 The next item of business is the member's business debate on motion number 15772, in the name of Alec Riley, on water safety in Scotland. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put to my. I would be grateful if members who wish to participate could press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Alec Riley to open the debate at seven minutes, please, Mr Riley. Presiding Officer, I am grateful to those who signed my motion that means that we are able to have this debate today in order to highlight the issues around water safety in Scotland. The Fife Water Safety Initiative has been driven by families who have sadly experienced the tragic loss of a young family member due to accidental death in an abandoned quarry in Umber Keeden in my constituency. The Fife Water Safety Initiative has brought together the Fire and Rescue Service, the Police, the RNLI and the Royal Life Same Society UK to educate young people about the importance of water safety in Fife and the dangers that water may pose to young people. I understand that there is a session taking place in the Fife School this morning, as the campaign continues to tour five secondary schools, providing an interactive 50-minute presentation to each year group. They aim to encourage all five schools to adopt the education package, including an age-appropriate programme for primary school children. This initiative is being supported by Fife Council. While Stouw is aware of the tragic accidents at the abandoned Preston Hill quarry in Umber Keeden, it was only after meeting with and speaking with family members that I realised the extent of the threat of water and the number of lives it takes. As this motion says, death by drowning is the third-highest accidental cause of death in the United Kingdom and that per head of population there are twice as many accidental drownings in Scotland as in England. I appreciate that this is the last day of this parliamentary session, but I hope that, as a result of this debate today, the new Parliament will be persuaded to have a look at this issue and see what more can be done to highlight the concerns and considerations. In Scotland, we have a partnership called Water Safety Scotland, which aims to consider and understand the key risks in Scotland and engage with partners to develop a consistent approach to the prevention of drowning water-related deaths and unintentional injuries in and around water. This group is part of the National Water Safety Forum, which has produced a UK drowning prevention strategy that would also apply for Scotland. The forum states that, co-ordinated in last prevention programmes established by members of the National Water Safety Forum and other organisations and individuals have had a proven effect, with many lives saved due to existing initiatives. However, in order to save even more lives, a step change in our approach is needed. They also draw attention to the World Health Organization report published in November 2014, which highlighted that drowning is a serious and neglected global public health issue, claiming a shock in 372,000 lives each year. The report highlights 10 recommendations to prevent drowning, one of which is that countries should develop and implement a national water safety strategy. In terms of the work going on in Fife, it is very much in line with the national strategy, and this is hopefully something that the Education Minister post-election will be prepared to have a look at. The strategy states that improved understanding of events leading up to, during and after our drowning, will enable us to understand and design relevant behavioural messages, activities and interventions. Under estimating risks, lack of knowledge of risks, lack of competence, ill-informed, thrill-seeking—those and other key points are picked up through the Fife water safety initiative. I also note that the UK strategy has a number of specific targets, some of which some authorities in Scotland already worked to, but again it would be good to demonstrate wider support for those across Scotland. Specifically, the strategy talks about every child should have the opportunity to learn to swim and receive water safety education at primary school. Every community with water risk should have a community-level risk assessment and water safety plan. Increase awareness of everyday risk on and around water. All recreational activity organisations should have a clear strategic risk assessment and plans that address key risks. From the debate today on the last day of this session, I am and I aim to continue to press on these issues and to give support wherever I can to the work in Fife and across Scotland. Words cannot do justice for the families who have lost loved ones. Of course of that, I am clear, but I would say today that I am inspired by the way that families in the face of adversity and of grief have focused their determination to do all that they can to ensure that it does not happen to others. I hope that the new Parliament and the new Government will look at what it can do to support these families and this campaign. With regard to the abandoned quarry in my constituency, I have discussed this with the chief executive of Fife Council and he advises me that in relation to the ownership and responsibility of the quarry in surrounding land, it is owned by Letham Bay Developments Ltd, which is a company registered in Scotland and has a registered office in Glasgow. This is a company upon which the council served the abatement notice under the statutory nuisance provision of the EPA 1990. Following the non-compliance with the terms of the abatement notice, the council are in the process of reporting this breach to the Proculator Fiscal with a view to take action. In terms of seeking action around ownership, they understand that there are a number of loans over the quarry in favour of other third parties, which remain in place and consequently give rise to a complex and complicated financial background. The chief executive of Fife Council is clear that Fife Council will continue to be proactive in pursuing this. I am clear this morning that, if we need legislation to support Fife Council with this action, it should come forth. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate speeches of four minutes, please. Clare Adamson to be followed by Murdo Fraser. I thank Alex Rowley for securing this important debate in the chamber. As chair of the Cross-Party Group on Action Prevention and Safety Awareness, I would also like to extend my thanks to my colleagues from across the chamber who have supported our efforts in the CPG and to Rosba, who is the provider secretary at. Of course, Rosba runs the Water Safety Scotland, which in turn runs and supports Fife Water Safety Awareness Project. As Mr Rowley has said, that followed the tragic drowning of Cameron Lancaster in Burnt Island in 2014. I know that Rosba has issued a call to action, and I am keen that the programme be rolled out across Scotland. I look forward to hearing the minister's response to that call from Rosba. There is also a lot of other work going on in Scotland. The Royal Life Saving Society UK has launched a spring clean awareness campaign from 21 to 25 March. That is to warn UK parents about the dangers of water around the home, and it follows another tragic death in Fife of Rhys and Sean Scott, who dried down in their fish pond in their garden on 12 March this year. I am sure that the whole chamber was wish to extend their condoloses to the Scott family and also to the McGroty and Daniels family, who suffered such another terrible tragedy at Duncran ap Eir in Dunigol. The Royal Life Saving Society also runs a year-run drowning prevention week, and it runs from 18 to 26 June. It aims to reduce the number of drownings in and near water, and the incidents that occurred in the UK by showing people how to be safe near water and recognise water danger. In all the work that I have done in accident prevention over the years, what I have learned from the experts who are in the field is that the brain development does not complete until young people are in their 20s, and that is what leads to the risk-taking behaviour and the bad decision-making that Mr Rowley alluded to. What is so important about all the initiatives on accident prevention, whether in water safety or road safety, is that those initiatives teach people life skills that are transferable and that any work that is done in this area can only contribute to safety for our young people as they grow up, as they start to drive, as they take part in life's adventure. Our CPG conducted an evaluation of the group over the last five years. One of the comments was that the CPG had been an ideal way to meet like-minded safety professionals, share information, highlight research and to both give and receive updates, which is very nice to know, but we were also keen to find out what difference it had made, and we also asked if it had not attended those meetings what would not have happened. In two areas of water safety, we have the development of new ideas such as smart signs, a coscard registered uniformed approach to the design of all safety signages with each sign carrying a unique location, numbered red reference and smart phone QR code, and Water Safety Scotland would not have managed to get started or be where it is now. I hope that no matter what the make-up of the new Parliament, the work of this CPG will be continued in some form or another. I also thank Stuart McMillan MSP, who is chair of the Marine Tourism Group, because we had a very good joint meeting and presentations from the RNLI were at that meeting. All of our presentations are hosted on the Rospa website, both in water safety and other areas of safety. I also recommend that all members look to the National Water Safety Forum drowning prevention strategy for the UK, and hopefully we can have one developed specifically for Scotland. I congratulate Alex Rowley on securing this important debate and join with him in thanking the Fife water safety initiative for their work. Members have already spoken about the tragic deaths of John Mackay and Cameron Lancaster, and I echo the thoughts that have been expressed and add my condolences to both families. The deaths of both of these young men have left huge holes in the lives of their families and friends. I hope that the Fife water safety initiative can help to ensure that no one else has to go through this trauma. The nature of those deaths shows that there is clearly an issue in Fife, in particular with dangerous water. I hope that raising awareness is the first step in preventing deaths under those circumstances. We should not wrap our youngsters up in cotton wool, but we should ensure that we have the best information to make the safest possible choices. That is exactly what the Fife water safety initiative is trying to provide. Although today's motion mentions the proportionally higher death count in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, quarry deaths are not a problem unique to our country. Communities in Northern Ireland, in Stoke and Bedford have all been affected by high-profile quarry lake deaths. We were all young once, country to popular belief, and we can all understand the attraction of cool water on a warm day to young people. Many of those deaths are marked by the same chain of events. A swimmer enters the water, usually from a significant height or with a sudden plunge, which results in shortened breathing and the racing heartbeat. As a result of poor circulation, co-ordination reduces, increasing the risk of drowning. That chain of events is particularly dangerous in quarries, where the water temperature is far lower than we would expect in shallower water or even in the sea. Educating youngsters of the dangers associated with quarry swimming throughout is therefore extremely important. The Fife water safety initiative follows other examples in the UK, notably Northern Ireland, with its stay safe, stay out of quarries educational campaign. The RNLI, the Royal Life Saving Society, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Fife Council and Police Scotland have all combined to create a hard-hitting interactive video, which highlights not only the dangers of quarry swimming but also the best practice for swimming in open water. By introducing the programme to both primary and secondary pupils, the initiative aims to be fully immersive and accessible to pupils of all ages. Fife has a number of quarries, as we have heard, and helping children to make the right choices from the start is extremely important. I hope that other local authorities use the materials and messages from the Fife water safety initiative to create their own tailor-made public awareness campaign, because that is a problem that occurs in other parts of Scotland, and I hope that other councils will take up that template. In his motion, Alex Rowley also mentions the tremendous work carried out by RNLI in saving lives in coastal areas across the country. There are three lifeboat stations in Fife. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and their determination to ensure that days at the beach do not end in tragedy. This summer, RNLI lifeguards will patrol beaches at St Andrews, Leven, Burnt Island and Aberdare. Last year, RNLI lifeguards responded to 17,000 incidents, rescuing 1,769 people and saving 92 lives across the UK. Having such high-caliber lifeguards in Fife on our beaches helps to make the area a very attractive draw for young families, who therefore feel much safer swimming as a result. It is important that the lives of both John and Cameron were not lost in vain, and that both families can use their tragic deaths to help to ensure that no other Fife family has to go through the same pain. I know that Cameron's family are actively involved in this initiative, and I would like to thank them for their efforts. I would close by calling on other local authorities throughout Scotland to consider following Fife's example and create their own educational campaigns. Many thanks. Before I call Drew Smith, I can advise Parliament that, as has his valedictory speech, Drew Smith was elected to the Parliament in 2011, having previously worked with an MSP. He has worked tirelessly during that time, representing constituents in Glasgow and in serving this Parliament on committees and in the chamber, and he has done that. I am sure that members would agree with Huma and Insight. First of all, I thank you for the opportunity to take part in this short debate and for all your support, encouragement, advice and occasional discipline, which I have received from you and your colleagues over the past five years. Like previous speakers, we wish to thank Alec Rowley for securing the debate. It has been a privilege to get to know him since he came to this place in 2014 and members across all parties, many of whom I have certainly come to regard as friends, colleagues and only occasionally opponents. I had not been looking for a debate to make a final contribution, but the issue that Mr Rowley raises is one that is important to me. There is a related point that I wanted to make. Mr Rowley has particularly highlighted the dangers of open water, and he is right to do so. On behalf of his constituents and anyone who has been affected by the loss of a child or a loved one, I should probably declare a very old interest as a former member of the Royal Life Safety Society. I commend them and the others that were listed by Alec Rowley for their efforts to reduce her high incidence of drowning. I also want to recognise the loss of Cameron Lancaster and John Mackay at Prestonhill quarry at the outset and pay tribute to those for whom their memory is dearest. The motion rightly highlights the differential rates of drowning, which tragically occurred in Scotland. It is an issue that I have sought to raise in a member's debate previously. Entering or attempting to swim in open water can be dangerous. Approaching the warmer months, we should be clear to young people that quarries are not safe places and to those who own them that they do indeed have responsibilities to make them safer too. The point that I wanted to add to this debate relates to the wider issue of water safety. In my view, promoting good water safety also requires an ambition in this country that every child who would like to learn leaves school able to swim. Teaching all of our children to swim would have a myriad of benefits, but in the context of this debate, first of all, I want to say that we need to be clear that teaching children to swim also means teaching children when and where not to enter water. A motion that I had hoped to have debated last summer drew attention to the Government's decision to withdraw their support for the swimming top-up programme, which funded Scottish swimming to reduce some 40 per cent of children who leave primary school in Scotland unable to swim. I found that at the time to be a short-sighted cut, not least following Glasgow's successful Commonwealth Games. I strongly hope that an incoming Government will look again at that particular issue and recognise that swimming can be a lifelong health-enhancing form of physical activity. I hope that that will mean a proper evaluation of what was done in the past and an audit of what with that withdrawal of support has meant, combined with local authority cuts and what all of that has meant for levels of swimming take-up. I hope that members in the next session will push for a commitment to put both swimming for life and what a safety education at the heart of our vision for a healthier and more active nation. In so doing, they should recognise that swimming whilst dangerous in the wrong places and where overconfidence might be at play is also a life skill and indeed it can be a life-saving skill. My name appears on the order paper later for questions, so I do not want to take up more of Parliament's time now other than to say thank you to my party, my staff, Sir Paul's staff here in the Parliament and my family for the support that I have had to serve here. I assure you that they all deserve it and I have certainly needed it at times. A few kind souls have said that they found my decision to leave here unexpected, while all I can say in response is that it is not half as unexpected as I found it to come here five years ago. My very best wishes to candidates and others who are leaving. It has been very many different things for me, Presiding Officer, but it has always been a privilege. The Scottish Parliament has seen us debate big causes, but also those small changes which make the most difference to the lives of our people. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Can I too congratulate Alex Rowley on this important and timely debate on the day's lengthen and become warmer? Indeed, I would congratulate perhaps the mother of Cameron Lancaster on her campaign, falling on the tragic death of her own son. Indeed, I had a friend who lost a son, a very strong swimmer who was drowned swimming across a loch he knew well on Islay. It was a lovely summer's day and he was 17. Later, he became posthumously dux of his school. To visit his bedroom some months later, where I am getting upset because I can remember it to this day, where my mentors of him were everywhere, was heartbreaking particularly as I had two sons of the same age. To this day, I can feel that sadness of that lost life and that lost future. It is a modest but an extremely significant debate that impacts on the lives of many people. When I looked at my constituency in the Pentland Hills, where we have reservoirs that are no longer functioning, some of them are, notwithstanding notices that say, danger, do not enter the water. As others have said, when the brains have not developed until into their 20s, those can act as a challenge rather than a warning. A danger sign to a young man might make them rise to the occasion and there have been drownings in the reservoirs of the Pentland Hills. It also happens in the rivers in my constituency, in the tweed and the River Teviot, where again on warm summers day, beginning of summer usually, in the heat they forget the water in the reservoirs that is freezing cold. In the rivers it is also cold, but there are other dangers in the currents and the undergrowth. The warning here is, just because you are a strong swimmer, does not mean that you can swim in these places. I think that it is very important that this is stress harking back to the experience of my friend on Islay. I very much welcome this debate. I notice that it is in June that the campaign takes place to heighten awareness of the dangers of our waterways, but I think that it should take place before that, because it is that warm day in May, or that first warm day at the beginning of June, where people feel that water looks enticing. I will just take a wee swim in it, and it may be the last time that they swim anywhere. I very much welcome the date. I congratulate the mother who brought that forward. In her way, I am also saying this on behalf of my friend on Islay, who to this day is one sun short. I invite the minister to respond to the debate. I first begin by offering my own sincere condolences to the families of Cameron Lancaster and John Mackay. Indeed, given the mention that Clare Adamson has made to the families of Rhyson and Sean Scott, we all sense the deep tragedy and deep loss, the sense of loss that the families must have suffered, but it is hard to imagine the pain of losing a child as a parent myself. However, to suffer this tragic loss in such unexpected circumstances must be truly devastating. As others have done, I congratulate Julian Barkley and families for raising this very important issue. I congratulate Alex Rowley for bringing forward such an important subject to this session's final member's debate. As Christine Grahame movingly said, it is a modest but significant debate, and I think that it is a very appropriate use of the time today to raise this issue. I would also like to pay tribute to the courage, determination and selflessness particularly of Julian Barkley's mother. She has demonstrated in her work to raise awareness of the potential dangers of water and to try to help to prevent any other parent experiencing the tragedy that she has faced and, as we have heard so many others. My congratulations also go to Fife Water Safety Initiative on the successes of its education package and to wish it continued to success in its endeavour to encourage all schools in Fife to dot the package and to improve water safety awareness among children in the area. The issue of water safety in Scotland regarding legislation responsibilities is a complex one, both with inland and coastal waters to deal with. It is affected by Scotland's common law and by statutory requirements, the majority of which come under the remit of the local authority. That is compounded by our geography because, of course, the Scottish Natural Heritage estimates that there are more than 30,000 freshwater locks in a country that is already surrounded by coastal water and has numerous waterways running through it. That, of course, contributes to the great natural beauty of our country, as others have said. To the range of water-related leisure pursuits available and enjoyed by many of us, it also brings with it a greater element of the risks associated with water, particularly when our climate ensures that our bodies of water can be surprisingly cold even at the height of summer when we have one. However, cold water and the effect that it can have on the body, which can incapacitate even the strongest swimmers, as Christine Grahame has said, are one of the key messages in Fife Water Safety's programme. I wholeheartedly agree, Presiding Officer, with Drew Smith, who made an excellent final speech, if I may say so, that we can educate children when not to go swimming. That is particularly important because, as others have said, water may look enticing but we do not know what lies below the surface, we do not know how cold the water is and other dangers, riptides and currents that can affect them. However, I will say what I have said privately to Drew Smith that I very much respect him and his work in this Parliament and wish him every success in the future. Good luck, Drew. However, on water rescue, we are very fortunate in that we have the Arnalai at sea, and the motion today mentions the impressive number of rescues of lives saved by them. In short, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has a statutory responsibility to respond to serious flooding incidents and has discretion to respond to other eventualities. SFRS has a number of water rescue units stationed at strategic locations across the country, and, as well as rescuing people from flooded homes and vehicles during the storms earlier this year, the service has also been involved in a number of non-flooding-related water rescues, including an 11-year-old boy trapped on an island in the river Amond, as well as the rescue of a man who had fallen down a ravine into the water at Blair Athol. Scotland also benefits from a number of voluntary water rescue organisations, which work extremely hard to protect people in various parts of the country, including the Scottish Borders that I am aware of. Our greatest chance of success will lie in an approach based on prevention through education and awareness to ensure that people who are going near or entering the water are aware of the risks associated with it and, in turn, reduce the number of deaths by drowning in Scotland. The ability to swim is, of course, an important part of feeling confident to enter the water, but there are many other issues to be aware of, as I have said, such as depth, the presence of currents or other often unseen hazards below the surface. Of course, cold temperatures, as others have said, and the immediate longer-term effects that they can have on the body. That is why work such as that of Cameron's mother and the participants of the Fife Water Safety Initiative, including the R&Li Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Fife Council, is so vital to the safety of individuals across the country. The content and delivery of education and the curriculum in Scotland is, of course, very much a local decision. However, the Scottish Government recognises the importance of raising awareness and of making suitable resource materials available to support water safety education. We would encourage local authorities to consider that very carefully for pupils at both primary and secondary school levels. In 2016-17, the Scottish Government will provide funding of £104,000 to the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents, or ROSPA, to continue to deliver its annual home and water safety programme. If I may take an indulgence here and mention the work of Clare Adamson, I particularly want to raise that. Clare Adamson, in the course of her time in Parliament since 2011, has been working extremely hard to support the work of ROSPA in this Parliament and outside Parliament, for which I am very grateful as the minister, but I am sure that ROSPA, if they were able to speak in this debate, would praise Clare Adamson as well. I very much take on board the points that she made earlier on about the need to look at how we develop a Scottish strategy for water safety. However, the water safety element of ROSPA's programme aims to assist the UK national drowning prevention strategy to reduce accidental drowning rates in the UK by 50 per cent by 2026. In 2014, ROSPA set up the Water Safety Scotland group, which was referred to by Mr Rowley, whose aim is to consider and understand the key risks in Scotland and engage with partners to develop a consistent approach to the prevention of drowning water-related deaths and unintentional injuries in and around water. That is already happening as the group has facilitated partnership working on a number of initiatives, including the Fife Water Safety Initiative, which we have heard about today—Water Safety for Children and Young People, a joint programme between Dumfries and Galloway Council education department, Nith Insure Rescue and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in Dumfries and Galloway, and the Don't Drink and Drown campaign, a joint venture with the Royal Life Saving Society, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, which is aimed at students. As Murdo Fraser said, other parts of the UK, including Northern Ireland, are developing their own strategies. I certainly wish them well in tackling what is a UK-wide problem with the incidents of drowning in quarries. Rossba has recently provided a framework for local authorities to formulate their own policies and will continue to put in its use, as well as providing support to newly formed Scotland's water safety reference group and any water safety-related campaigns. Go Safe Scotland, which was launched by the SFRS and Glasgow City Council of September 2013, is another excellent example of partnership working between Police Scotland, Scottish Water, Rossba, British Transport Police, NHS, Scottish Power, Scottish Gas Network, HM Coast Guard and Network Rail, providing a national interactive education resource to pupils across Scotland. As Minister for Community Safety, I would like to pay tribute to all those who are working hard to promote water safety, as well as to the emergency responders and voluntary organisations who rescue people who have come into difficulties in the water. As a grandson of an angler who drowned in Loch Neill in Northern Ireland, I can assure the chamber and the parents of those who are no longer with us and their families that I take such matters extremely seriously. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in Fife Water Safety initiative on the production of its presentation and its successes in making young people in Fife aware of the importance of water safety and the possible tragic consequences of not taking care in and around water. I would like to thank also my colleague Annabelle Ewing for being in regular correspondence about the particular case around young Cameron's death and raising the issue with me and Mr Rowley for bringing forward a very important debate today. Finally, I would like to offer my support to the aims of the initiative by writing to all of Scotland's local authorities to encourage them to raise awareness of the dangers in and around water to pupils in schools across Scotland and to make local authorities aware of this very strong desire expressed today across the chamber, across the political parties to see important work taken forward and improvements in water safety. In response to the correspondence from Ms Ewing, I can inform the chamber that my officials are also due to meet with Cameron's mother Gillian Barkley to discuss how the Scottish Government might further support this work, and I hope that that will be welcomed by colleagues across the chamber. Water is one of Scotland's greatest natural resources and we want people to be able to enjoy it, but it is vital that we are informed and aware of the potential hazards in and around water and that we do all we can to protect ourselves and indeed our children from its dangers. Thank you very much. Many thanks minister, and that concludes the final member's business of this session, Alex Rowley, on water safety in Scotland. I now suspend Parliament until 11am.