Public Petitions Committee, 06 Jun 2005

Meeting date: Monday, June 6, 2005

Official Report 284KB pdf

---

Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Monday 6 June 2005

[The Convener opened the meeting at 10:41]

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 10th meeting in 2005 of the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee. I note the apologies of Rosie Kane, John Farquhar Munro and Jackie Baillie. The committee is delighted to be in Ayr this morning as part of the Ayr 800 celebrations. I thank South Ayrshire Council for allowing us to meet in this splendid chamber.

This is the third time that the Public Petitions Committee has met outside Edinburgh. The committee is pleased that so many people have come along to observe our proceedings. We will hear shortly from a number of local petitioners and this afternoon we will hold the third in a series of events across Scotland, which are aimed at promoting the public petitions system. The committee looks forward to hearing people's views on how the public petitions system works.

We are out of our normal surroundings, therefore it might be best if members of the committee were to introduce themselves before we take agenda item 1, so that members of the public who have turned up have an idea of who is sitting in front of them. I am the member of the Scottish Parliament for Hamilton North and Bellshill and the convener of the committee.

I am MSP for the Ayr constituency and I am delighted to see so many of my constituents and other people from Ayrshire at committee today.

I am the MSP for the West of Scotland.

I am the MSP for the South of Scotland. I am not a member of the committee, but I am here to observe and—I hope—participate in the meeting.

I am an MSP for Glasgow.

I am the MSP for the Dunfermline East constituency. It is lovely to be in Ayr, in this fantastic setting. Thank you for having us today.

I echo Helen Eadie's comments. I represent the Glasgow Cathcart constituency, which is in the south-east of Glasgow.