Finance Committee, 15 Jan 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Official Report 94KB pdf

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Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill

Under agenda item 2, the clerk will give us an update on the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill. A paper on the bill has been circulated to members, and I invite David McGill to comment on it.

The paper is pretty self-explanatory. Members will notice that the time scales for dealing with the budget bill are tight. Most current members of the committee have not yet dealt with a budget bill. To add to what is set out in the paper, it is worth pointing out that, at stage 1, the budget bill is referred immediately to the Parliament for a decision on its general principles and there is no direct involvement by the committee.

The first time that the committee deals with the bill is at stage 2. We felt it worth while highlighting the proposed handling of the bill now, because the committee will be asked to consider the bill at stage 2 at its next meeting. Rather than going straight to the formal proceedings—which might, because of the way in which budget bills are handled, be quite brief—we have asked the Minister for Finance and Local Government to attend that meeting to speak to the budget bill in general. Members will be able to question the minister on the budget bill's content before we begin the stage 2 proceedings.

I am happy to answer any questions.

If members have no questions, I presume that they are content with the proposed handling of the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill.

Members indicated agreement.

We will see what members think about the bill's content when it comes up for discussion.