Current Petitions

PE487, which was submitted by Mr John Dick, called on the Parliament to take a range of steps to encourage young people in Scotland to become more engaged in the political process and in adult society. We agreed to seek the formal views of the Electoral Commission on the issues that the petitioner raised. The commission has written back to confirm that it took on responsibility for voter awareness on 1 July 2001. It has provided details of the campaign that it conducted in advance of the English local government elections this year and of the programme that it will conduct in advance of the Scottish and Welsh elections next year. When the committee first considered the issues that the petition raised, members noted that much was being done by the Parliament's education service to encourage awareness and understanding of the work of the Parliament among young people. An educational visits scheme is operated by Historic Scotland. Such a structured educational approach would appear to be the most appropriate way of encouraging the interest of young people in Scotland in the work of the Parliament and in Scotland's built heritage. It is unclear how practical it would be to offer each 17-year-old the programme of visits that the petitioner suggested and it is unclear how the suggestion that each young person should be offered a voucher for a free kilt or other tartan garment would be funded or implemented. Taking those points into account, along with the positive response from the Electoral Commission, it is suggested that we agree to take no further action on the petition, other than to copy the commission's response to the petitioner for information.

I go around many schools and I am impressed by the knowledge of the political process that young people have; many young people are way ahead of adults in that respect. We should acknowledge that children and young people have an interest in the political process. Some of the questions that they ask are much more difficult to answer than some that are asked by adults.

Okay. Do members agree to the proposed course of action?Members indicated agreement.

We had hoped that Mr Derek Scott would be here for consideration of PE500, but he is not here yet. We could take a five-minute break or we could leave PE500 and move on to the rest of the agenda.Let us move on. The final paper, on current petitions, is a description of the petitions that are still under active consideration. The clerk points out that if members want to pick up any of these petitions at any time during the recess or raise points about them, they are welcome to do so and to put them on the agenda of a future meeting. A range of petitions are still active and awaiting responses of one kind or another from other committees, the Executive or other bodies. The paper is simply for members' information.

To be fair, the Justice 1 Committee was waiting for the publication of research evidence by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, which took a long time to come through. The committee has now raised the recommendations in the research reports with the Lord Advocate and the Minister for Justice and awaits a response from the Executive.

One of the flaws in the current system is the fact that once we refer a petition to another committee, it becomes that committee's property and we have no further role in its progress, other than in checking that the committee responds. It would be for the Justice 1 Committee to keep Mr and Mrs Dekker informed. We could not do it.

That is one of a range of things that the petition calls for.

The main thrust of the petition is that, although the Parliament has ruled that a sentence of up to 10 years can be passed for dangerous driving, the courts never do that—they leave it to the discretion of the procurators fiscal and the Crown, who almost never seek to use that power.

Okay. If members have any further points on any of the current petitions, they should get in touch with the clerks during the recess.