I invite colleagues to agree to discuss agenda items 4 and 5 in private.
On item 4, I know that it is normal for us to consider committee reports in private. Given that other committees have agreed the reports that we will consider, why must we discuss item 4 in private? We do not have a draft of our own report before us.
Although the reports have been submitted to us, they have not been published and so are not in the public domain. A discussion about them now—before they have been published—would not have a great deal of meaning for any people attending the meeting or reading the deliberations. The reports will be published in the fullness of time with our reports. We are following the practice that we have followed in the past; there is nothing secretive about it.
I feel as Alasdair Morgan does. We always scrutinise reports in private and the reason the convener gave for doing so might be valid; that the committees concerned have not yet published the reports and the reports are therefore not in the public domain. However, our discussion about the reports should be in the public domain.
I am in the committee's hands. I say merely that in the past we have not gone public with such discussions until the committee reports are published. As people will be aware, committees submit their reports to us, but those reports do not emerge into the public domain until we submit our report, the annexes of which are all the other committees' reports.
It is important to raise the issue for the future. Perhaps in this case, if another committee were under the illusion that its report to us would be discussed in private, we should show them the courtesy of not publicising it. Alasdair Morgan raised an important issue that we can consider for next year.
That is an important point. It might be discourteous for us to make our discussion of the report public without telling the committee that sent the report to us. In future we should say to the committees that our discussions of their reports will be in the public domain.
I am keen that the maximum of the committee's discussions should be in public—the clerks will tell members that from time to time I question whether items need to be discussed in private. I am very much in tune with what Alasdair Morgan says.