Current Petitions

I suggest that we close the petition. We asked the Government to reiterate that the powers that are available to local authorities and the police, including under the Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865, to manage unauthorised camping by Gypsy Travellers should be used only as a last resort. It has done that. The Government has also reiterated that it will not refer to the 1865 act in the site management guidance that is under review and that it“would welcome the involvement of the Young Gypsy/Travellers’ Lives Project members.”It also says that the Gypsy Traveller community is part of its review of all site management guidance.The Government has made the case for its decision not to remove references to the Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865 from its unauthorised camping guidelines or future guidance, but it has said again that the 1865 act should be used only as a last resort. It states that, in its view,“The provision made by the 1865 Act does not ... breach the rights that Article 30 of the UNCRC gives to children.”For those reasons, I think that we have gone as far as we can. We have got some satisfaction from the process, so it is time to close the petition.

I concur. Many other things are happening in the area; we have before us petitions on other particular issues, and there are some wider issues. We have completed consideration of the petition, which addresses a specific point. If there were no related petitions before us, we might want to look at wider issues, but we have the opportunity to do so when considering other petitions. I suggest that we close PE1321.

I suggest that we clarify with the Government its interaction with the travelling community at present, although perhaps we cannot do that if we close the petition. I know that the interaction is significant, because I am involved in part of it.However, we could just close the petition and not worry about that. There is significant involvement, and that will appear in other petitions, which I am sure that we will get very soon.