Mr Yousaf says he would like the UK government to make a decision to take more refugee children.

 The Scottish government is willing to play its part, he says, as are Cosla.   

International Development Minister Humza Yousaf says this group of children are especially vulnerable

Mr Yousaf says he has repeatedly called on the UK government to do more.  

The UK government is looking at calls to take in thousands of unaccompanied refugee children who have made it into Europe, a Cabinet minister says. 

Charities have been calling on the UK to admit 3,000 child refugees as part of its response to the migrant crisis. 

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said ministers were considering "whether we can do more" for unaccompanied children. 

Image source, Hannah Maule-Ffinch / Save The Children

Downing Street sources say no decision has been made yet. 

Last year it was estimated that around 26,000 children arrived in Europe without their families. 

Many simply disappear after they arrive and are at risk of falling prey to people-traffickers, drug dealers and other abusers, Save the Children said. 

Calls for the UK to take in 3,000 unaccompanied children would be in addition to the 20,000 refugees the UK has already pledged to take direct from refugee camps over the next five years. 

Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur asks the Scottish government what discussions it has had with the UK government regarding how it could assist in accommodating 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children.  

MSPs warmly applaud both Lauren Galloway and Brandon Low for their moving time for reflection.

First though, Lauren Galloway and Brandon Low, pupils at Auchmuty High School in Glenrothes deliver today's time for reflection.

Image source, bbc

First up this afternoon we have Time for Reflection.

This will be followed by this week's Topical Questions.

MSPs will then debate the Pentland Hills Regional Park Boundary Bill for the first time.

Thee Scottish government will lead a debate on the UK Trade Union Bill before decision time.

In this evening's member's debate, SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell uses his motion to discuss Holocaust Memorial Day 2016.

Topical questions will see the issue of calls for the UK to accommodate 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children and recent research by Pinsent Masons regarding the oil and gas industry raised.

Image source, bbc

The Pentland Hills Regional Park Boundary Bill will be debated for the first time. 

The Scottish government will then lead a debate lambasting the controversial UK government's Trade Union Bill. 

 SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell will then lead a debate marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2016.

PE1412, external by Bill McDowell on bonds of caution

PE1431, external by Nick Riddiford, on behalf of the Fair Isle Community, on a marine protected area for Fair Isle;

PE1477, external by Jamie Rae, on behalf of the Throat Cancer Foundation, on a gender neutral Human Papillomavirus vaccination

PE1493, external by Peter John Gordon on a Sunshine Act for Scotland

Image source, Scottish Parliament

PE1517, external by Elaine Holmes and Olive McIlroy, on behalf of the Scottish Mesh Survivors - "Hear Our Voice" campaign, on polypropylene mesh medical devices

The committee agrees to continue this petition. 

PE1575, external by Alex Scott MBE on accessible rail travel

PE1578, external by Martin Keatings on a Forth Circle rail link

PE1581, external by Duncan Wright, on behalf of Save Scotland's School Libraries, on saving Scotland's school libraries

PE1582, external by Karen Harvey on compulsory pet insurance

MSPs now consider: PE1599 , external by Richard Morris on adult consensual incest (ACI). 

It urges the Scottish government to amend the law against incest so that it is not applicable in the cases where participants are both consenting adults over the age of 21.

In addition, for those who have been convicted in such circumstances to have both the custodial and non-custodial elements of their sentences reviewed with a view to being quashed in light of any change to the law.  

Committee convener Michael McMahon says there is no value in taking this petition forward in the public interest.

Committee convener Michael McMahon says the chief scientific officer should be contacted over this, to see what work needs to be done to see if the petition should be taken forward.

Mr Welsh said he had one of the worst meetings in 20 years of campaigning with the chief scientific officer.

Mr McMahon says the committee will contact the Scottish government as well.

Mr Welsh says the vaccination programme must be made safe by removing the contaminant Mycolplasma Fermentans. 

The petitioner says we probably have the means to do that now and then the rate of autism would descend.

He says the heartache involved in the damage to children is the main drive for him. 

Mr Welsh says he thinks autism is treatable in its early stages, less so for people with autism for some time. 

According to Autism Network Scotland, external, autism is:

"…a lifelong developmental condition. People with autism tend to have a wide range of skill sets including different strengths and difficulties, however autism is characterised by a triad of impairments and people typically find challenges with:

• social interaction 
• social imagination 
• communication 

Image source, Autism Network Scotland

The National Autistic Society suggests that it is believed that around 700,000 people in the UK may be autistic, equating to more than 1 in 100 of the population.

The National Autistic Society have cited sources which suggest the increasing prevalence of autism is likely to be because of broadening diagnostic criteria, diagnostic switching, service availability and awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder among professionals and the public. 

Mr Welsh says the medical profession are determined to put autism in the genetic basket.

He says in America, it has been proved 65% of autism is not caused by genetics but by environmental factors.

The petitioner says public health bodies must address this problem and address his hypothesis.

The word "vaccination" closes all doors, it is sacrosanct.

If we are damaging hundreds of thousands of children this must be looked at he says. 

Committee convener Michael McMahon says any link between MMR and autism has been discredited.

Mr Welsh says Wakefield, who originally claimed there was a link, has been "struck off and exiled".

The petitioner says his own hypothesis was not looked at, at the time of Wakefield. 

Mycoplasma Fermentans is a species of the Mycoplasma bacteria group. It is a small bacterial infection which, due to an absence of cell walls around the bacteria, is resistant to many antibiotics. 

Mr Welsh says he began with his grandson's MMR vaccination batch number and found other litigants had the same batch number and all were autistic.

The petitioner says Mycoplasma Fermentans is difficult to detect.

He says he is requesting the Scottish government fund a research project into the link and then the vaccination project could be made safe at long last. 

In September 2015 the petitioner published a paper, "mycoplasma Fermentans and Deciliation as a Precursor to Regressive Autism", in the Swift Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (SJMMS). 

Image source, SPICe

The paper proposes that Mycoplasma Fermentans, a very small bacterium, could possibly be a potential causal factor for autism, and that vaccination (primarily the MMR vaccine) is one likely conduit for how the bacteria comes to be in children.   

Mr Welsh has written a paper "Mycoplasma Fermentans and Deciliation as a Precursor to Regressive Autism" which he says was peer reviewed and published in September 2015. 

His paper concludes Mycoplasma Fermentans, a very small bacterium, could possibly be a potential causal factor for autism and that vaccination is one likely conduit for how the bacteria comes to be in children.

He says the rate of autism diagnosis in Scotland and the UK (plus the USA and many other countries) has risen dramatically in the last twenty years. 

Mr Welsh says it is imperative that the issue of rising autism numbers is urgently and properly investigated.

He says search of the scientific literature has not revealed any serious study in the areas of auditory tract/brainstem bacterial infection. 

Cell Culture technology was introduced into the vaccine manufacturing process in the USA in 1930. 

Mycoplasma Fermentans is a contaminant of Cell Culture technology. 

It is invisible to the naked eye and until relatively recently like all mycoplasmas was considered benign. It is not, it is a pathogen. 

The cost of autism in the UK has been estimated at £34 billion per annum. 

Mr Welsh says much of this expenditure could be saved by identifying the underlying cause of regressive Autism.