Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee, 16 Feb 2000

Meeting date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Official Report 210KB pdf

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Petitions

As item 3 on the agenda is to do with petitions, I am glad that we have with us the convener of the Public Petitions Committee, John McAllion.

Petition 53, from Frank Harvey, calls for the Scottish Parliament to take steps to ensure that young people are not discriminated against by Partick Housing Association and its housing allocations policy.

As you can see from the date on this petition—22 September 1999—it is one of the early ones. Mr Harvey is personally responsible for 20 per cent of all the petitions that have come before the Scottish Parliament. At the previous meeting of the Public Petitions Committee, we decided to vet more thoroughly Mr Harvey's petitions. Mr Harvey sits down with the paper, cuts out items that are of interest to him and sends a petition on the subject to the Scottish Parliament. If we spend all our time dealing with matters raised by Mr Harvey, we will not do the work that we were elected to get on with.

My recommendation is that we pass the petition to Scottish Homes for comment and pass it back to Mr Harvey.

Do we agree to do that?

Mr McAllion, in view of what you said, does the Public Petitions Committee intend to accept only those petitions that are signed by more than one person?

No. The standing orders of the Parliament say that an individual has the right to petition the Scottish Parliament. However, if every individual did what Mr Harvey does, the work of the Parliament would grind to a halt. The Public Petitions Committee has a responsibility to protect the other committees from people who send in a dozen petitions a week about whatever comes into their head. The petitions have to be dealt with, but the Public Petitions Committee can prevent the other committees becoming blocked up.

Reading the petition, it seems that there is a conflict between the local waiting list, which had as a condition that the individual did not qualify for the general waiting list and the general waiting list, which had as a criterion the fact that the individual stayed with their parents. The problem is that the local waiting list was for young people in the care of their parents.

The issue needs serious examination. It would be sensible to refer the matter to Scottish Homes.

Are we agreed on that?

Members indicated agreement.

It would be good if you could tell the Public Petitions Committee that that has been done.

Yes, that has been noted. I take it that that is a matter of courtesy.

Yes, it just keeps that committee informed.

Petition 74, from the Scottish Tenants Organisation, calls for the Scottish Parliament to place a moratorium on all housing stock transfers until such time as its concerns in relation to such transfers are addressed.

We have had a similar petition before us previously.

And there are another five on their way from tenants associations across Scotland. The matter is part of the stock transfer process and we should consider it when we do our final report.

That is what we have agreed already.

The point is that no transfers will take place between now and the publication of our report.

Hopefully.

Hopefully?

That was a joke—I meant that our report might get held up. Forget it, we will move on.