Seòmar agus comataidhean

The second item on our agenda is the first oral evidence session of the committee’s inquiry into healthcare in remote and rural areas. We will hear from representatives of the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland. I welcome Stephen Lea-Ross, deputy director of health, workforce planning and development, and Siobhan Mackay, interim deputy director of primary care capability, both at the Scottish Government. Dr Pam Nicoll is associate director of medicine and leads on the national centre for remote and rural health and care at NHS Education for Scotland. We are expecting Professor Emma Watson, the executive medical director of NHS Education for Scotland, to join us. Dr Nicoll is joining us remotely. Thank you and welcome.

We will move straight to questions.

I am keen to hear how the work of the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative informed the plan for the new centre and what additional areas the centre will cover.

I remind those in the room that you do not need to operate your microphones; broadcasting will do that.

It would be helpful to see some more detail around that work plan because that certainly was not what I was getting from the reading that I did in preparation for the committee meeting.

Thank you for clarifying that.

The second item on our agenda is to decide whether to take item 4 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

I see that Professor Banks wants to come in. I must ask her to be very brief, as we do not have a lot of time left, and a lot of members still want to ask questions.

Thank you.

All the witnesses have contributed a lot of helpful suggestions about things that could be done either to reduce the use and availability of vapes or to discourage children and young people from taking up vaping. Do the witnesses wish to bring to the committee’s attention anything else that they think it would be helpful to ask the Scottish Government to do in order to reduce vape usage, particularly amongst children and young people?

I thank the panel for joining us. The committee has found this to be an interesting and informative session that will help us develop our thinking as we move forward, and we will take on board Professor Banks’s point about taking vaping and tobacco together. Thank you for your attendance today.

At our next meeting, we will hold the first oral evidence-taking session for our inquiry into health and care in remote and rural areas, to be followed by an evidence session with the women’s health champion.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Will you clarify something? What you said seems to contradict what Garth Reid and Professor Banks said about vaping rates being similar across socioeconomic groups.

Professor Britton wants to comment.