Seòmar agus comataidhean

The evidence that the committee has received and what Meghan Gallacher has said has highlighted the issues that have been raised in the petition and brought them to the forefront. However, the committee has no option but to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that women under the age of 25 are not invited for routine cervical screening as evidence shows that screening would do more harm than good, in line with the guidance from the UK National Screening Committee and the rest of the United Kingdom.

I was going to suggest closing the petition, convener but, in light of what Fergus Ewing has said, I wonder whether we can pass it on to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, given that it is working on the topic anyway.

I agree with the latter suggestion, convener.

I wonder whether the committee might consider writing to the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum, seeking its views on the action called for in the petition, and seeking further details about the work that it is carrying out as part of its 100 days of listening.

We could write to BT Openreach to ask whether, in light of information that work is sequenced from the primary exchange location out to communities, it considers areas with low speeds in the surrounding communities when determining which primary exchange locations to prioritise. Our papers contain a list of other questions, so we could just add them, convener.

I agree, convener. In the light of the evidence that we have been given, I would like to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government’s consultation on early learning and childcare found that responses favoured alternative approaches and highlighted potential drawbacks to using an online account. In addition, the Scottish Childminding Association raised concerns about problems arising from an online account system and suggested that it would not resolve existing issues with funding for early learning and childcare.

I wonder whether we might consider writing to the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise to ask the Scottish Government what data it has on the number of care-experienced people who have been removed from compulsory supervision orders before their 16th birthday and asking it to provide further information on the steps that it is taking to address the issue of children and young people being removed from CSOs before their 16th birthdays without the long-term consequences on their support being explained. We could ask whether the Scottish Government has considered providing some form of redress to care-experienced people who were removed from CSOs prior to their 16th birthday but who would have remained on a CSO had they been made aware of the long-term consequences of the decision.

We could also seek clarity on the timeline for updating guidance in relation to the provision of continuing and aftercare services, and on what further progress the Scottish Government intends to make on the issues raised by the petition that do not require legislative change between now and the introduction of the Promise bill. Lastly, we could recommend that the Scottish Government explore options for accelerating work on its Promise bill and for making effective use of existing evidence to ensure that care-experienced people of all ages do not have to relive traumatic experiences through multiple consultation processes.

Considering the Scottish Government’s view and the evidence that is before the committee, we have no other option except to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government does not consider that malicious false allegations should in themselves be considered as a hate crime. Behaviour amounting to false allegations can be dealt with under existing common law, with hate crime legislation enabling a statutory aggravation to be added when a false allegation is motivated by characteristics that are listed in the hate crime legislation. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 covers the protected characteristics of age, disability, race, colour, nationality or ethnic and national origins, religion or perceived religious affiliation, sexual orientation and transgender identity. It also includes the power to add variations in sex characteristics to that list.

Good morning. You have answered most of my questions on the reasons why young people get involved in violence. Do the same reasons apply when it comes to young people getting involved in minor criminal offences or antisocial behaviour? Are the causes the same?

Professor Britton, in your work as a respiratory consultant are you seeing an increasing number of younger patients as a result of vaping, and how are they presenting?