National Library of Scotland Bill
The National Library of Scotland Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 26 October 2011. The Education and Culture Committee has been designated lead committee in consideration of the Bill at Stage 1 with a deadline of 16 March 2012 for completion of that Stage.
The main purposes of the bill are to:
- Bring NLS’s governance arrangements, enacted in 1925, into line with those of many other public bodies.
- Provide the basis to enable NLS to continue to evolve and realise its ambitions as a modern organisation.
- Provide clarity as to the functions of NLS; update arrangements for the relationship with the Faculty of Advocates and its Library; set out the powers available to the NLS and in particular how it manages its collections through acquisitions, deposits, disposals and loans.
- Recognise the importance of NLS and the national collections it holds on behalf of the people of Scotland.
For further information on the Bill and its accompanying documents, please see the National Library of Scotland Bill.
Evidence
Written evidence
The Committee launched a call for written evidence on 15 November 2011:
The following written submissions were received:
Oral evidence
The Committee took oral evidence at the following meetings:
- 7 February 2012
- 21 February 2012
Read the Official Reports of the Committee's evidence sessions
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee considered its approach to the Financial Memorandum of the National Library of Scotland Bill at its meeting on 11 January and agreed to adopt level 1 scrutiny. This level of scrutiny is applied where there appears to be minimal additional costs as a result of the legislation. This means that the Finance Committee did not take oral evidence, nor will it produce a report. The Finance Committee’s approach was to seek written comments from relevant organisations through its agreed questionnaire and then pass these comments to the Education and Culture Committee.
The following letter was sent to organisations that the Finance Committee agreed to approach:
The following written submissions were received by the Finance Committee:
Report
The Committee published its report on 8 March 2012.
Read the Education and Culture Committee's Stage 1 report on the National Library of Scotland Bill
The Committee received a response to the Stage 1 report from Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, on 27 March 2012.
Read the response here (72.8KB pdf)