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ODDS & ENDS NEWSPETITIONS UPDATE 09 January 2012 Session 4 PUBLIC PETITIONS COMMITTEE Tuesday 13 December 2011 15:11 On resuming— Current Petitions School Bus Safety (PE1098 and PE1223) The Convener: There are 12 current petitions for consideration today. The first two will be considered together. They are PE1098, in the name of Lynn Merrifield, and PE1223, in the name of Ron Beaty, on school bus safety. Members have a note by the clerk and submissions. I refer members to an additional letter from Keith Brown, which gives an update on his original letter on the issue. It is a fairly positive letter—I will say no more than that. I invite comments from members. Nanette Milne:
I am delighted to see Mr Beaty here again. He has been at almost every meeting at which his petition has been discussed and he has taken a keen interest in it. The situation is a little difficult, because the petitions have been on the go for a long time. Although we have not quite reached stalemate, it sometimes feels like it. However, the letter from Keith Brown gives us a good handle that will allow us to keep the petitions going.
He has a meeting on 15 December with the Minister for Local Government and Planning and the Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages. It would be a good idea to wait for the outcome of that meeting and to ask for feedback on it.
Mark McDonald: I agree that we should continue the petition. My colleague Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP has written to the Secretary of State for Transport and received a response that sets out that the current legislation requires all coaches and minibuses that carry groups of children aged three to 15 on organised trips to be equipped with seat belts.
That applies only to organised trips, so I am not sure whether it covers day-to-day school transport. However, Keith Brown’s response is encouraging.
Although one of the petitions deals exclusively with seat belts, a fundamental aspect of Mr Beaty’s petition is the issues of signage, lights and overtaking stationary school buses. That is a key concern, particularly in the north-east, where such overtaking has led to a number of tragedies.
We need to make representations on the issues of signage, lights and overtaking to ensure that they do not fall off the agenda and that we do not become focused purely on seat belts. I realise that measures on signage and lights will be difficult because buses in Scotland tend not to be used purely for school transport, whereas school buses in other nations are used for school transport alone. The committee ought to keep an eye on.
that aspect of the petition to ensure that we do not focus simply on seat belts. Although seat belts are important, the issues of signage, lights and overtaking are equally important.
15:15
However, Keith Brown’s December letter seems to contain open signs of encouragement that he is going to sit down with his ministerial colleagues to discuss the wider impact on other departments of any legislation that comes to Scotland.
As Mark McDonald said, that is particularly important for buses picking up children in rural areas, but it is also important in urban areas where such services still exist. Many local authorities have cut back on them. It is encouraging that the minister has now taken the matter forward and, given the willingness of the UK transport minister, we should see some developments in the near future. I hope that they will not take as long as it has taken to get to this stage.
I believe in sinners who repent, and I think that the most recent letter was a big improvement. I should like to put that on record, as it is Christmas. We are now considering the next stages for the petition, on which we have heard strong recommendations from Nanette Milne and Mark McDonald.
I am sure that, as a former member of the committee, Mr Don will be more than happy to keep us posted on how he gets on.
15 /12/2011
A meeting today re school bus safety has been held with Keith Brown, Minister of Transport & other Ministers & teams etc.
To discuss the proposals set out by officials, legal & constitutional teams which require discussion before school bus safety is devolved, This is apparently because of the cross cutting nature of English & Scottish legal systems. We will wait & see, I will update when I know, in a few weeks time I expect
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13 December 2011
There will be an update on the last meeting held on 13 th Dec, i will provide the link when the committee updated its. Still continued meantime with our thanks to the petitions committee.
Link to the last petitions committee meeting, scroll down to page 171 [ page number]
As you can see its still ongoing
Petition discussed again the the petiitons committee in the Scottish Paliament on Tuesday 28 June 2011 . The meeting will be held in Committee Room 2, Edinburgh, and is scheduled to start at 10.00am.
You can watch it live here www.holyrood.tv/committee.asp.
It will last about 30 mins or less, I am not speaking but the Minister of Transport Keith Brown Msp is to update the petitions committee on the progress of devolving power to Scotland on school bus transport, Wales already has this power & its working for them.
Lets hope their is some progress
8 March 2011 : The Committee took evidence from Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Transport and Infrastructure; Jill Mulholland and Ian Robertson, Road Safety Team, Scottish Government. The Committee agreed to invite, in its legacy paper, the Session 4 Public Petitions Committee to give further consideration to these petitions. Link to Official Report 8 March 2011 http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/or-11/pu11-0601.htm then click on School Bus Safety (PE1098 and PE1223) This applies to each link shown on this page
Petition progress, the latest updates are at the bottom of the page. With out our petition & constant approaches to all involved in safety, nothing would of happened. All local authorities have had years to sort this out, in fact after every accident, but never did so. Nor in fact did the UK government. However the Scottish Goverment are taking some of our measures forward & that has only to be very good news I will post the link when its available from the PPC Ok we did not get the no passing law meantime, but we still have a result as regards school bus safety, it will change, it will improve. By allowing this on the back burner meantime it has allowed us to progress in other areas of safety, but we will come back to it again. We wish to thank personally every member of the PPC; they have stood behind us as a group all the way, especially those who represent this area, both Nigel Don & Nanette Milne. But even those who have constituencies in central Scotland, they have never wavered in their support for this cause. They have encouraged us & have led the way on school bus safety, they have been determined this runs its course. This has now been rewarded from the point the petition continues into the next parliament & changes will now happen as regards improved signage & lighting. Without them our petition would never have got this far, also the clerks who helped enormously. The PPC will now change after the election, we wish each member well, they have our grateful thanks that lives & injuries will be saved as safety improves. We also thank Transport Scotland, the Police & Aberdeenshire council for working along side us on many issues, we don’t always totally agree, but unless you can speak to people & with people, problems will never be solved. The work load these last 3 years has been incredible,even when it all started in 2004, but the trips to the Parliament. the letters, phone calls, emails, the hours at the computor & the stress involved have been worth every moment. I thank God for giving me the strength to do so. We now await clarification from the Dept of Transport & Keith Brown MP & Minister of Transport, as to how Scottish Law can be implemented, yes there are legal problems but they can be overcome we are sure. We have not forgotten Stewart Stevenson & his office either, his help has been invaluable at times. Nor have we forgotten Mike Penning Under Secretary of Transport for taking the time to attend a meeting & for granting time for a personal one, he is a man I am sure we can all do business & a man with an open mind. Yes credit where it due! We again attend on 8th March to find out how far Keith Brown Msp & Minister of Transport has taken the request for devolved powers on school bus transport. You can see how long this petition has been ongoing & we thank the PP committee & clerks for all their help in this, its been a long & hard journey thats not yet finished !! 13 January 2009 : The Committee affirmed the principles raised in this petition and agreed to seek responses to the issues raised in it from the Scottish Government, the Department for Transport, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and a selection of local authorities. Link to Official Report 13 January 2009 30 March 2009 : The Committee took oral evidence from Stewart Stevenson MSP, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure & Climate Change.<Link to Official Report 30 March 2009 16 June 2009 : The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government seeking a further response to specific points. <Link to Official Report 16 June 2009 3 November 2009 : The Committee agreed to take consideration of both petitions forward through a round table discussion at a future meeting. <Link to Official Report 3 November 2009 15 December 2009 : The Committee took evidence from Malcolm Bruce MP, Garth Goddard, Ewan Wallace, Josh Kane MSYP and Ron Beaty and agreed to write to the Scottish Government and the Department for Transport seeking responses to issues raised during the discussion. <Link to Official Report 15 December 2009 15 March 2010 : The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government seeking a response to specific points. <Link to Official Report 15 March 2010 15 June 2010 : The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government, Society of Chief Officers of Transportation Road Safety and Working Group, the Department for Transport, Strathclyde Police Force and Cumbria Police Force seeking a response to specific points. It also agreed to invite the Clerk to prepare and submit a paper on the future consideration of both petitions.
26 October 2010 : The Committee took evidence from Mike Penning MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Stewart Stevenson MSP, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Scottish Government; Chief Superintendent Charlie Common, Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and Chief Constable Mick Giannasi, Association of Chief Police Officers, and agreed to write to the Scottish Government, Department for Transport, Association of Chief Police Officers and the Welsh Assembly Government seeking responses to specific points. Link to Official Report 25 January 2011" 25 January 2011 : The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire Council seeking a response to specific points. 22 February 2011 : The Committee agreed to invite the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to give oral evidence at its meeting on 8 March 2011. The Committee agreed to invite, in its legacy paper, the Session 4 Public Petitions Committee to give further consideration to these petitions Link to Official Report 22 February 2011"
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