Holyrood, made browsable

Hansard

Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

129
Current MSPs
415
MSPs ever elected
14
Parties on record
2,095,827
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
Coverage span
Official Report

Search Hansard contributions

Showing 60 of 2,095,827 contributions. Latest 30 days: 2,655. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 09 Jun 2026.
Angela Constance SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
It is disappointing that Mr Hoy does not welcome the prospect of a GP walk-in service for Stranraer. The important point is that the purpose of GP walk-in services is to free up capacity in the primary care system, so that people across our constituencies and regions can be se...
Craig Hoy (Dumfriesshire) (Con) Con Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
It is 77 miles from Sanquhar to Stranraer, which is a journey that takes a minimum of two hours by car or at least four hours by bus. Given that my constituents will be expected to make that journey to access the GP walk-in centre in Stranraer, does that not expose the policy ...
Angela Constance SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
I expect the Glasgow site to open later this month. I very much appreciate the health board’s hard work to get the services up and running. I am sure that Michelle Campbell will join me in welcoming the opening of the sites and thanking our hard-working national health service...
Michelle Campbell (Renfrewshire North and Cardonald) (SNP) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
Work is well under way in preparation for Glasgow’s first walk-in clinic opening. Can the Scottish Government offer an update on when that wonderful resource for the good people of Cardonald will be open?
Angela Constance SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
Ms Gibson has made an important point about reducing health inequality by improving access to healthcare. The Government is committed to providing a North Ayrshire walk-in service, which was one of the 14 additional services that were announced. That brings the total number of...
Patricia Gibson SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
North Ayrshire’s people have Scotland’s lowest healthy life expectancy. The average adult remains in full health until just 53 years old. More than 28 per cent of people live with a long-term health condition, which is 6 per cent higher than the Scottish average. In view of th...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care (Angela Constance) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
I have committed to expanding the walk-in service programme and will set out how I will do so in the first 100 days of this Government. Health boards were previously asked to generate proposals that considered their populations’ needs, taking into account local issues and circ...
Patricia Gibson (Cunninghame South) (SNP) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · GP Walk-in Centres (North Ayrshire)
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects a general practitioner walk-in centre to open in North Ayrshire. (S7O-00023)
Neil Gray SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
The short answer is yes. I am happy to meet Ms Minto or any other member to discuss the matter further. The challenge of multiple organisations drawing on small rural populations is not new. The SFRS works collaboratively with a range of partners, including the coastguard serv...
Jenni Minto (Argyll and Bute) (SNP) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
I appreciate that these are independent decisions to be made by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, but I am interested to know whether the Scottish Government is looking at the cumulative impact of those changes on, for example, other rescue services such as the coastguard,...
Neil Gray SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
I am more than happy to explore that with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in order to ensure that we are in a position to respond to the changing nature of fire and flood risk across Scotland. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s very successful prevention activities, a...
Stephen Kerr (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Con Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
Ministers previously told Parliament that almost £1 million of specialist wildfire pumping units would be deployed within weeks. A Scottish Conservative freedom of information request later revealed that they were still not operational, during Scotland’s worst wildfire season ...
Neil Gray SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
These are independent decisions for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to make, but it is open to Parliament to take a view on those matters—in the way that a view is normally taken, for example, on investigations undertaken through the committee structure—or otherwise. Obvi...
Joe Fagan Lab Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
There is profound concern about the potential outcomes of the service delivery review, not least from the firefighters and their union. Given the gravity of the decisions that are about to be made, does the Government agree that there should be full parliamentary scrutiny and ...
The Cabinet Secretary for Justice (Neil Gray) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
I met the SFRS board chair on 4 June, when we discussed the overall objectives of the service delivery review and the consultation and outreach process that the SFRS has undertaken. Recent large fires in Glasgow and Fife have been dealt with commendably by our front-line firef...
Joe Fagan (South Scotland) (Lab) Lab Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (Service Delivery Review)
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service board regarding the outcome of the service delivery review that is due to be considered on 22 June. (S7O-00022)
Stephen Flynn SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I am happy to answer.If Mr Cole-Hamilton wishes to write to me, I will write back to him as swiftly as I possibly can.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
That was not quite on the nose for the general question, but do you want to respond, cabinet secretary?
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh North Western) (LD) LD Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I hope that the cabinet secretary will agree that one of the safest ways to get students from Kirkliston in my constituency to their catchment high school in South Queensferry is via the council-funded coach service that has been operating well there for several years. A decis...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I realise that everyone is finding their feet, including me. I remind members that they should only press their button if they want to ask a supplementary to the general question that has been asked.Alex Cole-Hamilton has a supplementary.
Lloyd Melville (Angus South) (SNP) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
My apologies, Presiding Officer. I pressed my button in error, thinking that I would have to do that for my general question later on.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
Lloyd Melville has a supplementary.
Julie MacDougall Reform Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I apologise.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
That is not relevant to this question. We are on supplementaries to the question that Patrick Harvie asked.
Julie MacDougall (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Reform) Reform Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I recently met the chief executive of Forth Valley College. It was incredibly harrowing to hear about how apprenticeship courses are being cut—
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
Julie MacDougall has a supplementary.
Stephen Flynn SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
Mr Harvie will be pleased to know that £3.2 million is still going to regional transport partnerships—£1.6 million will be available for local direct awards and £1.4 million is going to bikeability schemes, which all our weans can benefit from. Of course, that forms part of a ...
Patrick Harvie Green Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I am sorry that the cabinet secretary did not choose to answer that question by explaining why the cut took place and why it took place during the election purdah period. I have returned to my job to meet local community organisations that are doing the work that the Scottish ...
The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport (Stephen Flynn) SNP Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
I thank Patrick Harvie for his question, because it gives me the opportunity to restate what the First Minister said. We support cycling, walking and wheeling, which is why £226 million-worth of investment is going into sustainable and active travel. I am very proud of that—I ...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green) Green Chamber
09 Jun 2026
General Question Time · Active Travel (Funding)
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of comments made by the First Minister in the Parliament on 2 June that the Scottish Government prioritises active and safe travel routes and the encouragement of cycling, walking and wheeling, for what reason Transport Scotland reporte...
Stephen Kerr Con Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Thank you.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Yes.
Stephen Kerr (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Con Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. For guidance, would it be possible for the same person to be nominated again in those circumstances?
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
The process is opened again for further nominations. However, to be clear, any other member who is nominated will have to come from the party from which the original member was selected.
Helen McDade Reform Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
What happens then?
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
If a candidate receives the majority of votes, that candidate will become the committee convener. If the majority is against it, that candidate will not be the committee convener.
Helen McDade (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Reform) Reform Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I just wonder what the process is. Can you explain what happens once a vote has been cast when there is only one candidate, so that we know what we are voting against?
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Willie Rennie’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Fifteen out of 15 convenerships will be subject to secret ballots.I have also received two valid nominations for convener of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. The nomin...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Craig Hoy’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Willie Rennie has been nominated as convener of the Transport Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was received.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Mark Ruskell’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Craig Hoy has been nominated as convener of the Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button n...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Bob Doris’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Mark Ruskell has been nominated as convener of the Rural Affairs Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was noted.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Paul Sweeney’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Bob Doris has been nominated as convener of the Public Service Reform Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was noted.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Neil Bibby’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Paul Sweeney has been nominated as convener of the Public Petitions Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was noted.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Helen McDade’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Neil Bibby has been nominated as convener of the Public Audit Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was noted.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Clare Haughey’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Helen McDade has been nominated as convener of the Health, Care and Sport Committee. If any member objects to her election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection wa...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Patrick Harvie’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Clare Haughey has been nominated as convener of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. If any member objects to her election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Katie Hagmann’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Patrick Harvie has been nominated as convener of the Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Karen Adam’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Katie Hagmann has been nominated as convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. If any member objects to her election as convener, please press your point-of-order button n...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Duncan Massey’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Karen Adam has been nominated as convener of the Education and Gaelic Committee. If any member objects to her election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was no...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Calum Kerr’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Duncan Massey has been nominated as convener of the Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Alyn Smith’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Calum Kerr has been nominated as convener of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objectio...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Stuart McMillan’s election as convener will be subject to election by secret ballot.Alyn Smith has been nominated as convener of the Criminal Justice Committee. If any member objects to his election as convener, please press your point-of-order button now.An objection was noted.
The Presiding Officer (Kenneth Gibson) NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
Colleagues, we turn to the election of committee conveners. When more than one nomination for convener of a committee has been received, an election will be conducted by secret ballot. I will give you instructions on this shortly.When a single nomination has been received, the...
Speaker unknown Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Committee Conveners
14:05
Rabbi Moshe Rubin (Rabbi of Giffnock Synagogue and Senior Rabbi of Scotland) Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Time for Reflection
Thank you, Presiding Officer. On behalf of the Scottish Jewish community, I wish you and all newly elected MSPs every success in your service to our beautiful country of Scotland.It is no secret that Jewish communities across the United Kingdom are facing increasing hostility....
The Presiding Officer (Kenneth Gibson) NPA Chamber
09 Jun 2026
Time for Reflection
Our first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Rabbi Moshe Rubin of Giffnock synagogue, the Senior Rabbi of Scotland.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
04 Jun 2026
Decision Time
That concludes decision time.Meeting closed at 17:20.
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
04 Jun 2026
Decision Time
The result of the division on motion S7M-00249, in the name of Jenny Gilruth, on wealth taxation for public services, as amended, is: For 84, Against 28, Abstentions 10.Motion, as amended, agreed to,That the Parliament believes in fair, progressive and sustainable taxation to ...
Speaker unknown Chamber
04 Jun 2026
Decision Time
ForAdam, George (Paisley) (SNP)Adam, Karen (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP)Adamson, Clare (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)Anderson, Heather (Dundee City West) (SNP)Arthur, Tom (Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley) (SNP)Baker, Claire (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)Barratt, David ...
The Presiding Officer NPA Chamber
04 Jun 2026
Decision Time
The final question is, that motion S7M-00249, in the name of Jenny Gilruth, on wealth taxation for public services, as amended, be agreed to. Are we agreed?Members: No.
← Back to list
Committee

Public Petitions Committee, 29 Oct 2003

29 Oct 2003 · S2 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
New Petitions
Child Witnesses (Cross-examination) (PE635)<br />Justice 1 Committee Inquiry (PE672)
Duncan Shields (International Men's Organisation and Fathers Fighting Injustice): Watch on SPTV
We thank the committee for hearing the petitions, which were submitted by our organisations over a period of a year. However, we believe that trying to compress discussion of them into such a short time scale does not do justice to what are very serious issues. The petitions are all, in part, connected with discrimination against men.Scottish social services have been shown to be not only incompetent but, we believe, riddled with fraud, corruption, gender discrimination and a strong Illuminati influence undermining the welfare of vulnerable children. That is at its worst during separation, mainly due to the large public moneys that the Legal Aid Board is freely allocating to opposing lawyers—in my child's case, for more than nine years—which leads one to believe that legal fraudsters assume that they are better at protecting children than the children's fathers are. Any suggestion from sources that are abusing those moneys that that practice is being curtailed is a blatant lie. Fathers do not require money to protect their children—their protection is free at source, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, that protection is unlawfully and criminally taken from the children, at the expense of their biological fathers.Until that financial link is severed, children's safety will continue to be undermined, as any separated father knows who has tried to protect his children from the appalling gender fascism that is being perpetrated by lawyers, sheriffs, police court officials, the Legal Aid Board, social workers, doctors, teachers and myriad publicly funded hangers-on who exert a drain on public funds that makes the cost of the new Scottish Parliament building pale by comparison.I am talking about a multibillion-pound fraud, on which the Scottish Executive has failed to put a lid. Many child deaths have occurred due to extreme prejudices while more public money is used to promote that prejudice. Those vast sums are being consumed by a lawless legal fraternity, supposedly to protect children. The way in which they use children in family courts leads to one of the most shameful experiences that men and children have to endure, the persecution of separated fathers being the main daily ritual of incompetent, corrupt and publicly funded legal practitioners. There are many females in the fathers' extended families who also suffer from the loss of contact with their loved ones.Philip Yelland, the director of the Law Society of Scotland's investigations, states that the society has no remit to discipline lawyers for human rights abuses, despite his personal responsibilities under article 17 of the European convention on human rights. The legal profession inquiry, the legal aid inquiry and the Council of the Law Society of Scotland Act 2003 do not have and will not have any effect on the system and may make matters worse. Scottish children and parents will continue to face severe psychological trauma and, potentially, more deaths until the issues that we raise are taken seriously and the Scottish Executive takes immediate emergency measures to address them before any more tragedies occur.We have provided evidence of child deaths where fathers have been separated from their children due to a system that compares to the race hatred that was promoted during apartheid in South Africa. In Scotland, however, it is gender apartheid that is largely responsible for the deaths of children who received no protection from incompetent agencies while they were separated from their biological fathers.Our children are being robbed of their future inheritance by the wheeling and dealing of a corrupt system that is condoned by the upper echelons of the political and legal establishment, despite widespread evidence presented in the inquiries. We demand immediate action to ensure that rights under the ECHR are being upheld in Scottish civil courts. On many occasions, fathers and children face actions without legal representation or funding. There are no audio recordings of those hearings, despite the fact that the equipment is in place to record them. In many cases, there is a need for jury hearings, when large, fraudulent land and property transactions are being perpetrated, leading to the bankruptcy of fathers who face the injustices that flow from major failures within what is a despicable system.Our organisations can state from evidence that has been gathered worldwide that Scotland's civil legal system is one of the most appalling anywhere in the world. Any suggestion by the legal or political fraternity that that is not the case is a blatant lie. The issue is not that family courts need more powers; it is that the abuse of those powers is oppressing and enslaving men. That oppression has reached unprecedented levels—marriage licences can be purchased for very little but there seems to be no upper limit on the legal costs of their removal.The failure to cap the cost of the new Scottish Parliament building poses exactly the same dilemma that is posed to men by uncapped costs imposed by family courts, except that the sums in the latter are many times greater and are a major blight on Scottish society. There is grave concern over the impartiality or otherwise of the Legal Aid Board as a tribunal. The majority of its members are members of the Law Society of Scotland and working sheriffs with potential links to the Illuminati, and they are wholly responsible for publicly funding large-scale male asset stripping while undermining children's human rights. The gender imbalance makes men easy pickings for the criminals operating within the system; there is no legal protection, because of the collusion between the Law Society and the Legal Aid Board.Last month, Bob Geldof stated: "Family law … does not work."He said that family law is absurd, blunt and outdated and stated:"So many of us are hurting and yet the law will treat the man in court (if my case is typical) with contempt, suspicion, disdain and hostility."He added that the law is"unjustly weighted in favour of women."Bizarrely, on the rare occasions when the situation is reversed, it is when the woman is married to a fighter pilot or the ex-husband is classed as landed gentry or is in the same Illuminati lodges as the judge who is hearing the case. That is why there is an urgent need for juries in cases involving expensive land and property divorce divisions. Juries are needed to ensure the impartiality that is required under article 6 of the ECHR and to ensure that justice is seen to be done. A separated man entering the Scottish court system feels like a Christian must have felt when they stepped into the Coliseum in Rome: unarmed, outnumbered and waiting to be eaten alive.Sigmund Freud stated:"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection."Why is the devolved Scottish Parliament massively and publicly funding a system that leads to the exact opposite situation? The answer is that that is financially beneficial to all those who gain from the psychological torture and abuse of the children who are separated from the protection of their biological fathers by the ruthless use of outdated Scottish civil law. The situation is entirely incompatible with the rights that fathers and children have and demand under the ECHR—those rights are being undermined daily in our Scottish courts. Ultimately, any legal system that harms a father harms the children. When fathers are robbed, their children are robbed of their inheritance.We have an Auschwitz on our doorstep where appalling human rights abuses of vulnerable children take place. I am talking about the Dungavel concentration camp. How long will it be before the gas chambers are moved in? Our society has been cajoled into accepting human rights abuses as the norm, but they will never be the norm. As six supporters who are at the committee meeting today witnessed, one of our members is being forcibly injected with antipsychotic drugs without due process of the law being followed. The legal and political systems in Scotland are acting more like the fascism that led to the Holocaust. That situation is totally unacceptable.The integrity and dignity of the judiciary are paramount in any society. The Scottish judiciary must be made to serve the interests of the people of Scotland. A flawed judiciary promotes insecurity and economic instability and ceases to serve the country's citizenry. The magnitude of the corruption in the Scottish legal system is now alarming. Separation of powers has never given courts an arbitrary and unaccountable authority.The legal system is a corrupt monopoly, which needs to be broken up. It is holding the county to ransom. John Swinney MSP recently stated that, if this is the way in which everyone gets treated by the legal complaints system, there is a need for enormous change of practice and attitude. The separation of powers in the Scottish legal system of jurisprudence has never been an excuse for the Executive or legislators to ignore their constitutional and conscientious duties.My final point on petition PE593 is that the judiciary and all who report to the courts on child custody issues should be properly accountable. There should be accurate audio recordings of hearings and social work interviews, as that would curb the widespread discrimination within the system. Fathers and children should have proper access to legal representation. That would ensure that a child's human rights are not undermined by lack of representation or of funding.On petition PE625, I believe that there should be a full inquiry into the legal aid funding of expert witnesses to ensure that corruption is not tainting the evidence that is being provided to the courts. We raised that issue in March 2001 in petition PE352, but it was ignored. If that petition had been acted on, lives could have been saved.On petition PE632, no lawyer who refuses to act for a client should be given authority through the courts to act to sell a client's heritable property. An investigation should be instigated into collusion in the legal fraternity and there should be laws to prevent fraud by those monopoly powers.On petition PE633, biological fathers should not be prevented by bias and discrimination in divorce actions from protecting their children. The legal system acts like a jackboot brigade in preventing that protection and causing the deaths of children who do not have that protection.On petition PE635, judges have an appalling record of dealing with children. They cause children psychological trauma. My children faced the judges' wrath. Serious steps should be taken to prevent children from being traumatised by insensitive and bullying judges who are not fit to deal with child cases.Finally, petition PE672 deals with the Justice 1 Committee's inquiry into the legal profession. That committee is wholly responsible for the due process of law being seriously undermined in a case concerning one of our members. The outcome was the forcible injection of antipsychotic drugs, against his human rights. The committee failed to ensure that the judiciary is fully accountable in our supposedly civilised society. Can the Justice 1 Committee convener, Christine Grahame, tell us whether any lawyer or judge was disciplined or struck off or whether any compensation was paid for the appalling damage that was done to people's lives by a corrupt legal system?I am sorry, but I am having to squeeze everything that I want to say into a very short space of time.

In the same item of business

The Convener (Michael McMahon): Lab
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Public Petitions Committee's sixth meeting in session 2. We have a full agenda, as usual.The first six petitions t...
Duncan Shields (International Men's Organisation and Fathers Fighting Injustice):
We thank the committee for hearing the petitions, which were submitted by our organisations over a period of a year. However, we believe that trying to compr...
The Convener: Lab
I will give you a bit more leeway, Mr Shields. You have a couple of minutes before you bring in your colleagues.
Duncan Shields:
The last thing that I want to say, convener, is in respect of individual cases. We read in the Parliament's business bulletin about the motion that Frances C...
The Convener: Lab
Do you want your colleagues to join you at this point?
Duncan Shields:
If that is okay.
The Convener: Lab
You have a further three minutes, Mr Shields.
Duncan Shields:
Mr Farquhar would like to speak.
George Farquhar:
My name is George Farquhar. I am the founder of Project Freedom—Child Rights Watch. I am an investigator, researcher and campaigner, dedicated to the mass pu...
The Convener: Lab
Thank you for that evidence. We will start with petition PE593, on which I invite any comments, questions or recommendations from members. I remind members t...
Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): Lab
I would be interested to hear if the petitioner can provide any evidence of such cases and thereby demonstrate the need for carrying out an investigation as ...
Duncan Shields:
I refer you to my evidence and statements. We have already provided numerous petitions with evidence and statements and we would not want to comment any furt...
The Convener: Lab
I will explain why Helen Eadie asked that question. You suggested in your introductory comments that you had submitted evidence. The committee has to have so...
Duncan Shields:
I refer you to our evidence and statements. We have proved today, in relation to a criminal charge, that the due process of law was undermined with respect t...
The Convener: Lab
With all due respect, Mr Shields—
Duncan Shields:
Well, if they do it with a criminal charge—
The Convener: Lab
Could we stick specifically to—
Duncan Shields:
You have asked me for evidence. It is evidence enough that the due process of law has been undermined.
The Convener: Lab
Mr Shields, you have made some claims; you have not provided any evidence, and I think that the committee—
Duncan Shields:
I am sorry—I do not want to comment further. I refer you to our statements and evidence. I have given you notice of circumstances that are potentially leadin...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): Lab
Welcome to the committee, Mr Shields. I have listened very carefully to what you have said. I have read the papers that you presented—and, indeed, the previo...
Duncan Shields:
This is not only about me. I speak on behalf of organisations. The suggestion that we are talking just about an individual is common practice when we come to...
Jackie Baillie: Lab
I am looking at petition PE593. The issue for me is the sufficiency of evidence that you say exists. That evidence is not necessarily sufficient in my or the...
Duncan Shields:
Unfortunately, you still have to give us information as to why due process of law was undermined in our member's case, as in the cases of many fathers in civ...
Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): SSP
I do not have any illusions about the judicial system. I am well aware that the law is not equal for poorer people, particularly women. You made serious alle...
Duncan Shields:
There are umpteen instances. In petition PE633, we have cited 10 cases of child deaths when fathers have been separated from their children. There was a rece...
Carolyn Leckie: SSP
To be frank, what I have read does not demonstrate that any inquiries found that any of the deaths were linked to custodial arrangements, so that allegation—
Duncan Shields:
I am sorry, I disagree with you.
Carolyn Leckie: SSP
Will you let me finish, please? On that particular allegation, I would like you to provide specific evidence beyond what you have put in front of us today. I...
Duncan Shields:
I do not want to get into that. As I said, we have already given sufficient evidence and statements, but you are trying to undermine that by what you are say...