Official Report 402KB pdf
That would reflect the view of the committee and the work that is on-going.
Yes, that would be useful. We had a brief, informal chat before the meeting and agreed that gathering more information on that case would complement our on-going work. That has been requested, and we will get up-to-date information on that.
Of course it is.
In the section on equal pay, given the amount of work that we have done, the fact that we seem to be no further forward and the fact that no one seems to be able to see a way to get us further forward, I wonder whether it is worth adding the line, “The committee remains concerned about the protracted nature of this issue,” or words to that effect.
I do not have any problem with the text of the report; I just want to flag up something in the context of equal pay. Members may have heard about the Birmingham case. I heard about it on the radio, but I did not fully understand it. Some people said that it could cost the council £30 million; others made extrapolations and said that it could cost £600 million—I assume that they meant if the same guidelines applied to other councils. The matter does not have to be referred to in the report. However, given the fact that we are awaiting further information following our evidence session last month, it would be useful to get some information on the case and whether there is an implication for Scotland. The numbers that are being bandied about are horrendously high.
Thank you. We now move to item 3, which will be taken in private.
Item 2 is consideration of our draft annual report for the parliamentary year 9 May 2009 to 8 May 2010. As the clerk’s note says, the report is set out in the standard format, with which we are all familiar. I invite members to agree the draft report.
I would like to suggest a change, if that is possible.
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Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1