Equal Opportunities Committee, 20 Jun 2000
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Official Report
261KB pdf
Petition
The next item on the agenda is petition PE139. Members will remember that at a previous meeting I asked the Scottish Parliament information centre to get us some information on what happens with translation in other Parliaments. Members should have copies of that information and the petition, plus various other papers.
We did not make a decision at the previous meeting on what to do with this petition. If we are looking at examples from elsewhere, we should aim to achieve best practice. The National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly are looking at this issue. Finland seems to have the best practice. Unless anybody has another suggestion, I suggest that we ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what it intends to do about this matter and highlight what is happening in Wales, Northern Ireland and Finland. Cathie Craigie's all-party group on sign language is being launched, and we could ask whether this is a matter on which it could pressure the SPCB. We are a new Parliament, and we should have best practice in access for everybody. That is an important issue that the committee and the all-party group can take up. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.