The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. While it will continue to meet, the Committee has agreed it will not consider petitions submitted after 10 October. This is to ensure all petitions currently in the system can be considered before the next Scottish Parliament election. It is also unlikely that the Committee would be able to schedule and meaningfully progress petitions submitted after 10 October before the election. Contact the Committee team at petitions.committee@parliament.scot for more information about the petitions process.
If you are seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change please contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly
Closed petition PE1915: Reinstate Caithness County Council and Caithness NHS Board
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to reinstate Caithness County Council and Caithness NHS Board.
Previous action taken
I have raised these points in communications with Members of the Scottish Parliament and our Member of Parliament. I have also raised these issues at meetings of our local Community Council and have their backing on raising this petition. I have also raised these issues in letters to our local newspaper and have received positive feedback from members of the public.
Background information
Prior to the inception of the Highland Council and NHS highland, local people from Caithness were responsible for the delivery of both council and NHS. During that period both of these services were a massive improvement compared to what we have under the present regimes.
Under NHS Highland we have lost our consultant-led maternity services, are seeing more people than ever travelling the 115 miles to Inverness for appointments and treatment and had to protest at NHS Highland decision to close down two palliative care hospitals.
At present we in Caithness seem to have to fight the Highland Council and NHS Highland for money to be spent just for the upkeep of what little we have let alone any improvements.
We who live in rural areas see money being spent on vanity projects throughout Scotland when we are told there is no money for basic infrastructure maintenance here.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
720 signatures