Committee
Public Petitions Committee 22 February 2011
22 Feb 2011 · S3 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Current Petitions
Male Victims of Domestic Abuse and Violence (PE1307)
The committee cannot do much more with the petition at this stage. Awareness has been raised significantly as a result of the petition. As we know, funding for the men’s advice line will continue until next year, and the Government has taken a number of actions. I am not sure that the committee can do anything right now, so I suggest that we close the petition. However, we should make it plain to the petitioners that we accept that not everything has been done yet, and we should leave it open to them to raise the matter again in future if need be.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
The next petition, PE1307, is by Alison Waugh and Jackie Walls and is on the issue of male victims of domestic abuse and violence. What are members’ views on...
Nanette Milne
Con
The committee cannot do much more with the petition at this stage. Awareness has been raised significantly as a result of the petition. As we know, funding f...
Nigel Don
SNP
I concur with Nanette Milne. We should not pretend that everything that needs to be done has been done, but we are at the stage when we need either to close ...
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
That was what I was going to suggest. The petitioners know that there has been progress, but they are not happy about a number of things and have raised a nu...
The Convener
Lab
That seems sensible.
John Wilson
SNP
I suggest that we do not close the petition. I do not think that Government action has gone far enough on the issue identified in the original petition. The ...
Bill Butler
Lab
I am inclined to say that there is not much more that we can do. I am encouraged by the fact that there will be further educational material on domestic abus...
The Convener
Lab
The petition is one of those difficult ones. It could go on and on. I suppose that it depends on whether it is thought that there has been sufficient movemen...
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
I sound another note of caution. There are probably very few of the petitions that we are considering today that we could not do more about. I understand wha...
The Convener
Lab
The key issue is whether the committee thinks that it has a further role to play in where we see the petition going.
Nigel Don
SNP
That is my point. I take on board everything that John Wilson said and agree with it. This is not the end of the road for the matter; it should not be, and w...
Cathie Craigie
Lab
I entirely accept what John Wilson said, but I agree with Nigel Don’s assessment. We have taken this as far as we can as a committee. The issue of male victi...
The Convener
Lab
I think that the committee is moving towards deciding to close the petition. Is any member otherwise minded?
John Wilson
SNP
As the person who suggested that it be continued, I am prepared to accept the majority view that the committee has expressed. I reiterate the point that Cath...
The Convener
Lab
That is helpful. There has been a policy shift on this issue and, as you say, there is a question about maintaining the momentum.Do we agree to close the pet...