Standing orders require that discussions held in the Parliamentary Bureau be considered in private. I suggest that we consider this second item on the agenda in private. What are the views of the committee?
Why in private?
Because business discussed in the bureau is considered private and, in our consideration of item 2, it will be necessary to report on what was discussed in the bureau.
Could I ask a point of information? From the presentation this morning, it is obvious to several members of the committee that the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill is flawed, as Mike Watson suggested. Is there a parliamentary procedure through which we can suggest that the bill be resubmittted in an updated form as soon as possible? There has been no consultation so far, because the bill is not an Executive bill. We will now have to go through the whole process of public consultation, even though, by Mike Watson's account, the bill is flawed.
That was the point of the question that I put to Mike Watson. As far as I can tell, at stage 1, we have to deal with the bill as it is published and presented—unamended. If the amendments are accepted at stage 2, we will have to take a huge amount of evidence, which could be a complete waste of our time. Everyone agrees that our time is valuable and I support Mike Rumbles's comments.
Wait until you hear what I have to tell you.
Does the legislative process allow us to take evidence and qualify it by taking into account the fact that amendments have been lodged?
I do not see how we can do that. We cannot guarantee what the amendments will do.
Standing orders provide that a bill may be withdrawn at any time by the member in charge of the bill, but that it should not be withdrawn after completion of stage 1. It would be in Mr Watson's control to withdraw the bill before the completion of stage 1.
Given your indication that you have more to tell us, convener, I suggest that we formally agree to your proposal to go into private session to speed up the discussion.
I propose to return to item 2 at the end of the meeting if the committee agrees to discuss it in private. Are we agreed?