Public Petitions Committee,

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 9, 2000

Official Report 220KB pdf

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Convener's Report

Some of us met the European ombudsman, Jacob Soderman, when he visited the Parliament last Wednesday. It was an interesting visit—he gave us information on petitions committees elsewhere in Europe. Public petitions are not dealt with everywhere through a committee, but the European Parliament has such a committee.

Mr Soderman was particularly impressed by the German Länder, which have powerful, effective public petitions committees. He drew a distinction between the role of the public petitions committee and the role of the ombudsman. The ombudsman takes up individual grievances. In fact, we might wish to establish a relationship with him, because some of the petitions that come before us are individual grievances about maladministration, which could be referred to him. He seemed to distinguish between that and policy issues, which are a matter for public petitions committees to deal with. It would be useful to consider experiences elsewhere in Europe. That is something to which we should return. I was impressed by Mr Soderman.

I feel a visit coming on. Can we make a pitch for this happy little team to visit the Länder? Mr Farrell is grinning.

Only those who went to the meeting can go. [Laughter.]

I was there.

I would have liked to be there, to find out what is going on. I volunteered for this committee because it is a great committee.

What struck me about the meeting with Mr Soderman was that public petitions committees exist elsewhere and play an important role. We should find out more about that.

It was a jocular comment, but I am serious about visiting the Länder.

We should return to this, for further consideration.

It was interesting that, relative to the population of Scotland, there are a low number of complaints to the European ombudsman. Mr Soderman almost implied that he was looking for more work from Scotland. [Laughter.]

That was the inference that I took.

It could be part of the role of this committee to direct people's attention to the existence of the European ombudsman.

Did he discuss the Finnish ombudsman and whether he thought that there would be a role for a Scottish ombudsman? That would take us into areas dealt with by some of the petitions that we receive on planning, and on whether local administration is being carried out properly—although there is a local authority ombudsman.

There are steps afoot to set up the Scottish equivalent of the Finnish ombudsman. It would be important for us to work closely with that ombudsman. Mr Soderman said that the fact that he is Finnish and is well known in Finland is one of the reasons why Finland has a high level of referrals to the European ombudsman. People in this country may not know about the European ombudsman.

Given our work load, it would be good to involve others.

Let it burgeon elsewhere.

It might not be allowed to burgeon—have you seen The Courier and Advertiser today?

We will come to that during the private meeting. We will not give public credence to that kind of nonsense.

The other part of my report concerns the visit by the delegation from Gauteng Provincial Legislature in South Africa. That visit has been approved. The delegation will visit the Parliament on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 May. Steve Farrell will give the delegates a briefing on the Monday, but it is suggested that they could meet committee members on the Tuesday. They could have a one-hour buffet lunch with us—that would be Tuesday 23 May at 1 o'clock—and could even attend our scheduled meeting on Tuesday afternoon. We are scheduled to meet in this room, but it would not be appropriate to meet them in here. It is suggested that we put the time of the next meeting back to 3.30 pm. We can then use committee room 1, which would allow the delegation to attend. A 1 o'clock lunch with the delegation would be followed by the meeting at 3.30 pm.

Starting at 3.30 pm?

Yes.

And finishing?

As quickly as we can.

I have an appointment at 5 o'clock.

They have asked to see us working, but we could not bring them in here—there would be no room. There is quite a large number of delegates, I think.

I think that there are about seven or eight.

Is it agreed that we have lunch at 1 o'clock that day and that we meet at 3.30 pm?

Members indicated agreement.

Are we still meeting here even when the Parliament is in Glasgow?

Yes. As far as I know, committee meetings are still in Edinburgh.

That is what I thought.

If there is no other business, I declare the public part of the meeting closed.

Meeting continued in private until 16:42.