Public Petitions Committee, 04 Dec 2001
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 4, 2001
Official Report
170KB pdf
Convener's Report
Steve Farrell and I intend to highlight many of the conclusions contained in the report on the Berlin visit when we give further evidence to the Procedures Committee for its inquiry into the consultative steering group principles on Tuesday 11 December, when we will present the submission that we agreed. A number of petitioners will appear at that meeting and express their views about the operation of the Public Petitions Committee. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about us.
The only other matter in the convener's report is to say that I was given the award for committee member of the year at last Thursday's ceremony sponsored by The Herald and Zurich Financial Services. I realise that that has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the success of the Public Petitions Committee. That should be placed on record. At long last, we have got some recognition by the outside world. Well done to everyone on the committee.
Well done to you, convener.
Absolutely.
We were absolutely delighted about that. Some of us were cheering at that moment. You made a very gracious reply, convener, saying that you were accepting the reward on behalf of the best committee in the Parliament. I must say that I find this a thoroughly enjoyable and energising committee because of the sort of people who appear in front of us, quite apart from the excellent staff.
As we all know, our big problem is that, unlike the Germans, we do not have enough people or the remit to investigate things ourselves. We have to depend on passing things on to other committees, which are themselves overburdened. Something must be done about that, because I think that we are the open door or shop window for the Parliament. The Public Petitions Committee is possibly one of the few things that the general public like about the Parliament. The public must get results in the long term, but we do not have the people to do that. We should not overburden the civil service as we do now. We need more real people, instead of spin doctors. Anyway, I will keep my comments to that.
I think that we all say amen to that.
Meeting closed at 11:04.