 Good morning and I would like to welcome everyone to this. The 10th meeting of the Standards Procedures and Public Appointments Committee in 2021. For members who are on Blue Jeins, could you please remember to put an R in the chat function for the request to speak, and before we move to the agenda item one I would like to invite our new member Eleanor Wid��am to declare any relevant interests. Eleanor can you confirm if you have any relevant interests to declare. I thank you very much, convener, and just for the record, I would refer everyone to my register of interests, which states that I am a sitting councillor in the theatre. Excellent, and I welcome you to the committee, Eleanor. Eleanor is joining us today to replace Paul MacLennan MSP, and I would like to place on record my thanks for the work that Paul did with this committee and with the consent of the committee, I would like to write to Paul to thank him for his work. Are we in agreement with that? I'm grateful. Apologies have today been received from Edward Mountain, and so I welcome Sue Webber, who has joined us today as his substitute. I would also like to invite Sue Webber to declare any relevant interests. Sue, can you confirm if you have any relevant interests to declare? Thank you, convener. I, too, am a sitting councillor, but with the City of Edinburgh, and that is on my register of interests. I'm grateful for that, and welcome to the committee today. Our first item is to hear from two cross-party groups. The first group that we will consider today is a proposed CPG on gardening and horticulture. I would like to welcome Rachel Hamilton, who joins us, who will be the convener of the proposed group if it's agreed to. Rachel, welcome to this morning. Would you like to outline the purposes of the CPG for us? Thank you very much, convener. The aim of the group is to promote and facilitate an understanding between representatives of the world of gardening and horticulture with members of the Scottish Parliament, and given the sector an important independent voice for the first time. We know the relationship that people have with the environment is strong, and to witness the devastation to rest tree species caused by storm arwin has caused much distress, and just demonstrates how important plants, nature and green spaces are to us human beings. I believe that it's also important to recognise the value to the Scottish economy. The Scottish garden retail sector has a total impact on GDP to £277 million annually and supports 6,700 jobs. The need to grasp the opportunity that Covid has thrown at us and strengthen the link between growing and eating is also vital, and green spaces can have a positive effect on mental wellbeing and health. COP26 has amplified the need for green spaces like never before, with the importance of resilient supply chains, particularly in the horticultural industry. The Good Food Nation Bill is coming before this Parliament, and many individuals are concerned about food and healthy living. According to a national representative UGov survey commissioned by the Horticultural Trades Association in 2019, 31 per cent of British adults with a garden, approximately 14 million people, grew their own fruit and vegetables. My final point is that it leads me on to the importance of climate change, and the gardening and horticultural sector is essential in fulfilling the Scottish Government's environment plan and the wider ambitions around climate change. I think that it's important that we bring stakeholders around the table to discuss that. We've attracted members to the CPG from the National Trust for Scotland, to green space, to Scottish allotments and garden society, to Scotland's garden scheme. I understand that we have many cross-party groups at the moment in the Parliament, but I believe that it's important that we represent this very important sector. I urge the committee to support me whether you agree that roses or inoculus are better or pansies or petunias are your preference. Thank you very much, Rachel, for that. Indeed, you have cross-party support here from within the chamber groups, but there is also quite a substantial list of external individuals and organisations that are interested. I think that I'm right in saying that there is certainly a significant number on there that don't appear on any other CPG or have a voice at the table within this place. I'm just going to invite the committee if anyone else has any questions relating to this. We all seem content. I thank you for attending today. The committee will consider the CPG as item 2 and the clerks will be in touch in the near future, but thank you for attending this morning. There will now be a short suspension while we change witnesses. Good morning, Gillian, who has just joined us today. You come with a proposed CPG on stroke, and you would be the proposed convener. Would you like to explain to the committee the purposes and intentions of the CPG? The purpose of the cross-party group on stroke is to provide oversight, encouragement and support for the implementation of a progressive stroke service in all health boards, based on the recommendations in a new stroke action plan that will be coming next year. Increase political awareness of the scale and impact of stroke and the benefits that implementation of a progressive stroke service will make. Increase political awareness that stroke is a national clinical priority and help to ensure that stroke is treated as a clinical priority in health boards. Stroke is the third commonest cause of death in Scotland. Additionally, it's often a very disabling event for people who do survive their stroke, and it accounts for about 7 per cent of the health spend. The ethos of the committee will be to focus all CPG meetings on current stroke improvement work, and the CPG will be part of forming the conditions in which those stroke improvements can take place. It will contribute to and support the opportunity for significant change promised by the programme for government 2019-2020 commitments and the subsequent good work to date. Although there are no external members currently other than the secretariat listed for the group, we will invite a range of other organisations to join shortly and will update Parliament once we've done so. This will include other third sector charities, regulatory bodies, other health and social care organisations. Individuals will also be invited to join, including clinicians and those with lived experience of stroke, and names will also be provided to Parliament as soon as possible to update the webpage. We're aware that the group has previously existed alongside the cross-party group on heart disease, but as the Government treats those two conditions separately with their own action plan, we now believe that it's best to separate them out into two CPGs so that both conditions can receive the attention that they require. We're appropriate to work with the proposed cross-party group on heart disease, but as this group in particular aims to scrutinise the upcoming stroke improvement work, we don't envisage there being a huge amount of crossover. It was nice for you to point out with regard to external groups and individuals who would be interested in it because the paperwork just contains the stroke association who will provide the secretariat. Given one of the purposes, and I say very important purposes, to draw conclusions and to define recommendations based on people with experience, that outreach is crucial. Can I ask you whether or not you see any conflict between what previously had been a single-view CPG between heart and stroke and the proposed separation of that with this CPG? No, I think that it's recognised by both of proposed CPGs that there is very specific work that needs to go on in each of those areas and that you could spend years discussing the work that is needed in both of those spheres with those conditions, so I think that's why the decision has been taken in this session that they should have their own dedicated CPG. Oh, sorry, Bob, did you have any questions? Thank you for attending this morning, Gillian. The decision will be taken in agenda item 2 with regard to the CPG, and the clerks will notify you in the near future. Agender item 2, ladies and gentlemen, is to consider whether to accord recognition to the proposed cross-party groups on gardening and horticulture and the second one we heard from on stroke. Are there any comments from any of the community members on it, or are we content to afford recognition? We are content to afford recognition to both the cross-party group on gardening and horticulture and stroke. I will now close the public part of this meeting and the committee will move into private.