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I resist the move to close the petition. The issue seems prima facie to be reserved, but significant provisions are in devolved legislation, and particularly the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. That act provides for establishing bus services improvement partnerships, which probably represent the weakest form of regulation after a purely laissez-faire system. The act also contains provisions on franchising and direct public ownership. The Scottish Government has significant regulatory capacity when defining a bus franchise—for example, it can insist on the achievement of certain service standards. That depends not necessarily on legislation but on how well designed a franchise agreement is.

There are significant financial incentives. About 45 per cent of all bus company turnover in Scotland is from public subsidy, and provisions or conditionality could be attached to that public subsidy, which is from the Scottish Government. New vehicles that were procured could be required to meet a certain quality of specification, which would provide such capability in a service.

Given those factors alone, there are significant provisions for the Scottish Parliament as a legislature to design a better service standard that would meet the petitioner’s concerns. The issue is not solely about reserved powers. The committee also has capacity to engage with the Scotland Office and ask what efforts it might make to amend legislation at Westminster to back up any action. There is a breadth of opportunity for us to pursue the petition.

I am generally supportive of the idea of dualling the national trunk road network for safety reasons. That is sometimes conflated with environmental concerns, but the safety implications of dualling on trunk roads are critical.

Elena Whitham raised a wider point about rail substitution. A wider assessment of the ability to move freight from the ports at Cairnryan and Stranraer on to rail is worthy of consideration.

What is lacking, certainly on the west coast, is a port strategy generally. There needs to be consideration of the utilisation of some of the Firth of Clyde ports further north, such as the port at Greenock, for moving freight on to the motorway network. That would help to relieve pressure on the Ayrshire trunk road network.

I think that all these things are considered in isolation, so perhaps it might be worth writing to the relevant ministers to ask for this to be considered in the strategic transport projects review. We need to look at things in a wider sense, because there is no consideration of ports infrastructure in the west of Scotland and how that is managed. It is, in effect, a free market, but that has significant public costs that are not properly accounted for.

The issue has been raised in debates in other Parliaments, particularly in relation to myalgic encephalomyelitis. Lyme disease is a contributory factor to the long-term chronic illness that is defined as ME. It might be of interest to better understand the interaction between the research on the two subjects, because the disease is another condition that people often feel is not taken seriously by the medical profession. That might be worth considering, as part of our consideration of the petition.

I have an additional point, convener. My experience of dealing with planning applications locally is that online consultations have become more of a feature. In many cases, the online facility has increased participation in planning consultations, just because the physical logistics of attending are much more straightforward. This might be an opportunity to ask whether a study has been done of the effectiveness of that procedure. It might be good to consider having online facilities as well as physical facilities. We could ask the Government whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the way in which consultations have been undertaken.

In its submission, the Scottish Government is basically saying that it would need a submission from the petitioner on why the grounds would justify the use of RPM, which is seen as quite an unusual and anachronistic process in current times. Generally, the matter would be referred to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. However, given the historical nature of this absolutely horrific activity, the RPM would seem to be the more appropriate process, given that it involves the First Minister alone making a discretionary decision to refer the matter to the Queen for a pardon. That means that it does not need to go through a particularly onerous legalistic exercise to determine harms, the merits and demerits of cases, and so on. The historical facts of the horrific nature of this past superstitious activity would simply be accepted, and a political decision would be made at the First Minister’s discretion once the Government was equipped with a briefing of the historical incidents and their nature. I think that such an exercise would be more straightforward in realising the aims of the petitioner’s request.

Absolutely. That sounds like a reasonable course of action.

The only thing that I noted in the Scottish Parliament information centre briefing was to do with benchmarking against other Governments in Europe. For example, Germany has targeted the distribution of FFP2 masks to people with underlying health conditions and people over the age of 60, because they provide additional protection. That seems to be quite an interesting proposal. It might be worth writing to the Scottish Government to request that it continue benchmarking itself against the activities of other Governments, so that we can see what benefits can be realised. For example, there are general public health benefits from people wearing face masks, particularly during winter months—it reduces not only Covid transmission but the transmission of other infectious diseases that can disproportionately impact the elderly and vulnerable populations. Investment in this area might be a good prophylactic health measure, particularly if it is targeted towards vulnerable populations.

First, I declare an interest as a member of Unite; also, my dad is a taxi driver. I certainly know from personal experience how significantly detrimental the pandemic and the lockdowns have been to the taxi trade. Anyone who has tried to get a taxi in Glasgow in recent weeks will know how limited the current capacity is. That is because so many people have exited the trade altogether.

Assistance during the pandemic has been a severe problem for people. In effect, many taxi drivers were recommended to go on universal credit throughout the pandemic. There has been a severe detriment to taxi drivers’ livelihoods, compared to those of bus drivers, who were furloughed during the pandemic. Bus companies were given significantly higher levels of financial support.

I therefore have sympathy with the petition, and I think that the demands are reasonable. I am inclined to request a further response from the Scottish Government and to ask what it will do about inadequate levels of funding. I think that the response from the Scottish Government is not sufficient. Although the financial support for improvements to vehicles is significant and is to be commended, the on-going issue of lost income during the pandemic is still very much an open wound that has not been sufficiently addressed.

The proposal to refer the petition to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission seems inappropriate, given the historical nature of the issue and the fact that its effect would not pertain to any meaningfully live criminal case. Although unusual in modern times, the royal prerogative of mercy seems like a more effective discretionary activity here. I think that it would involve a political decision by the Scottish Government—indeed, the First Minister—and it would seem a fairly straightforward exercise to write to the Queen, requesting that that be done.

This is probably one of the few grounds on which it would be viable to consider the royal prerogative of mercy instead of the more onerous process of a Scottish criminal cases review. After all, this is a historical situation, and those affected by it are long dead. It is therefore purely a political consideration. Indeed, the wider international development implications, as far as contemporary issues are concerned, suggest that this is more a broader political exercise than something that should engage criminal law.

In the same way as a listed building is protected, there are sufficient provisions in a discretionary planning system for local authorities to say that development on designated battlefields would be suitable grounds for rejection of a planning application.