Item 3 is my report. I remind members that the excitement of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill at stage 3 will be on Wednesday 26 February from 11 am until lunch time, and then again from 2.30 pm. The deadline for lodging stage 3 amendments is 4.30 pm on Friday 21 February 2003. I advise members to lodge amendments in good time before the beginning of stage 3, and as early as possible in the day.
Members indicated agreement.
I will mention in passing my trip to Maryland, from which I am still suffering jet lag. I will do a full report for the committee on mediation processes, which cover not only justice issues but policing issues, community issues and so on. It has the imprimatur of, rather than being pioneered by, the senior appeal court judge in Maryland. Without that, it would not have taken the grip that it has. Although mediation is not suitable in all circumstances, it seems a fruitful source of investigation for our successor committee and it would link to alternatives to custody. Those of us who were there included the Lord Justice Clerk, the chairman of the Law Society of Scotland, Sheriff Nigel Morrison and senior members of the Scottish Legal Aid Board. It was a good cross-section of people. Without putting words into their mouths, I think that we were all quite impressed with what is going on in Maryland. I see that the Deputy Minister for Justice is here, so he, too, has now heard about it. That is as much as I will say about the matter now.