Current Petitions

The next petition is PE983, from Raymond Bell, which calls on the Scottish Parliament to ban the use of microchip implants on young people in Scotland. At the committee's meeting on 4 October 2006, we agreed to seek views on the petition from Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish Executive, and to seek the petitioner's views on the responses. The petitioner has asked specifically that the Minister for Health and Community Care and Health Protection Scotland be given the opportunity to respond to the questions that he raises in his response. To facilitate that, the committee may wish to agree to forward, for information only, the relevant response to the minister and Health Protection Scotland, asking that they respond directly to the petitioner. The committee may also wish to agree to note the minister's commitment that the Scottish Executive will examine closely any measures that are necessary to protect the health of members of the public who might have such microchip implant devices inserted, and to close consideration of the petition.

If we kept the petition open and asked that question, we would not add much value or get much more information. However, if we ask the minister to respond to the petitioner and the petitioner finds that there are still outstanding issues, he could submit another petition specifically on those matters. I am advised that the petitioner, who is in Finland, is watching the meeting live. He may take up the offer to correspond with the minister on the issue. Instead of the committee continually trying to weed out small pieces of information from the wider picture, we could suggest that the petitioner would be better off submitting a new petition on any specific issue that remains outstanding. As a result, I invite the petitioner to take the matter forward in correspondence with the minister. Are members agreed?Members indicated agreement.