Official Report 298KB pdf
Good morning, everyone. I welcome you to the 29th meeting of the Justice 1 Committee in 2004. I apologise for the late start, which is due to some essential preliminary matters that we had to attend to. I apologise to the minister and his team for keeping them waiting—it was absolutely necessary, I am afraid. I ask members to do the usual and switch off things that could possibly interrupt the meeting. I have received apologies from Margaret Smith, who will not be able to join us today. However, we will be joined at some point by her substitute, Mike Pringle, as soon as he has finished his present engagement.
I have made a declaration of my interests in the usual way. None of those, nor anything else, bears upon the matters that the committee considers.