Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Official Report 317KB pdf

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Interests

Good morning. I open the 16th meeting of the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee this year. I remind all those present that mobile phones, BlackBerrys and any other electronic devices should be switched off for the duration of the meeting.

We have apologies from Claire Baker, who is unable to join the committee this morning.

Item 1 is a declaration of interests. We have lost a committee member, Aileen Campbell, who has gone to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee. I am sure that all committee members wish her well.

The new member of our committee is Alasdair Allan. I welcome him, and I hope that he finds our work interesting and stimulating. I invite him to declare any interests that he may have.

Thank you for your welcome, convener. The only interests that I have to declare are mentioned in my entry in the register of interests. They relate to my membership of various cultural organisations, none of which involves any financial gain for me, although I should mention that I got tickets to the Hebridean Celtic festival in Stornoway, and the National Trust for Scotland found a way of getting me to the remoter parts of my constituency in St Kilda by helicopter.

Thank you for that declaration.