Justice 1 Committee and Justice 2 Committee (Joint Meeting), 02 Oct 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Official Report 166KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee and Justice 2 Committee (Joint Meeting) Tuesday 2 October 2001 (Afternoon)

[The Convener opened the meeting at 13:35]

Now that we have rallied enough troops, I convene this joint meeting of the justice committees, which is the 26th meeting in 2001 of the Justice 1 Committee and the 25th meeting in 2001 of the Justice 2 Committee. Before we turn to the agenda, I welcome Mr Donald Gorrie to the Justice 1 Committee and I hope that he enjoys himself on it—if that is the correct verb.

I ask members to turn off their mobile phones and pagers. I have received apologies from Gordon Jackson and Paul Martin, who are Justice 1 Committee members, and from George Lyon, Stewart Stevenson, Margaret Ewing and Scott Barrie, who are Justice 2 Committee members. Many of those people are on other committees that have clashing meetings. I thank members who have come to this meeting against the odds.

On that point, convener, when was it decided to hold the meeting at this time? It is obviously inconvenient for a lot of members because they have clashing commitments.

I cannot give a specific answer, but I know that the meeting has been on my timetable for several weeks. I would have to speak to the clerks about when the meeting was arranged and perhaps later we will talk about how the other meetings were set up. I have no more information on that than you do, Mrs Mulligan.

I realise that we are always desperately short of time and that there is a problem with arranging joint meetings. However, some of us are here when we should be in other places and other members have had to go elsewhere. The matters that are on today's agenda are important, so we have a problem.

I understand that. I have been advised that we had to use one of the existing slots because the meeting is a joint one. If it becomes difficult for members to attend the joint meetings, as it has today, we might investigate other slots.

I remind members that stage 3 of the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Bill will take place on Thursday of this week at 9.30 am. Although the bill is a Justice 1 Committee bill, members from the Justice 2 Committee had a great deal to do with taking the bill, which is the first committee bill, to the stage of finalisation in Parliament. I hope that as many members as possible will attend the debate. I know that Mr Aitken will be there with a bouquet of amendments.

I have 68 amendments.