Equal Opportunities Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Official Report 348KB pdf

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Interests

Good afternoon and welcome to the first meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee in the fourth session of the Scottish Parliament. Under the standing orders, I, as the oldest committee member, have been asked to convene the start of the meeting—that is all good in terms of equal opps, I suppose, so here I am. I will be in the chair until a convener is chosen.

I remind everyone who is present, including members, to turn off completely their mobile phones and Blackberrys, because they will interfere with the sound system even if they are switched to silent. No apologies have been received.

Item 1 is the declaration of interests, in accordance with section 3 of the code of conduct for members of the Scottish Parliament. Members have been issued with a short note on what a declaration should include; the procedure should be straightforward. I remind members that declarations should be brief but sufficiently detailed to make clear to a listener the nature of the interest.

I will begin and then invite each member in turn to declare interests that they regard as relevant to the committee. In relation to the Equal Opportunities Committee, I have no interests to declare.

I have no relevant interests to declare.

I am a member of North Lanarkshire Council, a member of the British Computer Society and a member of the National Union of Journalists, all of which carry out equal opportunities work.

I have no relevant interests to declare.

I am a member of Highland Council and I am involved in the council’s equalities working group.

I am a former member of the Scottish Trades Union Congress disabled workers committee.

I declare an interest in the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association—I am a guide dog owner. I am a blind person and I have an interest in any group that works alongside people with visual impairments. I have been a member of the equalities forum in Aberdeen and in Moray, and I have attended cross-party groups on visual impairment and disability. I should probably also declare that I have worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People in campaigns over the years, given that the RNIB is a large national organisation.

Thank you. All members of the committee are present, so all the declarations of interest have been made.