Chamber and committees

I will let somebody else come in, and you can come back in later. Fulton MacGregor is next.

Okay.

We are moving on to questions about access to services.

Okay—I will bring Colin in first.

I think that the committee could take the decision to broaden the scope of work that has been inspired by the petition.

Welcome to the sixth meeting in 2023 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee in session 6. We have one public item on our agenda this morning: consideration of continued petition PE1787, on the use of Makaton sign language in the legal system. I refer members to paper 1.

Members will recall that we took evidence from the petitioner, Sandra Docherty, at our meeting on 13 December last year, after which we agreed that the clerks would write to Scottish Government officials for their initial thoughts on the evidence. The clerk’s note summarises the Scottish Government’s response, which is included as an annex to paper 1. It notes that the Scottish Government highlights a range of measures that enable the provision of communication support within the legal system and suggests that perhaps a wider range of support is needed than Makaton alone can provide.

Members will recall that, during the evidence session, we discussed whether there was any data on the numbers of Makaton users and support providers. The Scottish Government response points us towards the office of the public guardian in Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, which might hold the relevant information. The clerk’s note also provides us the option of writing to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and Police Scotland, to establish whether they have any records on this area. The Scottish Government also draws attention to recommendation 5.1 of the recent report by the Scottish Mental Health Law Review, and offers to keep the committee updated in relation to its response to that recommendation.

I think that the response from the Scottish Government is relatively helpful. It is now for us to decide how we want to take the petition forward, or whether we want to close it.

Karen Adam, do you want to come in first?

Okay. I call Fulton MacGregor.

That is good enough. I think that Karen Adam mentioned us perhaps linking in with the Education, Children and Young People Committee on that wider aspect. Makaton is an amazing tool for folk who have no other means of communication. I guess that there is a question whether the maximum number of people who could benefit from that means of communication are able to access Makaton in the first place.

The committee is unanimously of the view that we should keep the petition open for now but definitely widen our work in this area. We will write to the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Police Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the office of the public guardian. We might also have a chat with our colleagues on the Education, Children and Young People Committee about what further work we can do. We will develop our work going forward, but for now we will keep the petition open.

Again, we thank Sandra Docherty very much for bringing this very specific area, as well as the wider area of Makaton in general, to the committee’s attention.

Thanks, Fulton. I call Pam Duncan-Glancy.

Thank you. Do Rachael Hamilton or Pam Gosal have comments?