Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Official Report 264KB pdf

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Committee Bills

Item 5 is consideration of the procedure for introducing a committee bill. Members will recall that the issue arose during last week’s consideration of petition PE1280, by Julia Love and Dr Kenneth Faulds, which calls for a fatal accident inquiry to be held when a person from Scotland dies abroad.

Members have paper 6, which outlines the process for introducing committee bills and provides a copy of a letter about the petition that has been received from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice since last week’s meeting. In his letter, he clarifies that the Scottish Government intends to introduce a bill

“to reform and modernise the law on fatal accident inquiries ... within the lifetime of this Parliament.”

Can I have members’ comments, please?

The point was a good one to raise at the time but, as the paper sets out, a committee bill probably should not be introduced if a minister has said in writing that they plan to introduce a bill on the same subject in this parliamentary session. This time round, the cabinet secretary’s commitment is firmer, so I am quite pleased with that.

The cabinet secretary’s letter certainly indicates a “firm intention” to introduce a bill. It gilds the lily somewhat in relation to his previous letter, which did not give the same firm commitment. Others on the committee will know from experience whether such firm commitments are always delivered on.

I am sure that members will assure us that such commitments are delivered on. Some committee members will now have salt on the cabinet secretary’s tail.

Are we content that the situation has moved on? We have done something.

That takes us back to the question last week about what we do with the petition. I remember that there were some options, one of which was to keep the petition open. Will we still keep the petition open until firm legislation comes forward?

I think so.

I think so. The petition is important so, in fairness to the petitioners, we will keep it open.

We will add some pepper to the salt.

Adding pepper to salt—my goodness.

I will leave the paper on the committee bill procedure with members so that they can see the procedure, although we are not applying it to the issue in the petition. Perhaps we can discuss whether to pursue introducing a committee bill when we consider our broader work programme in February. At that time, members could present ideas. The Scottish Law Commission has lots of ready-made, off-the-shelf bills—including one on succession, although it might be too complex—that the committee might be able to consider. Do members agree to that approach?

Members indicated agreement.

As agreed earlier, we will move into private session.

11:08 Meeting continued in private until 11:35.