 Felly, ydych yn fawr i'w ddysgu'r 10 yma yn 2016 o'r SPPA Comitw. Felly, rwy'n gwybod i'r gweld i'w ddysgu'r ffawr o'r gweithio ddechrau yn gwahanol mewn oedd y bwysigol aeth i ni, sy'n gallu gyrfa o'r brosiectau. Y ddechrau unrhyw o'r agenda mae'r ddaf yn ganddig iawn o'r private. Yn ei ddweud o'r That is item 5, which we will be taking in private to discuss the evidence heard from the commission parliamentary forum. Great. Great, thank you very much. Second item for the committee today is to take evidence on a proposed cross-party group. I am very welcome to Miles Briggs to the committee this morning. Proposed APG is on Scottish horse racing and blood stock industries. I would invite the member to make an opening statement. Thank you, convener, and good morning to the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to address you this morning. In 2015, the horse-racing industry in Scotland continued to make a considerable contribution to the Scottish economy. Direct annual expenditure has been estimated at £55 million, with a wider economic benefit at approximately £173 million. The sport itself helps to maintain a total of some 870 full-time equivalent employees here in Scotland, both directly and indirectly playing a vital part in Scotland's Bryant leisure industry. The popularity of horse racing in Scotland at the five race courses at Musselbert, here in my region, Perth, Kelso, meal and Hamilton continues to grow with over 300 and 8 thousand attendees last year. With spectator numbers in Scotland increasing by 13 per cent since 2012 reflecting the on-going promotional activities of the race courses Torffluillfa eraill yn dry'sh, describe a look at the best performance of the sport. Rydyn ni i жyderwch ar dry'sh a ddweud hynny yw i gael i i gael ei free, a i chi ddwer i chi'n grithas ym Gwyl Gwerthwlaethau, i gael i chi'n prifio a'r brif, i chi eisiau waspwyll mai sy'n ddweud, i chi ddweud ei ddweud, i chi ddweud, i chi ddweud i gael ei ffordd, i chi ddweud i gael i gael i gael i gael eu cyfnodau honi ar gyfer iawn, a phobl am wneud yr oesidol rhagleniaid ysgrifennus i'r Sefford. Felly rydyn ni'n fywr i'r fywr i'r Oesidol Rhagleniaid ystod i'r Cymgau Pesodol a'i fawr i'r Cymraeg i'ch chi'n mynd i ddangos i'r propozol i'r fawr i'r parwagau iawn i'r reifน oeddwn i, ac rwy'n fawr i'r gweithio i ddim ni'n ddangos i'r gweithio. beesfa yn ei gweithredu fel oedd, mwrth i'r perthyn ni. I was surprised to find that it was the second-largest sport myself, but my question is that you plan to deal with and possibly introduce and amend any negative impact that could have. What type of examples would you have of that in reality? In terms of the group, I think what we're looking to do is actually have an oversight around legislation which is coming around horse racing and bloodstock industries in Scotland and at a UK level. I hope that the committee will present an opportunity to link in with the other cross-party group that exists in Westminster, so we have that communications which to date haven't really existed. Above all, I think that for areas coming forward, for example around the movement of horses with Britain leaving the European Union, that's an issue which is already generating some discussion within the industry. I think that hopefully that will present a forum that MSPs can understand these issues better. From that, we will all be more informed about the whole process and the group will then bring things to this Parliament and other groups as well to make sure that we're all getting the full information from the process. I hope so. Thank you, convener. Are there any further questions? Mr Scott. What sort of meetings do you expect to hold? What sort of subjects do you expect to discuss at your meetings? I should declare an interest, convener, because I intend to be part of this, representing the year as I do. I know that having air in your constituency is a key aspect of your local economy. That's where the focus for the group will be, on the economic benefits to racing in Scotland, which perhaps aren't as widely known, and the opportunities that we're not realising in Scotland around horse racing. I hope that that will be a key aspect of it, especially around how we promote the horse racing industry in Scotland. It's a great offer, which, unlike Ireland, we may not be capitalising on, so I think that's something that the group will want to look at quite early on, and how Scotland's tourism bodies are actually working with Scottish racing to promote that. I think that there's lots of wide-ranging areas around sport, the sport itself, and also in tourism. I hope that, once the committee gets approval from the committee, we can look at putting together a strong agenda that will take into account all those issues. Mr Johnson? We're just looking through your submission to the committee. I don't really see any mention here of animal welfare. Is that not something of an omission? Not really, because the Scottish Parliament already has a cross-party group on animal welfare, which I'm a member of. I think that I'd be probably inclined to say that there will always be crossovers between the cross-party group on sport and also on animal welfare, but I think that those will be separate issues. Likewise, there's a cross-party group on tourism, I believe, but specifically for the horse racing industry and bloodstock industry, which has no real voice within the animal welfare group, there's an opportunity for this cross-party group to consider those groups and give that voice here in our Parliament. I mean, while I accept that, I also accept the assumptions here and the understandings about the impact of the economy from horse racing. Given that it is an activity so reliant on animals, surely at least some acknowledgement of the importance of the welfare of those animals would be important as part of your considerations, even if it's not one of your primary considerations. I think that it could do. I think that probably it would fit more within animal welfare cross-party group, and as a member of that, I know that that's been raised on their agenda for the future already. So I think that maybe that's where we can make sure that horse welfare in Scotland is considered within the Parliament for MSPs. I was going to touch on animal welfare as well. There are clearly some aspects of the discussions around the industry that wouldn't necessarily be voiced by the industry in terms of animal welfare. And other ethical issues as well. There are a number of concerns that have been reported around, for example, tax avoidance in the gambling industry more widely. I'm just wondering how you intend to cast the net as wide as possible in terms of external members of the group. There's only one list at the moment, which is Scottish Racing Marketing Ltd. It seems to me reasonable to say that cross-party groups are not intended to be voices of commercial interests. They're supposed to bring together a group of people who want to discuss a topic from a range of different perspectives, not just those who represent the industry itself. How do you intend to ensure the widest membership of external organisations who have an interest in the subject, but not necessarily from the perspective of the industry? Following what I hope would be the approval from the committee, I would want to see all interested parties invited. Certainly I know that within the five race courses in Scotland they already have a network of people who they work with who are very keen to see this established. So, like with all cross-party groups, it's important that it's fully accessible to anyone who wants to come along to it. I'd hope that we'd be able to take that forward as a cross-party group. Any further questions? Thank you for your attendance this morning. We will consider the cross-party group agenda item 4 and inform you of a decision as soon as possible. Thank you very much. I'm just going to suspend for a few minutes to let the witnesses change over. A very warm welcome to the committee to Emma Harper. Emma is proposing a cross-party group on lung health, and I would invite you to make an opening statement to the committee. Good morning, everybody, for allowing me to come and speak today. Breathing is something that we all do, day in, day out, every day of our lives. It's so innate that most of us rarely stop to think about it, but for millions of people across the UK, breathing is something that they have had to think about. Those are people whom the beautiful but delicate organs we use to breathe are lungs that don't work as they should. One in five people in the UK have been diagnosed with a lung disease, and every year over half a million more people are told they have a lung disease. It continues to be a major factor in health inequalities, and someone from the most deprived section of society is two and a half times more likely to have COPD, which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and nearly twice as likely to develop lung cancer as someone in the least deprived section of society. Overall, the burden that lung disease places on our nation's health and our health services is immense on a par with non-respiratory cancer and heart disease, yet the amount of resources and attention invested in tackling lung disease tools behind these other areas. For me, the creation of a new cross-party group on lung health would allow for discussion of the prevention, care and treatment of respiratory health between members of the Scottish Parliament, people affected by lung conditions, third sector organisations and healthcare professionals. Rather than having one cross-party group for asthma, one for COPD, one for mesothelioma or interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, I am proposing that one cross-party group is created that would look at lung health of Scotland as a matter of concern. Thank you very much. Can I invite any questions, Mr Johnson? First of all, I just thank you for bringing forward this proposal, someone who uses an inhaler occasionally. I think that these are issues and have for people with more acute conditions in mind really significant impacts on their daily lives. One issue that I was just wondering if you had considered looking at was the impact from urban pollution, in particular thinking about the recent European Environment Agency reports and proposals from various cities to banned diesel cars. I think that there is a growing issue and I was just wondering if any thought had been given to looking at particulates and nitrous oxides and urban pollution like that. Absolutely. The group, rather than looking at individual disease processes, we are looking at themes. The theme of air pollution and air quality has been one of the issues identified. I am already a member of a subgroup of air quality as part of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, so we are looking at that through the established committee. It will be one of the themes that we would propose to address in the cross-party group as well. Can I thank the member for her statements this morning? We will consider the cross-party group later in our agenda and will inform you of the decision as quickly as possible. We will now suspend briefly again to let witnesses change over.