Hansard

As that brings us to the conclusion of the public part of the meeting, I just want to say what an absolute pleasure and privilege it has been to be the convener of this committee in this session of Parliament. I thank the current cohort of colleagues—Fergus Ewing, Davy Russell, Maurice Golden and my long-standing deputy convener, David Torrance, who has been here with me from the start—as well as other parliamentary colleagues who have served on the committee over the past five years, and the many colleagues from all parties who have taken advantage of the option that we have given to come and represent their constituents directly to the committee.We feel that we have made a lot of progress on behalf of a lot of people, although we have sometimes been frustrated that people have been left disappointed, because there is no more that we can do. At times, I have had to explain that this is a committee of the Parliament, not a committee of the Government. We are not empowered to do anything; we are here to influence and bring about change, which, in some cases, we have been able to do.So, I want to thank all those who have had petitions open and might be watching—and to all those who might be considering lodging a petition, I want to say, “Please do so.” The Scottish Parliament’s public petitions committee is the finest of any example that we have been able to identify anywhere, and your petition will be considered and heard.With that, we move into private session.10:18Meeting continued in private until 10:26.