Justice Sub-Committee on Policing

Meeting date: Thursday, March 21, 2013

Official Report 263KB pdf

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Working Practices

I remind members that we must be finished by 2 pm, when business begins in the chamber—1.55 would be preferable. There is time to have an initial discussion of our working practices and our work programme now and, if we need more time, we can return to the issue at our next meeting.

Members have before them a paper—paper 3—which outlines suggestions for our working practices. It would be useful to get a steer from members about when they would like to meet. At a basic level, who is free when? Does anyone have a clash on a Wednesday morning?

Members: Yes.

That leaves us with little room for manoeuvre. We are left with Monday afternoon, evenings and lunch times.

We should choose evenings or lunch times because, with the new parliamentary sitting pattern, constituency work is already suffering on Mondays and Fridays.

I absolutely agree. Mondays and Fridays are constituency days for everybody and, particularly for members who travel a long distance, meeting then would take up the whole of the day.

We could meet at lunch times, which would be more convenient for members. Are there any group meetings at a lunch time?

There is one on a Tuesday lunch time.

There are group meetings on Wednesday lunch time as well, convener.

Oh, that is ours, yes. I forgot about that.

What about Thursday?

Thursday lunch time after First Minister’s questions?

Yes.

That seems fine.

I thank Kevin Stewart for reminding me about the group meeting and showing up that I do not always go.

A Thursday lunchtime meeting would necessarily have to be after members’ business, but we can be more flexible, if somebody is not in members’ business—[Interruption.] We cannot. We have to fix it. It has to be after members’ business on Thursdays.

How much time does that leave us for any particular meeting? Is it just a little more than an hour?

We would normally have an hour and 15 minutes then because the Parliament would normally start at 2.30 on a Thursday afternoon.

We might just have to be flexible, but I am concerned that, when we are taking evidence from external witnesses, that might not give us very long.

Yes, it is really a case of suck it and see. There might be occasions when it is easy to finish within an hour and there might be others on which something comes out of the woodwork and we want to go on. I appreciate that members may have commitments in the chamber, so we will have to see how we do.

I presume that the fixing of a time does not preclude you from advancing the start time as long as there is notification.

It is like the Justice Committee. We usually start at 10 o’clock but we advanced it to 9.30. However, we will try to have some kind of structure. We will start at 1.15 on Thursday lunch times. [Interruption.] It is all right, I am taking my time.

Who is driving this bus?

The clerk is.

The next matter is the frequency of meetings. We have to take a view about how frequently we want to meet.

Again, it is a case of suck it and see. The sub-committee may have to meet regularly to begin with and may then ease off. I am happy to be flexible about that. We just have to wait and see.

Are members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

I ask members to note the relationship that the sub-committee will have with other committees, which is set out in paper 3. We are invited to follow the Justice Committee’s suggested approach regarding working in a consensual and non-partisan manner.

Members who have come from other committees, such as the Local Government and Regeneration Committee and the Equal Opportunities Committee, bring information and experience from those committees to the sub-committee and will, I hope, report back—that is the aim, if it is agreeable. Three of us, of course, have come directly from the Justice Committee, but Margaret Mitchell, Kevin Stewart and John Finnie have come from other committee pools.

I am a parliamentary representative. Kevin Stewart is representing the Local Government and Regeneration Committee and I am the political representation to ensure that there is an equal balance. That is my understanding.

We will be flexible about it. I was thinking about the expertise that you all have from your different committees. You do not have anything like a badge on. It is just that you have other things to contribute. As he is on both the Justice Committee and the Equal Opportunities Committee, John Finnie can bring other issues to the discussion that we might otherwise miss. Is that all right?

Absolutely.

Do members agree to discuss other issues on the working practices at our next meeting, given that we are just constituting ourselves today?

Members indicated agreement.