which is that the question is that sections 1-4 be agreed to, are we all agreed? Yes, we are agreed, and the question is that the long title be agreed to, are we all agreed? That ends stage 2 consideration of the bill and can I thank the minister for attending today and his officials. The next item or the next screen is to move the meeting into private consideration of agenda item 5. I therefore close the public element of this meeting.