Seòmar agus comataidhean

My question is for Audit Scotland. Are our management boards and senior managers making the best use of data to recover from Covid-19, or are there big gaps that stop them doing that?

I would like to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that, while the Scottish Government has undertaken to keep this area of law under review, the existing legislation already allows the courts to override principal limitation time limits when it is persuaded that it is equitable to do so and the Scottish Government has no plans to collect and evaluate information on the use of judicial discretion under section 19A of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973.

We should write to the Scottish Government to seek clarification on whether there are plans to extend the consumer duty to include ScotRail and other companies that are in public ownership. In writing to the Scottish Government, the committee may also wish to ask for a further update on the fares review—specifically, on the timeline for completing the review—and to ask what action is being taken to strengthen the commitment to a price promise guarantee.

I adopted a cat 11 years ago—or I should say that a cat adopted me. I should never have fed it tuna and chicken. I must confess to pinching somebody’s cat a long time ago.

I would also like to write to the Scottish Government, seeking its view on the additional evidence that has been provided by the petitioner and SPICe regarding cat microchips and compulsory scanning, if that is acceptable to the committee.

I wonder whether the committee could write to the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth to follow up on the outstanding issues from the evidence session on 15 June 2022—that includes any recent discussions that the Scottish Government might have held with the UK Government regarding the issues raised in the petition—and to write to the planning advisory service regarding the training that it provides to staff and volunteers supporting communities engaging in the planning process. I would also like us to write to the Scottish Government’s planning and environmental appeals division to ask what training and guidance is provided to reporters specifically in relation to how witnesses are treated during public inquiries.

Good morning, minister and Mr Kellet. Can you expand on the success of community link workers in the most deprived areas? How do we ensure that they have the resources to engage with other key sectors, such as the third sector, which is really important? Moreover, how do we get the information back from the third sector to show that they are having that success?

We should write to the Deputy First Minister to draw his attention to the issues that are raised in the petition and ask that he consider adjusting the current eligibility criteria to allow Fornethy survivors, and other survivors with similar experiences of short-term respite or holiday care, to access the redress scheme.

Good morning, minister. What is the Government’s view on the group’s definitions? Does the minister see any issues with not being definitive? The reason that I asked that is because when I asked Kelly McBride about that point, the group acknowledged that there was no one set of agreed definitions that could be used as best practice. How does the Government see that working?

This is probably a key question for both petitions: does the Scottish Government have legislative competence to increase or abolish the 50MW threshold for renewable energy developments that can be considered by planning authorities and, if so, has that been considered? If it has not, have you spoken with the UK Government about devolving that power?

I would like to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government is not currently considering an outright ban on smoking in favour of vaping.