The petition to ask the Scottish government to ban the teaching of creationism in the public schools was revived when, at its January 27, 2015, meeting, the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish parliament decided to forward the petition to the Education and Culture Committee for further action.
The Scottish Secular Society, which lodged the petition in 2014, applauded the action in a January 27, 2015, press release, describing the members of the Education and Culture Committee as "the people best placed to consider the matter and understand the importance of good science education to Scotland."
Previously, as NCSE reported, when the Public Petitions Committee agreed to write to the Scottish government about the petition, the government rejected the proposal in December 2014, telling the Glasgow Herald (December 16, 2014), "The evidence available suggests that guidance on these matters is unnecessary."
Among the organizations supporting the petition was NCSE, which submitted written testimony (PDF) in November 2014, and the Society of Biology, the United Kingdom's largest organization of life scientists, although its testimony (PDF) was not available at the Public Petitions Committee's November 2014 meeting due to administrative error.
As a result of the petition as well as a controversy over creationist encroachments in the public schools in South Lanarkshire, Scotland — which itself helped to prompt the petition — there are now dueling motions about creationism in the Scottish parliament.