Committee
Public Petitions Committee 24 March 2021
24 Mar 2021 · S5 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Continued Petitions
Care Homes (Designated Visitors) (PE1841)
I want to thank our co-opted member, Jackie Baillie, for her kind words. She has contributed so much on many petitions, even in the short time that I have been here, and her advice and guidance have been really valuable. I also thank her for her contribution today. We need to be absolutely honest with ourselves and the petitioners. We should not give them false hope that keeping the petition open will mean that legislation will definitely follow. Having taken legislation through the Parliament, we know that it can take quite a while, as it has to go through many different processes. We need to ask ourselves what the value is of keeping the petition open. We can put it in the legacy paper, but we need to think about when it is likely to come up again in the next session. Given the new petitions that will come through and the other petitions that we have kept open, there is a chance that we, or rather the successor committee—obviously, I do not include myself in that—might not see it until September. Given where we are with the pandemic and the vaccine programme and given the guidance that has been issued, come September we will probably have got beyond what is happening now. However, I take on board what Jackie Baillie said about a third wave. Touch wood, the vaccine programme is getting ahead of that situation now. Therefore, I hope that the guidance would be enough but, as you say, that stark figure of nearly 42 per cent of care homes not implementing the guidance is quite concerning. I can see why care homes are quite risk averse, given what has happened in the past. None of us wants a return to those horrible dark days. However, there is the other side to the picture, which the petitioners have put forward extremely well, about the mental health and wellbeing of not just the people in the homes but the families who are unable to see them. I am quite conflicted. I want to show the petitioners that we are taking this as seriously as we can but that we are limited in what we can do as the Public Petitions Committee. Your suggestion, convener, of pushing the parties to include the issue in their manifestos, in order to get some action on it as soon as the election is concluded in May, is excellent. That would bring it forward much more quickly than the committee could. Given our limitations, I am minded to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders but to make these other recommendations to the petitioners about where they could go to try to get the legislation in place quicker than we could possibly push for it. I will wait to hear what other committee members feel about it.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
The final continued petition on our agenda is PE1841, which was lodged by Natasha Hamilton on behalf of the Care Home Relatives Scotland group. The petition ...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Thank you, convener, for giving me a second opportunity to speak this morning—I promise that I will not go on too long and test your patience. Having faile...
Gail Ross
SNP
I want to thank our co-opted member, Jackie Baillie, for her kind words. She has contributed so much on many petitions, even in the short time that I have be...
Maurice Corry
Con
I thank Jackie Baillie for her input—there are always some wise words spoken. It is a very difficult question. I agree with my colleague Gail Ross that we ar...
The Convener
Lab
Will the COVID-19 Committee continue to meet?
Maurice Corry
Con
Until 5 May, we will meet only in emergency. The committee is still there, but it is slimmed down. It will meet only if emergency regulations and Scottish st...
The Convener
Lab
It may be that, if we were agreeing to write to the cabinet secretary, we could write to the COVID-19 Committee and say that this is an urgent issue that the...
David Torrance
SNP
As do my colleagues, I think that the issue is very difficult; however, I do not think that the committee can take the petition any further because by the ti...
Tom Mason
Con
On balance, I think that we will have to close the petition. The situation is changing month by month as we go forward, and any legislation on the matter wou...
Maurice Corry
Con
Further to the point about the COVID-19 Committee, it is very important that you write to the convener, Donald Cameron, on the point that we discussed. That ...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you. People have wrestled with this petition. I go back to my earlier point about the frustration that the petitioners expressed. Everybody agreed that...
Maurice Corry
Con
I will be very quick. You talk about the cabinet secretary and that is fine, but in the case of the COVID-19 Committee it would also be worth writing to Mich...
The Convener
Lab
We can certainly copy him in to the correspondence. That would make sense.
Maurice Corry
Con
Yes, exactly, if you would not mind.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Although I am disappointed by the committee’s conclusions on closing the petition, I understand and support the actions that you will take in writing to the ...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you. We hope that, because the issue has been aired and commented on in the committee, it has been heard publicly. If there were a request for it, the ...
Tom Mason
Con
As you said, convener, I am leaving the committee in a very short time. The success of the committee—it has, undoubtedly, been a success—has been thanks in n...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much. I have never been accused of being balanced in the past, so that is a great compliment.
Maurice Corry
Con
Thank you, convener, for all your work. I reiterate what my colleague Tom Mason said. The two periods that I have been on the committee have been thoroughly ...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much. I will call David Torrance and then I will give the deputy convener the last word before we move into private session. That is much more...
David Torrance
SNP
Thank you very much, convener. It has been a privilege to be on the committee once again in this parliamentary session. The committee has worked really well,...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much, David. I appreciate your very kind words. We go finally to Gail, our deputy convener.
Gail Ross
SNP
It has been an absolute privilege to serve on the committee. The subjects and information that we have had before us mean that I have learned about many diff...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much, Gail. We look forward to seeing what the new Public Petitions Committee does. If it is as focused on what the petitioners are trying to ...