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Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The second item on our agenda is consideration of continued petitions. The first continued petition, PE1662, which was lodged by Janey Cringean and Lorraine Murray on behalf of Tick-borne Illness Campaign Scotland, calls on the Scottish Parliament to “urge the Scottish Govern...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

International ME Awareness Day

Tomorrow—12 May—is international ME awareness day. Myalgic encephalomyelitis—or chronic fatigue syndrome, as it is known in the national health service—is a chronic neurological disorder that affects more than 21,000 adults and children in Scotland. We have no idea how many pe...

The Deputy Convener (Gail Ross) SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2019 of the Public Petitions Committee. I ask everyone to switch their mobile phones to silent. Our only agenda item this morning is consideration of continued petitions. The first petition for consideration is PE1463...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Our next continued petition is PE1678, on a national strategic framework for countryside ranger services, which was lodged by Robert Reid on behalf of the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association. At our previous consideration of the petition in April 2019, the committee agre...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petition

The next item on our agenda is consideration of a continued petition, PE1600, by John Chapman, which calls for the introduction of speed awareness courses. The petition was last considered in February 2019. At that meeting, the committee agreed to take evidence from representa...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The second continued petition for consideration is PE1768, which was lodged by James A Mackie. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that all proceedings in children’s hearings be minuted or recorded. We have received the Scottish Government’s response, whic...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The next continued petition for consideration is PE1769, on higher education in Scotland, which was lodged by Marie Oldfield. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to review the way in which higher education is set up and delivered in Scotland, including how students’ ...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The next continued petition for our consideration is PE1773, on reforming rape law, which was brought by Sarah Takahashi. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to update the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 to include the offence of a...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The final continued petition for consideration today is PE1774, on formally recording vaping-related illness and death, which was brought by Craig Edward. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to collect data on vaping-related illness and vaping during pregnancy, to en...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I am glad that you have made that suggestion; I was going to make it. As a committee member, and also as a constituency member, I would like to see consideration being continued, because we are certainly not at the end of the matter. We should include it in the legacy paper, a...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

We do not speak a lot about affection in the chamber. Today, though, we are talking about giving our children the best start in life, and that can be done in so many ways. The Scottish Government has made a huge commitment to our children in the form of the baby box, the mater...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

Rural Economy (European Union Referendum)

I bring members’ attention to my register of interests, in which I list being a board member of North Highland College. I will go on to speak about that now. I have been a board member since 2014 and we have had many discussions about where funding comes from and how it is sp...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

Sea Fisheries and End-year Negotiations

I might just sit back down again. Tavish Scott did not want to talk about the common fisheries policy in depth. However, when I saw that there was to be a debate about fishing, I was reminded of an essay in The Scottish Review in 2004 that was written by the Shetlander Robert...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services

Good morning. I want to touch on the Scottish ferry services plan, which runs from 2013 to 2022. My question is in two parts. The first part is specifically about the Clyde and Hebrides service contract, which sets out a number of long-term developments such as additional sail...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

Automated Teller Machines

I thank Which? and the FSB for their campaign on the issue and Dean Lockhart for securing today’s debate. Which? and the FSB have worked tirelessly to bring to our attention the threat of ATM closures, and I am glad that we are debating the issue today. As Dean Lockhart highl...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

Energy Efficient Scotland

The “Energy Efficient Scotland” route map sets out a programme to improve energy efficiency and, in so doing, will help to achieve our priorities of tackling climate change and reducing fuel poverty. It will also improve the day-to-day lives of people across the country, makin...

Gail Ross (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP) SNP Chamber

Forestry Strategy 2019 to 2029

I thank the cabinet secretary for his statement and welcome the publication of the strategy. What consideration has been given to Confor’s report, which recommends that a study be funded to assess the benefits of a strategic approach to significant new and continued investment...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I want to try to get to the bottom of the Future Pathways waiting list. In your written submission of 21 June, you referred to the waiting list as “dangerously long”. The Future Pathways written submission of 16 August states that the organisation has now “eliminated” the wait...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

To your knowledge, has Future Pathways actually eradicated its waiting list?

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

So, instead of recruiting all those extra staff, Future Pathways could have provided the level of service that it is giving to survivors by using you.

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I was quite concerned, reading through all the evidence, that the petitioner seems to have had a really bad experience and since submitting the petition has been contacted by what he said is “a large number of people” in support. It is obvious to me that there are people who...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I have been looking through the papers. I have a question for David Stewart. Have the petitioners contacted the Equalities and Human Rights Commission about the situation, and, if so, what was the outcome?

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I am not talking about the Scottish Human Rights Commission; I am talking about the Equality and Human Rights Commission. There are two different organisations.

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

One has the ability to take up cases and the other does not. I wondered whether that was—

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I was semi-involved in this issue. There was a device in Waverley station—I believe that it was one of the shops there rather than the station that had put it up. I had a few submissions from members of the Scottish Youth Parliament. I think that you make a valid point. I do n...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Given that I am new to the committee, this is the first time that I have seen the petition. I was quite shocked at a lot of the stuff that it contained, and also by the evidence from Jackie Baillie. I think that Brian Whittle is absolutely right: if the Health and Sport Commit...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

It is such a sensitive issue that deciding on a preferred option for the whole of society carries with it quite a lot of danger. The family should decide whether they want services delivered at home, in a community hospital or in a care home. Someone’s access to services can a...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Can I make a quick follow-up point on that? In the Highland Council area, we have taken a different approach and we are using a lead agency model, so the national health service would cover that instead of an IJB.

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I am the MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross and deputy convener of the committee.

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

My question follows on from what Dr Mavin was saying about GPs in areas where Lyme disease is more prevalent, especially in the Highlands, where they will look out for the symptoms more than other GPs. The Scottish Government indicated in a submission in 2018 that new NICE gui...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

This may have been covered previously, but do we know whether Lyme disease is covered in training for GPs, or in their continuous professional development, so that they know what to look out for? It is all very well having guidelines, but a lot of GPs may not refer to them, ma...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I would quite like to explore that.

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

That is just GPs in Highland. How can that be rolled out to the whole of Scotland once the project is finished?

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I was going to ask a question earlier and then thought that it was maybe a stupid question, before I remembered that there is no such thing as a stupid question. Then Rupert Shaw touched on it and I was glad about that. We are discussing ticks and Lyme disease in humans here, ...

Gail Ross SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Is Q fever recognised as a tick-borne infection in Scotland?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you, minister. During the debate on the petition last year and in correspondence with the Health and Sport Committee this year, you made a clear commitment to engage directly with the people who cannot access the treatment that they should get. Will you outline the exten...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Do you think that there is still an issue with clinicians not believing people who present with the symptoms that they are experiencing and that those people, in turn, are not getting the treatment that they need?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I must apologise, Dr Mishra. We were not informed that another witness was going to be here. Will you repeat your name for the record, please?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you. Elaine Smith has some questions.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I will take questions from members of the committee now, starting with Maurice Corry.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

You can ask one small question.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I thank everyone for that very useful session and the minister for that helpful clarification. Before we move on to comments and suggestions for action, I remind the committee of what the convener said the last time we considered the petition. She said: “If we were to make o...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you for your comments, which we take on board. We have had a huge amount of written evidence from people who have been affected, and that is all on the record. If we close the petition today, those people are still welcome to provide feedback, and they are welcome to con...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

We are in no doubt as to the issues that have been raised. As I said, the petition has been going on for a number of years—over two parliamentary sessions—and we have a wealth of evidence from the people involved. I am struggling to see what more could be added from a round ta...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you. I thank the petitioners and give special thanks to Elaine Smith and everyone else who has been involved. Closing the petition does not mean that we do not recognise the issues. We have said time and again that we do, but we see the actions being taken to address the...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Our next petition for consideration is PE1629, on magnetic resonance imaging scans for ocular melanoma sufferers in Scotland. The petition was lodged by Jennifer Lewis. Last time we considered the petition, in January 2019, we took evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Heal...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you for your very useful opening statement. You mentioned—and we have previously heard from the chief medical officer about—the lack of clinical consensus across the UK on the use of MRI scans. What do you think is the reason for that?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Dr Cauchi, since our papers were circulated, we have received two written submissions from Iain Galloway and OcuMel UK. The joint position paper on MRI surveillance that has been compiled with melanoma patient network Europe and OcuMel UK indicates how they would like the issu...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I hate talking about money when it comes to people’s health but, unfortunately, it is inevitable. Do you anticipate any additional costs or funding implications? 10:15

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

You have touched on the position in the rest of the UK a few times now. If we wanted to understand this from an English or rest-of-UK position, who would you suggest that we could write to about that?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

That would be helpful.

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The submission from OcuMel UK—I apologise for you not having seen it in advance, but it came in quite late—is at odds with the evidence that you have given today. One paragraph says: “We have not been consulted on this consensus statement and so we have not seen this document...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you very much. Do members have any comments or suggestions for action, reflecting on the evidence that we have heard?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Are there any other comments or suggestions?

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

The suggestion is that we agree to seek the views of the petitioner in response to the consensus statement and also the evidence today, and ask Dr Cauchi to respond in writing to the two late submissions that we have had, because there are some things in them that we want to h...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Thank you for your evidence, Dr Cauchi. I suspend the meeting for a change of witnesses. 10:26 Meeting suspended. 10:33 On resuming—

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

Also at the table are the official reporters and the valuable clerks, who provide the committee with background support. This is a round-table evidence session, so I will very much welcome flowing discussion and exchanges of views. Feel free to engage directly with each other,...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

I know from having been a councillor that local authorities sometimes do not appreciate the Government telling them that money must be ring-fenced for a particular sector. Have you had any conversations with chief executives of local authorities to see whether ring fencing is ...

The Deputy Convener SNP Committee

Continued Petitions

That is the subject of my next question. Do local authorities understand fully and appreciate the benefits that come from a ranger service?

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Committee

Public Petitions Committee 24 February 2021

24 Feb 2021 · S5 · Public Petitions Committee

Item of business

Continued Petitions

Tick-borne Diseases (Treatment) (PE1662)

Ross, Gail SNP Caithness, Sutherland and Ross Watch on SPTV

The second item on our agenda is consideration of continued petitions. The first continued petition, PE1662, which was lodged by Janey Cringean and Lorraine Murray on behalf of Tick-borne Illness Campaign Scotland, calls on the Scottish Parliament to “urge the Scottish Government to improve testing and treatment for Lyme Disease and associated tick-borne diseases by ensuring that medical professionals in Scotland are fully equipped to deal with the complexity of tick-borne infections, addressing the lack of reliability of tests, the full variety of species in Scotland, the presence of ‘persister’ bacteria which are difficult to eradicate, and the complexities caused by the presence of possibly multiple co-infections, and to complement this with a public awareness campaign.” I welcome Alexander Burnett MSP, who is joining us for this item. At our previous consideration of the petition, in December 2020, we agreed to invite the then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing and the chief medical officer to give oral evidence. I am pleased to welcome Mairi Gougeon, the Minister for Public Health and Sport; in place of the CMO, Dr Gill Hawkins, who is the Scottish Government’s senior medical officer for health protection; and Professor Tom Evans, who is the CMO specialty adviser on infectious diseases. Thank you all for joining us. I invite the minister to provide a brief opening statement before we move to questions.

In the same item of business

The Deputy Convener SNP

The second item on our agenda is consideration of continued petitions. The first continued petition, PE1662, which was lodged by Janey Cringean and Lorraine ...

The Minister for Public Health and Sport (Mairi Gougeon) SNP

I am pleased to be in front of the committee today, because it is right that Lyme disease is taken seriously and receives this kind of scrutiny. For some peo...

The Deputy Convener SNP

Thank you, minister. That is positive news. I will start off by asking about Dr Cruikshank’s submission. She states: “10-20% of Lyme disease infections res...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

When I met Dr Cringean last week, her point about patients’ concerns being dismissed really came across. I emphasise that we do not want patients’ concerns t...

Professor Tom Evans (Scottish Government)

I have worked in the infectious disease field in Scotland for just over 17 years and I have probably seen and treated hundreds of patients with Lyme disease....

Dr Gill Hawkins (Scottish Government)

There is certainly variation in healthcare practitioners’ degree of knowledge about Lyme. In certain areas of Scotland where it is more prevalent and general...

The Deputy Convener SNP

Minister, the petitioners state that chronic Lyme patients who pay for private treatment often recover, but the treatments are not available on the NHS. Why ...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

That question would be more appropriate for my clinical colleagues. It is not my place to comment on treatments and I would not be able to comment on treatme...

Professor Evans

There are two issues. First, we want to be sure that use of any treatment that we offer in the NHS is evidence-based and will do patients some good. That is ...

The views that Professor Evans has expressed are in keeping with those of the clinical experts who have been advising the Scottish health protection network ...

Maurice Corry (West Scotland) (Con) Con

Chronic Lyme disease is a multisystem infection, treatment of which requires multiple specialties, but there are currently no specialist multidisciplinary tr...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

Prior to the pandemic, we had been looking at establishing an infectious diseases managed clinical network. Its aim would be to bring together health practit...

Maurice Corry Con

Professor Evans, would you like to comment?

Professor Evans

I absolutely recognise the frustration that many patients feel about the multiple referrals that they often experience. They see specialist A, then they see ...

MCNs are used in a number of clinical areas. As Professor Evans said, their aim is to bring together individuals to provide multidisciplinary expertise. It i...

Maurice Corry Con

That is very interesting. I liked Dr Hawkins’s comment about bringing people together; that is important. The stories that I hear from people who have been a...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

The work on developing that was at an early stage and we want to pick that up. Of course, we would consider any possible relevant expertise that should be pa...

David Torrance (Kirkcaldy) (SNP) SNP

The NICE guidelines acknowledge that chronic infection is not yet researched thoroughly enough to support evidence-based guidance. The NICE guidance that is ...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

Generally, clinicians will—and should—follow evidence-based guidelines such as those that have been produced by NICE. It is probably the case with all diseas...

The Deputy Convener SNP

Professor Evans, you touched on this in one of your previous answers. Would you like to say anything on this question?

Professor Evans

Broadly, I would agree with that. There is certainly room for better quality evidence, particularly for those who are suffering from longer-term symptoms, fo...

David Torrance SNP

A lack of research and lack of money have been mentioned. Will the Scottish Government do anything to improve the research? Will it increase funding to look ...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

The pieces of work that we are looking at in relation to the MCN, and the other on-going work that I mentioned in previous responses, will all help to build ...

Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con

The Scottish Lyme disease and tick-borne infections reference laboratory has ISO accredited testing available for only five strains of Borrelia out of 300. O...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

I understand that the petitioners have some concerns about testing. Again, I will bring in my clinical colleagues to give a more substantive answer on this p...

Professor Evans

We are fortunate to have an accredited reference laboratory in Scotland; for clinicians, that means that we have a much easier way of accessing tests. Other ...

I reinforce what has just been said. The important development in recent years has been the national laboratory’s reference laboratory status, because that b...

David Torrance SNP

Evidence received by the committee indicates that the majority of GPs lack experience or confidence in providing advice on tick avoidance, managing tick bite...

Mairi Gougeon SNP

That point was raised with me when I met Dr Cringean. It is disappointing to hear that people feel that they have been dismissed, or that there is a lack of ...

David Torrance SNP

Minister, you mentioned the round-table, but GPs are the gatekeepers. If people who are affected by Lyme disease cannot get past that, how do we improve comm...