Justice and Home Affairs Committee, 25 Jan 2000
Meeting date: Tuesday, January 25, 2000
Official Report
262KB pdf
Future Business
On 8 February, the next Tuesday for which a double meeting is planned, we may use the afternoon session to deal with non-bill matters such as the Carbeth hutters, prisons and domestic violence, the last of which will need to be addressed in some detail in the light of recent ministerial statements. We will give ministers early notice if we decide to do that.
The committee is coming under enormous pressure to meet outwith Edinburgh on Mondays. That poses some difficulties. There is pressure on Parliament to take up the slots that are available. As I discussed with the members who would be most affected, I made a tentative offer on behalf of the committee to move the afternoon session from Tuesday 8 February to Monday 7 February and to meet in Stirling. That arrangement has fallen through because of logistical problems that have nothing to do with us.
I have provisionally suggested that we meet in Glasgow on the afternoon of Monday 6 March, which would mean that, instead of our having an all-day meeting the following day, only the arrangements for Tuesday morning would stand. We are under enormous pressure to meet outside Edinburgh—it is unreasonable that we should be the only committee that does not do so.
I have considered the possible venues—Glasgow is easier than Edinburgh for more than half the members of the committee. Of the members who are not as assisted by Glasgow, the city is a neutral venue, in terms of travel time, for at least two or three. There are only one or two members for whom Glasgow imposes a greater burden in terms of travel. I ask those members to remember that some members of the committee have to bear that greater burden as a matter of course.
As I come from Dundee, it makes virtually no difference, in terms of the travelling involved, whether I go to Edinburgh or to Glasgow. If we meet outwith Edinburgh, there has to be some added value to it. The principle behind the consultative steering group's recommendation that committees meet elsewhere was to involve people in the democratic process. I do not see the added value, in terms of that principle, in meeting outwith Edinburgh if, when we do so, there are few people in the press and public galleries. I make a plea that, if we meet on a Monday, we try to ensure that committee meetings do not clash with meetings of the Equal Opportunities Committee. We discussed the problems—
Monday meetings would help you, in that respect.
They would, as long as the Equal Opportunities Committee was meeting on a Tuesday.
That is a slightly more difficult matter. Monday 6 March would allow you to attend an Equal Opportunities Committee meeting on 7 March—is that right?
I do not know, off hand.
If we agree to meet on Monday 6 March in Glasgow, the meeting would be for non-legislative matters. We would not ask the whole ministerial team and the Executive to traipse across the country, for precisely the reason that Kate mentions—there would be little added value in doing so. We would be discussing non-bill matters, which in our case I would expect to be equally applicable wherever we were meeting.
I repeat that there is a great deal of pressure on every committee of the Parliament to meet outside Edinburgh, not necessarily frequently, but at least on some kind of regular basis. It was not intended that we should make a special plea to go to a special area; the point was that, in effect, the whole of Scotland would have ownership of the committees and the Parliament. At the moment, the meeting in Glasgow on 6 March is only a proposal; if we were to go, that would have to be agreed by the conveners group and the bureau. It is not yet set in stone. I ask you at least to note that it is possible that we will meet in Glasgow on the afternoon of Monday 6 March.
We will be dealing with non-bill matters, which means that we are unlikely to be having votes all through the day. If some committee members felt that they could not make that meeting, no votes would be affected. We would put that proviso on such a meeting.
As with the meeting last week, the business bulletin will indicate the progress that we expect to make next week and the point in the bill beyond which we will commit ourselves not to go. Members should keep an eye on the business bulletin.
In Westminster, we moved the Scottish Grand Committee and the select committees around Scotland—when we went to some of the medium-sized towns in particular, a significant level of interest was engendered. At that point, we were used to capacity audiences. I would like to think that a visit to Glasgow might bring about that level of interest.
A quick question—is it Tuesday and Wednesday next week?
We are meeting on Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning next week.
With that—and rather earlier than we had expected—I draw this meeting to a close. Thank you for your forbearance.
Meeting closed at 12:04.