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So before we can move forward, we need to find out what has been happening in the past, so we need to get those stats from Public Health Scotland.

You will also have discussed this earlier, but what impact has Covid had on the stage of cancer presentations. I heard a wee bit of an earlier response but my mind was elsewhere.

You drink bubble-gum flavoured gin, so I get what you are saying.

However, that is not the issue. The issue is that you are promoting a product while not really knowing what damage it will cause.

Can you confirm, then, that you are saying that the only reasonable use of vaping should be as a smoking cessation product? It should not be targeted at all at young people who have not started smoking.

I was going to pull Dr Cheema up on his comments about ID and how difficult it will be for retailers to stop people from getting cigarettes after the new legislation comes in. Has any young person in this country not grown up having to have ID to show that they are of an age to get a drink, or even cigarettes as the case may be now? I do not really see how that would be an issue. Does the panel agree?

It is far too early to talk about the health benefits or otherwise of vaping. I accept that it might well help in the initial stages of trying to wean people off cigarettes; anything that does that is a good thing. However, surely we cannot be defending something where we know that there is damage being done by it and we are not sure what the long-term consequences of it are.

I will come in with one more point. You talk about the products being targeted at young people as almost a new thing. My grandkids are now in their mid-20s, and they told me about school friends of theirs at 15 years of age—that is 10 years ago—who were vaping for no reason other than that they thought it was cool. That is not a new problem; it has been going on for some time, and it has not been dealt with by the people whom you represent.

The issue is not so much the age; it is about the fact that vaping should be a smoking cessation product. You say that anybody who is over a certain age—16, 18 or whatever it may be—should use it, and that you should be promoting it, despite the fact that you know that it is an unhealthy product and you do not even know what the long-term consequences of it are.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. The Government’s response to the committee refers to spending of almost £3 billion in 2023-24 on tackling the cost of living. However, there was reference previously to almost £3 billion being spent on that in 2022-23. Has the figure increased, given the background of high inflation, or has it remained roughly the same as it was in the previous year?

Would it be easier for the Government to send an itemised list of the policies that were included in the 2023-24 figure for addressing the cost of living, along with an indication of the budget for 2024-25 on those items?