Justice 2 Committee, 12 Jun 2001
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001
Official Report
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Scottish Parliament Justice 2 Committee Tuesday 12 June 2001 (Afternoon)
[The Convener opened the meeting at 14:48]
Now that we are more than quorate, I welcome members to this meeting of the Justice 2 Committee. We have a short agenda today. I should say that we have been busy this morning on a visit to the Crown Office. That was not a committee meeting as such, but it is why we are not meeting at our usual time. It is important to put on the record that we have been working for most of the day on justice matters, so the agenda is short.
There are two items that I wish to report to the committee. First, I have received correspondence from Liz Curran, who was a witness from Routes Out of Prostitution. She wishes to correct the oral evidence that she gave on 23 May, when she said in response to a question from me that women convicted of offences related to prostitution are placed on the sex offenders register. She has corrected that evidence and says that it is not the case that women charged with soliciting are placed on the sex offenders register.
Secondly, it was intended that Alasdair Morgan and I would meet representatives of the Prison Officers Association Scotland, as they were writing to us throughout the course of their dispute. Alasdair Morgan was unable to make the meeting because of stage 3 of the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Bill. However, I popped in and out of the debate to meet the SPOA representatives. As it happened, on that day they had just reported on the final arbitration agreement. I have papers on the joint agreement that can be circulated if members wish to read them. It is an important stage in the process. I thought that members would like to know that we made the effort to meet the representatives, and that we have paperwork if members wish to read it. Are there any questions?
It would be helpful if the paperwork was circulated.
There are two documents. One is the joint agreement, and the other is a paper from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. We will circulate them to members, who can take it from there.