Chamber and committees

Do colleagues agree with that proposal from David Torrance?

Members indicated agreement.

Okay—that is what we will do.

I wonder whether we might also write to the UK NSC just so that we can understand where it thinks it is in the process of the research that it is undertaking. It would be useful to know whether it anticipates that research coming to fruition or whether the situation is still very open ended at this point. It would be helpful to know that. It would also be useful to write to the bodies that David Torrance has suggested.

I am struck by the observation that there is a legal obligation to allow trained captive-bred birds of prey—which I presume are the ones to which you are referring, Bill—the freedom to express the natural behaviours of the species. That was the conundrum that I noted. I am not quite sure how that could be done within the law, as it stands. I was left confused by that position, so I am minded to write to the Scottish Government to ask it how it reconciles that right with the legislation. Do colleagues agree with that suggestion?

On Tess White’s point, I wonder whether there is anyone who can tell us how many falconers are operating in Scotland. It would be nice to quantify the number of people who are affected.

I am quite happy to pursue those two aspects, and to keep the petition open on that basis. Are we agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

We would be happy to do that.

I was, at first pass, inclined to agree, but is there any way of quantifying how often the courts have overridden such principles? We are told that in the case of limitation it is already possible for a court to override the principal limitation time limits where it is persuaded that it is equitable to do so, but part of me worries that, despite that sentiment, this is actually a hurdle that is nearly impossible to overcome and, in fact, is overcome only very rarely. Instead of our taking this as some general provision that just sits there and allows us to say, “This is what people can do”, can we identify whether such an opportunity has been successfully pursued? I am mindful of constituents who have written to me and who I know felt as though they were banging their head against a wall when they tried to pursue matters. I just wonder how widely known the provision is.

Are members happy to find out a bit more about the process and whether our constituents have been able to exercise it, how many of them have done so and whether they have been successful in doing so? If we find that nobody knows that the process exists or that nobody is using it, it is not really serving its function.

There is nothing in the Scottish Government’s submission to suggest that it has any plans to amend founding legislation for public bodies on the basis that lifeline services to island communities require community representation on their boards. Shall we write to it to check whether that is the case?

Members indicated agreement.

PE1863, which was lodged by Mr Michael Campbell, calls on the Scottish Government to provide mandatory annual blood tests from the age of 55 to detect cancer.

The Scottish Government submission highlights that it recognises the importance of an early cancer diagnosis and its impact on cancer patient outcomes. It advises that it has already taken a number of actions to continue enabling an early cancer diagnosis. It notes that Scotland’s first early cancer diagnostic centres are being established in NHS Fife, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Ayrshire and Arran. It highlights that, although there is currently no single blood test that screens for different cancer types, there is some on-going research, which the UK National Screening Committee will review to make a recommendation for population screening.

We could write to one or two bodies to seek their views on the petition.

In my Eastwood constituency in East Renfrewshire, many taxi drivers have withdrawn from the industry, and I am sure that that pattern has been repeated in many other places. The same representations have been made to me about the fact that the tourism, business travel and hospitality sectors, which have been the bedrock of many taxi drivers’ packages of income, have been severely affected and are taking time to recover.

I am minded to keep the petition open, if the committee agrees. We should write to the Scottish Government in the light of the petitioner’s concerns regarding the current funding being inadequate and we should ask the Government to consider the suggestions that have been made in the petitioner’s additional submissions. As Bill Kidd suggested, it would be helpful if the Scottish Government could give us a little more detail on, and a timescale for, the stakeholder group that it proposes to establish, so that it does not become something that always seems to be on the horizon but never materialises.

If we take forward those points, would you be content with that, Mr Sweeney?