Equal Opportunities Committee, 22 Jun 1999
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 22, 1999
Official Report
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Convener
As members will appreciate, the choice of convener for the Equal Opportunities Committee falls to Labour and, without any ado, I seek nominations for the post of convener for this committee.
I nominate Kate MacLean.
May I have a seconder for that nomination?
I second the nomination.
Thank you. The nomination is duly noted. Are there any other nominations? I declare Kate MacLean Convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
Kate MacLean was elected convener by acclamation.
Thank you, John. The papers that were circulated should have referred to the most senior member, rather than the oldest member. I think that that was a little cruel.
It would have been kinder.
I thank you all for your support.
I am delighted to be convener of this committee, as I see its remit as being the most important in the Parliament. We have done well in terms of women's representation, but wide sections of the community in Scotland are not represented in the Parliament and our challenge will be to ensure that their views are well represented. We will discuss later how we will achieve that.
We have always said that equality will be at the very heart of everything that this Parliament does. During the election campaign, I spoke to women's groups, black and ethnic minority groups and disability groups. They have very high expectations of this Parliament and of what we can do for them.
The situation here is very different from that at Westminster; this is a mandatory committee with a duty to oversee the work of the Parliament and ensure that other organisations that deal with equalities are scrutinised and monitored. We have a wide remit and I hope that the committee will be able to deal with it in a non-partisan way for the benefit of the people we represent. I look forward to working with all members of the committee over the coming months to achieve that and to meet those expectations.