Health Committee, 21 Jun 2005
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Official Report
120KB pdf
Petitions (Consideration)
Item 7 on the agenda is consideration of petitions generally. A paper that proposes criteria for the consideration of new petitions has been circulated. I invite the committee to examine the paper and to consider whether to take into account some or all of the criteria in considering petitions that are referred to the committee in the future and, as standard, to conclude consideration of a petition at the point at which the committee agrees to undertake specific work on the petition. Another paper that will reflect the discussion will be drafted for agreement at a later date, should that be required.
The paper contains recommendations and a series of criteria for the consideration of petitions, which take up a considerable part of the paper. As the committee is being invited to take into account some of or all the criteria, I wonder whether we might go through the suggested criteria to ensure that committee members are content that each of the suggested criteria is valid.
The criterion of existing workload is an absolute must. We cannot do otherwise than consider our existing workload when we decide on what to do with petitions. The criterion of existing priorities concerns whether the petition would, in effect, reorder any priorities that we have already set out. The criterion that we should avoid duplication is sensible and the criteria of avoiding repetition and identifying strategic issues came out of our deliberations a few weeks ago, when we closed discussion on a number of petitions. It seemed that there were some common themes to those petitions; if we can identify common themes, it is better for the committee to consider those strategic ideas, if possible. The final criterion, of identifying outcomes, suggests that we should be clear right at the beginning what we wish to achieve instead of starting on an open-ended basis with none of us being very sure about what we want to achieve.
Does any member wish to comment? Should we not include any of the criteria?
The criteria are all pretty sensible. It is a matter of practicality. When we receive a petition, would it be ranked against the criteria?
Yes. The plan is that a petition will come to us with a recommendation on the basis of the criteria that we have agreed in advance.
Fine—I am happy with that.
It is important that we all agree on the criteria. If there is any strong feeling that any are not appropriate, we need to make that clear now. Is everybody happy?
Members indicated agreement.
Okay. Do members also agree to conclude consideration of any petition having agreed the approach based on the criteria?
Members indicated agreement.
Thank you. That ends the business in public. I ask members of the public please to leave the committee room.
Meeting continued in private until 15:01.