Chamber and committees

We will come on to the recommendations. Paul Sweeney will deal with them in a second.

You have anticipated what I was going to ask. From what Kelly McBride has said, I understand how the workshops were constructed. I am interested in how the recommendations emerged. How did they surface? How did you come to agree on the recommendations?

PE1877, which was lodged by Alex Wallace, is on the provision of body cameras for all front-line national health service staff. We previously considered the petition on 19 January 2022. We agreed then to write to the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Government to find out more about the body camera trial that we understood was under way.

We understand from the responses that the trial is still in the scoping and planning phase, due to the extreme pressures being experienced as a result of the pandemic. The Scottish Ambulance Service listed the ways in which it intends to evaluate the technology and stated that the timescale for initial evaluation will now be towards the end of 2022. Given that we have already undertaken to await the outcome of the evaluation, it would seem sensible to wait for that.

Our final new petition today is PE1928, which calls on the Scottish Government to provide free rail travel for disabled people who meet the qualifications for free bus travel. The petition has been lodged by David Gallant, who notes that many disabled people who qualify for free bus travel are unable to benefit from it due to the withdrawal of some rural bus routes and the lack of access to suitable toilet facilities on board many buses that operate in rural areas. He also points out that train fares are unaffordable, so train travel is not currently a viable alternative in those areas.

We have received a submission from Sight Scotland highlighting the need for a consistent national policy for rail travel across Scotland that entitles blind and partially sighted people and their companions to free rail travel. Sight Scotland points out that there are different concessionary and companion schemes in different areas, which can cause confusion to passengers and rail staff.

Transport Scotland has also sent us a submission, which I should state was drafted prior to ScotRail’s move into public ownership. It indicates that ScotRail has no plans to introduce free travel for disabled people but points out that it offers discounted fares through the disabled persons railcard and that there is free travel for blind passengers via a scheme that is operated by local authorities.

Transport Scotland also highlights a planned fair fares review that is designed

“to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares in the future”,

and suggests that existing discounts and concessionary schemes across a range of transport will be considered as part of that review.

This is an interesting new petition. Do colleagues have any comments on it?

Although I do not necessarily accept the need to go down the public inquiry route, I want Transport Scotland to move forward with a proposal. I would rather not close the petition, only to find that another petition on the issue comes along at a later date.

I take it that colleagues agree to proceed on that basis.

Members indicated agreement.

Talat Yaqoob was keen to come in. Talat, perhaps you could pick up Alexander Stewart’s point as well as the one that you were going to address.

We have—

Item 4 is consideration of two new petitions. I always say, for the benefit of those who might be joining us to watch the committee consider their petition, that we forward new petitions to the Scottish Government so that we can get some preliminary views, which help to inform our consideration.

The first new petition before us, PE1926, which has been lodged by Alison Dowling, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to expand the provision of free school meals universally to all nursery, primary and secondary school pupils. Alison has lodged the petition as she believes that urgent action is needed at a national level to address food poverty for children and young people. She suggests that food poverty is sometimes hidden in schools, particularly among secondary school-aged pupils. She notes that, although an extension of free school meals is planned for younger pupils, there are currently no plans in place for older, secondary school-aged pupils.

In its submission to the committee, the Scottish Government indicates that its present focus is on expanding the provision of free school meals in primary schools. However, it notes that

“during the course of this parliamentary session, we are also committed to piloting approaches to universal meal provision in secondary schools.”

Do members have any comments or suggestions as to how we might take forward the petition? My screen has gone blank. We have lost Paul Sweeney, so I will go to David Torrance.

I call Fergus Ewing.