Chamber and committees

Thank you, Mr Ewing. That peroration is probably a fresh petition in its own right, but I will allow the cabinet secretary an opportunity to respond.

We have covered a range of petitions, and it has been very helpful to the committee to take forward a number of them in the time that we have left. There might be some other petitions—there is still controversy ahead.

Would you like to add anything further, or do you feel that you have managed to convey everything that had to be said in the time that we have spent together?

Thank you, Mr Marra. The committee understands that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has provided information to Dave Doogan MP on requests relating to deaths abroad. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s figures reflect the number of requests that it has received for documents to assist with coroners’ inquests, rather than the number of inquests that have taken place, which accounts for the discrepancy in the numbers that the committee has received in response to our formal inquiry.

It is the case that, when considered in the abstract, such things may seem to be one thing, but individuals who then have to deal with the system find it to be wholly unsatisfactory in how they have to work and navigate their way through it.

Bob Doris has joined us. Good morning, and welcome, Mr Doris. I am sorry that we began discussing the petition just ahead of your arrival, but would you like to say something to the committee on the petition?

Thank you, Mr Doris—that is helpful. Having considered the issues that have been raised, do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?

Could we not write to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs to seek her views on the merit of the systems that operate in England and Wales? We have established a practice of meeting with cabinet secretaries. We had the Cabinet Secretary for Transport at the meeting today and we will be meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care immediately after the summer recess. I just wonder whether, in the light of any response that we get, there might be an opportunity to have a round-table discussion with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs later in the parliamentary session, at which we could potentially draw these things to her attention.

Mr Ewing and Mr Golden have suggested that we keep the petition open and make inquiries. Is the committee content to keep the petition open on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

All credit to Mr Gourley for raising the petition with the committee. In view of the responses that we have received, it is difficult for us to see how we can take the petition forward. If the position changes, a new submission in the next session of the Parliament might allow there to be a fresh take on the issue from, potentially, a different Government with a different attitude. However, at this stage, the committee feels that we have no option in the time that is left to us but to close the petition. We thank Mr Gourley for engaging with the committee, but regrettably, that is the position that we are in. We are not the Government and we are here only to see what we can do to advance petitions. Sometimes we can, and sometimes we cannot.

The last of our continuing petitions is PE2091, lodged by Kirsty Solman, on behalf of Stand with Kyle Now, which calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide funding to enable a child and adolescent mental health services worker and a school nurse to be placed in our secondary schools. We last considered the petition at our meeting on 12 June 2024, when we agreed to write to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government commissions six-monthly reports from local authorities on school counselling services. Those reports ask for the number of young people who access counselling broken down by gender and year groups. The Government’s submission states that authorities are encouraged to share additional information, such as waiting times, if it is available. It also states that authorities have raised some concerns about capacity but no concerns have been raised about young people’s needs not being met. The submission highlights the work of the school counsellors co-ordinators network, which has been considering the recommendations of the report by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland on counselling in schools.

The submission also states that the school nurse role was transformed in 2018 to focus on areas that are most likely to impact a child’s health and wellbeing. The Scottish Government undertook two surveys that examined how that transformed role has been implemented across Scotland’s health boards. The report on that work found that 97 per cent of school nurses said that referrals under emotional health and wellbeing made up a high or moderate proportion of all referrals that they received. Health board responses to the survey suggested that the high level of referrals that school nurses received under emotional health and wellbeing highlighted a cohort of children that had needs beyond the remit of school nurses but that did not meet the threshold for child and adolescent mental health services.

In light of that, do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?

We will keep the petition open. We will write to the cabinet secretary to draw attention to the suggestions that have been made and suggest that the committee would be interested in more direct engagement before the end of the parliamentary session with the cabinet secretary on that and on responses that we have received to other justice petitions at that time.

Are we agreed on that, colleagues?

Members indicated agreement.

We move on to petition PE1916, which is on the Rest and Be Thankful. Rested and thankful is David Torrance.