A QUICK rummage through its in-tray suggests Holyrood's public petitions committee is as busy as ever.

Current petitions include a plea for the law to be changed to ensure a teacher is on playground duty for the 20 minutes before lessons start in the morning.

The petitioners' well-argued case says safety could and should be improved for youngsters arriving a few minutes early by school bus.

MSPs on the committee are also considering a call to place a legal duty on landowners to destroy "invasive" plants such as the infamous giant knot weed.

There is the usual smattering of rather more requests before MSPs.

One petition calls for Scotland to be twinned with Jamaica.

It explains that 60 per cent of Jamaicans have Scots-derived surnames. This and other historic links merit a formal arrangement to boost trade, it says.

In another petition, the British Acupuncture Council calls for acupuncturists to be exempt from the skin piercing licence fees that tattooists are required to pay.

And there is the almost obligatory animal-related petition. The latest calls for all pets killed on the roads to be scanned for microchips, in order to identify them and alert the owner.

The breadth of the petitions committee's work makes it fascinating to follow.

Typically, Holyrood's committees are occupied with the detailed scrutiny of government policy or new legislation. It can get a bit tedious.

Petitions, by contrast, offers the chance to tackle all manner of issues raised by the public. MSPs enjoy serving on it and the post of convener, guaranteeing a high profile and unofficial title as people's champion, is rightly seen as a plum job.

All has not been well, however.

Earlier this year, The Herald revealed figures showing the committee was dealing with fewer petitions than it has in the past and many applications were being weeded out as invalid by officials before being seen by MSPs.

Michael McMahon, the Labour MSP who returned for a second stint in the convener's chair a couple of months ago, is determined to find out why and, if necessary, put measures in place to ensure the committee is as accessible as possible.

A review published this week made a number of recommendations, including a proposal to record and publish details of applications that are ruled inadmissible and never considered as full petitions.

The move would provide the same level of transparency as exists in the Westminster and Welsh Assembly petitions systems and, hopefully, would create pressure to help petitioners turn their pleas into valid petitions that meet the committee's strict criteria.

More generally, it suggests holding more meetings outside parliament and at times when members of the public would be able to attend.

The review also highlights the need for further work to discover why young people, for example, remain less likely to petition the parliament.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre's impressively detailed analysis of the committee's

working practices reveals, among other things, that 37 per cent of petitioners are retired and 71 per cent aged between 45. Only three per cent are aged between 18 and 24.

Most (62 per cent) are men and a very high proportion (58 per cent) educated to degree level.

Mr McMahon is hopeful that taking the committee out on the road will generate renewed interest in its work and generate petitions from a more representative range of people.

The good news from the committee's point of view is that most of those who have been through the system rated it highly, regardless of whether their petition succeeded in its aims.

The review quotes plenty of positive feedback from past petitioners and concludes it

"provides some

assurance that the system appears to be working well".

It's easy to have a pop at the petitions committee.

On a quiet day at Holyrood it can be tempting to suggest MSPs should not be wasting their time discussing the need for legislation to protect pet rabbits' rights, the subject of an unfairly ridiculed petition lodged in April.

But such criticism misses the point. The committee exists to consider concerns raised by the public. Its work shows the parliament is in touch, not out of touch, with the real world.

So if procedures can be tweaked to attract more petition proposal and ensure as many as possible are given a public airing, the committee will deserve a gentle pat on the back.