Official Report 420KB pdf
09:30
Agenda item 2 is consideration of legislative consent memorandum LCM-S7-5, and supplementary legislative consent memorandums LCM-S7-5a and LCM-S7-5b, in relation to the Commercial Payments Bill, which is UK legislation.
Do members have any comments?
I have looked at the LCM, and I note that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has raised concerns about financial, commercial and operational implications, and aspects of the wider bill, for local authorities. I was not aware of the content of COSLA’s concern or whether it had shared that publicly.
I think that it would be worth writing to the Scottish Government to ask why it stated that it would not alter its assessment of the amendments. It is about considering whether COSLA’s concerns had any relation to the devolved competence of the parliamentary obligations under the Commercial Payments Bill.
I would like to write to the Scottish Government and to COSLA if that is possible, please.
We can take an action to write to the Scottish Government and COSLA about those concerns.
I agree with what Rachael Hamilton said on that point. I am particularly keen to see what the difference, in relation to phasing out construction retentions, means in terms of protection for public agencies if there are defective or incomplete works.
Okay. Are there any other comments?
For clarity, and for the record, I take it that the committee is suggesting that we write to the Government and to COSLA and that we hold our consideration of the motion until we have had responses back.
Yes, that is correct. I understand that we have time to get letters back, and then we can approve the motion at a later meeting.
As there are no further comments, that concludes our business on agenda item 2. It also concludes today’s public business.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 10 November, when we will consider an affirmative instrument as well as a draft report on the committee’s pre-budget scrutiny.
09:32
Meeting continued in private until 11:04.