Public Petitions Committee, 04 Jul 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, July 4, 2000

Official Report 231KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Tuesday 4 July 2000 (Morning)

[The Deputy Convener opened the meeting at 11:09]

I welcome you to the 12th meeting in 2000 of the Public Petitions Committee. I am standing in for John McAllion, who did the right thing and has gone on holiday this week. We were due to finish in line with the school holidays but, as Parliament is so busy, the recess will start a week later. John sends his apologies. Helen Eadie also sends her apologies. I think that Margaret Smith will be able to attend.

I apologise for having to convene the meeting earlier in the week than usual. Parliament is especially busy this week; it is meeting all day Wednesday, so several of the committee meetings had to be rejigged to avoid a clash.

We have quite a lot of business to get through. I remind you of the practice that we have adopted, which is that where petitioners have asked to speak, we will allow them to make a brief presentation. If members want to speak, we will give them a minute or two to speak to the petition. We will then ask the committee to ask questions and it will decide what action it proposes to take.