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The third item on our agenda is consideration of a paper by the clerks on the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill. The paper indicates that the expert working group that we had anticipated would report in the autumn will not complete its work for some time. For that reason, it is necessary for the committee to apply to the Parliamentary Bureau for an extension of its timetable for consideration of the member's bill to 30 April 2005. The member in charge of the bill has been consulted and is comfortable with an extension of the timetable, as it would be of considerable advantage to the committee to have an opportunity to consider properly the report of the expert working group before completing its stage 1 report on the bill. Are members content to make such an application to the Parliamentary Bureau?
I understand that the United Kingdom Government has recently commented on this issue and has made some proposals. It would be useful if the Scottish Parliament information centre could provide us with some information on those proposals, as the background has changed since we began to consider the bill. Perhaps SPICe could produce a summary of what is happening at UK Government level.
A few months ago the Home Secretary commented on this issue. It would be appropriate for us to seek a briefing on the matter.
Meeting continued in private until 16:12.
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Transport (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1