Education Committee, 19 Jan 2005
Meeting date: Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Official Report
320KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
General Teaching Council for Scotland Election Scheme 2004<br />Approval Order 2004 (SSI 2004/542)
Good morning and welcome to this meeting of the Education Committee. We are in public session, so please ensure that mobile phones and pagers are turned off.
Agenda item 1 is to consider, under the negative procedure, the General Teaching Council for Scotland Election Scheme 2004 Approval Order 2004 (SSI 2004/542). The purpose of the order is to approve the General Teaching Council for Scotland Election Scheme 2004 and to revoke the General Teaching Council (Scotland) Election Scheme 2001 Approval Order 2001 (SSI 2001/18).
I am not sure that I fully understand all of that, but I am pleased to welcome to this morning's meeting John Gunstone, who is from the teachers division of the Scottish Executive Education Department. Perhaps he can give us some guidance on the order, which seems to be relatively technical. As an expert on the matter, he can let us know a little bit more about it.
John Gunstone (Scottish Executive Education Department):
The order is indeed technical, but it is fairly straightforward, despite the number of dates that are contained within its rather lengthy title.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland was set up under the Teaching Council (Scotland) Act 1965. Currently, the council comprises 50 members, of whom 26 are elected every four years. The order concerns the elections that are due during the course of this year. It sets out the details of the dates by which various things must happen, such as the date by which nominations must be received, the date by which votes must take place and the date by which the results are to be made known. The order deals only with the 26 elected members of the council. Various relevant bodies appoint the other 24 members, of whom six are nominated by the Scottish ministers.
I do not think that we have any questions on the order. The Subordinate Legislation Committee, which I presume is more expert on such matters than we are, had no observations to make on the order. The order has been laid under the negative procedure. If there are no objections—I sense that the mood of the committee is that there is no opposition to the order—can we agree that the committee does not wish to make any recommendation on the order in its report to the Parliament?
Members indicated agreement.
I thank John Gunstone for his brief attendance this morning.