Health Committee, 20 Feb 2007

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Official Report 218KB pdf

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Annual Report

Agenda item 7 is the committee's annual report, which is separate from the legacy paper—I remind members that annual reports follow a set format. The draft annual report has been provided and it follows the layout and style of all previous annual reports. Some gaps are yet to be filled; for example, on the final numbers of Scottish statutory instruments and meetings, which we will not know until the last minute.

I invite the committee to consider and agree to the annual report. We can look through it quickly. Paragraphs 1 and 2 form the introduction. The section on inquiries and reports begins at paragraph 3. It gives a factual report of what we did on care in Scotland and car parking charges, and it mentions the one-off meetings on treatment of drug users and on Scotland's smoking ban one year on. Another reference has to be added, because by the end of the parliamentary session, we will have held a one-off meeting about care in Scotland.

On legislation, members can see that we dealt with the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill and the Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill. The report is annual, so it covers only what we have done in the past year and not what we did in all four years of the session. The report also refers to the Scottish budget.

The section on subordinate legislation will be completed at the end of the year. The paragraph on petitions is fairly straightforward and we will fill in the number of meetings when we know it at the end of the year. There is nothing else to the document. Annual reports are fairly standard.

Why are the items in paragraphs 7 and 8 included in the big list of things that we did? The meeting and conclusions on treatment of drug users were not our finest hour. We will not produce a report on that, but it appears to merit a mention in our annual report. Why?

It is mentioned because we did it. The annual report is a slightly different animal to a legacy paper, which is about our feelings about what we did and what we think a new health committee might do. The annual report follows a preset format. For example, another item will have to be added under the care inquiry.

The legacy paper lists a whole lot of stuff that took place over the four years.

That is right. The annual report covers one year only. It is a little confusing to discuss at the end of four years an annual report that covers only activity from September last year.

That skews the document a bit.

It makes the report look a bit odd. Members will remember that we produced an annual report last year.

At the end of a parliamentary session, we want to highlight the substantial work that we have done in the four years, rather than just bits and pieces.

The report is annual, but this year's annual report is being produced much earlier than before. Normally, our annual report would not be published until the end of June. We are losing April to June, so the annual report covers only nine months, rather than 12 months. I agree that the document looks a little odd after we have considered what we did in the four years, but that's the way it goes.

Does everybody agree to the annual report?

Members indicated agreement.

That ends today's business. I will not see committee members next week, because there is no meeting next week.

Meeting closed at 15:38.