Justice 1 Committee, 25 Mar 2003
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Official Report
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Convener's Report
Welcome to the eighth meeting this year of the Justice 1 Committee. I remind members to turn off mobile phones and pagers.
The report on the inquiry into alternatives to custody was published on 21 March. I advise members that the Deputy Minister for Justice has responded to our request for clarification of points in relation to the draft Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) Order 2003. The relevant committee document is J1/03/8/10.
We have received a letter from Scottish Women's Aid—that letter is before the committee as J1/03/8/9—thanking the committee for its work on the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 and on furthering of the rights of women, children and young people who experience domestic abuse. I think that that legislation was one of the first committee bills that the Scottish Parliament dealt with. Committee bills are an example of the great benefits that derive from the Parliament's practices and procedures.
The Sheltered Retirement Housing Owners Confederation has also written a letter—J1/03/8/6—thanking the committee for its assistance in highlighting the problems that are faced by the owners of sheltered and retirement housing and for supporting its suggested amendments to the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill. Again, another advantage of our system is demonstrated by the fact that, on that issue, members of other committees were able to come to make submissions to this committee.