Chamber and committees

I am happy to do that. Laura Hansler might well be back before us in the next parliamentary session.

I was struck by the background information to the petition, which pointed out that Scotland continues to have one of the highest cancer mortality rates in western Europe among children under 18. That is a shocking statistic.

I was not aware of many of the issues that Jackie Baillie has eloquently set out. Although it is heartening that some progress has been made on points 1 and 2, she is absolutely right to focus on point 3 and seek a specific answer from the Scottish Government. However, I see no reason why we should not at the same time write to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to see what it says about the issue. Plainly, the Scottish Government refers regularly to advice, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines and everything else from the royal colleges, so it might be worth while to do that—there would be no harm in it.

The members of the next Parliament, including those of us who are not ourselves culled, can give it consideration.

Yes, I agree with that. I am struck by petitioner Helen Blythe pointing out that an answer that she received to a freedom of information request said that fewer than one in 20 schools have all four recommended allergy safeguards in place—so, 19 out of 20 do not. Almost half—49 per cent—have no allergy policy, only 8 per cent hold spare adrenaline autoinjector allergy pens, and nearly a third do not provide any allergy training.

The Scottish Government has given a long answer, but, as far as I can see—I apologise if I have missed anything—it does not refer to any of those points whatsoever. When the Scottish Government replies to petitioners, why can it not just answer the questions that are put and the factual assertions that are made? If it says that they are wrong, let us say it. It never does that, and it must be extremely irritating for all petitioners.

That is a general point. On a specific point, the Government’s response says that the job of the inspector at His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland is to go round and inspect schools, to make sure that they are following their obligations in all respects, but it does not seem to refer to allergies at all. It refers to dietary requirements, which covers some allergies, but it does not refer to allergies. Is it possible to raise that issue ourselves? Or, if there is not enough time to do that, which may well be the case, could we encourage the petitioner to bring the petition back?

If I were marking the Scottish Government’s response, I would give it a half out of 10, and not for the first time.

I suggest that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that legal access rights and the outdoor access code were designed to apply only to non-motorised access to land. The Scottish Government believes that infringements of the code are best tackled in that way.

Before making that proposal, I read the Scottish Government’s response. I must say that it seems to be sitting on the fence. For some strange reason, the Scottish Government shows a strange propensity for being reluctant to say anything at all about camper vans. I cannot imagine why that could possibly be the case.

Those remarks aside, lay-bys are not meant for overnight camping for recreational purposes, but they can be necessary to allow drivers of heavy goods vehicles to take a break. Those drivers may have to do so because of tachograph rules that are designed for vehicle safety. It is not entirely straightforward, but I think that a distinction could be drawn for commercial business employment use for protected lay-bys, which are the only ones that should be used for overnight parking. We should distinguish between that on the one hand and camper vans on the other.

The petitioner has a serious point to make and I thoroughly back up what the convener has said, but we have no alternative but to close the petition.

Yes. Mr Torrance is absolutely right. The Scottish Government has set out its stall, but it does not really have an answer, nor can it ever have an answer, to the point that has been raised by the petitioner. The cut-off time is arbitrary, and one can well understand how much that must rankle and worry people who have been through abuse before 2004.

I guess that we will come back to the issue again, because if a decision is not based on principle and confounds any sense of decency, I am quite sure that this committee will be hearing about it again—and rightly so.

I do not think that we have any alternative but to close the petition. The residents of Seil island have made their point. It is all very well saying that Ofcom and all the authorities are committed to doing something about it, but that falls short of their actually doing anything about it.

The petitioner, Timothy Bowles, has raised a very fair point, which must apply to other islands, although there cannot be that many islands that will be in this predicament. The Scottish Government points out the considerable expenditure on the reaching 100 per cent—R100—broadband programme, which has laid 16 undersea cables that have assisted communications in many islands. It is not as if nothing has been done—a lot has been done. That means that there can be relatively few places left that are in this predicament. It is not beyond the wit of man for Ofcom and the Scottish Government, with all the mighty resources that they have, to find out which ones are left and sort them out. I hope that the petitioner perseveres.

I agree with what you and Mr Golden have said, convener, but I note in passing that it is our understanding that the Scottish Government does not intend to amend the 1981 act to remove the power to grant licences, so it is not doing anything—it is just allowing things to go ahead. NatureScot has indicated that it is bound by the 1981 act, although I have to say that I do not quite understand that, because I think that it gives it some discretion.

I am struck by NatureScot’s determination to allow the guga hunt to proceed while preventing the control of seagulls in my constituency, which is causing huge problems as well as lacerations and injuries to people. However, that is really for NatureScot to explain. Given the number of signatures that the petition has received, I think that the issue needs to be explored further, but that is probably for the next Parliament.

Finally, I would note the written submission that we have received from an islander. I am sure that any committee will want to ensure that the voice of the islanders is heard. They are making the case that this is part of their tradition and heritage. They want to be heard, and they are entitled to be heard, but I think that some of them feel a little bit browbeaten by the tone of some of the criticisms that have been made of them. I hope that the debate can be conducted in a civilised and rational way, even if people have very strong emotions about the matter.

—it is defeat; it is simply a deferral of probable consideration.

The Government has provided quite a long response, but it does not seem to be much more than a patchwork of random actions and fairly modest grants for small pieces of work here and there. It does not really address the point that the petitioner stressed in her written submission of 5 January, which is that,

“Despite affecting at least 1 in 10 women and people assigned female at birth”—

females—

“Scotland does not collect national outcomes data for endometriosis. As a result, clinicians lack reliable evidence on:

• treatment effectiveness,

• treatment-related harm,

• complications and disease progression,

• and which patient groups are at highest risk of treatment failure.”

I noticed recent press coverage of the issue, in which it was pointed out that females who suffer from endometriosis suffer horrendously—they suffer years and years of unremitting pain.

Given the numbers involved, the Government’s apparent unwillingness to establish a database of outcomes is hard to understand. So determined is it to avoid doing so that it has pointed to all sorts of other things that seem to me to be inadequate substitutes.

There is just no time left. I hope that the ladies in the room and those outwith the Parliament who are interested in and affected by the matter will understand that, if the petition had been presented to us 12 months ago, we would certainly have taken evidence from the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health. She would have been here answering questions within a couple of weeks.

That is what should happen, and the petitioner can secure that by lodging a similar petition in the next parliamentary session. I am perfectly sure that the issue must be considered for the sake of women who suffer, as I understand it, unbelievable and unbearable pain.