Seòmar agus comataidhean

What is the reason for that?

You—

No—you made a very important point. You mentioned the settings where there is what you have described as additional unwelcome alcohol, which I presume is put into soft drinks and such like—

Thank you—I am all for good news, as you know. As the son of a butcher and the grandson of a small farmer, I am all for the idea of sourcing food locally. In the past, we have discussed informally the nature and quality of the food that is served in Scotland’s school dinners, so I welcome your comments.

Agenda item 4 is an evidence session on drink and needle spiking. Joining us today for a round-table discussion are Jill Stevenson, dean of diversity and inclusion and director of student services at the University of Stirling and director of AMOSSHE, the Student Services Organisation; Ellen MacRae, president of Edinburgh University Students Association; Martha Williams of the girls night in campaign; and Mike Grieve, chair of the Night Time Industries Association—I am looking for Mike on my screen; I am sure that he is there somewhere. Ah—there he is. We also have Superintendent Hilary Sloan of the partnerships, prevention and community wellbeing division, and of harm prevention, at Police Scotland; Andrew Green, policy manager—pub operations at the Scottish Beer & Pub Association; Professor Sally Mapstone, the principal and vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews and the vice convener of Universities Scotland; and Kate Wallace, the chief executive officer of Victim Support Scotland. I thank the witnesses for their time.

I will do a bit of housekeeping to begin with. This is intended to be a virtual round-table session. We have all been working on screens long enough to know some of the challenges that that might present for us to have the dynamic of conversation that we would normally have in a conventional round-table session. It is intended that this will be a conversational session rather than a question-and-answer one.

As I cannot see everybody on the screen at any one time, witnesses should put an R in the chat box if they wish to speak. I will come straight to them. They should not wait to be asked to say something if they want to say anything. We want to hear from them and we want to hear them talk to each other. I will monitor the chat box and ensure that everyone who wants to speak is brought in.

I will start our discussion. The number of reported crimes under the two offences that we are discussing has increased significantly, particularly in quarter 4 last year. What do the witnesses think about those offences? Did they rise significantly in 2021? Why has there been a spike—no pun intended—in the reported incidence of those crimes?

I invite Superintendent Hilary Sloan to start us off on that.

Thank you. That crystallises the concerns that we have expressed.

With the committee’s agreement, I will have that letter sent to ministers, and I will share the contents of the reply that we get. Do members agree to that?

Members indicated agreement.

Were those reports from the venues that your association represents?

I would like to hear what Greg Dempster has to say about what you have just said about the response to the contract situation, which is, in itself, a stress that teachers probably do not need now, of all times, and the issue of the mental health and general wellbeing of Scotland’s teachers.

The politicians do not understand the language either, Margaret, so the parents and the politicians are good travel companions in this exercise. You and Douglas Hutchison are saying that decisions need to made pretty quickly, for the reasons that Willie Rennie described.

I will now turn to Ross Greer.

A short response, please, Douglas.