Public Petitions Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Official Report 306KB pdf

---

Annual Report

The next item is to consider formally our draft annual report. Do members have any matters to raise? It is reasonably accurate. Bill Butler wants to add a couple of points.

Not at all, convener. I simply want to congratulate the clerk and the clerking team on the draft report. It is probably the most detailed one that I have ever seen, and it contains some very attractive colour photographs. It also includes a detailed exposition of the developments that have taken place in the public petitions process, which have led—and, I hope, will continue to lead—to greater participation by the general public. The clerking team is to be congratulated on the report.

That will definitely be recorded by the clerking team. For the record, there is one addition to the various delegations that we have met through the year to be included in the report.

Fergus Cochrane (Clerk): In paragraph 23, there is a list of the delegations that the committee has met over the past parliamentary year. I forgot about the delegation that we met at the end of last year from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, in Germany, which was carrying out a research project on e-petitions for the petitions committee of the Bundestag, looking specifically at the Scottish petitioning model. We will add that delegation to that list.

Okay. Do we accept the draft annual report, which will be published in due course?

Members indicated agreement.

I close the meeting. I thank members for their forbearance and patience during some lengthy sessions. However, with every great pain comes occasional pleasure and today we conclude at 2.45.

Meeting closed at 14:45.