Chamber and committees

I am thankful for the evidence that we have been given. It has certainly been eye-opening. I think that one person in pain and distress and not being believed is one too many. That said, it is important that we understand the scale. Based on what has happened previously and our experience of what happened to the women, I would like to invite the minister to come and give evidence. It is important to start that dialogue. It is almost too big to just write and ask for some information. We should have an evidence session in the first instance.

The update on the members’ debate was interesting. Alasdair Allan indicated that the transport minister at the time was open to the suggestion, so I wonder if the best thing for us to do is to write to the cabinet secretary to ascertain the current position, and take things from there.

The issues that are being raised feel more like planning issues. Although the petition is specifically about wind farms, which relate to energy, the issues raised feel like they are more about planning than the environment. I would be interested to hear others’ reflections on that.

Forgive me, I do not want to disagree with you, convener, but did we not agree to ask the planning minister in for PE1864? Would it not be the—

I am interested to know how the SQA assesses demand and whether it consulted with the deaf community on that. Perhaps we should write to stakeholders such as Deaf Action, the National Deaf Children’s Society Scotland and the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition.

It is an important topic and I, too, would be interested to hear directly from the cabinet secretary. That would allow us to move things along a bit quicker than letter writing seems to have done in this instance. It would be helpful to hear from her.

This is a very important topic. We know that women are at increased risk of violence through pregnancy and early maternity, so I certainly wish to take more evidence. We have some helpful stuff in our papers, but I would like us to invite the petitioner and some other stakeholders in to give us evidence.

As the statistics in the cabinet secretary’s submission highlight, the causes and consequences of violence are different for men and women, as are the approaches that we need to take to prevent and—as I hope, one day, we will do—eradicate that violence.

I suggest that we press the Scottish Government by writing to it to seek further details on the national strategy on ending intimate and sexual violence against men and boys, including a timescale for its publication. I think that it would also be helpful to write to Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to seek their views on the petition. In addition, it would be helpful to hear from the services that are targeted at men and boys that are mentioned in our papers, such as the Respect men’s advice line, ASSIST and Sacro’s FearFree service.

I hope that we are seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel in respect of the pandemic, but we know that the Scottish Government is unable to completely rule out further restrictions related to Covid-19 or to advise what they might be in the future. The topic that has been raised is really important. There will not be many families that have not been impacted. Anyone who has young children or has older children and remembers what they were like will appreciate how important such activities are for children’s development and wellbeing and, indeed, the wellbeing of mums and dads.

However, as the Scottish Government cannot rule out further restrictions, we probably have to close the petition. We should write to the Scottish Government and explore the further issues that Katrina Clark has raised with the committee. I would also want us to highlight to her the inquiry into the handling of the pandemic. The petition raises the example of a group in society—babies and children and their parents—that has been impacted by actions that have taken place. That is a legitimate area for the inquiry to look into.

I thank the convener for that welcome. I look forward to the work ahead on the committee. I have no registrable interests to declare.