Procedures Committee, 29 Feb 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 29, 2000

Official Report 123KB pdf

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Correspondence (Notice of Lodging Amendments)

Item 4 on the agenda is a letter from Margaret Smith, convener of the Health and Community Care Committee. We are asked to consider the matter that she raises and to procure a more detailed report. That is what we always do, so I am sure that we should do that. The essence of the request is that the Executive should meet more demanding time scales for lodging amendments than members are expected to. That might or might not seem to the Executive to be reasonable, but the Executive should be entitled to input into the report so that it can spell out any practical implications that might arise from the request.

With that caveat, is the committee content to commission a report?

I do not know whether my illness has made me more stupid than usual, but I did not understand the second paragraph of the letter. The middle sentence says:

"The Committee considers that where there are substantial amendments by the Executive that rule 9.10.2 should not apply to the Executive and those amendments by the Executive should be lodged in advance of the deadline".

I understand that to mean that the deadline should be more demanding for Executive amendments.

With that explanation, I am happy to agree to the commissioning of a report.

Are all members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.