Chamber and committees

I should declare an interest because I have a property, which used to be my home, that has been rented out since my wife passed away. As a matter of principle, all private landlords should maintain their properties. Plainly that is the case, and I suspect that most of them do. However, those who do not do that create an extremely difficult problem for tenants. As I know from my constituency work, the situation can be extremely difficult where landlords are recalcitrant and very often just refuse to do anything at all. Therefore, some powers of compulsion are necessary, and the question is whether the existing quality standards meet that need. As Mr Golden said, the answer from the Scottish Government is that it is lodging an amendment to the housing bill. The matter is very live and it will be debated further by the Parliament.

The approach that has been taken in England seems to be logical, although I do not think that it has yet been implemented. The ministerial response that the committee received on 8 May said that the approach in England would start to be implemented from October this year, starting with damp and mould. This is a serious problem that requires to be dealt with. It is just not acceptable that tenants are sitting powerless in properties and suffering the effects of damp while landlords refuse to do anything. We have all seen photographs of what this is like, often for children and people with diseases and conditions such as asthma, who are inhaling mould spores. We have all seen this in our constituency work and, from time to time, we see heart-rending cases. I am absolutely satisfied that the law needs to be tightened up in this area, so it is just a question of getting it right by working together across the parties.

I think that I ate the sweets so quickly that I probably did not notice.

I note that our two responses are from the national fertility group, dated 4 July 2024; and from Public Health Scotland, dated 8 May, which was barely two weeks ago. I also understand that we have not heard from the petitioner and I am keen that she should have a proper opportunity to respond to the latest comment from Public Health Scotland.

As you alluded to, Scotland has a better record on IVF than elsewhere in the UK, which is commendable and a matter of some satisfaction. However, according to the petitioner, the elapse of time makes the whole objective of achieving and giving life much more challenging, particularly for single women. Time has passed—a couple of years—since the petition was submitted.

Last week, we spent a lot of time talking about the ending of life. The gift of life is the biggest gift that there can possibly be. Therefore, I think that, first, the petitioner should have an opportunity to comment, if she wishes to do so. Secondly, the replies from the national fertility group and particularly from Public Health Scotland were somewhat vague and talked solely about process. They gave no idea of when the various items of work that they alluded to were to begin or finish, and that is surely not satisfactory.

I suggest that we also write to the minister, simply to ask whether clarity can be provided as to when all that work will come to an end. While congratulating the NHS and all who are involved in the good things that are being achieved, we should also urge that much more be done to help women, particularly single women, who the petitioner believes and perceives are not able to access services as they should—although that point is contested. That would be a full response to the petition, which is a very important one.

I do not think that the issues will ever go away.

This is the other petition that has received my detailed attention. The minister’s response was fairly positive, but it is now almost a year old. It stated that work was to commence in early course, but the programme for government contains no reference to that legislation, as the convener said, and it is not clear whether the work has commenced or is to be commenced.

I therefore suggest that we do two things. First, we should write to the minister to seek an update on the submission of 29 July 2024 and, in particular, clarity on whether the work that is referred to in the last paragraph of the letter has commenced. It stated that the Government intended

“to commence this engagement in early course.”

Secondly, the petitioner’s response of 30 July 2024 recognised the minister’s concern and thanked her for her helpfulness to the committee, but it raised a very interesting point about whether victims are able to apply for an extension of a non-harassment order.

I gather that non-harassment orders are normally granted for a specific period in time. It therefore seems to be an extension of natural justice that, if the victim feels that there is a reason why that time period should be extended, they should have the opportunity to apply to court for an extension thereof. I would therefore be grateful if, in writing to the minister, we could inquire of him whether it is the case that the current law—which I think is, from memory, the Act of Adjournal (Criminal Procedure Rules Amendment No 2) (Non-harassment order) 1997—allows the victim to make such an application, and, if not, whether that would be part of the legislation that the minister is considering bringing in and considering in early course.

I do not oppose that, because a lot of progress has been made and a lot of the points that the petitioner raised have been answered. However, I note the fact that, in the petitioner’s response of 5 May, which is hot off the press, he sets out very clearly his response on each point. Some of the points that he makes certainly have substance, and others may do. I do not think that we can do much more with the petition in the remaining time that is available to us this session.

I commend the petitioner for his forensic focus on the defects in the code. To be fair, the responses have been relevant, but the petitioner may wish to come back to the Parliament in the next session, after he has reflected further on the changes.

You have highlighted that, in the Victim Support Scotland written submission of 20 November 2024, considerable doubt is cast on current approach and on how an absolute discharge can conceivably be justified. I appreciate that the Government’s argument is that that occurs only in the most exceptional circumstances, but we do not really know what those are nor how frequently the disposal has been deployed, and we should know that.

On a wider note, I suggest that we write to the Scottish Sentencing Council to highlight Victim Support Scotland’s written submission, and to ask how people can have confidence that absolute discharges are being used appropriately, given the serious nature of rape and sexual assault and the lack of information that is provided about what “exceptional circumstances” means in practice for such cases.

We should also write to the Lord Advocate and to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, asking the same questions so that we get a suite of answers, and highlighting the worrying and troublesome fact that those who are subject to an absolute discharge would not be made the subject of sex offender notification requirements—in other words, they would fall off any radar that exists, however adequate, or not, it may be. Again, that seems to be an anomaly.

Finally, the petition has—quite understandably—attracted a fairly high level of support. From memory, it has 563 signatures or thereabouts, and the number has gone up substantially from when we previously considered it. It is, therefore, plainly a matter of considerable public interest. For that reason, even though we are moving towards the end of the parliamentary session, I think that, rather than closing the petition, we should have at least one more shot at obtaining information that we have not—in my view, at any rate—thus far obtained.

I agree. I am struck by the information that we have had from the petitioner and others about the gravity of the problem and the extent of the risk that those women are exposed to. In our papers, I note that Ash Regan’s work on the topic of hostel safety is referenced. She has referred to the need to “stop more women dying”. The Glasgow Times has run a campaign that highlights the issue.

Although the Scottish Government has said that funding has been provided, there is a lack of clarity about whether any of that funding will find its way to providing the solution that the petitioner wants. I agree with the approach that Mr Torrance has advocated, but we should specifically ask what will be done to address the issue this year—so as to elicit not a vague response of, “Money will be made available in a general way,” but what exactly will be done—otherwise we will be in the same position and no further.

I hope that I am not being unfair to the Government—needless to say, I never wish to do that—but my concern is that women’s homelessness is one of those issues on which we talk about spending huge amounts of money but nothing actually happens.

I agree with what you have said, convener. In her response, which I am looking at, the minister, Jenni Minto, said:

“there is currently a lack of strong evidence for the effectiveness of enacting legislation to mandate deployment of PAD”—

public access defibrillators—

“in designated places”

and

“it is unclear whether such legislation would be ... effective”,

which suggests that there could be some evidence—we do not know what it is. If there is a lack of clarity, the best way to proceed might be to call the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health to give evidence to the committee on the petition. I do not wish to pre-empt any procedure; we will also consider the next petition, which is also about defibrillators.

I was going to say something very similar. In the light of the tragic circumstances that befell the petitioner’s family, the petitioner has allowed the matter to be raised in the Scottish Parliament and allowed us to obtain the evidence that you refer to. The evidence shows that, in every country in the world that has policy on the issue, bed sharing seems to have a fairly high risk of cot death, which is tragic and sad. Through the petitioner’s efforts, he has been able to highlight the issue and what is a tragic loss for any such family.