Rural Development Committee, 30 Oct 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Official Report 311KB pdf

---

Fur Farming (Prohibition) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2001 of the Rural Development Committee. I am delighted that there is such interest in the subordinate legislation on foot-and-mouth disease that is on our agenda this afternoon. We look forward to discussing that under item 2. I ask members and the public to ensure that mobile phones have been switched off.

Item 1 on our agenda is consideration of the Fur Farming (Prohibition) (Scotland) Bill. Members will know that the bill was introduced on 5 October. We have been designated as the lead committee for stage 1 of the bill and will report on its general principles. We have before us a paper from the clerks outlining options for dealing with the stage 1 inquiry. Members should have received a copy of the bill, accompanying documents, a research note prepared by the Scottish Parliament information centre and a full copy of all replies to the consultation that the Scottish Executive undertook before it introduced the bill.

I can update members on one point. The Parliamentary Bureau will not discuss a proposed timetable for the bill until 6 November.

The clerks' paper explains the committee's obligations at stage 1 and notes possible approaches that we can take to gathering evidence. Does any member have comments or questions at this stage?

I thank the clerks for putting the material together. It seemed to me that there was a degree of consensus in the responses to the consultation, although positions were clearly polarised in a couple of those responses. Whatever the committee does, it should take oral evidence from supporters of those positions and from the Executive before producing a report. I do not think that it would be helpful at this stage for us to seek further written evidence.

Some of the proposals that relate to the written evidence that was submitted to the Executive are not included in the bill as published. Members may want to ask the organisations that responded to the consultation whether they have anything to add, within a fairly short time scale. We could then draw up a list of those organisations from which we wanted to take oral evidence.

I would have no difficulty with that. It would be unhelpful if we were to start the whole process off again, but asking organisations whether they have any additional points to make would be helpful. I suggest that we limit oral evidence to one evidence-taking session, at which all views can be presented clearly.

I could not agree more. If members have no further comments, I will attempt to sum up. We are not obliged to seek further evidence, but following Cathy Jamieson's comments I suggest that we agree to option (a) in paragraph 2 of the section entitled "Summary" in the clerks' paper. The recommendation is that we seek supplementary written submissions on the bill as introduced only

"from those who replied to the Scottish Executive consultation".

I or any other volunteer could act as a reporter on the written evidence and advise the committee on the organisations from which we would want to take oral evidence. Does that find favour with members?

Members indicated agreement.

Are members happy that I should act as reporter?

Members indicated agreement.

I did not sense that there were other volunteers.