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I agree that it is very important to follow that up and to seek an update, but would it also be worth contacting Rape Crisis Scotland and Victim Support Scotland to ensure that we get their views? I would be concerned if their views were not taken into consideration. That is my suggestion.

I was deeply moved when I read the petition. The petitioner, Karen McKeown, has been through a deeply distressing experience. I am concerned to hear that her partner repeatedly tried to seek mental health support in the days before his death.

I know that the Public Petitions Committee closed a similar petition from the petitioner in November 2019, I think, on the basis that the Scottish Government was undertaking significant work to address mental health services. However, given that almost two years have passed and that the petition predates Covid-19, as Monica Lennon said, it is important to assess what progress, if any, has been made.

The petitioner also raises the issue of suicide prevention, and, in her submission, the problems around accessing appropriate child and adolescent mental health services for her family following her partner’s death. It is important that we note that, and the committee should consider pursuing those issues further in any correspondence with the Scottish Government.

I propose that we write to the cabinet secretary seeking an update on progress on the suicide prevention action plan and on the expansion of the distress brief intervention programme, including, importantly, whether the Scottish Government is on track to achieve its target of reducing the number of suicide deaths by 20 per cent by 2022.

It may also be worth contacting stakeholders such as the Scottish Association for Mental Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, Samaritans Scotland and others to get their views. I would like to take a wider look. As Monica Lennon said, it is a crisis, it will not go away, it predates Covid-19, and we need to take action.

The petitioner’s submission also refers to delays in relation to access to child and adolescent mental health services for self-harming behaviour, as well as minimal support for her autistic child. It would also be appropriate to follow up on those issues. Those are my recommendations.

Abuse and attacks on NHS front-line staff are unacceptable. It is worth noting that NHS England announced in June that thousands of ambulance crews will be provided with body cameras as part of an NHS crackdown to reduce attacks on staff. Successful trials have been conducted in London and the north-east of England.

In light of the developments in England, as well as concerns about the treatment of NHS staff during the pandemic, I suggest that it is worth soliciting the views of the Scottish Ambulance Service, the Royal College of Nursing, the British Medical Association, and the Allied Health Professions Federation. We should not close the petition; we should look at it further because abuse and attacks on front-line staff are very concerning and completely unacceptable.

I go back to a point that Monica Lennon made. My concern is that, should we pass the petition to another committee, it is important that we receive that committee’s review and that the petition does not get lost. This is a crisis and we cannot simply kick it into the long grass. It is really important that this committee sets a date on which it will review the petition—if that is members’ joint view. It should not and must not be lost.

When we write to the Scottish Government, convener, could we also clarify whether the remit of the public inquiry into the response to Covid-19 will include the SQA?

I support that suggestion and keeping the petition open. Confidentially, a constituent of mine has said that they are taking CBD for pain relief but, because it is not regulated and not on prescription, they are having to pay extortionate costs. It is much better for a product to be examined and clinical trials to be undertaken. There is also a suggestion that the petitioner’s family member could take part in a clinical trial. Keeping the petition open, having clinical trials and exploring the matter further is a good way forward.

That is great.

Secondly, on accountability, Professor Wehner, associate professor of public policy at the London School of Economics, has commented that the performance outcomes are typically long term—as you yourself have mentioned—and are affected by a variety of factors that often make it very difficult and sometimes nigh on impossible to attribute responsibility to specific Government interventions. How can we know with certainty what is and is not working?

In summary, you are saying that it is a direction of travel, but there are other mechanisms, such as Audit Scotland, that test whether the Government is hitting those milestones.

My final question is on the identification of continuous improvement in that direction of travel. As we know, Covid-19 has prevented the collection and reporting of data. You talk about young people, but data on the educational attainment indicator for 2019-20 could not be collected for some of the submeasures because of school closures during the pandemic. The indicator states: “Performance to be confirmed”. How will that be reconciled with milestone measurement?

So you are open to looking at the framework again.

I have three questions: one is on simplification, one is on accountability and the last is on the impact of Covid-19.

Last week, Ray Perman of the Royal Society of Edinburgh told the committee that he

“was amazed by how many targets and desired outcomes there were”

in the performance framework and that, in his view,

“It could be simplified.”—[Official Report, Finance and Public Administration Committee, 14 September 2021; c 58.]

He then drew a parallel with the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals, suggesting that they were more straightforward. Do you share Mr Perman’s view that the framework could be simplified?