Official Report 212KB pdf
Agenda item 4 is our annual report, of which a draft has been circulated. The annual report must be produced under rule 12.9 of the standing orders and it has a fairly standard format. I ask for any comments or suggested amendments; otherwise, the report will be published as drafted, on 9 June.
I have two small points. First, the report refers to our contributing to the Finance Committee's scrutiny. I cannot remember whether we made any points of principle about the budget process in our evidence to the Finance Committee, but perhaps they ought to be made again or cross-referenced in the report. Frankly, I cannot recall what we said. Secondly, it is worth recording the fact that our budget adviser was very helpful to the process.
I am not sure whether that is appropriate in the context of the annual report. Annual reports tend to be quite constrained—however, I have been advised that that is okay.
The equalities section is slightly patronising. The report highlights as an instance of good practice in equalities the fact that the committee ensured that a venue was "reasonably accessible". I hope that we are doing more than that, especially in the context of our inquiry into rural housing. We are trying to ensure that people have access to affordable housing—that is about equalities as well. I would like the report to take a wider view of our work on equalities. We need to expand the section slightly to say how we, as a committee, approach the mainstreaming of equalities and to highlight what we have done. To say that all that we have done is ensure that a venue was "reasonably accessible" is not enough.
It occurs to me that, if we are going to have a round-table discussion such as Karen Gillon has mentioned, we might consider inviting disability groups that need open-access housing and so on, to ensure that we include equalities issues in our rural housing inquiry.
We cannot comment on future business—that is not part of the annual report. The annual report is about what we have done in the past. If you want to make a suggestion relating to the rural housing inquiry, you should do that separately.
Well, I have made a suggestion.
It would have been useful if you had made it during that agenda item.
Should we put in a bit more about our external visits? We seem to have been traipsing round the country all the time.
I remind you that your microphone is on, John.
And I have been happy to do so—I have enjoyed it all. I just think that we should put a bit more about it in the annual report. It is important that the point is made that we have been accessible and have been doing our best to get out and about around the country.
Okay. We will make those changes and recirculate the report. Do members agree to delegate authority to me to approve the final, amended version?
I concede the chair to the deputy convener for a few minutes for the next item on the agenda.
Previous
European Union Issues