Petitions

Petition PE406, from Margaret Doig, calls for the Scottish Parliament to redress the omissions concerning the law and code of practice governing post-mortem removal and retention of organs and disposal of body parts when the deceased has no relatives, as and when recommendations for changes in the law and codes of practice in relation to those matters are implemented. The Public Petitions Committee has agreed to refer the petition to us for further consideration, with the recommendation that we establish whether the Executive review group, under Sheila McLean, which has reported in the past few days, covered the issue of acquiring authority for post-mortem and treatment of organs of those with no relatives. The review group's final report was published on 23 November. Committee members have just had the sizeable report put in front of them. I believe that there are also supporting letters from the Executive and some of the families of those whose organs were retained. I suggest at this stage, given the amount of extra work that we have to consider on the wider issue of organ retention, that we take the petition forward to a further meeting. That will give members a chance to read through the material. Is that agreed?Members indicated agreement.