Public Petitions Committee,
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 9, 2000
Official Report
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Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Tuesday 9 May 2000 (Afternoon)
[The Convener opened the meeting at 14:07]
Welcome to the eighth meeting of the Public Petitions Committee. We have apologies from Pauline McNeill, the deputy convener. She has been delayed on constituency business and, although she will try to be here in time, she does not think that she will be able to make it.
I remind members that there will be a private session at the end of the meeting to discuss the procedure for handling petitions by the Parliament. We have a busy agenda, with 12 new petitions, five speakers on six of those petitions and a number of responses to petitions that we have already dealt with as well as the paper at the end of the meeting. I therefore urge members to be brief and to the point. When it comes to the part where we question petitioners, let us have questions rather than comments. As the clerk has pointed out, some of the petitioners who spoke to us before took 20 minutes each. We will have a very long afternoon if we continue to behave in that fashion, so let us get on with our business right away.