Chamber and committees

That might get us some further evidence one way or the other on what is actually happening. That is a good suggestion.

Are we content to do as suggested?

Members indicated agreement.

The next petition is PE1901, on replacing the voting system for the Scottish Parliament with a more proportional alternative. It was submitted by Richard Wood, who invites us to consider the issue from a different perspective yet again. It is always open to discussion. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to replace the broadly proportional additional member system that is used for electing MSPs with a more proportional alternative.

The Scottish Parliament information centre briefing sets out two examples of proportional voting systems. The first is the single transferable vote, which uses multiple-member electoral districts or regions with each voter ranking preferred candidates on a single ballot. Scottish local elections take place by STV. The second is open-list proportional representation. It is a variant of party-list proportional representation in which voters have influence over the preference order of party candidates. With regard to STV, the briefing notes a concern

“that candidates nearer the top of the list”

on the ballot paper

“are more likely to selected.”

The Scottish Government submission advises that the Government

“does not currently have any plans to propose changes to the voting system by which MSPs are elected to the Scottish Parliament.”

I think that we are content to do that. The Scottish Government’s position is quite clear, but it would be useful for us to have a current litmus test of the views of those other organisations in the current circumstances.

Thank you very much. Do colleagues have any comments?

Our final new petition is PE1908, which has been submitted by Jeff Bell. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to regularly review the impact of vaccination passport regulations, following their implementation, and to provide data on how they are being used and any benefits that they bring.

The committee has received a late submission from the Scottish Government on the petition. It highlights the scheme’s objectives, which are to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus; to reduce the risk of serious illness and death, thereby alleviating current and future pressure on the national health service; to allow higher risk settings to continue to operate as an alternative to closure or more restrictive measures; and to increase vaccination uptake.

The submission also explains that the requirement for Scottish ministers to review the regulations every 21 days is written into the legislation and that the regulations should

“only remain in place whilst they are necessary and proportionate ... Ministers look at a range of data to determine whether the regulations continue to be required.”

Moreover, the Scottish Government confirms its commitment

“to monitoring the impact of certification”

and is collecting data in order to understand fully the scheme’s effects and implementation.

It is worth noting that the Scottish Parliament’s COVID-19 Recovery Committee regularly scrutinises the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including in relation to vaccination passport regulations. The committee is also conducting a short inquiry that includes a review of the use of the scheme.

In the light of all that, do colleagues have any comments?

Our second petition today is PE1804, calling for a halt to Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd’s air traffic management strategy. The petition has been lodged by Alasdair MacEachen, John Doig and Peter Henderson on behalf of the Benbecula community council. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to halt Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd’s ATMS project and to conduct an independent assessment of the decisions and the decision-making process for the project.

I am pleased to welcome Liam McArthur, who I recall vividly asked a question on this matter or made an intervention during a debate. I had thought that it was a question to the First Minister, but it turns out that it was an intervention at a members’ business debate. Welcome to you, Liam. I also welcome Rhoda Grant, who I think is an unofficial member of the committee. I have remarked before that you seem to have a season ticket to our proceedings, Rhoda. It is a testament to the strength of the petitions that we are considering from the Highlands and Islands region. I am delighted to have you both here. Before I invite you to speak, I will provide a brief summary of what has happened since we last considered the petition.

At our previous consideration, we agreed to write to the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Scottish Government’s digital assurance office and the Prospect trade union. We were seeking information from the cabinet secretary about the current status of the project, whether it was still on budget and when a decision from the Civil Aviation Authority on the issue of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast—ADS-B—was to be expected; we asked about an update from Prospect about recent talks with Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd; and we asked for information from the Civil Aviation Authority regarding where remote tower technology had been successfully deployed. As I recall, that referred to the assertion that there were examples all around the world, and I wanted to know where they were. We also sought information from the Scottish Government about action taken following the assurance health check that was carried out in January 2021 and an assurance that the project was complying with Scottish Government requirements for a project of this nature.

I am pleased to say that we have received responses to all our correspondence, and a summary of those has been provided for members with this week’s papers. The petitioner has provided a further submission, which members should have in front of them.

I now invite Rhoda Grant and Liam McArthur to comment and contribute.

We note that suggestion.

I am content with that. The establishment of the sub-groups on the education of health professionals and on public awareness, and the commitment to establishing the clinical network, are all positive actions.

Does anyone else wish to come in?

We would formally agree to take evidence when we have received the written submissions that we are seeking to receive in the first instance. Are members content to proceed on that basis and to keep the petition open? I think that that was David Torrance’s proposal. We will write to NHS Highland to seek its views on the petition. We can then combine that representation with any representations that we have received on PE1845. Having done that, we will probably formally agree to take oral evidence on the petition.

Are members content with that approach?

Members indicated agreement.

PE1891, which was lodged by Lewis Alexander Condy, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that all children will have had the opportunity to learn to swim by making it a statutory requirement to provide lessons in the primary school curriculum.

The petitioner notes:

“In 2017, it was estimated that 40% of children left primary school not being able to swim.”

He has pointed out that there is currently no requirement for local authorities to provide school swimming lessons in Scotland.

The SPICe briefing that accompanies the petition notes:

“Local authorities have a statutory duty to secure an adequate and efficient education for children of school-age in their area; what this education should entail is not set out in legislation. In fact, very little of the school curriculum is statutory.”

The Scottish Government has reiterated that point, and it has stated that the curriculum is designed to allow local flexibility and acknowledged that some schools already offer swimming lessons through the curriculum and others offer them through their active schools programme.

Through sportscotland, the Scottish Government works with Scottish Swimming, whose priority is that every child should learn to swim. It is currently in discussions on how to expand its programme.

The petitioner suggests that it is unfair to allow councils to choose whether to provide swimming lessons, as it leads to many children missing out or being forced to take private lessons, which may be inaccessible to lower-income families or those who live in rural areas. He believes that making the provision of swimming lessons in school a mandatory requirement will redress that inequality.

My recollection is that, when I was younger, there was quite an in-your-face public awareness and information campaign on the need to learn how to swim, by whatever means. Maybe it is just because the message is no longer targeted at me, but I am less aware of there being any such campaign now. We are told that the Scottish Government is in conversation with Scottish Swimming on how it can expand its programme, and I would be very interested to find out how that might be done.