Justice and Home Affairs Committee, 17 Nov 1999
Meeting date: Wednesday, November 17, 1999
Official Report
311KB pdf
Scottish Parliament Justice and Home Affairs Committee Wednesday 17 November 1999 (Morning)
[The Convener opened the meeting at 09:33]
Good morning, everyone. People are still coming in, but I want to press on as quickly as possible because we have a great deal to get through this morning. We will just have to bear with people coming in late.
I have one or two brief comments to make. I have received an apology for the absence of Christine Grahame, who is unwell.
Members of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee will notice that there are extra members of the Scottish Parliament here today. Principally, they are from the Health and Community Care Committee, which wishes to have an input into the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Bill. Members of that committee have come along this morning to listen to the evidence of our witnesses and will have the opportunity to ask questions if they wish. I understand that the Health and Community Care Committee will meet immediately afterwards to discuss its input into this bill, so it is important that its members are here.
For those who are not aware of it, this morning a demonstration will be held outside the chamber by prison officers who are concerned by the recent announcement of job losses and prison closures. I understand that about 100 gallery tickets have been given out for today's meeting. I expect that most of them have been given to prison officers, so they will be entering at some point this morning. The massed ranks of prison officers are gathering down the road at 9:30, so I presume that they will be on their way shortly.
I advise the committee that we have managed, with a bit of careful rejigging, to organise next week's agenda to allow Tony Cameron, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, and representatives from the trade union side, to give evidence on the changes to the Prison Service. That meeting will also be held in the chamber.
Because we have asked for extra witnesses this week, we have postponed consideration of the draft report on Scottish prisons that was to form part of our early considerations of Her Majesty's inspector's report. That report, which deals only with the evidence taken on the prison inspector's report and the prison visits that took place in September, will now be postponed until next week. The report will not deal with the current issues facing prisons; it is a different part of the investigation entirely.
Do members of the committee agree that, as we had planned, that part of next week's business should take place in private, as we will be discussing a draft report that, until it is finalised, should not be publicly recorded?
Members indicated agreement.
Next week we will also consider the stage 1 report on the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Bill. Do members agree that, as we will be discussing a draft report, that part of the meeting should also take place in private?
Members indicated agreement.