Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have resolved not to reach for any other metaphors. I take the point, and we can proceed on the basis that we have described with that understanding.

In which case, I thank you both very much. Your evidence has been very helpful to our consideration of this distressing petition. Thank you for being present remotely and in person today.

I will suspend the meeting shortly, once members have agreed that we are content to consider the evidence at a subsequent meeting.

Members indicated agreement.

Are colleagues content to close the petition, as suggested by Alexander Stewart?

Members indicated agreement.

During your time on the task force, what were the key concerns that were raised regarding the experience of people who use drugs and their current interactions with the justice system?

Mr Strang, you referred to dozens of recommendations in the report. I am sorry that we are not here to do full justice to the report today. The work of the committee has been very much focused on the issues raised in the petition, despite Mr Sweeney’s heroic endeavours to draw out slightly wider evidence, which I am sure is also very useful to the committee. Is there anything that we have not touched on that either you or Carole Hunter would like to add?

I am happy for us to take that forward.

We are content to keep the petition open and proceed on the basis that has been set out. I thank the petitioner for the time that they took in speaking to us, as well as last week’s witnesses, who helped to inform our discussion.

PE1896, which has been lodged by Callum Isted, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to replace the disposable water bottle that is provided with primary school lunches with a sustainable reusable metal bottle.

During our previous consideration of the petition, we were fortunate to hear from Callum personally—as members will recall, he was the youngest ever petitioner to present to the Scottish Parliament. We have to thank him not just for his evidence but for the fact that his petition was specifically cited in relation to the powering change award that the committee, as a mover and shaker of the year, subsequently received from Holyrood magazine.

Callum explained why reusable water bottles are important and told us about his campaign work, which included an impressive fundraising exercise. The committee agreed to write to the First Minister, whom Callum met, to ask what action she intends to take in order to fulfil the ask of the petition.

I regret to say that we have not received a response to our representations from the First Minister on the petition, and I understand that Callum is waiting for an update from the First Minister, too. I thank Callum again for his evidence and the time that he has taken over his petition. Do members have any comments or suggestions as to how we might proceed?

The Deputy First Minister, in identifying that the intention was to exclude arrangements where there was no exercise of public function, is compromised slightly when it is clear that it simply may not be possible to establish one way or another the reason for a child’s stay at Fornethy. In the light of what Mr Whittle says and the further evidence that we have received, do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?

Do members agree to take that forward? We would invite the clerks to draft a response for us to consider along those lines based on the evidence that we have gathered from a number of sources on that point.

It would be unusual, but I will let Mr Whittle back in; you are not here to assist us in our deliberations but merely to lobby us as we consider them.

We will carry on the petition at our convenience.