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As you identified, the evidence that we had from Stephanie Bonner was quite compelling. I think that there are areas that we can ask Police Scotland about in order to take forward the petition. It might be useful to find out how many complaints it has received about the way in which it has investigated unexplained deaths in the past five years, how many of those were upheld and what the main failings were that were identified in the complaints that were upheld.

It is important that we possibly also look at the review of the investigation of deaths, the national guidance that we have and the steps that are planned to ensure that updated guidance is fully implemented. As you identified, convener, many issues came out of the evidence session that we are not able to look into specifically, but I think that these areas would give us clarity about what Police Scotland are doing and how the police are moving forward to manage the process that was identified during the session.

Convener, you have already explained our position on this, and I think that the petitioner, too, must understand that, in reality, very little can be achieved under the circumstances. I therefore think that we have no other course but to close the petition. For a start, the Scottish Parliament cannot pass legislation to remove the legal requirement to seek consent. Moreover, as the correspondence from the Scottish Government points out, there is an issue of confidentiality with regard to the royal household, and

“to maintain the ability to have free and frank discussions”

that confidentiality needs to be “recognised and respected”.

According to the Scottish Government, too,

“the detail of ... cases where laws have been adapted at the request of the Monarchy”

cannot be provided, because the

“Scottish Government does not record”

that sort of thing.

We acknowledge the petition, but unfortunately, for the reasons that I have set out, I do not think that we can do anything but close it.

Thank you.

Good morning, Jasmin and Laura. It is good to see you again. Thank you for taking part in last night’s discussion. As has been indicated, it was a very robust session, at which we got a strong flavour of the issues.

You have spoken about having to navigate barriers. It is clear from last night’s discussion with people with lived experience that that was one of the big issues that they had. You have identified that there does not seem to be a joined-up approach across some of the agencies that are involved. What needs to change? If things are to improve, change is needed. Last night, we got a flavour of how people had found it difficult to navigate the system. Jasmin has identified that some people found that so stressful and so problematic that they ended up going down a different route. For some people, that was a final route. We do not want anyone to experience that. It would be useful to hear what changes you think that we need to see in relation to navigating the barriers.

However, we should not be relying on the third sector to fulfil those needs. That is where the gap that you have identified exists..

In your opening statement, you talked about capacity. I think that we all acknowledge the capacity issue that you have had to endure. However, managing that capacity involves dealing with the staffing and resources that you have. You have identified that, to do the job, you will try to manage within those resources. Do you have an objective of looking at whether more are required? You are aware of where you have been, but achieving where you want to be might not be possible without more staff and resource. Your casework and the backlog have been identified, and you are managing that, but you are probably being asked to do more with less, and you might need a little more to achieve what you want to achieve. Is that where you think you will go?

You have identified the pinch points, which is good, because that will give you a flavour as to where you might be.

The other issue that I want to touch on is awareness—that is, your ability to make sure that people are aware of what services you offer and how you will deal with matters. The situation with regard to information is more acute than ever, so it would be interesting to get a flavour of what your approach to awareness is and whether you have plans for communication. You have mentioned your website, but are there other aspects that you can encapsulate that will support you to increase awareness of what you do, which will make it much easier for the public to understand FOI and also make it easier for you, as a management organisation, to cope with the work?

You have just identified that, if you had a wish list, you would do certain things. At the same time, you do not want to be curtailed in what you are trying to achieve as an organisation, which is ensuring that information is transmitted.

I still think that there might well be a requirement for you to seek support to achieve some of the goals that you have set yourself. Otherwise, you might be setting yourself up to fail. I appreciate that you want to make progress, but, at the same time, we do not want you to come back in a year and say, “Okay, we tried, but it didn’t quite work, and we’ve now found ourselves in a slightly bigger situation.” It would be good to get a flavour of how you will try to manage that, because that could—potentially but not necessarily—happen, depending on where you find yourselves.

Once again, I think that the petition has probably gone as far as we can take it in the process. It would be appropriate to close it under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Recovery Network is continuing to develop a peer support training resource, Peer2Peer, about which we have had information from the Scottish Government and others, and it can be adapted to support the needs of different organisations. Given that, I propose that we close the petition.

I agree with that. In the past, Audit Scotland published its “Maintaining Scotland’s roads” report. It would be useful to follow up on any recommendations in the report and to get an indication as to what action is planned in future to try to tackle the issue.