Finance Committee, 26 Jun 2002

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Official Report 63KB pdf

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Item in Private

I formally open the 14th meeting of the Finance Committee in 2002. I make the usual announcement that mobile phones and pagers should be switched off. All the committee's members are present and Murray McVicar is in attendance.

Agenda item 1 is to ask whether members agree to discuss in private item 2, which is consideration of a paper on potential advisers on financial memoranda. Is that agreed?

I want to raise a general point—excuse me for my lack of breath, but I had to run over here—about matters that are discussed in private. What is the status of discussions that take place in private? I ask because I notice that Mr Davidson suggested in last week's debate on public-private partnerships that, during the Finance Committee's inquiry into such issues, the SNP was threatening to release a minority report. When Brian Adam asked him what evidence he had for making such a claim, Mr Davidson said:

"I was at the Finance Committee meeting last week."

There is nothing on the record to indicate that Mr Adam said anything of that nature and I cannot remember his saying any such thing. Clearly, the only discussion of our inquiry took place in private. My question is: Even if Brian Adam had said something like that in private, would it be in order to use such discussions in a public debate?

I will allow David Davidson to respond to the specific issue before I say something about the general point.

I recall replying to Mr Adam's intervention, but I did not say, "at the Finance Committee meeting".

Yes you did.

I said, "at the meeting". I deliberately did not say anything else. To be honest, I have not seen the Official Report, so I do not know how it was reported.

What Mr Davidson said was:

"I was at the Finance Committee meeting last week." —[Official Report, 20 June 2002; c 12909.]

That might be how it was reported, but that is not exactly what I said.

The status of what is said in private is that it should be private. Our discussions in private are to organise the work of the committee. When we have private sessions, confidentiality should be respected.

I totally agree with you.

Do members agree that agenda item 2 should be discussed in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Meeting continued in private until 12:58.