Equal Opportunities Committee, 24 Oct 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 24, 2000

Official Report 99KB pdf

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Travelling People

Item 2 is an update on the travelling people and public sector policies inquiry. As members know, we have issued a press release that invites people to put their names forward if they want to give evidence to the committee. A letter has also been sent to various organisations, outlining the aims of the committee and requesting that evidence be submitted by 13 November, although I suspect that we will be flexible about that date.

We are close to appointing an adviser, and I hope to be able to update the committee on the progress that has been made. An adviser should be appointed by the next committee meeting, when we can discuss how we want to move forward.

In Aberdeen, I attended a celebration of Travellers' history and culture at which there was a great deal of interest in the fact that the committee is conducting an inquiry. Members of the travelling community were especially pleased that we committed ourselves to visiting travelling peoples' sites and taking evidence at those sites—it will be an interesting inquiry. Are there any questions?

I saw the press release that invites people to give evidence, but have we identified any bodies or groups that we can invite? We should be proactive about inviting people, rather than waiting for them to contact us.

We have not put together a list to give to the committee, but we did ask members to get in touch with the clerk if there was anybody who they felt should be invited to give evidence. I am not sure whether any member has done that.

We have sent about 150 letters.

We have sent letters to different organisations. If members feel that anybody from whom we should take evidence is missing from the list, they should inform Lee Bridges and the committee will get in touch with those people. We will be flexible about the date of 13 November—it does not allow a long time scale.

Will it be acceptable for individual Travellers to give evidence, or do we expect Travellers groups' representatives to do that?

It is up to the committee to decide how it wants to take evidence. If a number of individuals want to give evidence, we could set aside time to do that. There is, however, a limit to how much evidence we can take, although we do not want to rule out the possibility of taking evidence from individuals. We took interesting evidence from two individuals from the travelling community in May.

I raised at the conveners group the method of appointment of advisers—the Procedures Committee will consider that matter with a view to producing recommendations for all committees when they appoint advisers. Obviously on this occasion, because we want to get on with the inquiry, we have stuck to the old procedures.