Seòmar agus comataidhean

Did you want to add anything, minister?

I have just one follow-up question. One of the scandals that arose with transvaginal mesh related to the quality of the mesh itself. It turned out that the regime that was in place to ensure the highest standard of mesh material was really not robust and, to our shock and dismay, some of the mesh that had been fitted in some women was no different from the mesh that is found wrapped around packages that come through the post. Is a strong regime in place for the mesh procedures that we are talking about to ensure the quality of the product that is fitted in any operation?

I can say to Mr Bishop that, if we were relying on the MHRA at the time, it was woefully inadequate in its explanation of its procedures and in respect of the subsequent regulation to ensure that only proper materials were used. It is clear that some products bypassed that. Can patients now proceed with greater confidence?

We will now discuss PE1837, which is a continued petition that was lodged by Stephen Leighton. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to clarify how autistic people who do not have a learning disability and/or mental disorder can access support, and to allocate investment for autism support teams in every local authority or health and social care partnership in Scotland.

When we last considered the petition,?we agreed to invite?the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to give evidence at a future meeting. The Scottish Government has advised that the issues raised in the petition are within the portfolio of the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care. I am therefore delighted to welcome the relevant minister, Kevin Stewart. He is accompanied by Hugh McAloon, deputy director for mental health complex care; and? Jacqueline Campbell, unit head, learning disability, autism and neurodiversity.?

I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement that might help inform our discussion.

Thank you. Are you content, Paul?

I apologise to David Torrance for not having properly understood the response to his earlier question.

As members have no further questions, I thank the minister, Hugh McAloon and Jacqueline Campbell for their incredibly helpful evidence and participation this morning. I think that I would like to reflect on the evidence that we have heard, have a chance to read the Official Report and then consider how we might take the issues forward at a subsequent meeting.

That brings us almost to the end of the meeting. For the benefit of everyone watching and committee colleagues, I want to place on record the committee’s thanks to our clerk Gemma Cheek, who is leaving us. Our loss is the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s gain. I am very sorry that she is leaving; she has been with the committee for the past two years and has provided us with a high quality of understanding and support. We very much wish her all the best in her new appointment.

That is fine. I am quite happy for us to take that approach, if members are content.

Members indicated agreement.

I am aware that I have not invited the mesh team leader, Mr Bishop, to comment. Is there anything that you wish to comment on before I bring in my committee colleagues, Mr Bishop?

The next new petition is PE1879, on providing an accessible and professionally developed learning and teaching resource on Israel and Palestine. Before we proceed, I should declare an interest as convener in the previous parliamentary session of the cross-party group on building bridges with Israel. The CPG has yet to be reconvened, but I hope and expect that that will happen later this month.

The petition, which has been lodged by Hugh Humphries, on behalf of Scottish Friends of Palestine, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to acknowledge the right of Scotland’s pupils to a bias-free education on the topic of Israel and Palestine by ensuring that Education Scotland hosts an accessible and professionally developed learning and teaching resource on its national intranet service and re-establishes a strategic review group to oversee any revision of the original resource developed in 2016.

In its submission, the Scottish Government states that, in 2015,

“A working group was established to scope out appropriate materials to support practitioners to deliver learning on the conflict and issues around Israel and Palestine.”

In 2017, an initial set of resources was made available on Glow, Education Scotland’s national learning platform, on a pilot basis.

The Scottish Government states that, by February 2018, it was apparent following engagement with interested stakeholders that the consensus on the resources sought by Education Scotland could not be achieved. It further states that an offer by Education Scotland to develop the resource further was not agreeable to the Educational Institute of Scotland as a joint owner of the resource. However, the EIS offered to publish the resources on its own website, where they are still available. The Scottish Government states that, given

“the lack of consensus across stakeholders, and the EIS publishing the resource on a publicly available platform, the Scottish Government and Education Scotland concluded that the matter was closed.”

The committee has received several submissions, including three, I think, from the petitioner. In his response to the Scottish Government submission, the petitioner states his view that it was clear from early 2017 that

“there would be no consensus between stakeholder groups”

on the resource. He believes that the Scottish Government has been lobbied into amending the resource and then removing it from Glow. He also highlights that Glow is promoted as

“the destination hub for staff looking for additional learning and teaching resources”

and argues that, with a teaching resource being placed on another platform, it is effectively being consigned “to obscurity”.

Since the publication of our papers, the committee has received a late submission from the Scottish Friends of Israel and a further submission from the petitioner, which provide opposing views on the development of the education resource. These have been circulated to members and published on the Scottish Parliament website.

I would be grateful for members’ comments on the petition.

The questions that Bill Kidd asked are important and go to the heart of Stephen Leighton’s petition, so I am glad that we have touched on the matter.

In her submission, Professor Jean McLellan, former director of Autism Network Scotland, highlighted the creation of one-stop shops across Scotland. She thought that the pilot had been “highly valued”, that the space had “lessened social isolation” and “anxiety and depression”, and that it had been informative for people, who gained useful advice and support. However, finances were withdrawn following the pilot, and only some of the spaces that the pilot had put in place had survived. Do you have a view on the success of the pilot and on future accessibility in that respect?