Official Report 269KB pdf
[The Convener opened the meeting at 09:35]
On a point of order. Yesterday, there was an announcement on Scottish Opera, but to my knowledge, none of the committee members has been provided with a copy of it. The announcement is obviously germane to our questioning and it was recorded in last week's Official Report that we wanted to ask about the matter.
I am not sure that that is a point of order, but I am happy to ask that copies be circulated to members. The minister might refer to it when she is speaking.
There has been tremendous speculation about tickets for the England v Scotland game. Can I clarify that we will be able to ask questions about that when we deal with the Hampden project later?
When we reach the Hampden project on the agenda, you can raise that point.
On a point of order. Is it in order, as this is the last meeting of the committee before the two Scotland v England games, for us to send our warmest best wishes to the Scotland team?
Yes, but that is not a point of order. Can members please remember not to make points of order that are not points of order?
May I raise a genuine point of order?
You may, if it is genuine.
At an earlier meeting, you ruled that no item on the agenda would deal with any other competent business because all matters that we want to raise should be clearly noted on the agenda. If that is the case, when would it be appropriate to raise matters that did not come to light early enough to be placed on the agenda?
I am loth to give a cut-off point. The advice I gave was that, almost right up to the beginning of the meeting, members could notify me or the clerk about issues that had arisen and we would try to put them on the agenda.
I understood that the reason for the ruling was that agendas had to be published. I do not see how that is consistent with a rule that says that items can be placed on the agenda up to the moment when the meeting starts. That would still prevent the public from being aware of what would come up at the meeting.
I meant that members could notify me as late as a day before the meeting, not five minutes before.
That is slightly different from what you said earlier, which suggested that, if matters arose that a member wanted to discuss, there would be no way to do so other than by a point of order.
There is no agenda item called any other competent business. That is because items have to be advertised as being on the agenda. I try to be flexible and let members raise matters at the beginning of meetings. However, if something is not a point of order, please do not try to disguise it as one. If members have legitimate questions, I will take them.
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