Scottish Parliament
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Tuesday 27 October 2009
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: [The Convener opened the meeting at 14:15]
Decision on Taking Business in Private
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The Convener (Gil Paterson): : I welcome everyone to the 12th meeting in 2009 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee.
We have received an apology from Robert Brown.
Item 1 is a decision on whether to take in private items 3 and 4. The committee previously agreed to consider in private a paper on the review of section 2 of the code of conduct for members of the Scottish Parliament. I propose that we take in private item 3, on the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Bill, because the committee has yet to agree the rule changes that it will recommend, and item 4, on the committee's work programme, because this will be our first opportunity to consider the merits of two items of work that have been referred to the committee. Do members agree to take items 3 and 4 in private?
: Members indicated agreement.
Code of Conduct
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The Convener: : At our meeting on 19 May we considered correspondence on amendments to the Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Act 2006 that result from the implementation of the Companies Act 2006. The committee agreed that it was content for the proposed amendments to be made by the United Kingdom Government by statutory instrument.
Proposed changes to the code of conduct and to the written statement of registrable interests, which reflect the amendments, are set out in committee paper SPPA/S3/09/12/1. Are members content with the proposed changes, which are set out in the tables in paragraphs 5 and 8?
: Members indicated agreement.
The Convener: : Consideration is given in the paper to whether an extract from the relevant statutory instrument should be included in volume 3 of the code of conduct. Are members content for that to happen?
: Members indicated agreement.
The Convener: : Is the committee therefore content for the proposed changes to be included in our report on our review of section 2 of the code of conduct?
: Members indicated agreement.
: Meeting continued in private until 15:22.