Plenary, 11 Sep 2003

Meeting date: Thursday, September 11, 2003

Official Report 716KB pdf

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Legal Deposit Libraries Bill

The next item of business is consideration of motion S2M-240, in the name of Frank McAveety, on the Legal Deposit Libraries Bill, which is UK legislation.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament supports the principles of the Legal Deposit Libraries Bill 2003 and agrees that the provisions in the Bill that relate to devolved matters should be considered by the UK Parliament.—[Mr Frank McAveety.]

The question on the motion will be put at decision time.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Earlier, I asked for time to speak on the bill.

That is not a point of order. You requested 15 seconds, so on you go.

Is Mr McAveety aware of the current upheaval at the National Library of Scotland, where several top library keepers are being made redundant? Is he aware that that will probably affect the service provided to Scotland and will he please investigate those redundancies?

I am fully aware of all the issues at the library. The redundancies are part of a restructuring exercise to ensure that we provide a much more efficient and open service to members of the public. The bill represents one of the processes in which we are engaging.