Welfare Reform Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, February 23, 2012

Official Report 292KB pdf

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Interests

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Welfare Reform Committee’s first meeting. I note that the committee is very young. [Laughter.] I remind everyone to switch off their mobile phones and any other electronic devices if they have not already done so.

Agenda item 1 is the declaration of interests. In accordance with section 3 of the code of conduct for members of the Scottish Parliament, I invite members to declare any interests that are relevant to the committee’s remit. I remind members that any declaration should be brief but sufficiently detailed to make clear to any listener the nature of the interest.

I will start, then we will go round the table. The only interest that I will declare is my long association with the citizens advice bureau service. I had 20-odd years’ association with it and I was a director of Citizens Advice Scotland.

I am a member of the GMB, which organises in areas that are connected with welfare reform and has a wide interest in it. The only other declaration that might be worth making is that I am the convener of the cross-party group on disability, which covers a lot of relevant areas. I work closely with a number of organisations that have made and will make representations on the Welfare Reform Bill.

The only interests that I need to declare are that I am a member of the Scottish steering committee of the people’s charter—I do not know whether it will comment on the bill, but it might—and I am a lapsed member of the Poverty Alliance, although I intend to rejoin, and I expect that it will have an interest in the matters that we discuss.

I have inspected my entry in the register of members’ interests and I do not believe that I have any relevant interests that I need to declare.

The first relevant interest that I will declare is that I am a member of the Law Society of Scotland and a holder of a current practising certificate, which will expire in October this year. I mention that in case issues that concern access to justice and legal aid arise down the line. My only other relevant interest is that I am a deputy convener of the cross-party group on disability.

My only relevant interests are in the voluntary section of my entry in the register of interests. They are my membership of GMB Scotland and of Unite the Union and my previous membership of the general council of the Scottish Trades Union Congress. All those organisations might submit evidence to us. I should also say that I am a member of my local housing association, which is Queens Cross Housing Association in Glasgow.

I will be a member of Aberdeen City Council until 3 May. I am also a member of Unison—I say that in case that comes up.