Chamber and committees

Are we content to do that? These are vulnerable communities, and it would be too easy for us to say, “Let’s just close the petition”. We should keep up what pressure we can to see what changes we can help to facilitate.

Members indicated agreement.

Yes.

It is a controversial subject. Has anyone anything else that they would like to contribute? If not, are we content to thank the petitioner for raising the issue and to point out that, in view of the information that we have received and the responses that we have been given, it seems that we are unable, through petition at least, to effect a change and that therefore we will close the petition?

Members indicated agreement.

PE1989 is lodged by Mary Montague, who, I suddenly recognise, is the provost of East Renfrewshire Council and a constituent. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to support the provision of defibrillators in public spaces and workplaces.

The SPICe briefing states that people living in Scotland’s most deprived areas are twice as likely to experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest but that public spaces in those areas are significantly less likely to have defibrillators.

The Scottish Government’s response highlights the delivery of the initial out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy, noting that survival rates have risen from one in 20 to one in 10. The Scottish Government highlights the refreshed strategy for 2021 to 2026, in particular its aim of increasing the percentage of OHCAs that have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance service arrives from 8 to 20 per cent. The response also highlights work that is being undertaken by the University of Edinburgh resuscitation research group to analyse the placement of defibrillators across Scotland and map it against the areas that have the highest risk of cardiac arrests occurring.

I should note that Mary Montague is the Labour provost of East Renfrewshire, in case anybody thought that I was getting a bit cosy in that respect. She is well respected and regarded.

Do members have any comments or suggestions on how we might proceed?

We will keep the petition open and write to the organisations accordingly.

Our next new petition is PE1979, regarding the establishment of an independent inquiry and an independent national whistleblowing officer to investigate concerns about the alleged mishandling of child safeguarding enquiries by public bodies. The petition has been lodged by Neil McLennan, Christine Scott, Alison Dickie and Bill Cook. I see that some of the petitioners have joined us in the public gallery to observe our consideration of the petition today and, as far as they are all here, we welcome them to our proceedings.

The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to launch an independent inquiry to examine concerns that allegations about child protection, child abuse, safeguarding and children’s rights have been mishandled by public bodies, including local authorities and the General Teaching Council Scotland, and concerns that there are gaps in the Scottish child abuse inquiry; and to establish an independent national whistleblowing office for education and children’s services in Scotland to handle those enquiries in the future.

The petitioners tell us that they have supported whistleblowers in raising historical and current allegations about child protection, child abuse, safeguarding and children’s rights and, while acknowledging the work of the Scottish child abuse inquiry, the petitioners believe that a separate and wider inquiry into safeguarding is required.

In responding to the requests of the petition, the Minister for Children and Young People states that learning from the Scottish child abuse inquiry, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and actions such as implementation of the revised national child protection guidance, mean that the Scottish Government does not consider that there is a need to extend the scope of the SCAI or to establish a separate inquiry to explore concerns that allegations about safeguarding have been mishandled by public bodies.

Although the petitioners have welcomed comments about improving systems as a result of the inquiries into cases of non-recent child abuse, they have restated the call for a distinct inquiry into wider allegations and whistleblower concerns about unresolved child protection issues that relate to organised criminal child exploitation and trafficking. The petitioners also highlight in their response that national child protection guidance is non-statutory, and they consider the guidance to be confusing, complex and somewhat contradictory.

The committee has also received a number of written submissions in support of the petition. Colleagues will recall our consideration of the eligibility criteria around some of the submissions that we have received and previously considered, many of which share details of families’ experiences in pursuing child protection and safeguarding concerns, and the difficulties that they encountered in trying to resolve concerns with a variety of public bodies.

Do members have any comments or suggestions for action? I am certainly not inclined to follow the Scottish Government’s initial response that it does not see any further merit in this.

I note that the Scottish Government says in its response that if a couple who are married or cohabiting own a home together both must agree to its sale, otherwise the party who wants to sell the property will need to raise a court action seeking an order for division and sale. Under section 19 of the 1981 act, where a spouse has raised an action of division and sale involving the matrimonial home, the court may refuse to grant the decree or postpone doing so for a period that it considers to be reasonable, or it may grant the degree subject to conditions. You are a lawyer, Mr Ewing. Are you able to add any nuance to all this?

Yes—it would be interesting to have that information.

That brings us to the end of the public part of our proceedings. We will meet next on 22 February.

Yes. Are the photographs in hard copy or digital?

Fergus Ewing, do you have any questions that you want to ask?