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The petition, which was lodged by Amber Roberts, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to take action to improve the current housing crisis by merging housing associations and local council housing and by considering introducing a new right-to-buy scheme for council tenants. Amber Roberts suggests that merging housing associations with local council housing could help more council houses to become available and result in more than 76,000 council homes being built by 2034. She has also set out a proposal for a right-to-buy scheme that would allow council tenants who have lived in the property for 10 years or more the opportunity to buy their home.

In responding to the petition, the Scottish Government has stated that its

“approach to the planning and delivery of affordable housing, is focussed on providing the ‘right homes in the right place’.”

It has highlighted that

“Housing associations and councils have a long history of ... working in partnership in the delivery of affordable homes”

and has noted that

“Not all councils build new homes, six local authorities have previously transferred all of their housing stock to housing associations.”

Reference is made to the Scottish Government’s own target of delivering

“110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent”.

It has highlighted that that would

“exceed the number of homes for social rent suggested within the petition”

and that the target would be delivered “within a shorter timeframe”.

That is a lot of houses to be built in 10 years.

The Scottish Government has also stated that it has no plans to reintroduce the right-to-buy scheme, and it has provided details of the support that is available to assist affordable home ownership. That support includes the low-cost initiative for first-time buyers and the open market shared equity scheme.

Do members have any comments or suggestions for action?

We thank Amber Roberts and regret that there seems to be nothing more of a practical nature that we can do.

That seems a sensible proposition. Are we content with that?

Members indicated agreement.

PE1961, which seeks to make it a specific offence to assault, threaten or abuse a private hire or taxi driver while at work, has been lodged by Edward Grice on behalf of the Scottish Private Hire Association. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to expand the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 to include private hire and taxi drivers by creating a specific criminal offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing private hire or taxi drivers while they are engaged in private hire or taxi work and by considering such offences as aggravated when the offence is committed while the driver is enforcing a licensing or operational condition. The SPHA highlights the 2021 act and the creation of a new offence for situations whereby a retail worker is assaulted, threatened or abused while engaged in their work. The SPHA believes that a similar offence is required to protect private hire and taxi drivers while they are at work.

In its response to the petition, the Scottish Government notes that there are a range of common-law and statutory offences to protect everyone, including private hire and taxi drivers, from abuse and violence. Those include the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour, as well as common-law offences of assault and breach of the peace. Do colleagues have any comments or suggestions?

I was struck by the Scottish Government pointing the finger at Daniel Johnson in relation to the development of the 2021 act. I am not quite sure what they thought Mr Johnson’s remedy might be.

Do colleagues have any suggestions as to how we might proceed?

I am happy to write to the organisations that you have suggested, but we would do that instead of taking evidence from the petitioner, at this stage. As you suggested, we would write to the SPSO and the Scottish Government.

Are there any other suggestions, or are members content for us to proceed in that way?

Thank you. That is one of the advantages of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. We are taking forward the issues of an individual with a petition rather than bringing forward individual party-political considerations, which sometimes allows us to have a meaningful conversation about the particular issue at hand.

Thank you for your appearance with us this morning.

I should mention that sceptics of the proposal for home reports—of which I was one at the time—were concerned about the principle underpinning home reports, which is that they would do away with the need for undertaking expensive surveys when people were making offers for properties. On the question whether a home report is deficient, it has certainly been my experience in the years since the introduction of home reports that, when someone buys a home, a survey has still been needed as part of the requirements of the mortgage lender.

I am content with both of those suggestions. Are colleagues agreed to take those actions?

Members indicated agreement.

Item 2 is consideration of continued petitions, the first of which is PE1900, on access to prescribed medication for detainees in police custody, which was lodged by Kevin John Lawson. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that all detainees in police custody can access their prescribed medication, including methadone, in line with existing relevant operational procedures and guidance.

Colleagues will recall that, at our most recent meeting, we took evidence from David Strang, former chair of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce—I gather that he is now part of the implementation group—and Dr Carole Hunter, who is a former member of the task force. Our discussion with them has informed some of the areas that we would like to explore during this morning’s meeting.

I am delighted to say that we are joined this morning by the Minister for Drugs Policy, Angela Constance, and her officials from the drugs policy division of the Scottish Government: Morris Fraser, head of delivery and support unit, and Henry Acres, head of cultural and structural change.

Good morning, and thank you all for coming; you are most welcome. We can move straight to questions, but if you would like to say something by way of introduction or clarification, minister, we would be happy to hear it.

Our second evidence session is on PE1928, which was lodged by David Gallant. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide free rail travel for disabled people who meet the qualifications for free bus travel.

We last considered the petition at our meeting on 20 April 2022, when we agreed to write to Transport Scotland to seek an update on the fair fares review. A copy of Transport Scotland’s response has been included in our meeting papers for today.

At the meeting on 20 April, we also agreed to hear evidence from the petitioner and from Sight Scotland. I am pleased to welcome to the meeting the petitioner, David Gallant, and Nicoletta Primo from Sight Scotland. It is a pleasure to have both of you with us. The petitioner is not always present when we consider their petition. It is helpful that both of you are here today.

Members have a number of questions that they would like to ask, but we understand that both of you wish to say a few words first. I am happy with that. The clerks will have told you that your contribution cannot be longer than a speech in the chamber. We look forward to hearing from you. Have you drawn straws to see who will speak first? I see that David Gallant will do so.