Poverty is a fundamental part of society, even affecting Scotland. In particular, poverty affecting children was announced to be rapidly growing. Recent statistics show an increase from 1/5 to 1/4 children in poverty, meaning an approximate 260,000 children are officially classed as in poverty. Despite the lack of publicity on the issue, this epidemic affecting dozens of families nationwide, and we need your support to convince local MSPs to consider the small cause. Spare change of £5 per child to create a big change, taking hundreds of families out of the grip of poverty.

Broken slabs are dangerous for people to walk on and the council has had to fix them numerous times at a cost to the taxpayer.

Figures in 2011 showed that here in the UK £1.8bn is lost in economic output, since then grants have been cut, refuges have been closed and Domestic Violence has increased. People suffer in silence because they are so ashamed of their situations, those lucky enough to have a job are often too scared to disclose because they fear losing something that is possibly the only constant thing in their lives.

If you cannot pass the tests in your third attempt, like me, then this holds you back from becoming an outstanding teacher. 2 years is a lot of time and it holds students back from wanting to teach because if you cannot pass after 2 years then you have to wait for another 2 years. I would like unlimited chances to pass Literacy and numeracy skills test to be put back to action because the government is loosing so many highly skilled student teachers as they are unable to pass their qts tests. I am sure most PGCE students would agree with this.

With the benefits cap having a detrimental impact on families especially those bringing children up alone, action needs to be taken on those parents who ignore the importance of their role of holding parental responsibility and pay the minimum child maintenance, which impacts on the main care giver meeting the needs of each individual child in their care. Action needs to be taken, and consideration should be made into the costs single parents face such as health, education and daily activities to promote social skills. These costs should be met equally by both parents who hold Parental responsibilities. The new child maintenance system is failing so many families and leaving them facing severe financial hardship. Child maintenance doesn't take into account the £350 each year spent on buying new school uniform or school resources. Nor do they take into account the rise in child care costs or the weekly recreational activities that children undertake. The main caregiver is the one struggling to make ends meet ''robbing Peter to pay Paul'' to pay bills as tax credits and child benefit don't take into consideration the additional costs that these parents make to meet their Child's everyday needs. Both parents should equally pay for these everyday needs

Everyone deserves quality of life and support. No one deserves to be alone.

Recent background: 1. In August ’16 Government gave a policy statement in relation to the Sugary Drinks Industry Levy that Key component of Childhood Obesity Strategy is to promote diet drinks. It was no.1 in a list of ‘12 Things You Should Know’, published on the government’s news website. The ‘reformulation’ of products, which currently amounts to replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners, was to be extended to other products deemed too high in sugar, regular yoghurts are among the cited foods. Questions challenging the policy were blocked at the Health Matters Live event in November ’16. Citations of studies and reviews that concluded not enough was known about the safety of sweeteners, were removed from a Wikipedia site on Sugar Taxes. The effect of the strategy has been an escalation in the use of sweeteners by manufacturers, and it is not immediately clear, when choosing items from the shelves in supermarkets, that sweeteners are being used where once they were not. Products may not be described as ‘diet’ or ‘with sweeteners’, other than in smaller print on the ingredients label. (Neotame and advantame may legitimately be used without any mention on the ingredients label.) 2. In January ’17 a Government Health Report announced that for success there needed to be zero price promotions on ‘unhealthy’ products. To use the same example, regular yoghurts are classed as ‘unhealthy’, artificially sweetened ones as the ‘healthy’ option. The effect of this move is to limit the affordable choices for poorer families wanting to give their children a healthy balanced diet with less emphasis on sweet things, but with no artificial sweeteners. All have the right to make informed healthy choices. The right to an informed choice is being eroded. More can be found from this link https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-petition-stop-promoting-sweeteners-children-now-pamela

I am a dog owner and am appalled at the fact that this place keeps operating legally, all they care about is cold hard cash not the welfare of these animals at all , too many dogs have died in their care already how much longer are they going to get away with it

The people that are buying or selling the animals are not vetted in any way and these sites like sphock have no way of making sure the animals are going to a safe loving homes. Who knows where these animals are ending up they are sold very cheaply or just given away for nothing. With the worries of dog fighting and baiting and even over breeding these loving animals which could go to anyone from the average Joe to these sickening puppy farms with no background checks at all. This is supposed to be a boot market site not an animal adoption site, this is why we have rescue centres or actual sites that are designed for your pet to find a good safe loving home, not some site where you can buy a used tyre from.

Money Held and not used for the purpose it was Donated is Theft

thousands of people are homeless everyday if the government took control of the landlords and set a basic rent for 1,2 and 3 bedroom properties no matter of the postcode or location just based on the number of rooms in the property something has to be done there are to many people homeless and struggling to pay their rents!!!!!!

Each night, hundreds of migrants board smuggler owned rubber dinghies to take the perilous journey from Libya to Europe. These migrants either: a) Drown in the Mediterranean sea, as the dinghies are not built to support the long, dangerous journey, packed to the brim with migrants. b) Arrive in Italy where they not currently permitted to be. c) Are caught by Libyan coast guards who transport them back to Libya to be put in 'detention' centres. These detention centres are awful places, in which many human rights are broken. Migrants eat, sleep and live on crowded floors where they do not have enough space to move around. UK prisons have far better living conditions than those in Libyan 'Detention Centres', yet these migrants are innocent people. One lady interviewed by Ross Kemp, in his Extreme World series said that she received no hospital care when giving birth and was instead left to give birth in the toilet. The migrants in these centres are often fleeing war torn countries and are now living in conditions worse than they have left. They have no contact with the outside world, so they are left to live out their days in these awful places. Article 5 of the Human Rights Act, Right to liberty and security, is clearly being broken. From the following quote: "Given its role in the conflict and subsequent destabilisation in Libya, the UK has a particular responsibility in relation to migrants and refugees, an issue which has been exacerbated by the collapse of the Libyan state. " (Paragraph 105 of https://publications.parliament.uk/…/cms…/cmfaff/119/119.pdf) It is clear that the UK government agrees with its own responsibility to help these migrants. But what an earth is being done about it? Ideally, I think one the solutions should be: For all countries that are unwilling to accept these migrants to contribute to the creation of 'peace centres'. 'Peace centres' would strive to provide a bed for each migrant within Libya whilst being sustainable in ensuring that migrants can get back to their home countries. Sustainability would be achieved by having an on site lawyers office who will fight to get these people back to their home countries and by allowing residents to work within the centre, by doing chores to support the upkeep of the centre, all of which would be paid work. There will also be education to prevent these people from getting on boats again as it is a risk to their money, safety and well being. By signing this petition, we can encourage the UK government and other EU countries to do more to improve conditions within Libyan migrant detention centres.