Education, Culture and Sport Committee,
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Official Report
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Scottish Parliament Education, Culture and Sport Committee Tuesday 7 May 2002 (Afternoon)
[The Deputy Convener opened the meeting at 14:34]
Good afternoon, and welcome to this meeting of the Scottish Parliament Education, Culture and Sport Committee. I ask that everyone ensure that all mobile telephones and pagers are turned off.
I welcome Cathy Peattie, who is a committee substitute. She is here on behalf of the Labour party. I also welcome Tommy Sheridan, who is sponsor of the bill that we will consider later. In accordance with standing orders, he is able to participate in this afternoon's meeting. If that is okay with committee members, we will accept that.
This will be my last meeting as deputy convener, and I thank my colleagues for the adulation that I have received. The Parliament still has to determine whether the announcements made by the First Minister at the weekend will be implemented, so it is perhaps premature to make a judgment, but I think that it is sensible for this to be my final meeting, given the time commitment that we are making to the sponsors of the School Meals (Scotland) Bill and members for dealing with the bill at stage 1. Given the post that I may well be fulfilling, I do not intend to ask any specific questions this afternoon, as I think that that would be inappropriate. Some of the issues that we will be discussing today may emerge later in the context of ministerial decisions.
I offer my congratulations. Despite the political differences, I think that all of us on the committee have enjoyed working with you, and I think that you have made a strong and distinguished contribution to the committee in your time as deputy convener and as acting convener.
I am grateful for your assurance about the propriety of your contribution to the meeting. I know that the meeting could not have taken place without your attendance, owing to the rather odd nature of our standing orders. A motion to appoint a junior Scottish minister will not be considered by the Parliament until tomorrow—whatever that motion turns out to be will be a surprise to us, of course—and might well be opposed and defeated, so it is still quite appropriate for you to chair the meeting. I am glad that you have recognised the circumstances at the start of the meeting, so that there is no question of a conflict of interest.
You leave the committee with our good wishes and, I have to say, some reluctance on our part to see you go.
Thank you very much. Even I am modest at such moments.