Education and Culture Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Official Report 501KB pdf

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Decision on Taking Business in Private

Item 2 is to decide whether to take item 7, under which we will consider our approach to our new inquiry into taking children into care, in private. That item will involve a discussion about the groups that we want to take oral evidence from and other matters. Are members content to take item 7 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Before we move to item 3, I want to provide members with some information. We invited the BBC to attend the committee and provide oral evidence on the BBC Scotland jobs and finance cuts, but both the head of BBC Scotland and the new head of the BBC in the United Kingdom have declined our invitation to do so. They said that they have nothing to add to previous evidence that they have given.

I am extremely disappointed by the BBC’s response. Given that the job losses were announced after the BBC’s previous appearance at the committee, I would have expected our invitation to have been accepted, but the BBC has made it clear that it does not wish to attend.