Justice and Home Affairs Committee, 13 Jun 2000
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 13, 2000
Official Report
265KB pdf
Future Business
Item 3 is the forward programme. All committee members will have received the provisional forward programme for June and July 2000. We do not have details of our meetings after the recess.
Members will notice that we are in a fast-moving situation. Stage 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Bill will be debated in the chamber tomorrow afternoon. The deadline for amendments at stage 2 will be 5.30 pm on Monday and we will deal with stage 2 of that bill at the committee on the morning of Wednesday 21 June. The stage 1 debate on the Bail, Judicial Appointments etc (Scotland) Bill will be on Thursday 22 June. Amendments for stage 2 of that bill will require to be lodged by 5.30 pm on Friday 23 June, the day after the stage 1 debate. That situation is imposed on us by the fact that the standing orders have been suspended en bloc, but it seems an alarming state of affairs that the deadline for amendments will be 24 hours after the stage 1 debate.
Today's business bulletin contains a detailed announcement about amendments to both bills to alert members to the need for speed—if they miss the deadlines, that is it. Moreover, it would assist the clerks if members flagged up their amendments at the earliest opportunity.
The programme of business is provisional. At this stage we have no idea how long stage 2 will take for either of the bills. Only one meeting may be required for stage 2 on each of them, but we cannot know that at this stage.
Members will see that Michael Matheson will be reporting on judicial appointments on Tuesday 4 July. I believe that there will be some small opportunities for items to be put on the agenda other than the legislation that we have before us. Extensive time will not be available, but I am hoping to squeeze in time for a discussion of the evidence that we have heard on rape, so that we can at least draft a letter from the committee. I am also desperately seeking time for Maureen Macmillan to come back on the domestic violence bill. We will be doing our utmost to achieve those ends.
We are now moving into private session—
Could I ask that we have a written submission from the Police Federation on the evidence that we have heard on rape and how rape victims are treated from the time of going to the police station until trial, because that was passed over at the end. That would help us in taking a view.
Convener, despite the requirement on you to rush these issues, I must say that, if these time scales had been applied in the House of Commons, we would have been ridiculed. This is guillotining of the worst kind and this Parliament is failing totally by accepting such time limits.
I have serious concerns, particularly about the stripping out of the two-week period between stage 1 and stage 2. That gives virtually no time whatever.
That is especially so with regard to the Bail, Judicial Appointments etc (Scotland) Bill, with which we have a lot of problems.
To be fair, our stage 1 reports directly reflect that concern.
That does not seem to do any good, convener.
No. As I have said previously, I am always grateful that you want me to go out there and face up to the Parliamentary Bureau, but I would need the entire committee to be behind me if we came to the point of flat out refusing to do something.
I think that we are now in private session.
Meeting continued in private until 12:56.