Public Petitions Committee, 11 Mar 2003

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Official Report 341KB pdf

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Convener's Report

Before the committee goes into private session to consider witnesses' expenses, I would like to remind members that there is an additional meeting of the Public Petitions Committee on Tuesday 18 March. On Tuesday 25 March, the German public petitions committee will visit us. There will be a meeting with that committee in the afternoon, and there is an optional buffet lunch to which all members are cordially invited. I hope that as many members as possible will come along.

Is the meeting of 25 March in the morning or in the afternoon?

The session is in the morning, but there will be a separate meeting in the afternoon. There is also an informal dinner in the evening with the German public petitions committee. Again, I ask all members to be there if possible.

Members may remember the petition about the Scottish Transport Group pension fund surplus. The committee wrote to Ruth Kelly, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to ask whether she would meet the Scottish Bus Group Pensioners Action Committee and their representative. The committee has now received a letter saying that she is not prepared to meet them, either in Edinburgh or anywhere else. That result will form the basis of a report to next Tuesday's meeting. In the meantime, that report and a copy of the letter will be circulated to the committee and to all MSPs who have shown an interest in the matter.

Meeting continued in private until 12:58.