Public Petitions Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Official Report 457KB pdf

Convener

The second item on the agenda is the election of a convener. I put on record my thanks to John Pentland for his work on behalf of the committee.

The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Labour Party are eligible for nomination as convener of the committee. That being the case, I seek nominations for the position of convener.

I nominate Michael McMahon.

Michael McMahon was chosen as convener.

Congratulations, Michael. I suspend the meeting for a minute, while we change places.

I thank David Torrance and other members for allowing me again to become the convener of the Public Petitions Committee. It is a position that I have held in the past, and I know how important the committee is. I certainly look forward to re-engaging with the petitions system, which is one of the most important aspects of the Scottish Parliament. I certainly valued and appreciated it when I was a member of the committee previously.

I thank David Torrance for holding the fort during the transition from the previous convener to me. I know that the clerks worked closely with him on all the areas that required to be addressed and that he took the committee for a few weeks while the convenership was in abeyance.

I also thank the previous convener, John Pentland, for steering the committee over the past while.