Standards and Public Appointments Committee, 22 Mar 2005

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Official Report 159KB pdf

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Cross-party Group

Good morning. I welcome everyone to the committee's third meeting in 2005 and remind members that all mobile phones should be switched off.

Before we discuss item 1, I acknowledge the work that has been done by Catherine Scott, our legal adviser, who has moved on to greater things, and I welcome Mark Richards, our new legal adviser. I also thank Franck David for his work as part of the committee's clerking team and I welcome Ross Dickson to his new role in the clerking team.

I welcome Bristow Muldoon for item 1. I hope that we will see more of our cross-party groups coming together and being renamed. Members have the committee paper before them. Do you want to say anything to the committee, Bristow?

I will be brief. Our reasons for wanting to make this move are set out in the paper. There is a recognition that the issues that the cross-party group on strategic rail services for Scotland previously dealt with overlapped considerably with issues regarding other forms of transport and the work of another cross-party group. We want to look at sustainable transport systems in the broadest sense, as do many members of the current cross-party group on cycling, who would join the new cross-party group if it was approved by the committee. Unless members have any questions, I propose that the committee approves the move that I have set out in the paper that we have submitted.

Do any members wish to ask questions?

I endorse this sensible move. There are many cross-party groups and we are all over-extended. In the previous session, I was a member of the cross-party group on cycling but I could not find the time to support it. I thoroughly approve of this move.

Can Bristow Muldoon give us some idea of how the cross-party group on cycling might be integrated into the new group?

There have been informal discussions between myself, Karen Whitefield MSP, who is the convener of the cross-party group on strategic rail services in Scotland, and Mark Ruskell, who is the current convener of the cross-party group on cycling. Mark Ruskell supports a move in this direction. At the previous meeting of the cross-party group on strategic rail services in Scotland, we agreed a new set of office bearers; however, we would be comfortable about revisiting that to ensure that former members of the cross-party group on cycling could become office bearers of the new cross-party group if it was approved. We would also welcome members of the Parliament and others who have attended the CPG on cycling to the new group, and we would endeavour to ensure that cycling issues were addressed as part of the new group's programme of work.

I am sure that I speak for the committee in welcoming this move. It will have our approval, and we will write to you formally to say so. Thank you for coming along today.

Thank you.