The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
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Closed petition PE2158: Introduce a maximum temperature for serving hot liquids to children in childcare settings
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure a consistent approach to serving hot food to young children by introducing a nationally-set maximum temperature for the serving of hot liquids to children within childcare settings.
Background information
Current guidelines stipulate the temperature hot liquids should be cooked to, not the temperature at which they should be served at. This results in inconsistency across establishments, with individual childcare settings being responsible for setting their own safe serving temperatures.
This lack of explicit guidance from the Scottish Government resulted in my daughter being badly injured and scarred for life when soup that had not been cooled was spilled on her at nursery. The Care Inspectorate stated "it is hard to prove that the nursery are at fault because no such guidelines exist as to the maximum temperature that soup should be served at." A lack of government legislation and clarity in existing guidance enabled the nursery to deny liability for my daughter's injuries.
A maximum serving temperature needs to be introduced and enforced; my daughter is proof that the current guidelines are not fit for purpose.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
678 signatures