 I leave the gallery that this Parliament is in session and therefore they should leave the gallery as quietly as possible please. The next item of business today is a members business debate on motion number 9302 in the name of Fiona McCloud on UV radiation awareness to prevent melanoma and non melanoma skin cancer. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would be grateful if those members who wish to contribute to the debate could please press the request to speak buttons now. I thank all the members across the parties who signed my motion so that we could debate it here in Parliament today and the many members that I know are wanting to contribute to this important debate. I also thank Mass Scott, the Melanoma Action and Support Scotland group for the briefing that they gave not just to myself but to other members and to welcome them to the gallery. I hope they're here. I'm not standing in a queue waiting to get in. Presiding Officer, just last week I was completing or attempted to complete the Glasgow-Herald crossword and there was a clue in it and it was a clue for a three-letter word and the clue was sunburn and the answer was tan and I thought that was quite helpful because many of us still think that to have a tan is a good thing but sunburn is a bad thing and that clue just put it into perspective. Sunburn and tan are the same thing and sunburn can cause malignant melanoma. Every year in Scotland about 1200 people are diagnosed with malignant melanoma and the main cause of that is UV light damaging the DNA in our skin cells that is sunburn and we can get that from the sun and from sunbeds and from that it's clear that this is a preventable cancer almost entirely preventable and sadly over the last at least four decades the numbers of people being diagnosed with malignant melanoma have been rising and in April 2014 we learned from ISD figures that in the last 10 years alone in Scotland the numbers of men with malignant melanoma diagnosis have gone up by 43% and for women the figure has risen by 30%. So with these figures before us, with this rise before us but also with the understanding that this is almost an entirely preventable cancer what can be done about it and I would like to suggest to the chamber that there's three areas we should be looking at we should look we should be looking at education advice and behaviour change we should be looking at early diagnosis and treatment and we should also be looking at research on education advising and behaviour change this should be about lifelong education we know that most parents nowadays with their very small toddler children get that remember the Australian slip slap slot we wouldn't think of letting our toddlers out into the sunlight without the cream on without a t-shirt on and without a hat on and nowadays in our nursery schools for our three and four year olds we spend a lot of time talking to them and taking care of their skin when we take them out but I believe that this has to become a lifelong education process so that in primary school or in secondary school when our pupils are going out to do perhaps physical education outside or to take part in outdoor education trips it should be standard practice that we talk to all of the pupils about putting on their sunscreen and putting on their hats and if we can make this lifelong education then it will become routine for all of us to then take care of our skin when we're out in the sun and we know that this approach works lifelong education and we know that it works in affecting behaviour change because we just need to look at the smoking cessation figures over the same 40 years that melanoma cancers have been going up we've been stopping smoking and the percentage lung cancers has been going down and that has been so much about education and behaviour change now maskot itself through a grant from the center trust last year went into 28 schools across the greater Glasgow area and spoke to 8 000 pupils and I think that is something that we need to be supporting and I'm delighted that I know that they'll be going into some schools in my constituency this year I think in Bishop Briggs so it's about let's make sure that we support organisations in that lifelong education the other area I talked about was early diagnosis and treatment and for that we need to be looking at self-examination so that we are more aware of our skin we can do self-examination maskot through the alliance have got a self-examination pack that includes a dvd to teach us how to do that it means we'll then present our gps earlier and I would suggest that gps need to be more aware but perhaps also community pharmacy is a place that we could go with way of concerns if community pharmacists get the training and this is really important because early diagnosis of malignant melanoma is one of the best ways of treating it and curing it the five-year survival rates on malignant melanoma if it's caught early can be a hundred percent survival rate if it's caught late it's eight percent so we have to think about this get self-examination and get our professionals up my last point was about research and I think it's probably a bit too difficult for me to explain but I so I want to say as we need to be looking at doing more research on this my husband's phd a way back in 1976 was looking at the function of ribosomal protein s6 and I'm going to have to read this bit out it was specifically looking at a protein complex called mTOR and that's implicated in rapidly developing cancers like melanoma and the hypothesis a way back then in 1976 my husband was doing this research was that if we can turn turn down mTOR activity then perhaps we can slow down the cancer well 38 years on from that research there's two conferences in Europe this year looking at exactly that hypothesis and seeing if we can take it further so a wee plug for my husband's phd from all those years ago but you start small and you can perhaps get somewhere so in conclusion Presiding Officer I wanted to have this debate today so that it could be part of raising public understanding that a tan is not a good thing we have to take care of our skin I also wanted to use it as part of the process to change behaviour and change attitudes and also I wanted to have the debate today to thank mascot for the work that they do for so many people in so many ways in education in supporting research but also in one to one with people once they've been diagnosed thank you very much many thanks there are a number of members who would like to contribute to this debate so if I could ask members to keep to their four minutes please ken mackintosh to be followed by Aileen McLeod thank you Presiding Officer and can I begin also by thanking Fiona McLeod for bringing today's motion for debate to her motion skin cancer is particularly timely as we head towards the summer months and many scots will be rushing to welcome the sun rather than to treat it with the respect it deserves just last week we were given the clearest evidence why fair skin scots of all people need to be careful we've seen a 40% increase in skin cancer in this country in just one decade so make no mistake this is an epidemic and we need to respond appropriately and yes they're having many advances in the treatment and in the earlier detection of melanoma but this is one of the most preventable of cancers the 40% rise in the number of people affected is almost entirely down to our own behaviour our sun seeking behaviour and the long-term answer has to lie in changing that behaviour before I move on can I also thank Ellie Smith and her colleagues at mascot for all their work to raise awareness exemplified by the first class briefing circulated in advance of today's discussion many of our MSP colleagues who will not be able to take part in the debate will have read this document and I doubt any of them will not have been struck by the case to take action the stories are too moving this is a cancer which strikes down young lives which leaves others scarred and damaged and which for far too many leaves them saying if only I'd known well now we do know and yes I am pleased that we took action on sunbeds here in Scotland but that was only ever supposed to be the start not the end point sunbeds are only one small part of the problem the sun and tanning is the main issue protecting our children and warning adults about the dangers of sunbeds is simply not enough we have to educate people to cover up in the sun now the good news is we know it can be done fair-skinned Australians have shown us the way despite a far hotter climate they have a better record on prevention on earlier detection and on treatment the slip slap slop campaign which funer referred to earlier led by their cricketing and other sporting stars was hugely influential and I have to ask why we not use the commonwealth games to send out a similar message I know that mascot suggested a uniform for the volunteers at the games which could have highlighted the advice to cover up with long sleeves and either a wide brim or a kepi hat would this not have been one of the best legacies for the games to give the people of Scotland it's certainly not too late to promote that message in our schools nurseries on the whole do tend to have very good clear sun protection policies but the same cannot be said of primaries or secondaries it is not just fair skin that is the most vulnerable it is young skin and again I would praise the work of mascot in raising awareness amongst pupils I would urge the minister to do more to work with them and with other charities such as cancer research UK ineffective health prevention presently there's so many issues to raise simply not enough time returning to the issue of sunbeds ministers did promise a review of the sunbed legislation if it was if it was not enough well we know that children and young people are still accessing these machines I've reported one just last month in my own area we know of others in Airdrie and Glasgow one salon chain we're offering three sessions on a Saturday recently and I was shocked to see their advertising and TV is it time ministers should perhaps be asking time for a licensing regime a few years ago I remember one of my MSP colleagues in the SSP being mocked for asking for free sun protection cream but it should not least be available on prescription it's available for vitiligo patients to prevent skin cancers but not available to those with skin cancer the good news again is there have been a number of breakthrough treatments developed recently which offer huge hope for saving lives and improving the quality of life advances in radiotherapy for example I've made a major difference to patient outcomes and immunotherapy or immuno oncology in particular is a very exciting area of research and new treatment the first of those new drugs is now available to Scottish patients but only as a second stage intervention does the minister accept that such new drugs do hold out hope hope that we can turn cancer into a chronic disease a chronic condition rather than a life limiting one but that they also pose challenges for us challenges over cost of these drugs and the balance between treatment and prevention. Presiding officer there's not enough time I believe there's issues we should look at about dermatology it costs three times as much to employ a consultant to work in a waiting time initiative clinic than it does normal we did not work better just to staff them properly I would thank Fiona McLeod and Mascot for their work and there's so much we can do not just in treatment but in moving the emphasis to prevention thank you thank you very much can I remind members to use full names it's a matter of accessibility and also for the official report I call on Aileen McLeod to be followed by Jackson Carlaw thank you presenting officer and I'd also like to begin by congratulating my friend and colleague Fiona McLeod on securing this debate on skin cancer which as we've heard is actually one of the most preventable forms of cancer now malignant melanomas are now the most common cancers in teenagers and young adults in Scotland and they account for 24 percent of all new diagnoses and of course we shouldn't forget that more people are actually surviving cancer but education and awareness are key because for malignant melanoma common signs include a growth or sore that won't heal or which itches and hurts or changes to a mole and while these signs are becoming more widely known we really do need to get that early diagnosis and as vital there are young people are aware of the risk of melanoma that they are encouraged to develop healthy sun behaviors and that they are confident in seeking help now a recent study by sterling university in partnership with the teenage cancer trust that was published recently in the bmg concluded that Scottish adolescents have poor sun protection practice and low skin cancer awareness and girls in particular adopted riskier sun related behavior despite having greater awareness of skin cancer related risk now the research recommended that urgent action is required to promote positive sun related behavior and increase skin cancer awareness among Scottish young people now mascot in their very helpful briefing mentioned how they delivered sun awareness information to 8 000 pupils in 26 primary schools across Glasgow last year and that they will continue that work this year as part of the 2014 legacy and similarly the teenage cancer trust through its education programme also runs an annual summer sun safety campaign called shunburn and this is a joint media and education campaign encouraging young people to love the sun respect your skin by taking simple steps to reduce the risk of skin cancer and includes lesson plans for teachers and guidance for schools on developing their own sun safety policy in my view these are important and complementary tools which give our young people the information that they need to look after themselves and enjoy that the sunshine that we often feel we see so little of but without putting themselves at risk so in closing planning officer information and education for our young people on sun safety and skin cancer will in my view be absolutely vital to addressing the increasing incidence of this cancer in Scotland and as you know McLeod said earlier educating young people about their health stays with them throughout their lives you know melanoma is not entirely preventable but recognising the risks of overexposure to the sun and acting accordingly will certainly reduce that risk and I hope that in time we will see a reduction in these figures as the messages about the importance of sun safety reach a wider audience that is a practical and constructive way in which we can work to tackle the problem that Fiona McLeod has so rightly identified and brought to the chamber this afternoon and I look forward to hearing the minister's response. Many thanks and I call Jackson Carlaw to be followed by Stuart Stevenson. Can I as well congratulate Fiona McLeod as a second very worst wild debate she's brought to the chamber recently and also of course congratulate Mascot who not just in advance of this debate but I think throughout this Parliament have brought very important education to members. I'm afraid I'm a walking disaster in this particular area I'm red haired somewhat less lustrous than it once was I'm blue eyed I'm fair skinned I have my old vitiligo and I learned very early on as a teenager that in fact it doesn't need to be sunny for you to get sunburned ultraviolet rays penetrate clouds and I discovered that to my cost abroad at the risk of a headline saying Tory MSP confesses to wearing makeup can I say that I do I wear a clinic other brands are available on request for men moisturiser which has at its core a factor 21 and I wear that actually all the time and I think that one of the lessons that I think we should be promoting in education is that you cannot anticipate the weather nor can you sometimes anticipate the UV strength that there is in the in the in the sun penetrating cloud and actually I think a far better thing for young people particularly children would be for us to get into a habit of families simply getting their children to put on a layer of a sun cream or a sun protection factor cream as a matter of course particularly during the summer months when the risks are at their highest because it is not just the case that it is that it is in a hot sunny day that you are at risk you can be at risk in all sorts of less obvious weathers in fact I've only got to walk up a windy beach to get sunburned frankly so I have to be pretty well lathered up with stuff and I think that if you are going to make a meaningful change against this typical west of Scotland or Scottish complexion then the habit of getting into of wearing some sort of protection factor is an important lesson for us to make the second point I'd like to talk about is the ongoing availability of epilimumab which is the first genuine treatment that I think we've seen which is offering real hope to sufferers of skin cancer now it was of course previously available in England under the cancer drugs fund nice then the smc made it available as a secondary course of treatment in Scotland it will in fact be the first drug I believe to go through the new approvals process when there is a recommendation or an effort now for it to be seen as a first course treatment for skin cancer and I think and I hope although this is out with the minister's responsibility to deliver I very much hope that the smc are persuaded of that case because you only have to see the benefit that it has given particularly to some of the young people that we have been talking about who are sufferers of skin cancer who have had a very meaningful extension both to the quality and length of life ahead of them as a result of access to this drug I hope that we are able to see an extension of that to to primary use as a treatment for skin cancer I hope the smc are persuaded of that case and I hope as I said at the start that the government's information campaign and so much as it can doesn't simply focus on that very hot sunny day but recognises that UV treatment UV rays are dangerous in all sorts of weathers and that getting into the habit of wearing a sun protection factor cream would be of advantage to us all thank you and I call Stuart Stevenson to be followed by Richard Simpson thank you very much Presiding Officer and let me join others in congratulating Fiona on bringing this important and interesting debate to to Parliament. It's perhaps worth just looking a little bit at the science that underpins some of this the ultraviolet rays that we are talking about are in the wavelength of 100 to 400 nanometres it's quite a narrow range of the light that causes the problem but a very important and omnipresent part of of light and it's particularly interesting that the part of ultraviolet light that's most likely to reach us is in fact the most dangerous part of that narrow range and I myself as others and Jackson Carlaw has just been delineating some of his experience I got so badly sunburned that I actually had sunstroke in 1956 as a 10 year old and had to be hospitalised now my father as a GP did a very important thing in the back of that and he actually counseled me that I should regularly for the rest of my life look at my skin critically and describe some of the the things that I might see in my skin that I should pay close attention to and I think that is an important point that I hope all people involved in providing advice to people who've been burnt give to people because it's simple and it's virtually cost free and you don't need to be particularly technical just anything on your skin a change don't imagine that it is a trivial matter and I say that in particular context because I had a good friend who was a councillor of ours in Aberdeenshire called Mitchell Burnett who started off with a tiny tiny little black spot on the top of one year and when I say tiny you know narrower than a pen no more than I guess about 20 millimeters across I know it less than that quite small but it killed them it took a while to do it but it eclipted it out of the year but it came back one turn to his scalp and eventually it killed them so the start can be quite small and early action yes I will Ken Mackay would agree with me the very good advice from Dr Gires Gupta who's a dermatologist at Munklands hospital that the advent of digital cameras makes us very easy that if people were to for example take a photograph of their own back and compare it you know year on year this is a very good way of working out of their head and neck a very good way of detecting moles I wonder if my wife will allow me to improve my camera on the basis of that advice which sounds very good advice indeed let me just pick up Johnston Carlaw talked about walking on the clouds and actually the science is quite interesting where the cloud is thin and high the risk of UV impact is raised compared to totally clear skies and I think that's a point that people are relatively unaware of the other thing I want to just cover in the remaining short time that I have is that this is an issue for the whole population even if they never go in the sun because climate change is actually changing the impact of UV the increase in temperature in the troposphere is matched by a decrease in temperature in the stratosphere in other words the upper bit and as that happens that is promoting the growth of a particular cloud type called polar stratospheric clouds which increase the size of holes in the ozone layer and let more UV through so there are issues for us all that will protect people who are particularly susceptible to this because where ozone holes happen it comes through let me just close by saying I will go away and look at my personal makeup as a result of Jackson Carlaw's comment I did notice in looking this morning at who signed the motion that no Tories and no Liberals had actually signed I'm delighted to see Jackson Carlaw here and Presiding Officer I have therefore concluded that for the Tories and the Liberals the time in the sun is over thank you very much can I once again remind members of the chamber to use full names members of the public who are watching our proceedings may not be as familiar as we all are with colleagues Dr Richard Simpson to be followed by Kevin Stewart thank you deputy Presiding Officer can I join with others and congratulating Fiona McLeod on this timely debate which is an important one and Fiona did refer to the fact of the briefing from mascot the melanoma action and support Scotland which was indeed very helpful and reminded me of some of the issues which I have been concerned over the years about in this area I want to start with the educational side there is there are health and wellbeing education going on in the schools and I would ask the minister whether he will undertake to ensure that his education colleagues make sure that that education programme includes something for every child on the exposure dangers but also the use of sunbeds and can I at that point pay tribute to my colleague Ken Macintosh for all his work on sunbeds which I think has helped to make significant changes and make people more aware I hope that also that he will look at whether the chief inspector in the education field will actually raise this issue as part of the assessment of nurseries and schools we are trying to encourage children more and more to play outside in nurseries and that is great but it on the other hand unless they are properly protected then it's a problem and I would like to ask him to ensure that the inspectorate actually asks the nursery schools whether they have a policy in place and check whether that policy is adequate. I'd like my voice to be added to those who've already mentioned the commonwealth games I think it is an important part of Scotland promoting those games that we ensure that the awareness of the dangers of sun and let us hope it is sunny or at least there is an awareness at the games and as others have pointed out of course as long as it even when it's cloudy there may be problems. Deputy Presiding Officer I want to turn to the question of early diagnosis early diagnosis is absolutely critical as others have said that survival rates are really excellent if we diagnose early but I have to say that apart from public awareness which has already been discussed and I won't go into and needs to be pursued the fact that general practice training has has been reduced for dermatology since I trained I think has been a bad move I had a three month attachment on dermatology and that recognised that 40% of those who were students were going to end up as GPs and the thing we were going to see most of was actually skin problems. Now GPs get five days undergraduate training and I think that this is wrong and I think it needs to be looked at in terms of the training programmes because the daily workload in this area is very significant and the growth in melanoma and the growth in skin problems is significant. The pressure on dermatology departments is substantial and growing and Mackintosh referred to the fact that we need constant waiting time initiative to keep the thing under control but there have been two areas fourth valley and Lanarkshire where the redesign of services have cut the waiting times and outpatients by other numbers attending as outpatients by 25% without in any way impairing patient safety so can I again ask the minister that where redesign is shown to work in this way and it is safe then the redesign should be rolled out to every board the minister will know that Labour has advocated a much stronger role for inspection and monitoring for health improvement Scotland and this proposal is in part to ensure where benchmarking shows variation and new approaches work they must be rolled out to every board and rolled out rapidly and this is a very good example of it deputy Presiding Officer I'll finish by saying that the immunotherapy referred to is the first of a new class of drugs in treating cancer and its arrival is extremely welcome it does extend life significantly and I hope that the SMC will apply the appropriate rules regard this as a treatment which can be used at an earlier stage in the treatment of skin cancer but of course we will wait and see and it will be wrong for politicians to interfere in what we have set up under a new system which all parties have now subscribed to thank you very much and finally in the open debate Kevin Stewart I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing this debate to the chamber and I'd like to thank mascot too for the pack that they provided us with but also for their on-going communication with parliamentarians here which have made us much more aware of melanoma in that pack of course we have the very serious scenario of that 10 year change with a 36.7% increase which is absolutely huge and shows quite clearly that we need to do more than we currently are I'm going to be a little bit flippant Presiding Officer and talk about something that one of my colleagues said to me the other day I think it was Tuesday where it was actually quite bright and sunny a certain French MSP who likes to use the Doric quite a lot said to me you better watch it for your wee baldy heat the day because it was rather sunny and with this wee baldy heat I'm quite prone to catching the sun now if I was abroad you know the natural thing that I would do all of the time while I was away is to cover myself in sunblock because like Mr Carlaw I have got that fair complexion which can cause a huge amount of grief if it is burnt but we don't have the same habits when we're at home I've never been sunburnt when I've been abroad and but I have been here on a number of occasions where I've forgotten to take the hat or I've forgotten to protect my head and face and I think that habit you know is something that we need to change I'm really pleased at the amount of education that mascot has carried out I know that Lee Smith was trying to do work in the northeast of Scotland and I hope that that will continue but education alone I don't think is enough I think we have to make it a habit there are certain things that we do in our day-to-day lives which just become the norm this should become the norm like the slip-slap slop in Australia this should become the norm I've never ever been sunburnt in a day where there is as my grandma would have said been a heat in the sun it has always been on overcast days where you know you think to yourself going out this will be fine and it's not Mr Stevenson gave us the scientific aspects of that situation but beyond that you know where many of us are not going to look at that science in a day and daily basis we must make it the norm now we have the ability with curriculum for excellence in schools to do so much and there will not be a school in the country or a people who will go through their school years without hearing of climate change at this moment in time it would not be that difficult to add to that education the dangers of climate change and the real dangers that exist from the sun so I don't even think we need to reinvent the wheel and I think that the minister will no doubt talk to education colleagues about that I want to finish on one point Presiding Officer and I think that this is extremely important and I actually tabled a motion here previously after speaking to to mask off and that's on the issue of sunscreen and sunblock itself because I do think it's rather ludicrous that there is VAT on these products and I think that that is something that we don't have the power to deal with here but in another place they must look at removing VAT from sunscreens and sunblocks I think that's vital thank you Presiding Officer many thanks I now call on Michael Matheson to respond to the debate minister in around seven minutes please thank you Presiding Officer can I like others congratulate the funeral of a cloud in securing time for this particular debate and bringing this issue to the attention of the chamber which is particularly timely given that it is a sun awareness week and I have listened with real interest to the points and issues that have been raised by the members in the course of the debate this afternoon. Several members have already made reference to the statistics which were published by ISD just last week which do show the extent of the instance of malignant melanoma in Scotland and have risen by some 43 per cent in men and 30 per cent in women since between 2002 and 2012 which is an overall increase of almost 37 per cent in a decade as Ken Macintosh made specific reference to. Malignant melanoma is now the fifth most common cancer in women and the seventh most common cancer in men and most swirling is that over the past decade between three and five times as many young women aged between 15 and 29 have been diagnosed with skin cancer each year than men so this is clearly an area where there has been a growing level of occurrence. However, having said that, there are some elements of good news in this agenda. I will give way to the member. I wonder if the member is aware that in the United States one in five people can expect to get skin cancer at some point in their life. I wasn't aware of that particular statistic but I think it just demonstrates that it's a challenge across many countries in the developed world that we have to make sure that we address seriously. However, as I said, there are some statistics that show that there are some grounds for optimism because the statistics show that in 2012 there was a lowest number of malignant melanoma diagnoses in women between 15 and 29 in the past decade. I hope that that is a reflection of some of the message starting to get through about the stark reality of the dangers that the sun can have on someone developing skin cancer. There are measures that we have taken followed over recent years and many members will be aware that Scotland did lead the UK in the approach that we took over at sunbeds and the legislative provisions that we put in place in order to try to help to protect citizens from skin cancer by regulating the use of sunbeds. I think that it's only right that we put on record the tremendous amount of work that Ken Macintosh took forward in pursuing that particular agenda. I suspect that we wouldn't have arrived at the point where we finally arrived at in the public health act had it not been for Ken Macintosh's determination in pursuing this particular issue, which has allowed us to have more robust legislation in place. I think that that helps to make sure that we have the right legislative framework in place in order to deal with issues such as sunbeds. Ken Macintosh made a particular reference to some of the on-going challenges in this area. He will be aware that the public health act does not provide for a licensing regime in itself, although it provides for regulation around the use of sunbeds. However, it might be of interest to the chamber that some eight councils have already put in place a licensing provision in order for the provision of sunbeds operation. We are already in discussions with COSLA to look at what we can do to encourage the other local authorities to take up this particular approach to licensing, and we will be encouraging them to do so. Of particular interest to Fiona McLeod, Easton-Bartonshire Council will introduce a licensing regime as of 1 July this year in order to look at how it can regulate this area more fully. Obviously, we have the fire arms and licensing bill, which should be before this Parliament very shortly. Is there opportunity there to extend that licensing regime? The reality is that there is already provision in the entertainment leisure civic government Scotland act for the purposes of the licensing regime. There already is legislation that allows for that to happen. What we need to do is to work with the local authorities to make sure that they put that in place, and that is the work that we are undertaking with them. A number of members have made reference to issues around education. I am sure that some members will recall the programme that we ran in October 2012 in partnership with Cancer Research UK, RUV Ugly, which was targeted in particular at the dangers of sunbeds being used amongst the 16 to 24-year-olds. The evaluation from that programme showed it to be very positive and demonstrated increasing knowledge and understanding of the risks associated with sunbeds. A number of other members have made reference to public awareness and education programmes. I have been undertaken by mascot and other third sector organisations, for example Cancer Research UK, the SunSmart campaign and the Teenage Cancer Trust sunburn campaign, which I will touch on later if I have time. It is important that we also put on record our thanks to those organisations for the tremendous work that they undertake in raising awareness. Several members have made reference specifically to the Commonwealth Games and the opportunity that it presents. I am sure that we are all hoping that the weather during the Commonwealth Games will be bright and possibly sunny for the course of the Games itself. I understand that it has been agreed with the hosts, the Games organisers, that they recognise that it presents an opportunity to get some public health messages across. We are working with them in order to drive home our skin cancer awareness message during part of the Commonwealth Games programme, particularly at young adults, by ensuring that everyone attending the Games is aware of the importance of staying safe in the sun, even if the weather is not that great. However, I am sure that you will be aware that the organisers committee are also looking at what training they can provide to their workers on health improvement measures, which include cancer risk factors such as sun protection, eating well and stopping smoking, which is part of the work that we are doing with them. Additionally, I understand that the organisers committee is also working with a third sector organisation in order to source sun cream for workers at the Games to ensure that everyone is contributing to this particular programme of sun protection. Alongside that, for spectators, the option of a Games visitor kit is being explored by the organisers committee, which could include helpful items such as sun cream and a poncho. A poncho is more likely to be required than a sun cream, but nevertheless the committee is exploring this as a way of helping to try to articulate the risks and important elements of the campaign. I will join my remarks to close the work that has been undertaken by the Teenage Cancer Trust, because it is a campaign that is aimed at educating young people in the classroom setting about the risk and harm of sun exposure and the use of sun beds. A point that Richard Simpson raised in his contribution is that it is a specifically tailored programme for schools in order to educate them. It is called the Shun burn campaign, which they will be taking forward over the coming weeks and months. It is about educating youngsters not only on the risks but also if they suspect that someone may be at risk is giving them the helpful nudge to go and get advice and support. However, I am also more than happy to share his particular point about the inspection regime and our educational establishments to be taken forward by our education ministers and to take into the point that he has made. I am very conscious of time, but I think that members have raised a number of important points, including issues on access to treatment, which we are taking forward some measures on. However, I hope that members can be assured that we recognise the importance of this particular issue and will continue to take forward a range of measures in partnership with third sector colleagues to look at what more action is necessary in order to make sure that we do all that we can to prevent any further increases in the level of skin cancer in Scotland. That concludes Fiona McLeod's debate on UV radiation awareness to prevent melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30pm.