Public Petitions Committee, 15 Dec 2009
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Official Report 250KB pdf
Contents
- Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Tuesday 15 December 2009
- Interests
- Current Petitions
- New Petitions
- Current Petitions
- New Petitions (Notification)
Current Petitions
Magazines and Newspapers (Display of Sexually Graphic Material) (PE1169)
We come to consideration of current petitions. The first is PE1169, by Margaret Forbes, on behalf of Scottish Women Against Pornography, which asks the Parliament to urge the Government to introduce and enforce measures that ensure that magazines and newspapers with sexually graphic covers are not displayed at children's eye level or below or adjacent to children's titles and comics, and are screen sleeved before being placed on the shelf.
We heard from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and from Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People at our meeting in early October. We wanted to explore further some issues that arose from their evidence. We have received a letter from the cabinet secretary, which states that the Government would be happy for the committee to take forward its own research on the issues that the petition raises. We should take this matter forward and perhaps ask for a scoping paper.
I agree. If the Government feels that this issue is not its priority at the moment—we have to understand that—and we have the option of doing some serious research on it, we should try to do so. I have no idea what we can do and what budgets are available to us, so perhaps the first step would be to ask the clerk to provide that basic information as soon as possible.
We are making progress on this petition, which struck a chord in relation to the public perception of how things are displayed.
Police Informants (PE1260)
PE1260, by Derek Cooney, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Government to advise all police forces to discontinue the practice of entering into agreements with police informants. Are there any observations on the petition?
Given the evidence that we have taken, I would be happy to close the petition on the basis that the Government supports the police in their role of using particular informants and it has no plans to change the current system of regulation. The use of informants is an operational matter for the police. Submissions from the Scottish Government, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and the Scottish Police Federation detail the reasons why the use of police informants is vital to tackle crime. The authorisation for the use of covert human intelligence sources does not provide immunity from prosecution.
I find it hard to disagree with Robin Harper. We should consider closing the petition on those grounds, unless any member thinks otherwise.
I agree to close the petition. If an individual has a grievance about the use of an informant, they have the ability to make a formal complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which is another safeguard. The committee cannot fruitfully do much more. I agree with Robin Harper.
We will formally close the petition.
Blood Donation (PE1274)
Regarding the final two petitions on the agenda, I am conscious that we have with us some school students who gave evidence on those petitions during our visit to Alness academy who have, literally, a journey and a half back home. Therefore, with the support of members, we will bring forward those two petitions so that the students, for whom this might be their first visit to the Parliament, can have a chance to see the other parts of the Parliament building before their journey back home.
PE1274, by Andrew Danet, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a scheme to pay people each time they donate blood and to consider other measures to encourage more people to donate. Andrew Danet is with us today in the public gallery. I know that he spoke very powerfully to us when the committee visited his high school. We also heard from Andrew Page, who lodged PE1275, when we visited Alness academy in September.
In November, Robin Harper, Anne McLaughlin and I held a videoconference with the French blood transfusion service. Through the clerk, we have also been able to engage with the German blood transfusion service. We have also had the opportunity to engage with Greece's national blood centre in Athens. We have made those European links to gain greater awareness not just of the course of action that the petition seeks but of the broader issue underlying the petition, which is about how we increase donations. Members might have a different opinion from that of the petitioner—most members would rather not offer payment for blood donation—but we all want to find better ways of raising awareness and contribution levels among the public.
I am in members' hands on how to deal with the petition. I think that the petition raises issues that are worth exploring. Robin Harper, Anne McLaughlin and I had a very good discussion with our French colleagues, who identified different ways of promotion that have perhaps not been fully explored in Scotland and the United Kingdom.
With the purpose only of finding out what the best practice is and whether there are good lessons that we can learn, I think that it is a good idea to keep the petition open so that we come to know much more about the situation. It would not be for us to make a recommendation on the issue anyway, but we should assemble as much evidence as possible before we pass on the petition.
Yes, I think that we should continue with the petition.
I agree. Perhaps we could write to the Scottish Government to ask whether it has any ideas or research on how, other than by payment, blood donation might be better promoted. That would be handy. I think that we made it clear to the Alness students that, despite their eloquence, none of us on the committee is in favour of paying people to give blood, but we are all right behind better promotion of blood donation.
Let us keep the petition open. We have received good evidence from other parts of Europe on the age profile of donors and on how blood donation can be promoted. We will raise those points with both the Government and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. We will explore those matters. I think that the petitioner, Andrew Danet, has been quite happy with the response so far and would support the continuation of the petition.
School Visits (Funding) (PE1275)
Our final petition from those young men from Alness academy is PE1275, by Andrew Page, which calls on the Parliament to urge the Government to ensure that all pupils at schools in remote areas such as the Highlands are not limited in or prevented from visiting educational, cultural or study events in the central belt or lowlands, to demonstrate financial equity in meeting the costs of such visits and to ensure that location does not limit the opportunity to have such experiences.
We discussed the petition when we visited the high school in Alness and we have explored matters since then. Do members have any comments on the petition?
It would be helpful and provide greater access if organisations such as national museums and galleries made travelling exhibitions available.
By continuing the petition, we could be pushing at an open door. National museums and many art organisations already travel the country much more than they used to. It is generally accepted that there should be equity of access to a large number of things, not just sport, exhibitions and art.
Given the on-going rapid development of information technologies, there is scope for central activities to be beamed out to the more remote parts of the country.
Around the time that we considered the petition, there was a broader debate about the curriculum in Scotland and accessing key locations of historical events. By ensuring that children experience places such as Culloden and Bannockburn, we can improve their understanding and awareness. Have we received any responses that indicate how the initiative will be rolled out formally in schools across Scotland?
The Scottish Government touched on the issue in its response.
Understandably, we have received the front story on the initiative, but have we received details of how it will operate for high schools in more remote locations, such as Alness, or even the other way around, so that youngsters from the west of Scotland can visit Culloden and understand better what happened there? I think that some of us were up there. Do members wish to keep the petition open?
We should keep the pressure on and get as much information as possible from the Government. There is no doubt that many peripheral areas of the country are deprived because they are distant from museums and exhibitions in the central belt.
Robin Harper made the key point that a number of national organisations are seeking more effective ways of operating. The national collections are concentrated in Edinburgh, but there is an understandable concern that they should be shared with the whole country. Are organisations seeking proactively to redress the balance through outreach and exhibition work? The central collections may be located here, in Glasgow or in other major population areas, but how do we ensure that National Museums Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and others do more to get them to other parts of the country? I do not think that we have received any responses on that issue.
The Scottish Parent Teacher Council made a similar point about the potential for travelling exhibitions by nationally funded organisations to go to more places.
Given the collections that chairpersons and chief executives of national bodies have and the approaches that they are developing, we should ask a number of them how they can respond to this petition from youngsters in Alness.
If our major galleries can bring in major art collections from Europe—I am thinking of the Tutankhamun exhibition in Edinburgh and Glasgow—surely we should encourage museums in Scotland to make specific exhibitions available locally. The question is: where do we find the funding for that?
The Scottish Government must support such activity with funding. To be fair, it is doing valuable work in the area, but the issue is how opportunities can be extended to the whole country, including the more remote parts.
Thank you for your comments. If the students want to explore other parts of the Parliament they should feel free to do so—do not be detained here before you start your journey home. This is a bit of a surreal conversation, because you are not sitting at the committee table. I feel as if I am back home, trying to talk to my two children—I am speaking to someone who is not quite there. I hope that the discussion has been helpful. We want to keep both petitions open and to keep pressing matters on your behalf. Have a safe journey back to Alness.
Small-scale Redundancies (Government Support) (PE1265)
PE1265, by Matthew Goundry, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to deliver the same level of responsiveness and support to those individuals who are part of small-scale redundancy as is delivered to those who face large-scale redundancy.
I propose that we keep the petition open and write to the Scottish Government to ask it to comment on the response from the Scottish Trades Union Congress, in particular paragraph 3.4, on how partnership action for continuing employment is operating. We also need to find out how the Government is measuring the success of PACE, not just after redundancy happens but during the statutory consultation period prior to redundancy, when there should be consultation with employees. We should ask what mechanisms are in place if PACE is not triggered in small-scale redundancies and what support there is for employees who face redundancy.
When a business goes under or downsizes, its subcontractors also shed labour, of necessity. A host of businesses are attached to businesses that go under; they might decide to struggle on, but it is usually wiser not to do so. That can be predicted; the original business knows the names of the businesses that are affected. To what extent is the Government picking up on that issue before the worst happens?
Not just subcontractors but agency workers are affected. How are agency workers dealt with and what interventions are in place for them? All too often we hear that the bulk of a workforce is made up of agency workers, because employers think that they are not legally required to treat them in the way that they treat normal employees. It would be useful to ask the Government whether PACE is picking up on what happens to agency workers when redundancies are proposed in their workplace.
Okay. We will keep the petition open on those grounds.
A96 Safety Improvements (Mosstodloch) (PE1271)
PE1271, by Councillor Anita McDonald, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to investigate the case for a reduced speed limit on the A96, to improve road safety for schoolchildren and the wider public. We have considered the petition on a number of occasions.
I do not think that it is necessary to keep the petition open. What the petitioner is asking for is, to a large extent, being dealt with by an assessment of the current speed limit through Mosstodloch, which will be completed by the end of March; by the bypass, which is designed to reduce traffic volumes by providing better overtaking facilities in both directions; by the construction of underpasses for pedestrians and cyclists; and by traffic calming proposals for Fochabers and Mosstodloch. The issues that concerned the petitioner are actively being addressed, so we can probably close the petition.
There is one remaining issue. In the petitioner's message dated 1 December, she asks why, if traffic calming measures can be introduced in Fochabers and Mosstodloch once the bypass is there, such measures cannot be introduced now. I am no expert, but I suspect that that cannot be done simply because sleeping policemen cannot be installed on a trunk route. Could somebody write to Transport Scotland, asking it to make that clear if it has not already done so? The message does not seem to have got through. I suspect that it is that simple, but perhaps nobody from Transport Scotland has told the petitioner.
I take Nigel Don's point, but I still think that we should close the petition. The point is important, but it is not huge.
I am not denying that we should close the petition.
Okay, we will close the petition but ask Transport Scotland to write to the petitioner on that issue, which may resolve the matter.
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