Procedures Committee, 12 Sep 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 12, 2000

Official Report 227KB pdf

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Housing Stock Transfer Inquiry Report

This agenda item is an issues report concerning a dispute that happened at the Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee some months ago. It is not our purpose to investigate the differences of opinion that existed on the issue that was under discussion at that committee. However, it is clear that the convener of the committee and Fiona Hyslop, who has written to us, both felt that there were procedural issues that should be examined. We are invited, on the basis of the correspondence, to commission a paper on the issue in the fullness of time. I hope that we can agree to do that.

Will the writers of the paper need any guidance? Minority reports are a fundamental issue. We are trying to seek consensus and it would be a pity to make it too easy to produce a minority report, as that would reduce the pull towards achieving consensus. On the other hand, a minority report should be available as a last resort. That is a political discussion, so it might be helpful if the officials who write the report have some guidance.

We will probably try to evolve good practice and encourage committees to reflect differences of opinion in their reports, rather than going down the road of separate reports. However, there are issues on which there might be deep divisions of opinion and on which some members feel that simply recording dissent is not adequate. There must be a procedure for such cases. The report that we will commission and the evidence that we will take will allow us to discuss the merits and demerits of all the approaches.

It is right and proper that we consider the procedural issue and not the problem that occurred. However, I note that Fiona Hyslop's letter asks us to consider the role of the convener. How do you view that?

I see that as an invitation to consider the role of a committee convener in proposing amendments to draft reports. I am not prepared for the Standards Committee to examine the role of the convener of the Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee in relation to the incident that occurred. We should consider the broad principles and how the Parliament operates; we are not a court of appeal. That will be accepted by everyone involved.