Finance Committee,

Meeting date: Thursday, May 23, 2002

Official Report 267KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Finance Committee Thursday 23 May 2002

[The Convener opened the meeting at 11:37]

Welcome to the 11th meeting this year of the Finance Committee, which is being held in Orkney. Prior to this formal meeting, we had a series of informal briefings from various interests groups in Orkney, with two members of the committee involved in each of three workshops. I found the workshop that I was in illuminating and I think that my colleagues found their ones helpful. I thank everyone who participated in those discussions. In a couple of minutes, we will try to summarise the discussions so that we can get the conclusions into the Official Report.

The committee is engaged in its stage 1 review of the budget process. It has been a practice of the committee to visit various areas of Scotland. Last year, we were in Kirkcudbright; this year, we decided to come to Orkney to give us the opportunity to get opinions from people in this area. We are the first Scottish Parliament committee to visit Orkney and I hope that several more will do so. It is important—for us and for the communities of Scotland—that the Scottish Parliament gets out and about.

Later today, we will quiz the Minister for Finance and Public Services on the budget. He has been brought here to answer our questions. I hope that some of the issues that were raised this morning will form part of our discussion.