Equal Opportunities Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Official Report
366KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011 (Commencement) Order 2011 (SSI 2011/352)
Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the sixth meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee in the fourth session of the Parliament. I remind everyone who is present, including members, that mobile phones and BlackBerrys should be turned off completely as they interfere with the sound system, even when they are switched to silent.
No apologies have been received.
Round the table we have Siobhan McMahon, Clare Adamson, John Finnie, Margaret Mitchell, Dennis Robertson, Stuart McMillan, and our budget adviser, Colin Lee. I am Claudia Beamish, the convener. We also have Douglas Thornton, clerk to the committee, Simon Wakefield from the Scottish Parliament information centre and colleagues from the official report. At the bottom of the table we have broadcasting and production services. We also have Debra Gourlay in support.
We welcome John Swinney and his officials. If they will bear with us, we must deal with one item on the agenda. I do not imagine that it will be very long and then we can come to the important item on the budget.
The first item of business is to consider the commencement order. I refer members to paper EO/S4/11/6/1, which explains that the order is not subject to any parliamentary procedure other than to be noted by the lead committee. The committee is therefore invited to note the order. Are we agreed?
Members indicated agreement.