Item 8 is our annual report. I draw members’ attention to paper 4, to which the draft report is attached. Members will be aware that it is a requirement that we report to the Parliament on the extent and nature of our activities during the previous year. The report before us is reasonably straightforward. I know that members will have gone through it in their usual manner. Is there any need for me to go through each paragraph seriatim?
I want to make a minor and, I hope, agreeable change to the drafting of paragraph 1. I request that the end of the paragraph is changed to read “an inquiry into the Scottish Government’s decision to agree to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s application for compassionate release.” I believe that that would be more factual than the existing phrase, which refers to
Yes.
Sorry, what was the suggestion?
Do you want me to read it again?
Yes.
The end of the last sentence of paragraph 1 would read “an inquiry into the Scottish Government’s decision to agree to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s application for compassionate release.”
I think I agree with that. However, the inquiry was not really into the decision but into the process of the decision, was it not? Perhaps that is getting a bit too subtle.
You are right. We inquired into not the decision but the process. That could be changed.
The end of the paragraph would therefore read “the process surrounding the decision to agree to the application for compassionate release in respect of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.”
Yes.
Is everybody quite relaxed about that?
Forgive me, but it was not actually the Scottish Government’s decision; it was a ministerial decision. Should the phrase not be “the cabinet secretary’s decision”? The decision was made by a person, not by the Government. Sorry—I do not think that it actually matters.
The legislation provided for it to be a Government decision, but it was in fact taken by the minister.
Okay. In that case, I am happy. If that is what the legislation says, that is fine.
Right. I think that that has tidied it up.
What have we agreed? Is the wording “an inquiry into the process surrounding the Scottish Government’s decision to agree to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds”?
The final phrase is “undertaking an inquiry into the process surrounding the Scottish Government’s decision to agree to the application for compassionate release by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.” There being no other points, is that agreed?
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