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To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken, in addition to its public consultation, to engage with the fishing industry and the coastal communities that could be affected by highly protected marine areas. (S6O-02158)

I thank the cabinet secretary for that comprehensive answer. In recent weeks, I have spoken to a number of fishers across my constituency, who have expressed their concerns around highly protected marine areas. I welcome the First Minister’s commitment last week not to impose on any community a policy to which it is vehemently opposed. Will the cabinet secretary reassure the fishers whom I spoke to and make the same commitment?

I am sorry—I am trying to wrap things up. If we focused on a health and wellbeing economy rather than just profits, would that make a big difference to the industry and to what we do?

A lot of my questions have been answered during the session, so I might throw in a wild-card question—it is not too wild, convener.

Having heard all the evidence thus far, I want to touch on what Kate Rowell said about France spending a bit more on food. That got me thinking that energy costs and commuting costs in France might not be as high as they are in our everyday lives. A report might need to be commissioned to find out why more is spent on food there and why we often cannot pay more.

The constant dichotomy between profitability and affordability keeps coming up all the time. We might want to focus more on a health and wellbeing economy in which low-carbon foods are encouraged, perhaps with a levy on produce with a high-carbon footprint. That would mean that imported produce that would generally be cheaper might cost more because of its higher carbon footprint, whereas local produce would have a lower carbon footprint. Perhaps some Government support could be provided for low-carbon produce. We could flip the position around and focus on a health and wellbeing economy in which we consider the environment, good mental health and local food production with great employee benefits.

Fishing and ports were also mentioned. There are quite high costs for people landing their fish in the north-east—

Behavioural issues have been mentioned a few times. Can we get some clarity on that, for the record? What kind of behavioural issues are we talking about, and why have those happened?

We have spoken a lot about the regulations. Can you tell me a bit more about the differences between the regulations in Scotland and in England and say what effects the regulations have had on animal welfare?

How does that behaviour manifest itself? I know that they would be stressed—that is the emotion—but what behaviour is displayed?

I thank and congratulate Stephanie Callaghan for securing this debate and I wish everyone a happy autism awareness month. When I saw that I had the opportunity to talk about autism, I was particularly enthused and then quite overwhelmed because, as an autistic woman who has autistic children, I have much to say on the subject, and it is really hard to condense it all into four minutes.

I have been very open about my journey into politics, which happened in part because of my lived experience as a parent of autistic children—the barriers, gatekeeping and negative judgmental attitudes drove my passion for justice in this area. When I was first elected as a councillor in 2017, I was inundated with constituents’ issues regarding their autistic children’s care in health, education, and transitions to workplaces and higher education. Six years on, in my new role, I still deal with many of the same challenges, and I am in no doubt that there is often a postcode lottery for families when it comes to what support they get, but it also depends on the attitudes and training of the individuals that they come across on their journey.

I do not want to be completely doom and gloom on the subject, but we have not got things right for Scotland’s autistic community. I accept that there are many hard-working charities, organisations, schools, individuals and healthcare support workers, and I am extremely grateful for them but, overall, our society and institutions are in dire need of radical change and of a cohesive movement that will seek a meaningful societal shift in acceptance.

Like many others living with, or affected by, autism, I was really pleased to see the manifesto commitment to bring a learning disabilities, neurodiversity and autism bill to Parliament and to create a commissioner to oversee work in the area. I place on record my gratitude for the new First Minister’s assurance that the bill will be introduced by the end of this session of Parliament.

I am grateful to the National Autistic Society for all the work that it has done. The society has collaborated with me many times and it is fantastic to see all the work that it does in Scotland. I am also grateful to the society for the briefing and statistics that it provided for this debate.

In meeting key people over the years, I have heard a few times that diagnosis is not necessary. It is therefore hard to believe that we can have reliable or accurate statistics if we dissuade people from diagnosis and if there is reluctance or gatekeeping throughout our services. Oftentimes, unless a person displays obviously autistic traits, or is an inconvenience to certain institutions, they will not be diagnosed. High-masking autistic women are too often completely unnoticed, due to societal pressures to perform in a socially acceptable way, and are therefore often dismissed when they seek help.

I could speak for hours about the vulnerabilities of autistic women. The fact that they are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted than non-autistic women could lead to a whole debate in itself, as could the comorbidities that often come with autism and neurodiversity. Those include, but are not limited to, eating disorders, obesity, anxiety, depression, connective tissue disorders, gastrointestinal conditions, heart conditions and many more. The life expectancy of someone with autism is, on average, 16 years less than that of their non-autistic peers—a figure that should sober us all.

I met with Marion McLaughlin, the CEO of Autism Understanding Scotland, an autistic-led charity based in Aberdeen that supports autistic people, their families, and professionals across the north-east and Shetland. The charity does an incredible job and I hope that we can ensure that organisations such as that, and the National Autistic Society, are taken along on the journey to make Scotland a more accepting place. It is vital that we support those services.

I have hope for the future of Scotland’s autistic community, but that hope comes with many conditions. I voice my gratitude to those who make the difference and for the opportunity to speak openly on this subject.

I nominate Kaukab Stewart.

Thank you, convener, and congratulations on your new post.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence this morning. It has been incredibly hard but absolutely necessary to listen to, and I am glad that we have been given the opportunity to hear from you all. Anybody with a keen sense of justice would feel that the new bill is devoid of any form of human rights and is bringing none to the country. It is extremely concerning; in fact, I will go as far as to say that it is abhorrent.

I really feel for Pam Duncan-Glancy, agree with everything she said and share her anger. How can we now focus those energies in some kind of positive way, and what action do we need to take as legislators in the Scottish Parliament? What can we do? Andy Sirel, you touched on a few things. I want to use my question slot to give you all an opportunity to wrap up and say some final words about what you really want to get across today.