Audit Committee, 14 Sep 2004
Meeting date: Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Official Report
200KB pdf
Items in Private
I ask all members to place their cards in the console in front of them. They do not have to do anything else; the system will work perfectly well after that. The cards have to be in the console for identification purposes.
Is that in case we forget who we are?
No, it is in case other people do not know who you are, but we all know that everyone knows who you are, George.
Welcome to the 15th meeting in 2004 of the Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee. It is nice to be in such a beautiful committee room, which I am sure will be witness to many important decisions that this committee and others take. I make the usual announcement about pagers, mobile phones, wristwatches that make a noise and so on: they should be turned off or silent. I welcome members of the public and media to the meeting. I have received apologies for early departure from Rhona Brankin.
We have a full agenda, but at 11 o'clock we will observe a minute's silence for the victims at Beslan. I will remind members as we approach that time. I also intend us to have a comfort break at some point. It will depend on the progress of the meeting but it may be most appropriate to have that break as we go into private session.
The first item on our agenda is to consider whether to take items 7, 8 and 9 in private. In item 7, the committee will consider its approach to the report by the Auditor General for Scotland entitled "Scottish Enterprise: Account management services to high-growth businesses"; in item 8, the committee will consider a first draft of our report on our inquiry into "Better equipped to care? Follow-up report on managing medical equipment"; and in item 9, the committee will consider its approach to the report by the Auditor General entitled "An overview of the performance of the NHS in Scotland". I may add that when we come to discuss those items, I will probably take items 7 and 9 first, because they will be discussions of what our work commitment might be and it will make sense to take them one after the other. I will then take item 8—the consideration of our draft report—last. Do members agree that we should take items 7, 8 and 9 in private?
Members indicated agreement.