Public Petitions Committee, 20 Jun 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 20, 2000

Official Report 188KB pdf

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Convener's Report

It is now necessary for me to summarise, for the record, the decisions reached by the committee during its private session at the start of this meeting.

The paper is headed "Public Petitions Committee meeting 20 June: issues discussed and points agreed during private session." I will cover those points one at a time and members can say if they disagree.

We are not in private session just now?

We are condensing our discussions and agreements for the public record.

We considered concerns expressed by Duncan Hamilton. It was agreed that flexibility in the handling of petitions is the responsibility of each committee. We further agreed that the Public Petitions Committee accepts the decisions made by other committees, except in exceptional circumstances.

I think that we are prepared to concede that—at this time of day.

We considered the Public Petitions Committee's involvement in the decision-making process of local authorities. In appropriate cases, memos to subject committees will be reworded to indicate more clearly that they are for information only. It will also be indicated that the committee cannot overturn the decision of a local authority. A more detailed section on cases involving local authorities will be included in the guidelines for the submission of public petitions.

What was that? A more detailed section—

On cases involving local authorities, clarifying the committee's role and so on.

The next issue was consultation with bodies named in petitions. It was agreed that, in appropriate cases, bodies named in petitions would be given 14 days to respond to the Public Petitions Committee regarding that petition.

From the date of receipt of the petition—we need to know when the period of 14 days runs, as we cannot have someone complaining about when the period started.

Should it not be the date that the petition appears in the business bulletin?

I thought that the period started before the petition appeared in the business bulletin, but it is important that people know exactly when the time finishes.

It is agreed, then, that the period is 14 days from when the petition appears in the business bulletin. Is that okay?

Yes.

The next point is on improving MSPs' awareness of petitions. List and constituency MSPs will be made aware, by a brief e-mail, of petitions lodged in their area.

The Public Petitions Committee was committed to approach the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to discuss the idea of a public petitions committee at COSLA level. That is agreed.

Presentations by petitioners would be by agreement with the convener. In each meeting, the convener would report about any petitioner who was unhappy that they had not been permitted to speak.

And the committee could then take a decision.

The committee could then take a decision.

The next decision was that a shorter version of paper 2 would be used for the management of committee work load. The full paper would be produced on a quarterly basis.

It has been agreed to revise the guidance on submission of public petitions to include information on approaches to local authorities, MSPs and so on. A revised draft of that guidance will be produced during the summer recess.

Will it be e-mailed to us so that we can consider it before the first meeting after the recess?

Yes.

Where does the speaking time fit into that? Is the stipulation of two to three minutes still included?

Yes. That was agreed. On further information—

Was that all that we agreed? Did we not agree a whole lot more than that?

That was in addition to the document.

This is a summary of the things that we agreed. The document will be redrafted in line with this discussion. We will be able to look at it again after the recess.

And have another rehash.

But the guidelines will be separate and we will be able to see them before they go out.

An official photograph of the committee will be taken after the summer recess for the annual report. The clerk has prepared a first draft of an entry for the Parliament's annual report, summarising this committee's work from May 1999 to April 2000 in 400 words—

A précis.

That is the limit that was given to the clerk. It has to be cleared by 27 June. Any comments on it should be passed to the clerk by the end of this week. The agreement of the committee should be obtained for any changes. Any members who want any changes to the draft annual report should get in touch with the clerk—I will probably agree with them. As I said, the official photograph of the committee will be taken after the summer recess.

When we are all looking shiny and relaxed.

The final meeting before the summer recess will be on 4 July, at 2 o'clock. I will not be able to be there, as I will be on holiday, I hope. The deputy convener will chair the meeting. Good luck to her.

She will not be on holiday.

Is there any other competent business? If not, I draw the meeting to a close and thank members for their perseverance and attendance.

Meeting closed at 16:27.