Official Report 289KB pdf
Environmental Impact Assessment and Natural Habitats (Extraction of Minerals by Marine Dredging) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/485)<br />Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Scotland) (No 6) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/494)
Plant Health (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2007 (SSI 2007/498)<br />Plant Health (Import Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/499)
Bee Diseases and Pests Control (Scotland) Order 2007 (SSI 2007/506)
Under agenda item 3, we have five negative Scottish statutory instruments for consideration: SSI 2007/485, which is on the extraction of minerals by marine dredging; SSI 2007/494, which is on foot-and-mouth disease; SSI 2007/498, which is an amendment order on plant health; SSI 2007/499, which is also on plant health; and SSI 2007/506, which is on the control of bee diseases and pests. No member has raised any concerns about the instruments and no motions to annul have been lodged. If committee members have no comments on or concerns about them, are we agreed to make no recommendation to the Parliament in relation to the instruments?
I was struck by the fact that we have a remit for environmental matters but the amount of paper that is attached to these SSIs is ridiculous. Would it be possible for the top sheet to be circulated to committee members and the rest to be put in the e-mailed version of the committee papers so that committee members can print them off if they feel that they would be useful?
We get the instruments in multiple hard copies anyway as part of the general system that we have with the Scottish Government, which applies to all instruments. We simply circulate those hard copies to members only. Other recipients of the committee papers do not get hard copies of the instruments. There would be no paper saved by not distributing the hard copies to members.
We will take that on board. Let us explore whether there are potential ways of doing what Karen Gillon suggests. It is a reasonable point to raise.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—
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