 The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion 15226, in the mead of Alexander Stewart, on world hearing day and hearing awareness week 2019. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Can I ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press their request to speak buttons now? Just before I call Mr Stewart, can I say that we have signers here so that we can speak clearly and more slowly in your contribution, that would be very helpful, and no Mr Stewart will set the bar high. I call Alexander Stewart to open the debate, Mr Stewart, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am delighted and grateful of the privilege of being able to open this member's debate on world hearing day and hearing loss awareness week. I would like to extend a welcome to guests who are joining us this afternoon in the gallery. For me, this member's business motion and subsequent debate are something of a double-edged sword, as they create awareness of two separate events, but with one single thread, hearing awareness. Firstly, world hearing day takes place on 3 March each year in order to raise awareness of how to prevent deafness and hearing loss, as well as the promotion of ear and hearing across the world. Indeed, this year, the World Health Organization plans to draw attention to the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss. Many people live with unidentified hearing loss, often failing to realise that they are missing out on certain sounds and certain words. Mili-checking once hearing regularly will be the first step to addressing some of those issues. Secondly, hearing awareness week, which runs from 3 March to 9 March, has been fully adopted here in Scotland. It provides an opportunity to reflect on our collective actions, practices and environments that support good hearing experiences. Poor acoustics can often be a significant cause of discomfort, distress and exclusion. Individuals with conditions such as tinnitus and sensitive hearing are at a real disadvantage when it comes to employment and enjoying a normal lifestyle. Therefore, it is only right that we work to create much more awareness of how well and at what degree that someone can actually hear. With some 11 million people in the United Kingdom with hearing loss, for them attending meetings, events and trips to the cinema and concerts can be a terribly stressful and frustrating experience. Common issues of poor acoustics, for example, or maybe a presenter who script is hard to understand, plus even background noise can all act as barriers to participation. Also, other people's reaction to someone with hearing loss can be a source of stress, as many people react inappropriately to those who are unable to hear, and they are impatient with them. I recently received an invitation from a highly innovative company called Ideas for Ears, which is based in my region in Dumblane. Headed up by director Sally Shaw, who is in the gallery today, the company launched the UK's first hearing access protocol last year at GoLive at the Green in Glasgow. As an MSP, I was delighted to attend that event, and I found it extremely motivating and interesting. The initiatives that they have identified have a number of protocols. Meetings and events should be accessible for everybody, no matter what their hearing is. With some basic principles, hearing access is influenced by the venue, the facilities or the equipment that is made available and the way that a meeting is run and structured. Poor hearing access can be difficult or impossible for the individual to overcome through their own actions and deeds alone. Therefore, the hearing access protocol is designed to enable organisers of work-related meetings and events to arrange their own organisational policies and procedures around access and inclusion in a way that recognises our language and communication as a fundamental human right. It sets out objectives in a clear, practical way, covering everything from speaking clearly and facing the audience to interpreting loops and having support from BSL sign language interpreters. That is especially important at public consultation and community engagement events. Those have been welcomed by Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, Disability Equality Scotland as well as Deaf Scotland. They recognise the importance of the protocol not only as an essential framework but also as a way in which we may contribute, collaborate and ensure that we can communicate to our full potential. Deputy Presiding Officer, I echo ideas for Ian's hopes that the protocol will be adopted right across Scotland and the United Kingdom as a good and proper practice for all meetings and events that will bring about substantial change for those millions of individuals who have hearing loss. There is a massive variation in the way in which people are able to hear and that very much needs to be recognised and responded to. I commend and congratulate all who are playing their part to assist and support individuals and groups as they move forward with hearing loss. I would also like to pay tribute to the cross-party group in this Parliament for the work that they have undertaken and wish them continued success with their endeavours to assist people who suffer from deafness and hearing loss. If you are hard of hearing or deaf then we all have a duty to ensure that we can do all that we can to ensure that the opportunities are there to participate. I look forward to hearing and hearing those protocols being developed and I would be delighted and I am delighted that I have had the opportunity this afternoon to throw my weight behind many of those fantastic initiatives. People in Scotland only have to attend a GP or private hearing advisor to find out what their hearing situation is like and have it checked. We already know that hearing loss in the working age individuals can contribute to the feelings of isolation, alongside communication difficulties, which in turn mean that employees do not fulfil their full potential. Employers are urged to introduce employees to practices and procedures that will ensure that individuals with hearing loss are supported. All staff, especially if they work with colleagues who have already suffered a loss of hearing or deafness, are encouraged to attend the awareness training courses that are put on. In conclusion, I look forward to hearing from the minister what the Scottish Government will do to play its part in the process and what initiatives it will bring forward, because the Government has a duty to provide support, funding and drive the need for change in co-operation with many of the leading charities and groups who play such a vital role in assisting individuals who have hearing loss or deafness. Mark Griffin, we have followed by Annabelle Ewing. At the outset, I apologise to the chamber that I may not be able to stay for the duration of the debate, as the Scottish Government will be giving early sight of statements that it plans to discuss later on this afternoon, which I will be involved in. I apologise for that. I thank Alexander Stewart for bringing his debate today and ensuring that World Hearing Day and Hearing Awareness Week 2019 are celebrated in this Parliament. He is a convener of the cross-party group on deafness. I am hugely grateful to ideas for years and deaf Scotland for working with Mr Stewart today so that we can debate the issue of hearing access to public and community spaces. Indeed, the cross-party group on deafness is always looking for new members, and I encourage anyone here today to come along to our next meeting. Hearing access is a particularly acute need to support the 1 million-plus community who are either deaf or hard of hearing, but it can and does affect all people in Scotland. As the motion details, noise and poor acoustics can cause significant discomfort and exclusion from group activities for older age groups, as well as people with conditions such as dementia and autism. Some members in the chamber may be aware that I now use a hearing aid, and prior to having that hearing aid fitted. I experienced the frustration of being unable to hear discussions clearly, sometimes in the chamber, when there were interventions from certain positions, sometimes that meant missing out on key debating points. However, I might be able to manage those situations and be more able to speak up when I experience such situations. For other groups, deaf people, older people or dementia and autism, they might be less able to feel less comfortable to speak up and manage that situation. We are all undoubtedly diminished for losing out in their participation. It is therefore vitally important that we consider how hearing access is prioritised to ensure greater public involvement and participation in the many varied events that we have. As Dave Scotland pointed out, communication is a two-way process, so if your ability to communicate has affected the contribution that you are then able to make to society and your culture is entirely impeded, as a result, being unable to communicate really puts a person's mental and physical health at risk because of that isolation. On the cross-party group and at the heart of the debate during the passage of the BSL bill, we talked about how being unable to communicate puts barriers in the ways of accessing services, educational attainment and even accessing health services. As I said, BSL users and deaf people can quite often be marginalised and misunderstood. In recent weeks, we have debated how social isolation is increasingly a social and public health epidemic, and one area that all parties are agreed to action is needed. In my contribution to that debate, I spoke about how yet more cuts to local services and local government will only dismantle and undermine some of the services that keep communities together. When you take into account those cuts and think about hearing access, you can really begin to get a picture of how that isolation is created. I know firsthand how much we need to improve the infrastructure and make it more inclusive, although we are today talking about managing noise to aid hearing. During the BSL bill, I spoke about how few BSL interpreters are in Scotland at that time, only 80. Last summer, I organised a series of meetings and it was highlighted again just how difficult it was to source interpreters and secure the funding along with the other associated costs. That is why the proposal in that motion is to look at the employability opportunities to roll out noise absorption panels and enhancement devices to help. Tackle noise and acoustic issues should be particularly thought-provoking for Government. Once again, I would like to thank ideas for Ears, Deaf Scotland and Mr Stewart for bringing this debate to the chamber. I hope that we can go away ahead of the world here in day and here in access week 2019. I think about how we can make public spaces more inclusive, free of noise and to encourage healthy communication. I thank you very much. I call Annabelle Ewing to be followed by Jeremy Balfour. Mr Balfour will be the last speaker in the open debate, Ms Ewing. I, too, am pleased to have been called to speak today to mark world hearing day and hearing awareness week. I would also congratulate Alexander Stewart on securing this important member's debate. I recall when I spoke in a debate some years ago on a similar occasion, my colleague, Dennis Robertson, who used to sit just there, within one sentence of my starting to speak had already intervened to tell me to speak more slowly. I hope that I am achieving that today of Dennis's listening. I do listen to what other people say. As we have heard, the focus of hearing awareness week this year is very much on the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss, with the strap line being check your hearing. Out of my remarks, I wish to formally recognise the excellent work that is done on behalf of deaf people by a range of national and local organisations and individuals right across Scotland. They all work unstintingly to improve the lives of those who are deaf or otherwise suffer hearing loss and to challenge the removal of barriers that remain to this day for the more than one million individuals who are deaf or suffer hearing loss. In Scotland, it is recognised, I believe, that we have made significant improvements in a number of areas, such as the development of quality standards for NHS audiology services with regular meetings of NHS audiology heads of service to co-ordinate and share best practice, such a meeting, I understand, taking place today at PRI in Perth. We have also seen an increase in the provision of lit reading classes and the launch of a national joint sensory strategy. We have also seen, as Mark Griffiths referred to, his historic British Sign Language Bill in 2015, with the Scottish Government launching its first groundbreaking national plan for BSL in October 2017. Just to remind those who may not know, the plan is to run until 2023 and set forth 70 discrete action points that the Government is to take in the first three years to 2020 of the plan, with a progress report to be published at that time. It was shaped by the input of more than 1,000 individuals and dozens of organisations and covers many aspects, including, of course, the important early years and education. Therefore, the Parliament will wish to ensure, no doubt, that the progress report that is expected next year is subject to full scrutiny to ensure that the action points that are promised are being delivered on the ground, for it is indeed necessary to ensure, as far as the BSL national plan and other service issues are concerned, that improved services are available to people in their local communities. That is what will make the key difference in ensuring that those who are deaf or who have suffered hearing loss can access their rights as full and equal citizens. In that regard, action on hearing loss Scotland did a part of work with its comprehensive report of a few years ago entitled, Hearing Matters. A number of important issues were raised at that time, and I know and suspect that some of those issues will still be present to this day, in terms of the challenges that are still to be overcome. It would be helpful, therefore, when closing. If the minister and I do recognise that a number of those issues are issues that are dealt with across Government portfolio, but if the minister could clarify and if she cannot clarify, she will undertake to refer the comments to the relevant minister in charge, but clarify the position as to how matters stand with respect to, for example, hearing loss research. The ask was that that was to be a strategic priority. How the number, as Mark Griffin said, of BSL interpreters meets demand at the present time. How the participation of deaf young people has ffaird in programmes like the hugely successful modern apprenticeship programme run by Skills Development Scotland. What progress has been made to ensure that all transport is fully accessible, including, of course, the important provision of information. At the same time, perhaps the minister can clarify what the Scottish Government's response has been to the call from action on hearing loss Scotland, aged Scotland and Scottish War Blinded for timely screening of veterans further to the excellent joint initiative that it has been working on to compile the combating site and hearing loss guide booklet, which, in fact, was launched last month. In conclusion, I would like to stress that it is these practical issues that will, if resolved, make a key difference to the lives of deaf people and people who suffer hearing loss. We, as parliamentarians, have a duty not to take our eye off the ball but rather to persist with our questions and our ambitions to change lives for the better. I add my thanks to Alexander Stewart for securing this important debate on world hearing day and hearing awareness week 2019. In Scotland, there are over 1 million people with some degree of loss, of whom approximately 546,000 are over the age of 60. In the 2011 census, over 350,000 of the Scottish population aged three or over listed deafness or partial hearing loss has a long-term health condition. Those numbers are challenging and I welcome any progress groups, companies and charities can make to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss. I am sure that we all know someone who is affected by hearing loss and how it impacts on his or her quality of life. My mother has a hearing loss and I am aware sometimes at family gatherings that she is missing out on conversation and information because she finds it difficult to hear and, as a result, it can affect or enjoyment at an event and stop her paying the bill. Activities that a hearing person takes for granted can present challenges for a person with hearing loss. Take, for example, a conversation with a driver when you are a passenger in a taxi. I recently contacted local authorities across Scotland and discovered that out of the 30 who have responded to my request for information, only one local authority requires taxes to have a hearing loop in their vehicles, while no local authority requires private hires to include hearing loops—hardly an example of inclusive communication. Deafblind Scotland wants communication to be acknowledged as a human right. I believe that systematic failure such as the one that I have just cited remains a significant problem in Scotland and leads to everyday breaches of human rights for the deaf community. Ideas for years is a community-led social enterprise that provides consultancy support to help business and organisations to most successfully meet the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders who are having hearing loss. The advocate for hearing loss is about the application of practices that make hearing and following conversation and audible information more possible for more people. Hearing access needs to be a priority, and I support the ideas of years view that among people in Scotland who have hearing loss, the majority have the capability to hear and follow what has been said well or adequately as long as the environment is right. Sadly, by and large, the environment in many workplaces, including this one, is still not right for people with hearing loss. Research by ideas for years amongst employees identified that 74 per cent of respondents with hearing loss sometimes regularly are always experiencing difficulties hearing at work meetings. For many who acquire disability during their work in life, the development of an impairment will bring about a crisis point in the workplace, bringing their future into doubt. According to deaf action, one in four people have left their job due to discrimination. The number of people with hearing loss is at an all-time high and is increasing as the population continues to age. With 40 per cent of working age population predicted to have a long-term health condition by 2030, it is a crucial moment to address what good work means for a large section of the population. In a recent report published by Leonard Cheslaw about inclusion of employment, he identified that we need to adapt workplaces to build a more resilient workforce. To enable disabled people to participate in the labour market, they place emphasis on the need to ensure that disabled people have access to reasonable adjustments and assistive technology that supports them to carry out their job. For a person with hearing loss, that could be an electronic note-taker service or a hearing enhancement device that can potentially be funded through the UK Government's access to work scheme that provides financial support to ensure that somebody's disability or health condition does not hold them back at work. We need to challenge entranced attitudes in the workplace. Leonard Cheslaw's report identifies that 24 per cent of employers saving would be less likely to employ someone with a disability who employ sightings at the cost of workplace adjustments and concerns that a disabled person would struggle to do the job as reasons not to employ them. We need to create the right environment for deaf people who can make a positive contribution. I therefore welcome initiatives such as Hearing Awareness Week that raises awareness of hearing loss, encourages us all to think about good hearing health and to work collectively to ensure that we create more inclusive society for people living with hearing loss. I thank Alexander Stewart for bringing this important motion to the chamber today. As we have heard across the chamber, there is support to improve the care and opportunities for people with hearing loss. This year, World Hearing Day focuses on the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss, as many people live with an unidentified or hidden hearing loss. I also want to ensure that adults and children with a sensory impairment have the same access to services and opportunities as everyone else. That is why our See Here strategy focuses on children and adults and covers deafness, sight loss and dual sensory loss. Partnerships and communication are crucial to the effectiveness of See Here. The strategic framework recommends that local partnerships between statutory and third sector bodies should consider options for introducing basic sensory checks at agreed times in care pathways. I am delighted that those have been introduced in care homes in some local areas, and I hope that it continues to expand. We have also been working with partners to explore the delivery of enhanced community audiology services in a GP practice setting. Initial pilots in NHS Ayrshire Narn and NHS Tayside link with third sector providers in those commenced this month, and they will run over the next 12 months. See Here also enables training and development. For example, more than 200 people have accessed the Sensory Champions training programme, a bespoke training course that was created in partnership with RNIB and Action on Hearing Loss, providing core training and skills across key aspects of sensory loss and rehabilitation. Additionally, three e-learning modules focusing on the awareness of communication strategies will be available on the NHS training website TURAS, and that will be available for all. I am grateful that the See Here national co-ordinator worked closely with partners to support and promote the ideas for ears hearing access protocol for ensuring accessible meeting spaces throughout the country. I know the difficulties faced by people living with sensory impairment. I recently met staff from Deaf Scotland to discuss the issues facing people with hearing loss, and I fully appreciate that each person will have their own individual unique communication preference. That links directly to individual communication strategies and language acquisition. If hearing loss is congenital, then the person will almost certainly have learned British Sign Language as a first language, and English being a very separate and second language. I am proud that this Government funds Contact Scotland BSL, the UK's first publicly funded online BSL video relay service that enables deaf and deafblind BSL users to contact and interact with Scottish public sector bodies and third sector services. That allows users to self-manage their own calls, live as independently as possible and to retain a level of privacy, no longer having to rely on family and friends to make calls for them. The World Health Organization confirms that as people live longer, the prevalence of disability will increase, so it follows that in Scotland the risk of people with or who develop a hearing loss will increase. They may also have other primary conditions such as dementia, autism or learning disabilities, and their hearing loss may be a hidden condition that exasperates their primary condition. I know that people with sensory impairment who develop dementia face additional challenges, including an increased sense of disorientation and risk of social isolation. The onset of dementia may be more difficult to detect by family and carers, and equally it may be difficult for the person with sensory impairment to communicate what is actually going on. In 2017, we published our third three-year national dementia strategy, and that includes continuing our national focus on dementia health, social services in housing and the workforce development by implementing the national dementia skills and competencies framework, promoting excellence and the national allied health professionals dementia framework. NHS Health Scotland's report into dementia and equalities issues identified dementia and sensory impairment as a key area where improvements are required. We are undertaking national work through the two dementia workforce programmes to improve service in those areas. Integrated dementia support packages will include attention to recognising or identifying sensory issues. For example, everyone in Scotland newly diagnosed with dementia is entitled to be offered a minimum of a year's worth of dedicated post-diagnostic support. A named and trained key worker will co-ordinate the individual's dementia care with other elements of their care and support, including those elements addressing sensory impairment. People whose primary condition is autism can have a range of sensory issues over and above and under sensitivity to noise, light and smell. That was highlighted to me during my recent visit to reach Laneture Autism in my constituency of Rutherglen. Our priorities for the next three years are to ensure that we provide high-quality training to all health and social care and education staff in order to better understand the impact of being autistic. That should cover what measures need to be taken in various environments to reduce the impact of sensory sensitivity and to ensure that people with autism and learning disabilities have choice and control over the services that they receive and are supported to be independent and active citizens. In December, we launched a fairer Scotland for disabled people and employment action plan, which sets out our commitment to at least half Scotland's disability employment gap by 2038 and the initial range of actions to support it. Implementation of the plan is now under way across Government, and our partnership with the sector will continue as we drive the plan forward. It contains five longer-term actions and 93 actions to make meaningful progress towards those ambitions, support services that meet disabled people's needs, decent incomes and fairer working lives, places that are accessible to everyone, protected rights and active participation. Just before I close, I thank all the valuable contributions that we have had from across the chamber, from Jeremy Balfour, from Mark Griffin and from Annabelle Ewing. I undertake to come back to her with answers to some of the questions that she asked and some of the challenges to the Scottish Government. With regard to veterans, I can reassure her that veterans, including those who have served as reservists, receive priority access to NHS primary, secondary and tertiary care for any condition relating to their service, and that is based on clinical need. That includes audiology and hearing aids. I hope that that gives her a level of reassurance. Presiding Officer, everyone should feel valued and included and accepted by society, and it is only then that we can all live in a fairer Scotland, a more equal Scotland and a Scotland for everyone. Thank you very much. That concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2 o'clock.