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This week, Clackmannanshire Council admitted that a house that caught fire was not fitted with the legally required interlinked heat and smoke alarms, despite legislation requiring that from February 2022. It might not be an isolated incident, and vulnerable tenants and the elderly might be being put at risk. What urgent action can the Scottish Government take to ensure that councils are fulfilling their legal responsibilities and protecting tenants and lives?

Research carried out by The Stage showed that the average cost for an adult to stay at the festival for its duration this year was more than £2,000 in Airbnb while, in other cases, about £5,000 had to be spent on accommodation. That situation is only set to get worse next year, once the Scottish National Party-Green short-term let licensing scheme comes into effect. Given that the scheme will put accommodation for next year’s festival at risk and out of the reach of many people, what does the Scottish Government intend to do to support the sector?

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the 2023 Edinburgh festival fringe. (S6O-02522)

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Fraser of Allander survey that found that only 9 per cent of businesses felt that the Scottish Government understands the business landscape in Scotland. (S6O-02517)

The business community has clearly delivered a vote of no confidence in the Scottish National Party’s economic management. Will the cabinet secretary take decisive action to ensure that every minister in the Scottish Government is 100 per cent committed to the key objective of economic growth?

I am pleased to contribute to the debate. I congratulate Gillian Mackay on securing the debate and acknowledge her work in this area.

Many members here in the chamber know that I am happy to work alongside my colleague Emma Harper as co-convener of the cross-party group on lung health, and it is my privilege to continue my role as the parliamentary smoking cessation champion for Asthma + Lung UK.

Vapes, especially single-use disposable vapes, are a ticking time bomb and one of the biggest challenges that we face, which is in no small part due to the age and demographic of those who manufacturers are unashamedly and scandalously targeting.

As Gillian Mackay’s motion recognises,

“in the year ending January 2023, there were ... an estimated 543,000 vapers in Scotland, of which, 9% were under 16 and 14% were under 18”.

Those figures will only get worse unless something dramatic is done.

In the past few months, the Local Government Association in England reported that, for the first time, its members have called for single-use vapes to be banned on environmental and health grounds. The LGA also points out that single-use vapes are designed as a unit and that their batteries cannot be separated from the plastic, making it almost impossible to recycle them without special treatment. The lithium batteries inside the plastic cases can increase sharply in temperature, as we have already heard, becoming flammable, which is a major concern. They cost the taxpayer millions of pounds in damage to equipment and for the specialist treatment that is needed to deal with hazardous waste.

Research by the non-profit organisation, Material Focus, has shown that up to 5 million single-use vape units are being thrown away in the United Kingdom every year. That is more than four times the figure for 2022. It amounts to eight vapes a second being discarded, with the lithium in the products being enough to create around 5,000 electric car batteries a year. Those are frightening statistics.

I also echo the extreme concerns of groups such as the Scotland wing of Asthma + Lung UK and ASH Scotland, as well as parents, carers and teachers regarding the impact that vaping is having on children and young people. We know from the reports that we have seen and the campaigns that are being conducted how harmful it is becoming.

The phenomenon is deeply worrying, and it is being primarily targeted at young people and children. It appears to be fashionable at the moment and the display of that behaviour is encouraging peer groups to think that vaping is good and cool when it is anything but. We need to manage that situation and challenge it.

Anti-smoking groups and charities, as well as medical professionals, are now especially concerned about vaping. The designs and flavours of products, particularly those with fruity, bubble gum or ice flavours, appear to attract children. Those flavours and how the products are packaged are an attempt to encourage young people to vape. They are often sold at checkouts, which is similar to what happened with sweets and confectionery, and retailers will have to take a strong view on that. Strict new measures to regulate the display and marketing of vapes, such as those that are in place to deal with tobacco, are needed now.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I was not able to get on to the platform. I would have voted no.

Over recent weeks, there have been continued disturbances at the new prison facility HMP and YOI Stirling, which are causing local residents great distress. The incidents include screaming, shouting, swearing and banging coming from the prison at all times of the day and night since it opened. Together with the Scottish Prison Service, what action will the Scottish Government put in place to tackle and rectify those disturbances, which locals describe as creating a living hell, and to support the vulnerable offenders?

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I congratulate my colleague Liz Smith on securing this members’ business debate on a very essential and highly concerning issue.

As has been said a number of times, Ms Smith’s motion rightly mentions Duncan Scott, who was raised in Clackmannanshire in our Mid Scotland and Fife region and has become one of Scotland’s most successful swimming champions in recent memory. Yet, thanks to the closure of the Alloa leisure bowl, the town no longer has a swimming pool which, honestly, is a disgraceful situation. The nationalist Scottish Government and, in turn, the nationalist-run Clackmannanshire Council are jointly culpable for that travesty. Clackmannan Development Trust said at the time that it was

“Another devastating blow to the wee county with the loss of more jobs; and of course, the loss of all the health, fitness and social activities that the leisure bowl provided for the past 30+ yrs.”

Around 52,000 residents in the county are now unable to find a swimming pool or swimming facility there. One resident said that it was

“So disappointing! The loss of opportunity for children in Clackmannanshire to develop the life skill in swimming, and the loss of fitness, leisure and recreation facilities for residents who do not have the money or transport to travel out with the county. Sad times!”

These are sad times, indeed. The Scottish Government’s squeezing of council budgets, interlinked with Clackmannanshire Council’s total lack of vision and forward thinking, has meant that no contingency plan was in place at all for a pool in the county. When schools were built in the wee county, not one of them provided a swimming pool. Another resident summed up the situation by saying that schools not building swimming pools was a disgrace and

“a double whammy for Clackmannanshire children.”

Save our pools is a national campaign to highlight the importance of swimming pools and to secure long-term financial investment from the Government for the sustainability of our pools and sport.

We already know, but it is right to point out again, that swimming pools are the nation’s natural health and safety service. Around 14 million people of all ages and abilities swim each year in the United Kingdom, which helps to ensure that they are healthy individuals and, in turn, saves the national health service millions of pounds. We know the difficulties around health inequality in my region of Mid Scotland and Fife and in other regions; sport and swimming give huge health opportunities.

I have been a strong advocate of water safety, too, for many decades. It is only right to point out that swimming pools are natural places for people to learn how to swim, which can lead to an opportunity to save lives. Without pools, we are putting children and other individuals’ lives at risk.

For nearly two decades, I had the privilege of being a councillor in Perth and Kinross, and I was the chair of Perth and Kinross Leisure for a term, where we promoted swimming and safety in water. We have heard about the difficulties of Perth leisure pool, which must be retained and maintained but hangs by a thread because of the funding issues that are coming down the line. Serious questions will have to be asked about that.

I have had the privilege, too, of being the convener of community safety in Perth and Kinross Council for four years. We worked hand in hand with emergency services to do all that we could to publicise the message of safety in water and ensure that it was out there in the community, which did a huge amount to ensure that there were not as many tragedies. However, we find that more and more tragedies occur today—recently, my region saw the horrific loss of a popular and bright young teenager in the River Teith.

As we have heard, the UK Government has pledged more than £60 million to keep swimming pools afloat in England. Scottish Swimming has called on the SNP Government to allocate the money that the UK Government has provided to prevent swimming from becoming unaffordable and unreachable by many in our community.

In a press release, Scottish Swimming said:

“There is cross-party political backing for swimming pools in Scotland”.

That must be looked at and kept going, and we will do all that we can. That money needs to be translated into funding for what is happening in Scotland; the consequentials should be used to ensure that our pools survive.

I echo the points that have been made. I ask the minister to acknowledge them in her summing up and to protect and save our pools as she has a duty to do.

When the recorded crime statistics were published, the cabinet secretary boasted that they

“show Scotland continues to be a safe place to live”.

Crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 are at their highest level since the law came into effect, and crimes of rape and attempted rape are at their highest level ever. Does the cabinet secretary think that victims of those crimes would say that Scotland is a safe place to live?