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Our next continued petition, PE1953, which was lodged by Roisin Taylor-Young, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review education support staff roles in order to consider urgently raising wages for education support staff across the primary and secondary sector to £26,000 per annum; to increase the hours of the working week for educational support staff from 27.5 to 35 hours; to allow educational support staff to work on personal learning plans, with teachers taking part in multi-agency meetings; to require educational support staff to register with the Scottish Social Services Council; and to pay educational support staff monthly.

We last considered the petition at our meeting on 31 May 2023, when we agreed to seek an update on the Bute house agreement commitment to explore options

“for the development of an accredited qualification and registration programme for Additional Support Needs assistants”.

In her recent response, the cabinet secretary stated that the intention had been for ministers to consider a report in autumn 2023 but that the work had been delayed due to competing priorities in the portfolio. The report is now due to be published in the first quarter of 2024.

The cabinet secretary’s response also reported that officials have engaged with counterparts in England and Wales on their approaches to its work, and that they hosted two online workshops in September 2023.

Do members have any comments or suggestions?

Are members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Our next continued petition is PE2016, which was lodged by Gordon McPherson. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to raise awareness of the risk factors, signs and symptoms of thrombosis.

We last considered the petition at our meeting on 14 June 2023. At that meeting, we heard that recent research by The BMJ shows that, after a Covid-19 infection, there is an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis for up to three months, of pulmonary embolism for up to six months and of a bleeding event for up to two months after infection.

With that in mind, we agreed to seek a view as to whether it is necessary to undertake more work to raise awareness of thrombosis. The Scottish Government’s response stated that it is considering the issues that were highlighted by the research and is looking at what further awareness messaging can be undertaken via social media.

The Government’s response explains that, in the parliamentary question answer that is referred to by the petitioner in previous submissions, the figures include all conditions that are all or mostly due to a blood clot forming in a particular location, including both arteries and veins. This therefore includes some of the most common causes of death, including myocardial infarction and stroke. The data that is used in response to the petition reflects clots forming in the veins and includes instances where those clots travel and cause pulmonary embolisms.

The petitioner’s recent submission notes that his petition covers thrombosis as a whole, rather than specific subdivisions. He states that the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network has worked on the guideline that highlights the link between Covid-19 and blood clots, but that no action has been taken by the Scottish Government to raise awareness.

Do members have any comments or suggestions?

Does the committee agree with Mr Ewing’s recommendations?

Members indicated agreement.

Our next continued petition is PE2018, which was lodged by Helen Plank on behalf of Scottish Swimming, is on recognising the value of swimming pools and providing financial relief to help to keep pools open. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to help to keep our swimming pools and leisure centres open by providing financial investment for pools.

I welcome another colleague, Tim Eagle, to the committee. We are pleased to see him, as a new addition to the Parliament, take an interest in the public petitions process. Welcome, Mr Eagle.

Our final continued petition is PE1906, on investigating options for moving and reducing the impact of central Glasgow section of the M8, which was lodged by Peter Kelly on behalf of @ReplacetheM8. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to commission an independent feasibility study to investigate scenarios for reducing the impact of the M8 between the M74 and Glasgow cathedral including, specifically, its complete removal and the repurposing of the land.

We are joined in our consideration of the petition by MSP colleague Paul Sweeney. A warm welcome to you, Mr Sweeney.

We last considered the petition at our meeting on 31 May 2023. The petitioner has provided a submission that notes actions that his group wishes the committee to follow up on, including their ask for an independent study to be commissioned.

Councillor Angus Millar has written to the committee on behalf of Glasgow City Council, confirming that a strategic and operational approach being taken by the local authority. Councillor Millar highlights a paper that sets out the council’s progress, the actions taken and proposed next steps. An extract from that paper is available in the papers accompanying the petition and breaks down a number of issues the council wishes to explore in the short, medium and long term. It outlines engagement between the council and Transport Scotland, and notes that an annual progress meeting between the council and Transport Scotland officers was agreed to, over and above interim discussions. It is also proposed that an action plan be prepared to cover the council projects that interact with the M8 between junctions 15 and 22. That plan would work to identify the role of Transport Scotland in those interventions, to help facilitate collaboration and progress.

Before I invite members to comment, I ask Paul Sweeney whether he has any comments.

Mr Choudhury, are you willing to go with the rest of the committee’s recommendations?

I have just been told by the clerk that we can close the petition but also write to the Scottish Government to ask about additional funding. If members agree with that, I am more than happy to go with it. Are we agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Our next new petition is PE2067, on improving data on young people who are affected by conditions causing sudden cardiac death. The petition, which was lodged by Sharon Duncan, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to commission research to establish how many people aged 14 to 35 are affected by conditions that cause young sudden cardiac death; clarify the number of people who die annually in Scotland from those conditions; and set up a pilot study to establish whether voluntary screening can reduce deaths.

Members will be aware that the petition has been lodged by the mother of parliamentary staffer David Hill, who tragically passed away while playing in an inter-parliamentary rugby match two years ago almost to the day, on 19 March 2022. I understand that members of the family have joined us in the public gallery, and we extend our condolences and a warm welcome to them.

As the petition notes, there is currently no screening programme for young people for conditions that put them at risk of sudden cardiac death. The SPICe briefing that we have received notes that there are difficulties in reaching agreement on the number of young people who are affected by sudden cardiac death. Those include the way in which deaths are classified and the fact that research focuses on athletes rather than the general population.

In responding to the asks of the petition, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health notes the Government funding that has been provided to the west of Scotland inherited cardiac conditions service and the network for inherited cardiac conditions to deliver a sudden cardiac death project, with a focus on improving clinical pathways for families and enhancing data quality. The minister has also made inquiries to the UK National Screening Committee about plans to review its position on population screening for conditions that are associated with sudden cardiac death in the young.

We have received a submission from the petitioner, Ms Duncan, emphasising the importance of understanding the incidence of those conditions to developing treatment pathways. Ms Duncan also seeks clarity on the coding that is used to inform data on incidence, and highlights that no account is taken of deaths such as David’s, where the death is registered as being from natural causes, despite the post-mortem and follow-ups confirming a previously undiagnosed genetic cardiac condition.

Do members have any comments or suggestions?

PE2068, which was lodged by John Dare, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to commission an independent review of public sector salaries over £100,000 per annum and introduce an appropriate cap.

The SPICe briefing explains that the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy directly affects around 10 per cent of those who work in the public sector and that large parts of public sector pay are determined separately, although they are often in line with the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy.

The Scottish Government’s response to the petition states that pay restraints for the highest paid and targeted uplifts for the lowest paid have been central to its approach to pay for many years. The submission notes that, in recent years, progressive pay awards have capped uplifts above a threshold of £80,000 and that an internal review of the chief executive framework is currently being undertaken. The review is due to conclude in spring 2024.

Do members have any comments or suggestions for action?