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Agenda item 9 is for the committee to consider the Scottish Government’s response to its stage 1 report on the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc and Care) (Scotland) Bill. If members have no comments, are we content to note the response and, if necessary, reconsider the bill after stage 2?
Members indicated agreement.
The issue of ancillary provision in section 33 and the fact that that provision was made in a different way from other legislation were things that we had wondered about raising with the Scottish Government, to ask further questions about why it is taking that approach. The fact that it is out of line with the approach in other legislation is something that the committee might want to raise, perhaps not by amendment at stage 2, although there is an opportunity for that, but at least by writing to ministers to highlight the fact that we have further concerns.
As convener, I feel that we have raised that enough for the Government to have got the message. We have put it in at least three reports. It also figures in our quarterly report and is therefore something that we know will come up when the Minister for Parliamentary Business comes to speak to us in the next few weeks.
Are you suggesting that, given that we have not acted on that yet—
I suggest that, in this context, we do not need to raise the matter again, as it is pretty high up the agenda, as far as the Government is concerned, in many other situations, so it is well aware of the issue.
I should speak in support of Richard Baker. Notwithstanding the fact that we have raised the issue on several occasions, we have not really had a satisfactory response to those concerns yet, as far as I am aware.
That is a perfectly fair comment. I do not think that we have had a response.
I think that we had some kind of response saying that the Government was willing to look at the issue. I do not know whether there was a timescale for that, but I think that there was an indication that the Government was going to review that, even though it may not have been a top priority. It is a question of tactics. Do you ask for a new bicycle every single day, or do you just ask a few times and then leave it for a while?
The view from the clerk is that the Government is thinking about it and we know that it is thinking about it. On that basis, bearing in mind that we are thinking about a specific response at the moment, I wonder whether we could take that as what the Government is doing for the time being. The obvious threat is that we will come back to it with the next stage 1 report, which would perhaps be a slightly better route than responding to this response. However, if the committee wants me to respond to this response, I will do so. I do not really want to push the matter to a vote. We just need a collective view.
Given that we are highlighting our concern about that again, and given that the issue is under consideration and that we can raise the matter with Joe FitzPatrick when he comes to the committee, that would be fine. I just think that it is important that, if we have not had what some of us regard as a satisfactory response, we do not just drop the issue.
Should I informally remind the minister that we have had this discussion on the record?
Yes, that is a sensible approach.
It might be enough just to tell him.
That gets us to the end of item 9. The final two items will be in private.
11:49 Meeting continued in private until 12:00.