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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 17 July 2025
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Displaying 3461 contributions

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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

The next petition is PE1865, on the use of surgical mesh and fixation devices, which was submitted by Roseanna Clarkin, Lauren McDougall and Graham Robertson. Colleagues will recall that we took extensive evidence on the petition just prior to the October recess. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to suspend the use of all surgical mesh and fixation devices while a review of all surgical procedures that use polyester, polypropylene or titanium is carried out and guidelines for the surgical use of mesh are established.

We took evidence from Maree Todd, the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport; David Bishop, Scottish Government mesh team leader; and Terry O’Kelly, a senior medical adviser at the Scottish Government, and we agreed to consider the evidence at this meeting. As I am sure that members will recollect, the evidence-taking session highlighted a number of key themes, the first of which was the work of the Scottish Health Technologies Group on mesh and alternative treatments such as natural tissue repair.

Secondly, there was the importance of informed consent for patients undergoing mesh treatments. The minister accepted that more work needed to be done on the matter, given that people were reporting an experience similar to that of women who had allegedly been through the informed consent process in relation to transvaginal mesh, as identified in the parallel petition on mesh that we closed at our previous meeting.

The third theme that emerged was that of future data collection using a unique device identifier, such as a barcode, on all implanted devices to track the device and patient progress.

A summary of the evidence has been provided for members in this week’s papers, and we have also received a response from the petitioner following the evidence session, which has been circulated, too. Perhaps colleagues would like to discuss where their minds are at following the evidence session.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

Indeed. I am sure that my party has been subject to that discretion as well, but we prevailed.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

Splendid. The capacity of politicians for a bit of political self-flagellation never dims, so we will ask the various electoral authorities for their views on how we might suitably be re-elected under different methods. Notwithstanding the Scottish Government’s lack of appetite, we will take the matter forward and consider it afresh, so we will keep the petition open on that basis.

Members indicated agreement.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

The next petition is PE1902, on an appeal process for community participation requests. The note on the petition is quite long but, as if to prove my earlier point, we are joined again by Rhoda Grant, who was not necessarily expecting to be with us this morning. I am pleased that she is here, because it means that I now do not have to read out what would have been her written submission if she had not joined us.

The petition, which was lodged by Maria Aitken on behalf of Caithness Health Action Team, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to allow an appeal process for community participation requests under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The 2015 act was intended to encourage and support community involvement and participation in public services. Part 3 of the act introduces the right to participation requests, which aim to ensure engagement and dialogue between community participation bodies.

The right to appeal decisions on participation requests was examined by the Local Government and Communities Committee during its post-legislative scrutiny of the 2015 act, and a recommendation in relation to an appeals process was made in the committee’s final report.

A three-year evaluation of the operation of participation requests was published in April 2020 and concluded:

“Given the significant challenges to introducing an appeals process and in ensuring its fairness and robustness, alongside the very small numbers of participation requests completed using the legislation, this is likely to be a longer-term piece of work.”

The Scottish Government submission notes that the Scottish Community Development Centre has been asked to explore what an appeals process might look like and that the centre will report its findings later this year. I am delighted to ask Rhoda Grant to speak in support of the petition.

11:00  

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

A recurring theme of this morning’s meeting seems to be the need to ensure that requests for appeals are recorded and the outcomes monitored, given that the same issue arose in a previous petition.

Do members agree to keep the petition open?

Members indicated agreement.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

I am minded to agree with you and am supportive of your proposal, particularly in the light of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee’s inquiry on the matter. We could let that committee know that we have received this petition on the scheme. Of course, we would not be referring the petition to that committee—we would only be advising that we had received and closed it.

That brings us to the end of our formal business. I thank everyone very much.

Meeting closed at 11:06.  

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

Colleagues, are we content to close the petition on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

New Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

Item 2 is consideration of new petitions. For those who are watching, and for petitioners who might be following proceedings, before we consider these petitions for the first time orally at the committee, we have sought the views of the Scottish Government, and in some instances other submissions have also been received, which allows us to have informed discussions ahead of consideration of the petitions.

The first new petition, PE1900, which has been lodged by Kevin John Lawson, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that all detainees in police custody can access their prescribed medication, including methadone, in line with existing relevant operational procedures and guidance.

In its submission, the Scottish Government confirms strongly that it considers that

“fast and appropriate access to treatment including all forms of opiate substitution is important.”

It highlights its new national mission to reduce drug deaths and harms and the medication-assisted treatment standards that ministers are committed to embed by April 2022. The Government confirms that it has sought assurances from the Scottish health in custody network that opioid substitution therapy is being provided to people in custody across Scotland, and it goes on to state that once the medication-assisted treatment standards are fully embedded, it will monitor provision in the NHS Grampian area.

In his submission, the petitioner suggests that there is a contradiction between what official guidance states must happen to detainees in custody in relation to prescribed medication and what is actually happening. He asks that an inquiry is launched to look into the death in custody of detainees who, in the petitioner’s opinion, were

“medically triaged by unqualified police staff.”

Do colleagues have any comments?

I read the petition with a great deal of concern, but I then read the Scottish Government’s submission. It was a strong response that sought to assure us that the practice in place is to the contrary. The weakness in it is that no register is kept that can substantiate the fact, so we do not know how many requests for prescribed medications have been received, nor do we have confirmation of how those requests were dealt with.

Although I am reassured by the Scottish Government’s commitment that detainees should be able to access their medication, I am slightly unnerved by the fact that we are unable to demonstrate that that is the case. I wonder whether the absence of any formal record of requests received or prescriptions issued is entirely as it should be.

Do any colleagues have a view?

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

Fair enough. That seems sensible.

Is the committee happy with all of that?

Members indicated agreement.

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Continued Petitions

Meeting date: 17 November 2021

Jackson Carlaw

I was not sure whether you were going to make the same point or a different one.

We will write to the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care to ask how the Scottish Government will address the specific concerns that were raised in the petitioner’s request, both in the short term and in the context of that forthcoming legislation. We will also write to the minister to ask how he intends to collect and disseminate examples of good practice of services that are available.