Apologies were received from Nigel Don and Robin Harper.
Also present: Christine Grahame, Roseanna Cunningham and Dr Richard Simpson.
The meeting opened at 2.04 pm.
PE1146 Petition by Jennifer Newman calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme with the Home Office to allow overseas students on the scheme to stay and work in Scotland for an extended period at the conclusion of their academic studies without the need for a work permit and, as a result, ensure greater benefits for all concerned given the amounts of public funding spent training such individuals.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government, Home Office and Scottish Networks International.
PE1139 Petition by John Quigley, on behalf of Unite – the Union, calling on the Scottish parliament to urge the Scottish Government to retain the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board as a separate body and to expand its remit to cover all workers in the agricultural sector including those in private and ornamental gardens and all types of fish farming.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government.
PE1138 Petition by Erica Woollcombe calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to take all necessary steps to ensure the continued provision of local ice rinks and to recognise the benefit these play in promoting health and wellbeing.
The Committee agreed to refer the petition to the Health and Sport Committee for further consideration as part of its Pathways into Sport inquiry. It also agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government, Scottish Ice Rinks Association and a selection of local authorities. These responses will then be passed to the Health and Sport Committee.
PE1142 Petition by Rev Jock Stein, on behalf of Dunfermline Presbytery, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to continue the scheme of relief and exemption of charities and churches from water and sewerage charges beyond 2010.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government.
PE1143 Petition by Carol Ann Bowmaker calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend all relevant legislation to ensure that private tenants have a right to be notified when their landlord has applied for planning permission to demolish their home and that planning permission is not granted and notices to quit are not issued to a tenant when outstanding repairing standard enforcement notices exist on the property.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government and a selection of local authorities.
PE1144 Petition by Ross Ingebrigtsen, on behalf of dotSCO, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to give full support to the dotSCO application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to introduce a standard ".sco" top level domain name in order to enhance Scotland's distinct languages, culture and identity, and for use by all Scottish public bodies.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government.
PE1145 Petition by Dr Alexander Gemmell calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a statutory deposit and return scheme on all used beverage containers.
The Committee agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in this petition from the Scottish Government, Waste Aware Scotland, Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association.
PE986 Petition on behalf of Woodlands Primary School, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to take greater action to protect the public, domestic and non-domestic birds and animals from the dangers of broken glass, to promote the use of plastic bottles as an alternative to glass and to introduce a refundable deposit scheme aimed at reducing the levels of broken glass in public places.
The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government to ascertain how and when it will take forward its consideration of this matter, as indicated in its written submission, whether it will fund a campaign to highlight the issue of broken glass and its anti-social effect on children having safe places to play. The Committee also agreed to write to COSLA seeking a response to the issues raised in the petition and how local authorities deal with them.
PE1051 Petition by Jimmy Deuchars, on behalf of Grandparents Apart Self Help Group Scotland, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to make the Charter for Grandchildren legally binding ensuring that the rights of children are recognised by all public agencies and families, and enforced by law.
The Committee agreed to close consideration of this petition on the grounds that detailed consideration was given during debate on the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 to give grandparents a legal right of contact with their grandchildren but that, on balance and after discussion with other parties, it was not considered appropriate to do so when it may not always be in the child’s best interest. In addition, that other child-centred avenues are now available, for example, family group conferencing.
PE1052 Petition by Jayne Heron calling for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to promote the services of independent midwives and to ensure that such services continue to be available to pregnant women in Scotland.
The Committee agreed to write to a selection of NHS boards seeking clarification of what options are available to them in terms of promoting and making available the services of independent midwives and how they are actively engaging with midwives in this. The Committee also agreed to write to the UK Department of Health to ascertain what impact the current Health and Social Care Bill will have on the issues raised in the petition.
PE1055 Petition by Graeme Campbell, on behalf of MAPS (Media Access projects Scotland), calling for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to seek clarification on the ownership of electromagnetic broadcast spectrum in advance of the proposed spectrum packaging and award process and to seek assurances that capacity will be reserved on the digital multiplexes to enable local and new Scottish television channels originating in Scotland to be broadcast to Scottish viewers receiving the public service broadcasting channels.
The Committee agreed to suspend consideration of the petition until the Scottish Broadcasting Commission has published its report on Cultural Phase, in particular its recommendations on the possibility of local television services, and to invite the Scottish Government to respond on how and when it will take forward the matter of spectrum being available for local television services across all parts of Scotland.
PE1056 Petition by Gordon, Jane and Steven McPherson calling for the Scottish parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to introduce mandatory assessment tools for all health boards for the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT); to ensure commonality of patient guidance information regarding DVT; and to introduce a newborn screening programme for the Factor V gene, which has been shown to increase susceptibility to DVT.
The Committee agreed to suspend further consideration of the petition until NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has collated information from all NHS Boards and reported to the Chief Medical Officer and to invite the Scottish Government to respond on how the new policies address the particular issues raised in the petition. Further, that the Scottish Government and other agencies should continue to communicate and work with the petitioner on the revision of written policies.
PE1057 Petition by Andrew Billson-Page, on behalf of the Save Our NHS Group, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to consider increasing funding for research into endometriosis and to consider ways of facilitating more effective diagnosis of endometriosis in light of the recommendations of the Kerr Report on the future of the NHS in Scotland.
The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government seeking a response on how it is actively improving awareness of this condition and how and when it will engage with Endometriosis UK on this and what action it is taking to incite the NHS and research and academic communities to submit research projects on this to the Chief Scientists Office.
PE1058 Petition by Samer Bagaeen calling for the Scottish Parliament to consider and debate the traffic, environmental and sustainability impact on existing communities in designated town centres of large 24-hour supermarket developments.
The Committee agreed to close consideration of this petition on the grounds that it is for each local authority to ensure compliance with all relevant planning statutes, policies and advice notes when considering individual planning applications for supermarket developments, for example, in terms of notification, consultation, environmental impact, sustainability, public transport links.
PE1066 Petition by John M Thomson calling for the Scottish Parliament to consider and debate the adoption of the current symbol of the Scottish Parliament to be displayed in a prominent position in the Debating Chamber.
The Committee agreed to close consideration of the petition on the grounds that the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has twice considered and rejected the proposals contained in the petition.
PE1073 Petition by Tom Minogue calling for the Scottish Parliament to investigate and establish the reasons for the apparently disproportionate number of Catholics in Scottish prisons.
The Committee agreed to write again to the Scottish Government asking it to respond to the issues raised in the petition and each of the written submissions received as a matter of urgency and to state why it did not reply to the Committee’s previous request. The Committee also agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in the petition from the Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, Association of Directors of Social Work, academia, including University of Stirling and University of London and Sheriff’s Association.
PE1082 Petition by John Dowson calling for the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive to undertake an urgent review of their consultation and participation practices; to consider a proposal to reinstate funding to the Scottish Civic Forum at a level of at least £250,000 per annum; and to adhere to the guidance on participation as published in the Scottish Parliament’s Participation Handbook.
The Committee agreed to close consideration of this petition on the grounds that neither the Scottish Government nor the Scottish Parliament have any plans to provide direct funding to Scottish Civic Forum and that both organisations have recently reviewed their consultation and participation practices.
PE1107 Petition by Robin Falconer, on behalf of Highland Youth Voice, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to reduce public transport fares for all under 18 year olds in full time education and to make provision for young people with no income to either travel free or pay only half the adult fare.
The Committee agreed to invite the Scottish Government to respond to the points raised in the written submissions, particularly those from the petitioner, Young Scot and the Scottish Youth Parliament and to indicate what its timetable is for its review of the Concessionary Travel Scheme, how it will conduct this review and with whom.
PE1112 Petition by Robert Kay calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to clarify the circumstances in which Scottish Ministers would not accept the decisions of a local planning inquiry and a public local inquiry, particularly in relation to housing developments on green belt land, such as that at Cavalry Park, Kilsyth.
The Committee agreed to close consideration of this petition on the grounds that planning authorities are statutorily required to give consideration to the impact of a development on the green belt, that the system of notifying Scottish Ministers has been recently updated by the Scottish Government and the petitioner is currently addressing the concerns he raises in the petition by way of a complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
PE1113 Petition by Peter McCann, on behalf of the Castle Craig Hospital, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to increase the availability and provision of residential and abstinent treatment for those who are alcohol and/or drug dependent.
The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government asking it to respond further to the issues raised in the petition and the written submissions once it has published its new drugs strategy.
PE1114 Petition by Gillian Vance, on behalf of Galloway Childcare Company, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to conduct a review of its childcare strategy to ensure adequate funding is provided for childcare services across all local authorities.
The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government seeking a further response, once its early years strategy has been published, on what its childcare strategy is, how that will be taken forward and how it will address the specific concerns of the petitioner. It also agreed to invite the Scottish Government to make representations to the UK Government on issues surrounding the tax credit system and what assistance this might offer the petitioner.
PE1115 Petition by Caroline Moore on behalf of the Campaign to Open Blackford Railway-station Again, calling for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that national and regional transport strategies consider and focus on public transport solutions such as the reopening of Blackford railway station which is identified as a priority action in the latest Tayside and Central Regional Transport Strategy, and in doing so, recognises and supports the positive environmental, economic and social impacts of such local solutions.
The Committee agreed to schedule further consideration of this petition once the STAG appraisal on the Tay Estuary Rail Study has been completed and the Strategic Transport Projects Review currently being undertaken by Transport Scotland has been published. It also agreed to seek a response from ScotRail to the issues raised in the petition.
The meeting closed at 4.24pm.
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