Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Bill Committee, 22 Jun 2005
Meeting date: Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Official Report
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Consideration Stage
Good morning ladies and gentlemen—I extend to you all a warm welcome to the eighth meeting in 2005 of the Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Bill Committee. We are now at the first phase of the consideration stage, when the committee will consider in detail the objections to the bill and take evidence from the promoter and objectors. Ultimately, the committee will report to the Parliament on these outstanding objections and must provide a decision on every one. The committee takes that task very seriously.
It is useful for all objectors and witnesses to bear the role of the committee in mind when they come to give evidence. The committee can make recommendations to amend the bill only on the basis of the evidence it hears.
We will take evidence on 16 objections today, of which 13 objectors are resting on their original objections, which means that they will not provide oral evidence. The promoter has provided witnesses for all the objections. For the remaining three objections, we will take evidence from witnesses provided by the promoter and the lead objectors.
Representatives of the promoter and the objectors attended a timetabling meeting in May at which the procedure and order for oral evidence taking was explained and agreed. For the benefit of everyone present, I will briefly recap the procedure.
The committee will take evidence on each objection in turn. For each objection, we will first hear from all the witnesses for the promoter and then from all the witnesses for the objector. Every witness will face the same three-step process. First, he or she will be questioned by their representative. Questions will be restricted to any issues that remain outstanding after the relevant witness statement and rebuttals have been exchanged between the parties. A witness should be questioned only on his or her witness statement and any rebuttal of it. Secondly, they will be cross-examined by the opposing side. Finally, they will be questioned again by their representative, but that will be restricted to matters covered in cross-examination. The committee can, of course, ask questions whenever and of whomsoever it wishes.
Following completion of all the oral evidence-taking for each objection, the promoter's representative and the objector's representative will each be given a maximum of five minutes to make any closing comments. Those closing statements must not introduce any new evidence or issues.
The committee already has all the witness statements and rebuttals, as well as a copy of all the background documents that have been referred to. I want to put on record our thanks to the objectors, the promoter and all the witnesses for their detailed written evidence. It is greatly appreciated.
I remind all witnesses that they should refrain from simple repetition of points that have been made previously in the written evidence. Also, all issues raised in oral evidence must have been raised in the original objection and subsequent witness statements and rebuttals. Evidence will not be taken on new issues. I am sure that all parties would welcome brevity and clarity in the questions and answers.
There are various other issues that I will clarify for all those giving evidence today. I am sure that everyone will appreciate that as the trams project progresses, documents will become available, for example, as a result of negotiations between objectors and the promoter. However, I do not want the committee to hear oral evidence on documents that it has not had the opportunity to consider. It would not be courteous to the promoter or to an objector to expect them to cross-examine witnesses on information in documents that they might not have had the opportunity to consider. I therefore make it clear that the submission of new written material of any kind at committee meetings will generally not be tolerated.
Similarly, any documents that may be referred to in oral evidence but which have been published by the promoter or objectors immediately prior to committee meetings may be ruled out if the committee and the opposing party have not had sufficient opportunity to consider them. Although such incidents will be considered on a case-by-case basis, I do not expect them to occur often.
Further, the committee is aware that negotiations might have progressed after the submission dates for witness statements and rebuttals. I strongly recommend that if objectors or the promoter need to update the committee during oral evidence taking on the current state of negotiations, that information should be provided in response to questions from the respective questioners.
The committee wishes to ensure that fairness is shown to the promoter and objectors. This is not a court of law—the committee will carry out its proceedings more informally. That said, I expect all parties to act respectfully to one another and, indeed, to the committee.
Finally, I ask everyone present to ensure that all mobile phones and pagers are switched off.
With the permission of the committee, and for administrative reasons, I intend to take agenda item 2 first.