Environment and Rural Development Committee, 17 Sep 2003

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Official Report 259KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Environment and Rural Development Committee Wednesday 17 September 2003 (Morning)

[The Convener opened the meeting at 09:33]

I welcome members, witnesses, members of the press—if any are watching in their rooms—and members of the public, who are arriving as I speak.

Before we kick off, I advise members that it was brought to my attention that bits of papers were flying between members and people in the public gallery at our last meeting. I raised the matter at the Conveners Group, which will take up the issue and come up with guidance on whether such behaviour is permitted or not.

My view as convener is that it is pretty disruptive to have people flying around with bits of paper at meetings. I did not want to interrupt last week's meeting and make an issue of the matter at that time; rather, I wanted to reflect on it. I will return to the matter but I think that, as a general principle, we should not pass information backwards and forwards at meetings. All the papers are in front of us, so we should just get on with our work.

Are you likely to ban mobile phones, with which people can text each other just like jockeys?

I was about to ask members to turn off their mobile phones so that—

I am talking about a situation in which someone—

As a matter of courtesy, we should not text people while the committee is meeting.

I am talking about another means of communication—the convener spoke only about "bits of paper".

The problem is physical—staff had to come and go from the committee table with those bits of paper. I am not aware that people have been texting during our meetings.

Mobile phones are supposed to be switched off, as are pagers. If members want to speak to people in the public gallery, they should leave the committee room, talk to those people outside the room, then return to the meeting.

As a matter of courtesy to each other and to the members of the public who watch our meetings, I think that we should focus on the job in hand.

I remind members to switch off their mobile phones.