Environment and Rural Development Committee,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Official Report 73KB pdf

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Work Programme

Agenda item 2 is consideration of our work programme. I will go through the recommendations and, if anyone wants to comment as I do so, they should feel free to shout.

I ask members to note the likely timeframes for undertaking our work on Executive legislation. We will include the relevant dates in the minutes so that members of the public can see what those timescales are likely to be.

I also ask members to note our time commitments in relation to other business such as subordinate legislation, budget scrutiny, European matters and petitions. In particular, I highlight the fact that we will be seeking written comments from some key stakeholders on the piece of subordinate legislation on strategic environmental assessment. We must decide whether we want to request to take oral evidence from the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, once we have considered stakeholders' views. Are members happy to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

That makes sense.

I seek the committee's agreement that we extend the contract of our advisers for stage 2 of the budget process. That will allow us to go into that in depth. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you.

The next item for consideration is whether we as a committee want to respond formally to the United Kingdom Government's consultation on sustainable development, which should fit in nicely with our research on sustainable development. It would be good to put into the system any specifically Scottish conclusions. Do colleagues agree?

Members indicated agreement.

Next, I seek the committee's agreement to our making a bid for a parliamentary debate on our report on the implementation of common agricultural policy reform, once that report has been finalised and agreed to. Things will have moved on slightly by the time that such a debate takes place, as I imagine that it will be some time before we secure it, but it would be good to take our key conclusions to the Parliament and to let other members discuss them.

Would that debate take place this side of the recess?

No, it would be held after the recess. I do not think that our prospects of securing a debate this side of the recess would be great.

I thought that that would be ambitious.

The purpose of our consideration of the matter is to enable me to say, when a slot for a committee debate is offered at the Conveners Group, that the Environment and Rural Development Committee is very keen to take up the offer and to put in a bid for a debate.

I wager that that committee debate will be held on the first Wednesday back after the recess.

Put it in your diaries.

I suggest that we identify the size of the sums of money that will be involved. That will indicate to the Executive that the implementation of CAP reform is of some importance to the whole economy. We are talking about quite a lot of money. That might open doors to our getting a debate at an early stage, which is especially important if the situation is going to change.

The debate would be entirely an issue for the Parliament. The Conveners Group will decide which committees get the first couple of slots for committee debates and your point is probably not so much an issue for that group. I think that the big picture sums will be in our report.

Has the Executive indicated the timescale within which it is likely to respond to our report?

We know that the spending review takes place this summer and that that will have some impact on future spending on agriculture and the rural economy. Tracey Hawe would like to comment.

The standard timescale within which the Executive responds to committee reports is two months. That two-month period will run over the recess, so we should have the response by the end of the summer.

Thank you. Does the committee agree to seek a debate on our report on CAP reform?

Members indicated agreement.

I suggest that we seek an informal briefing from the Deer Commission for Scotland, to bring us up to speed on current issues. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Members know that we have had brief discussions with Aberdeen City Council about the possibility of a visit to Aberdeen, which would take place over a Monday and perhaps a Tuesday morning. That could coincide with a visit to Aberdeen by the UK Environmental Audit Committee. I will not seek agreement to our making a bid for funding from the Conveners Group until I have circulated details of a programme. I want to have a proper programme before I seek such permission.

Do we have any indication of what we would be talking about on that day?

Yes—I circulated a description of that to members.

I missed that.

About two or three bulletins ago, I circulated a copy of a letter from me to Aberdeen City Council about issues that we would be particularly interested in. If you have any questions about that, please come back to me afterwards.

Can we make some arrangements to speak to our colleagues in the National Assembly for Wales at some point after that?

That would make a lot of sense. We will ask Tracey Hawe to contact her opposite number in the Welsh Assembly about that.

The final issue is to decide whether to include in our work programme consideration of wider rural development issues and to ask the clerks to come back to us with a report that picks up some of the issues that I know members are keen to explore in relation to budget scrutiny. We need some suggestions on how we might do that in the next budget process. There is also the question of general scrutiny of rural development issues in the Parliament. Are members happy with that?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you.

We will ensure that information on the decisions that have been taken forms part of our minutes, so that people outside the committee can see what our future work programme is. That will enable them to get involved and to look out for our discussions.

At our last committee meeting, we agreed to hold discussion of two draft reports in private session.

Meeting continued in private until 12:39.