Seòmar agus comataidhean

Now that we have heard from Christine Grahame and read the submissions, I turn to colleagues for their comments.

I was struck by Emma Harper’s advocacy of holding off a round-table discussion until we see a little more about where things are going. However, we can still reserve the right to come back to that. We should be clear that we will write to the UK Government about the A75. Do committee colleagues agree to that?

The next continued petition is PE1662, on improving treatment for patients with Lyme disease and associated tick-borne diseases, which was lodged by Janey Cringean and Lorraine Murray on behalf of Tick-borne Illness Campaign Scotland. The petition calls on the Scottish Government

“to improve testing and treatment for Lyme disease and associated tick-borne diseases by ensuring that medical professionals in Scotland are fully equipped to deal with the complexity of tick-borne infections, addressing the lack of reliability of tests, the full variety of species in Scotland, the presence of ‘persister’ bacteria which are difficult to eradicate, and the complexities caused by the presence of possibly multiple co-infections, and to complement this with a public awareness campaign.”

When the petition was considered previously, in February 2021, the session 5 committee took evidence from the then Minister for Public Health and Sport, Mairi Gougeon, who was supported by Scottish Government officials Dr Gill Hawkins, the senior medical officer for health protection and public health, and Professor Tom Evans, the chief medical officer’s specialty adviser on infectious diseases. During the session, the minister stated that the Scottish Government was

“committed to supporting people with Lyme disease, finding new and better diagnostic and treatment tools, and trying to prevent it in the first place.”—[Official Report, Public Petitions Committee, 24 February 2021; c 2.]

It was revealed that the Scottish Government would soon be holding a round-table event that would bring together clinicians, patient representatives and public health experts to discuss testing, treatment and raising awareness. The minister confirmed that the Scottish Government was keen to develop an infectious diseases managed clinical network and that consideration of Lyme disease would be included in its workstream. The minister and her officials also agreed that more research was needed to underpin the development of better treatment options, particularly for people with longer-term symptoms.

Do colleagues have any comments or suggestions that they would like to make?

I do not think that we do that with any great pleasure.

We have heard from our two colleagues. As the committee considers what to do next, do colleagues have any comments? I am tempted to come to you, David Torrance, simply because you have long been engaged with the petition, but I will not if you have a burning ambition for me not to do that. [Laughter.]

On that basis, I think that we are inclined to keep the petition open and to seek an update from the Scottish Government on its response to the deer working group, as our predecessor committee suggested. That could highlight some of the issues that Mr Sweeney has just raised. Do members agree?

Members indicated agreement.

Is going through Professor Nandi the only way to get the treatment in England, or are there other places where it is offered?

Thank you. Would colleagues like to comment on the evidence that we have heard?

Thank you. We can write to the DWP. The Scottish Government has asserted that the DWP has taken a position. We do not know whether it is actually the case that the DWP would regard a change from 20m to 50m as a significant violation of the like-for-like principle. I simply see from the submissions that the Scottish Government suggests that that might be the case. It would be worth testing that.

The petitioner has noted that it would not lead to any enhancement of benefit, as such; it would just make access to the benefit slightly easier for the people whom it is meant to assist. We should clarify that point, at least, in addition to the suggestion that came forward. We might see where the response to those representations takes us, and pursue the discussion after that. Does that seem reasonable?

Members indicated agreement.

I certainly have long memories of the petition on seat belts in school buses, which, I seem to remember, eventually led to the minister, Mike Penning, agreeing to devolve competences to the Scottish Parliament. I do not know whether that ever actually happened—[Interruption.] Apparently it did, some time ago.

David Torrance, having heard from Paul Sweeney, would you be content for us to explore some of these issues further with the Scottish Government?