Justice 2 Committee,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 8, 2002

Official Report 307KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Justice 2 Committee Wednesday 8 May 2002 (Morning)

[The Deputy Convener opened the meeting at 10:01]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The convener has been held up in Glasgow on parliamentary business, but I hope that she will join us shortly. We will get the show on the road. I welcome Professor Chris Gane, who is attending his first meeting as our adviser, and utter the customary admonition: all members should turn off their mobile phones and pagers.

Before we start the main evidence session, I want to deal with a couple of matters. We wrote to the Executive to ask for a family law update. The Executive has replied that its programme for the session contains a commitment to publish a draft family law bill; it hopes to do that before the end of the year. Thereafter, the timing of the introduction of the bill to Parliament will depend on the Executive's legislative priorities following the elections in May 2003. Members will be relieved that we will not be landed with a further complex piece of legislation at this stage.

We have received a letter that slightly corrects oral evidence that we took on 24 April for our inquiry into the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, when the Lord Advocate appeared before the committee. At column 1224 of the Official Report, Robert Gordon refers to "trainees" and "training grades", but he should have referred to new deputes. Specifically, 30 people have been offered posts as new deputes rather than as trainees. That should clear up any confusion.