Justice and Home Affairs Committee,
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 30, 2000
Official Report
226KB pdf
Scottish Parliament Justice and Home Affairs Committee Tuesday 30 May 2000 (Morning)
[The Convener opened the meeting at 09:45]
I call the meeting to order. One or two members have still to arrive, but we are quorate, so we will get started and try to keep the meeting on time—in so far as that is possible.
I ask the committee to agree to meet in private at our next meeting on 7 June, to consider a draft stage 1 report on the Bail, Judicial Appointments etc (Scotland) Bill, as is our normal practice for draft reports.
Members indicated agreement.
The clerk has reminded me that I should say something about the Parliamentary Bureau meeting last Tuesday. There was a bit of a mix-up with diaries, and I was not aware that I was meant to be at the meeting, so I was called there at the last minute. The bureau was discussing the timetabling for the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill at stage 2 and for the Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill, the next member's bill, which has been referred to us as lead committee.
I indicated to the bureau that while we accepted that we had to take the Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill, I was perhaps a little less happy about taking the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill at stage 2, because I thought that other committees could have taken it. For stage 1 of the Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill—as with stage 2 of the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill—I indicated that there is little point in the bureau expecting us to have achieved anything until at least the end of September.
I have negotiated the end of October for the Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. Basically, I have said that, with the amount of work that we are doing, there is not much point in pretending that we can go any faster than that. That is not to say that we will not try—if gaps become available—to pull things forward, but I have tried to negotiate the longest possible time for us for both the bills.
We have received no apologies for absence, so I will go straight to agenda item 1, which is a decision to take another item in private. In this case, it is item 5, which concerns the revised draft report on the budget process. Usually, I would have asked for agreement on that at our previous meeting, but I forgot. Do we agree to take item 5 in private, as is our usual practice for such reports?
Members indicated agreement.