Chamber and committees

With regard to point 5, on community engagement, and Maria’s comments, is that not what MSPs are meant to do with surgeries at the weekends to make sure that the public can get to them easily in order to engage?

I was interested in that, because I wondered whether it was about people complaining that their MSP does not hold any surgeries or is not engaging in the community and asking whether he can be held to account for that.

That was, if you will remember, quite well attended, because I think that I was the chair that day. That sort of engagement works; it was not just a matter of going out there and simply doing what the committee was designed to do. At the end of each of the days, we had a general question-and-answer session with the public about how the Parliament worked, and it was good to see it promoted in that way.

Recommendation 10 is that a panel should be set up

“to discuss the MSPs’ code of conduct”.

That is interesting, because we have had difficulties in the past with the code of conduct and the behaviour of some MSPs.

Yes, I was.

I was just going to talk about recommendation 11 in the report. Nobody will be surprised to learn that I would promote the Parliament and the committees going out into communities. In addition to the examples that you have highlighted, convener, I would also mention our visit to Loch Fyne and the Rest and Be Thankful.

How important is it to embed the medication assisted treatment standards in practice, especially to ensure that individuals receive appropriate medication while they are in police custody?

I would like to invite the petitioner and representatives of Who Cares? Scotland, CELCIS, the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum, the Promise, and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland to a round-table discussion to explore issues that the petition raises. If the committee agrees to that, could we also invite some people with life experiences of the situations that are raised in the petition?

Before we make any further recommendations, could we write to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee to ask it what relevant work it intends to do in that area, and whether it will consider what the petition asks for?

Good morning. Since the legislation came into force, birds have been restricted in doing what they naturally do and your captive birds are not allowed to hunt mountain hares. How has that affected their welfare?