Justice 2 Committee, 03 Feb 2004

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Official Report 125KB pdf

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Budget Process 2005-06

Agenda item 4 is consideration of our approach to the budget process for 2005-06. A paper has been circulated to all committee members to give some background detail on the process. The first principal issue that we must determine is whether to seek permission from the Parliamentary Bureau to meet jointly with the Justice 1 Committee to consider the expenditure proposals. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Secondly, we must decide whether to seek the appointment of a joint adviser for the two justice committees. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Thirdly, we must decide whether the joint adviser on the budget should be a standing adviser.

It would be helpful to have a standing adviser on the budget. As a new member of the Justice 2 Committee when it was reconstituted last year, I found it helpful to have Professor Main to advise us on the budget, as he had a degree of knowledge and expertise that many committee members did not have. It was helpful that he was able to point us in the right direction and give a focus to our deliberations and thoughts on the justice budget.

If we had the same adviser throughout the process, we would be able to track the recommendations that the justice committees make on the budget. That would offer some continuity to our deliberations throughout this session of the Parliament and might allow the budget process to be meaningful in a way that was sometimes lacking in the previous parliamentary session.

Those are helpful comments. Are we agreed that we should seek the appointment of a joint standing adviser?

Members indicated agreement.

I thank you all for that. We now move into private session to deal with the next item, which is on our inquiry into youth justice.

Meeting continued in private until 16:49.