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We move on with our consideration of continued petitions. PE1854, on reviewing the adult disability payment eligibility criteria for people with mobility needs, was lodged by Keith Park. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to remove the 20m rule from the proposed adult disability payment eligibility criteria or to identify an alternative form of support for people with mobility needs.

When the committee last considered the petition, it agreed to ask the Scottish Government to engage with stakeholders on the review of the adult disability payment. The Scottish Government has now confirmed that engagement with relevant stakeholders will be included in the remit for both stages of the ADP review. We also have a further written submission from the petitioner, which calls on the committee to seek further evidence from stakeholders and to report directly to the review.

We are joined by our colleague Carol Mochan. Good morning, Carol, and thank you for your patience. Do you have anything to contribute to the committee’s thinking on the issue?

That would be very helpful. Mr Park lodged the petition on behalf of the MS Society. It would be interesting to drill down into the very specific complications arising from the condition itself.

PE1907, on the provision of funded early learning and childcare for all two-year-olds in Scotland, was lodged by Claire Beats. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide funded early learning and childcare for all two-year-olds and remove the eligibility criteria for access to services.

The committee last considered the petition on 23 March, when we agreed to write to the Scottish Government for further information, including on its plans to address concerns about the impact of Covid-19 on the development of children born during the pandemic.

We have received a response from the Scottish Government, in which it refers to its

“commitment to expand early learning and childcare to 1 and 2 year olds, starting in this Parliament with children from low income households.”

The response also states:

“the Scottish Government is funding a range of ... learning resources for ELC practitioners, which are directly relevant to supporting COVID-19 recovery”.

Do members have any comments or suggestions?

That seems sensible, Mr Stewart. Does the committee agree with that?

Members indicated agreement.

PE1914, on banning school uniforms in secondary schools, was lodged by Matthew Lewis Simpson. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to remove the requirement for school uniforms in secondary schools.

The committee last considered the petition on 20 April. At that meeting, we agreed to keep the petition open while we wrote to the Scottish Government following the publication of its consultation on school uniforms. We also agreed to write to the Scottish Government to highlight the evidence that we had received and to seek further information on how children and young people have been involved in the consultation process.

We have now received two responses from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, which highlight the timing of the Scottish Government’s consultation on school uniforms—it ended on 14 October—and confirm that the consultation process would include bespoke engagement with children and young people. The cabinet secretary also suggested that the Scottish Government does not intend to take a uniform approach to uniforms and that local authorities and education authorities would also have a responsibility and determination in all of that.

Do members have any suggestions?

That is an invitation for a wish list, gentlemen. I come to Mr Grant first. We are slightly short of time now, so I ask everybody to be a little bit concise.

We can certainly do that. The information is in the public domain, but we can make sure that the minister is aware of it.

Our next petition is PE1856, which was lodged by Pat Rafferty on behalf of Unite the union, on support for the taxi trade. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to protect the future of the taxi trade by providing financial support to taxi drivers; setting up a national stakeholder group with trade union driver representatives; and reviewing the low-emission standards and implementation dates. I am delighted that we are joined this morning by Steven Grant—with audio only, regrettably—on behalf of Unite, representing the petitioner, and by Robert McLean and Murray Fleming on behalf of the Scottish Taxi Federation. Good morning to you all, and welcome to the committee.

We have heard and collated quite a lot of evidence on this subject, so members have a number of questions. If the witnesses are happy for us to do so, we will move straight to those questions. By way of introduction, I will ask a general question. The situation is fluid, as I know from talking to taxi drivers in my local authority, East Renfrewshire; it has moved on even since we last considered the petition a few months ago. Our witnesses might like to outline briefly the main challenges that currently face the taxi industry, given that the situation is now very different from what it was when the petition was submitted in early 2021.

I come to Mr Grant first—because we cannot see you, we will have to hope that you speak up and speak clearly.

I am concerned that we are almost out of time, so I suggest that the clerks liaise with our witnesses on some of the areas where it might be helpful to get more detailed evidence and information. I am sure that they will be very happy to co-operate—I will allow them to confirm that in a second.

My final question relates to something that Robert McLean touched on. We asked all local authorities what the effect of the pandemic had been, and about half of them responded. The general response was that in the wake of the pandemic there had been a 20 per cent reduction in the number of available cabs. I have heard that there has been a bit of a recovery from that in my own local authority area, but Mr McLean said that, in Glasgow, the cars are there but the drivers are not. It has been suggested to me that some local authorities are underresourced when it comes to processing applications from those interested in becoming drivers.

Mr McLean, can you confirm that you are happy to provide further information on that? When you say that you have the cars but not the drivers, is that a question of the attractiveness of the proposition or is it about the time that it takes people who want to enter the profession to get a licence?

Mr Grant, do you have any final comments that you would like to make on behalf of the petitioner?