1st Report, 2008 (Session 3)

Annual Report 2007-08

Remit and membership

Remit:

To consider public petitions addressed to the Parliament in accordance with these Rules and, in particular, to—

(a) decide in a case of dispute whether a petition is admissible;

(b) decide what action should be taken upon an admissible public petition; and

(c) keep under review the operation of the petitions system.

(Standing Orders of the Scottish Parliament, Rule 6.10)

Membership:

Bashir Ahmed
Claire Baker
Angela Constance
Nigel Don (from 31 October 2007)
Rhoda Grant
Robin Harper
Tricia Marwick (until 31 October 2007)
Mr Frank McAveety (Convener)
Nanette Milne
John Farquhar Munro (Deputy Convener)

Committee Clerking Team:

Clerk to the Committee
Fergus Cochrane

Assistant Clerks
Franck David
Zoé Tough

Committee Assistant
Eileen Martin

Annual Report 2007-08

The Committee reports to the Parliament as follows—

Introduction

1. This report covers the work of the Public Petitions Committee during the parliamentary year from 9 May 2007 to 8 May 2008.

Petitions considered

2. During the period of the report, 103 new petitions were lodged and 92 people gave oral evidence to the Committee in respect of 38 of these new petitions. In addition, 231 current (ongoing) petitions were considered.

3. The Committee continues to deal with a broad range of issues with health, home affairs, education, transport and the environment being the issues of most concern in petitions from people across Scotland.

4. New petitions were lodged on employment opportunities for disabled people (PE1036 and PE1069), a ban on airguns (PE1059), the services of independent midwives (PE1052), hospital car parking charges (PE1086 and PE1091), the provision of seatbelts on school buses (PE1098), the availability of cancer treatment drugs on the NHS (PE1108), the environmental impact of windfarms (PE1104) and the closure of rural schools (PE1132).

5. Ongoing petitions considered in the period of the report include cranial abnormalities in babies (PE960), high hedges (PE984), protection from broken glass (PE986), adoption of a play strategy (PE913) and restricting the use of jet-skis near public beaches (PE978).

6. Several petitions made reference to the availability of community leisure facilities. PE966, PE990, PE1041 and PE1138 were all referred to the Health and Sport Committee to take forward as part of its pathways into sport inquiry. In addition, a petition on the provision of government subsidy to ferry services was referred to the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee. The Committee continued to consider whether there were benefits to a petitioner in referring their petition to another committee of the Parliament. It maintained constructive links with other committees in this regard.

7. Petitions continued to be an invaluable way for members of the public to raise concerns at a national level and provide a direct link for the public into the policy and legislative development arena. This is a firm example of the Parliament’s founding principles, in particular, of access and participation and sharing power.

8. Several petitions had extremely positive outcomes. For example, consideration of petitions PE535 and PE888 on institutional child abuse was concluded by the Committee during the period of the report. Both petitions achieved a considerable amount. In relation to PE888, detailed consideration and discussion was given to the matters raised in the petition, including the acceptance in full by the Scottish Government of the recommendations contained in the report of the Historical Abuse Systemic Review of Residential Schools and Children’s Homes in Scotland between 1950 and 1995.

E-petitions

9. The e-petitions system continued to provide members of the public, including petitioners, with the opportunity to comment on proposed petitions before they are formally lodged with the Committee and for petitioners to gather e-signatures. Two-thirds of all new petitions are now hosted as e-petitions before being formally lodged and 70 e-petitions were submitted over the period of the report. The system continued to provide 24/7 availability, resulting in less work for the petitioner in attracting signatures to their petition. As an indication of its popularity, in February 2008 the site received nearly 600,000 hits while in March it received around 1.8 million hits.

Information sharing

10. The work of the Committee once again received attention from other legislatures. The Committee hosted inward delegations from the—

• Committee on Petitions and Minority Rights of the Chamber of Deputies, the Parliament of the Czech Republic
• Petitions Committee, Gauteng Provincial Legislature
• Speaker of the House of Lords
• Renfrewshire Council (as part of its investigation into establishing a local petitions process)
• Petitions Committee of the National Assembly for Wales
• President of the Australian Senate
• President of the Tasmanian Legislative Council

while the Clerk to the Committee also met with officials from other legislatures and countries to discuss the role of the Committee. The Clerk, on behalf of the Committee, gave presentations on the e-petitions system at conferences on e-democracy in Vienna and Dublin.

Inquiries and Reports

11. In the period covered by the report, the Committee commenced an inquiry into the availability on the NHS of cancer treatment drugs. The inquiry follows from its consideration of PE1108. It issued a call for written evidence and received 26 submissions. It also heard oral evidence from patients’ representatives, clinicians and representatives of the key medicines organisations in Scotland.

12. The Committee will conclude oral evidence by hearing from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing and the petitioner and will report prior to summer recess 2008.

13. No reports were published in the period specified in the report.

Bills and Subordinate legislation

14. The Committee did not deal with any bills or subordinate legislation during the year.

Equalities

15. The Committee continued its commitment to equalities making its key publications available in a wider range of formats and languages. It routinely heard oral evidence and received submissions from disabled people, age organisations, minority ethnic communities, LGBT organisations, religion and faith organisations and gender organisations. It has also published its annual equalities report alongside this report and supports proposals for other parliamentary committees doing likewise. It is the intention next year to merge both reports together.

16. The Committee is also taking forward plans for an inquiry into the petitions process which will look at how it can make the petitions process more accessible and more widely used by the people of Scotland.

Meetings

17. During the parliamentary year the Committee met 17 times. All of these meetings were held in public with only one item, consideration of the Committee’s future work programme, being held in private although its decisions were publicly recorded in its Minutes of Proceedings. All meetings were held in Edinburgh.