Subordinate Legislation Committee, 25 Mar 2003

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Official Report 85KB pdf

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Legacy Paper

Just before we wind up, I thank, on behalf of all the members, everyone who has supported the committee and I particularly thank the committee clerk, Alasdair Rankin, for the legacy paper. The committee has conferred on the paper, but Alasdair is the one who put the work into it.

We would like to add to our legacy paper, with members' permission, paragraph 366 of the Procedures Committee's report, which seems to endorse the comments in our legacy paper. The paragraph states:

"our successors in the next Parliament should review all aspects of legislation, including subordinate legislation. In the case of subordinate legislation, we note that the current system is wholly derived from the Westminster model and was established for this Parliament through the means of a Transitional Order in the Scotland Act 1998. We recommend that the next Parliament should take the necessary steps to replace the Transitional Order with primary legislation to establish subordinate legislation procedures fit for the purposes of this Parliament."

I think that that recommendation simply endorses what we said. The job of producing a process for subordinate legislation that is fit for the purposes of the Scottish Parliament will not fall to this committee, but to the next Parliament and the next Subordinate Legislation Committee.

With that, I thank you for your attendance.

Convener, may we express our tremendous thanks to our legal adviser, Margaret Macdonald, and her team?

Indeed, yes.

Our committee could not function without Margaret and we should put on record that that is so. We lean heavily on her. We have done so from the beginning and our successor committee will do so again. I dread to think what would have happened if Margaret had had a serious absence from work for any reason. I think that we would have been floundering.

It is entirely fitting that you should say so, Ian, because you are the only one who has been a member of the committee since its inauguration.

Since Adam was a lad.

Just as we have leant on Margaret MacDonald, I have leant on you, Ian, and have much appreciated your support and help, when it has been required.

Can I say, as a new boy, that although I did not volunteer to be a member of the Subordinate Legislation Committee—as I suspect many of the rest of the committee did not—nonetheless, in personal terms it has been a pleasure to be here. The committee has been well and amiably conducted by you, Convener. Despite members' fundamental differences of political opinion, we have all mucked in to what is a pretty gory task, from my point of view.

We have disposed of the scabby sheep.

We have produced the goods for the Parliament. I thank the convener.

Well said.

I record my admiration for the support from the clerks and the legal adviser. I thank the convener for convening the committee in a way that lightened the heavy burden that is the lot of the Subordinate Legislation Committee.

Specifically, convener, we have to record our thanks to you for conducting business efficiently and with good humour.

Thank you, Murdo. Once I had got over the terrible shock, I did enjoy convening the committee. I do not know about anybody else, but I have learned a great deal from being on the committee and that is always a bit of a pleasure. Sometimes, in the wee small hours of the morning when I was ploughing through the work of the last month, I had to keep reminding myself that it was good for me and good for the soul, and that ultimately, the Parliament just would not work unless we dealt with the subordinate legislation.

On that note, I bring the committee to an end and invite everyone to enjoy a small celebration of our wonderful work over the past four years—thank you.

Meeting closed at 11:34.