Procedures Committee, 24 Jan 2006
Meeting date: Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Official Report
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Scottish Parliament Procedures Committee Tuesday 24 January 2006
[The Convener opened the meeting at 10:18]
As our non-committee colleagues are not here yet, I suggest that we change the order in which we take items on the agenda.
First, however, I point out that members have received a piece of paper that describes changes to the committee's support structure. Andrew Mylne will have a month off because his wife is having a baby. He will be replaced temporarily by Jennifer Smart, who is the clerk to the Standards and Public Appointments Committee. Jane McEwan is moving on to the very important position of senior private secretary in the Presiding Officer's office, giving us a friend at court. We thank Jane for her contribution to the committee's work and wish her good luck in her new position. She will be replaced by Mary Dinsdale, who is here today.
Members may have been expecting to interview somebody from the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. That hope emerged at our previous meeting. We have conveyed our concerns in writing and orally to the SPCB, but we have not yet received an official reply as to whether it will give us oral or written evidence. We will pursue that, and I hope that we can bring issues on Crown appointments to a close at the next meeting.
Did we not ask for oral evidence? My reading of the minutes of the last meeting is that the committee did not think that those matters could be resolved by exchanging bits of paper. An invitation to appear, as opposed to an invitation to engage in correspondence, is on offer.
That is correct. Although it is open to the SPCB to say, "Sorry, we do not want to appear before the committee, but here is our view," it has definitely been invited to appear. I took the opportunity to speak informally to a member of the SPCB and an official to explain what we are on about, so they are slightly clearer about that.
Is it agreed to move to item 2 while we wait for our colleagues?
Members indicated agreement.