Health Committee, 12 Sep 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Official Report 214KB pdf

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Mainstreaming Equalities

Good afternoon. I welcome the witnesses who are at the committee for the first evidence session this afternoon on the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill. If they will bear with us, we have an item to deal with before we come to them.

Item 1 is on mainstreaming equalities. Members will be aware that the Equal Opportunities Committee has endorsed a policy for the consideration of equal opportunities issues by subject committees. The paper outlines a possible approach to those issues in the context of the two bills that we will consider in the coming weeks. It identifies a number of areas for possible action. I invite members to comment on the recommendations. When we have had a brief discussion we will deal with the recommendations. Does anyone have any comments?

I do not see any difficulty in choosing recommendations a, b and c, although that may be pre-empting the discussion. It is a particularly important subject in relation to the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill.

I am sorry, but can you clarify to what you are referring?

The recommendations at the bottom of the final page of the paper are to

"a. write to the sponsors of each Bill seeking a written response to the specific issues outlined above.

b. bear these issues in mind when questioning the Bill sponsors"—

Are you supporting the recommendations?

Yes. They are all important.

Okay. I wanted to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to comment on the paper before we decided whether to support the recommendations.

We are not being asked to choose between the recommendations.

That is right.

That is fine.

If no one else has any comments, can I take it that the committee agrees to the recommendations in the paper?

Members indicated agreement.

I should say that much of what is outlined is what we have already been doing, but this clarifies our approach and puts it on the record.