Committee
Public Petitions Committee 08 March 2011
08 Mar 2011 · S3 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Current Petitions
Mosquito Devices (PE1367)
John Farquhar Munro made the point earlier that young children, such as two-year-olds and toddlers, may well be disturbed, distressed and upset when within hearing range of a Mosquito device but their parents would not necessarily know why they were distressed. As I think I made plain earlier, that was a very good point. I agree with that point; I do not intend to contradict it or take a different view.On how many Mosquito devices there are and what we can do to ascertain the extent of their usage, I have run through the evidence that we obtained from the inquiries that we already made, largely because of the petitioner’s pleadings and the committee’s exhortations to find out from local authority antisocial behaviour practitioners how extensive usage is. Among 20 respondees, there was limited evidence of usage and much of it was historical. That appears to suggest that usage is limited. We would expect that, were usage widespread, it would lead to complaints. I am pretty sure about that. The views expressed by members of all parties on the committee would be shared by a great many other people in Scotland. We would also expect antisocial behaviour practitioners to be aware of extensive usage and expect it to emerge in the local press and in local debates throughout the country. Through logical deduction, that suggests to me that usage is, happily, limited. However, Mr Wilson makes the point that we do not have evidence. I suspect that we could obtain it with some difficulty. It might not quite be a fishing expedition, but it would be something quite close to that and I would be a bit wary of giving any specific commitment today. That is not to detract from Mr Wilson’s point. It is important to know how widespread the usage of Mosquito devices is, but it may be difficult to find the answer to that question. The earlier, primary questions are who has the power and how it can be employed; and how we go about working with Her Majesty’s Government and whether it would not be better to act across the UK. Of course it would be best to serve all the peoples in the UK in finding a fair solution.Those high-level issues of principle and politics are, perhaps, the ones that we could advance early in the next session of Parliament. I hope that that will be the case, irrespective of who sits in my chair and who sits in the committee’s chairs.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
The next petition is PE1367, by Andrew Deans, on behalf of the Scottish Youth Parliament, seeking to ban the use of Mosquito devices.I welcome to the committ...
Bill Butler
Lab
What precisely did you mean, in your letter dated 25 January 2011, when you said:“we will consider very carefully all arguments made in relation to these dev...
The Minister for Community Safety (Fergus Ewing)
SNP
We will consider them with all stakeholders, MSPs, interested members of the public and Her Majesty’s Government.
Bill Butler
Lab
Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People has provided three issues to be considered in respect of the matter, which are set out in the petitione...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
Certainly. In September 2010, I wrote to Theresa May MP and offered to work with her and her officials on the UK coalition Government’s approach to tackling ...
Bill Butler
Lab
I am obliged.15:00
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
In its latest response, the Scottish Government states:“We consider that the mosquito device is not consistent with our approach as outlined in Promoting Pos...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I will be forthright with the committee. The Scottish Government does not support and has never supported the use of the devices. The devices are incompatibl...
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
So, we all generally agree that the Mosquito is a completely undesirable method of—supposedly—tackling antisocial behaviour. We are left with the three main ...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I was impressed by the way in which the petitioner—Andrew Deans, who is a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament—took the matter forward. In giving his evid...
The Convener
Lab
The committee would be keen to hear about that, but I think that Cathie Craigie has another question.
Cathie Craigie
Lab
I am glad to hear that the minister is going to continue the discussions with his Westminster counterpart, because it would be good to have a UK-wide solutio...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
John Brownlie is more familiar with that part of the act. Would it be in order for him to answer that specific question, convener?
The Convener
Lab
Yes.
John Brownlie (Scottish Government Directorate for Safer Communities)
As you have said, Ms Craigie, powers exist to seize noise-making equipment. However, when I discussed the issue with a local government colleague who is the ...
Cathie Craigie
Lab
I take John Brownlie’s point about problems with detecting this equipment. However, younger people have been used to implement other legislation, for example...
John Brownlie
I will certainly discuss that with our local authority colleagues.
Nigel Don
SNP
I certainly invite the minister to make his suggestions about the way forward because, to be honest, I think that they would be helpful. Before he does so, t...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I read in the Official Report of the committee’s previous discussion of this matter that Mr Don had experienced one of these devices when he was out canvassi...
The Convener
Lab
I am sure that she will be terribly disappointed if that does not happen.
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
I know that the election is coming up but, if it were not and if we were carrying on as normal, what would the Scottish Government do? I take it that your su...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
We recognise that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child must be considered in this case. The committee has looked into that. Article 15 cl...
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
One of the petitioner’s suggestions was that the Government could review whether public sector organisations have a responsibility on this issue under the pu...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I am happy to give an undertaking to look into the general question further. However, it is likely that I may be advised that, in doing so, it would be neces...
Anne McLaughlin
SNP
Will you consult the petitioner, who is currently doing a lot of work on that anyway and might be able to help to provide some of the evidence?
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I would be happy if the petitioner, and anyone else who has an interest, wishes to contact us with their views on the matter. However, from my reading of the...
The Convener
Lab
I understand that Mr Deans is watching the meeting on the television so I am sure that he has heard that invitation.
John Wilson
SNP
The issue for me is that the use of the devices is unknown. We do not know how many retailers, shopping malls or private individuals are using them. Until we...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
John Farquhar Munro made the point earlier that young children, such as two-year-olds and toddlers, may well be disturbed, distressed and upset when within h...
The Convener
Lab
I will not be sitting in this chair.I ask the committee for views on what to do with the petition.