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Agenda item 6 is consideration of correspondence from the Local Government and Transport Committee and from the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform in relation to widening access to participation. As members will be aware, we agreed at our away day to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the widening access to council membership progress group by writing to the Local Government and Transport Committee and to the Scottish Executive. Their responses have been circulated for today's meeting. Would members like to comment on the responses?
We are so close to the election that there is no time for us to do anything else, but I am a bit disappointed that the Local Government and Transport Committee decided not to involve political parties, because in most cases political parties make the selections. We will see after the elections what impact the group's recommendations have had, but I think that we will be very disappointed. I hope that the Equal Opportunities Committee will raise the issue in its legacy paper, because I think that the results of the May 2007 council elections will be extremely disappointing in respect of gender equality.
I agree. The issue is not within our remit, but within the remit of the Local Government and Transport Committee. However, I have concerns that the equalities agenda will get lost in the elections and that the gender, age and ethnicity profile of elected members will remain the same. We had an opportunity to deal with those issues, but I agree with Marlyn Glen that that requires working with political parties, which have a particular role to play in ensuring that there is a greater ethnic mix in the Parliament and in dealing with issues relating to gender and age. It is difficult for us to comment, but if the parties are not involved we will not bring about the kind of change that is necessary. We will have to wait and see what happens in the local government elections, but we should put our views on the record. Are members content for us to write to the Local Government and Transport Committee to express our concerns?
Is there any legislation that we can enforce?
No.
Meeting suspended until 11:06 and thereafter continued in private until 12:00.
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