European and External Relations Committee, 27 Sep 2005

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Official Report 185KB pdf

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Convener's Report

We come to item 6, the report to the committee in the name of Irene Oldfather as deputy convener. It contains three matters that I wish to draw to your attention. Would members like me to run over the three items, or will we take them one by one?

One by one.

Okay. The first is a letter from Allan Wilson, Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. The letter follows on from a report by the committee in the first session of the Parliament, "Europe's Employment Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Inquiry into the Scottish Model". The letter highlights the Scottish contribution to the national reform programme. Do members have any comments?

I raised the matter of input into the national reform programme with the minister last week, and it is very helpful to have this guidance from the deputy minister. It shows that considerable progress has been made since the committee looked at this matter some time ago. We took evidence from the European Commission and at that time those matters seemed to be very much driven by the member states. The letter shows that there is now much greater input from the Scottish Executive into those programmes. That is something that members who were involved in the committee's report into Europe's employment strategy will welcome.

Are there any other comments on the deputy minister's letter? No.

The second item in the convener's report is an interim report from the Scottish Executive on its activities on the G8 summit. Does anyone wish to comment on that lengthy report?

The committee undertook a full inquiry into the G8 summit and took considerable evidence from various groups across Scotland; it is interesting to have Mr McCabe's report. He says that he will give us further information later about costs and so on. However, the information that we have before us is a comprehensive outline of a wide-ranging programme.

The committee was keen to include in its inquiry wide involvement across Scotland and not just to concentrate on ministers and elites in the Executive. Therefore, I was particularly pleased with the breadth of activities that have been identified. I note especially the J8 summit, which was the junior equivalent of the G8 in which the young people got involved and presented various programmes and projects. An outline of that event is given in paragraphs 37 and 38. A hundred young people between the ages of 14 and 16 participated. That is useful engagement and it is something that the committee was keen to see. The Live 8 concert was attended by the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport and me. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is useful that the G8 was not only for politicians, but for citizens throughout Scotland, from those who took part in the make poverty history campaign to the young people in our schools. Those events must have promoted Scotland in a positive way.

I am having visions of Irene boogieing the night away.

The report is excellent. It is a factual account of what happened. As members know, a number of issues surround legal challenges that may be made in the context of demonstrations. Should the committee, having taken evidence on the G8 summit, follow it up with a letter to the Minister for Justice to ask exactly what the policy is on the legal issues that surround events that happened outwith the formal G8 summit?

We would have to be more specific than that. If the matter relates to prosecutions it is not the responsibility of the Minister for Justice. Some issues have arisen about whether prosecutions have been carried through, but that is clearly the responsibility of the Lord Advocate who carries out that task independently. If we write to the Minister for Justice or the Lord Advocate we should be concise and specific. We should not make an open-ended inquiry.

I endorse everything that Irene Oldfather said.

I have read the section on page 9 on policing and I share Jim Wallace's anxiety about the suggestion that has been made. I do not know what issues we can usefully raise about legal judgments that have to be made by the Crown Office.

On the wider issue of policing, I have the impression that by all accounts it went very well. The only issue that is left hanging, in paragraph 45 of the paper, is the question of cost, as bills are still to come in. I presume that a high proportion of the money should come from United Kingdom funding. It would be interesting to get a further report on that in due course, but over the piece most of us have the impression that the policing of the event went very well and that it was a great credit to the police officers, police authorities, local authorities and everyone else.

Mr McCabe states in the last paragraph of his letter that

"Later in the year … a further report will be produced".

My first thought was that the committee should write to thank him for the report and ask him for a more definitive timescale for when he reckons a further report will be produced. I know that many of the issues are not completely in his control. Perhaps we could ask for a general statement from him on how the Executive feels the policing and justice issues were handled.

The minister states that he is sure that we will appreciate that he does

"not yet have final figures".

I certainly appreciate that. Taking into account John Home Robertson's comments about paragraph 45, it would be reasonable to write back to express the committee's view that the report is comprehensive and wide-ranging and that it is welcome, particularly in the light of the committee's inquiry. We could state that we look forward to the further information that will be available and could perhaps even ask for a timescale for the publication of that information.

Does Margaret Ewing agree with that?

I would be happy with that. I thought that I should raise the issue because it is being trailed so much in the newspapers.

Are there any other comments on the report?

Paragraph 4 on page 17 says:

"On a more positive note, President Bush's fall from his mountain bike and his subsequent praise for Scotland and its beauty, did feature quite widely internationally, positioning Scotland in a positive light."

Yahoo.

Could we arrange for an action replay to present Scotland in an even more positive light?

We could ask for that to be relayed weekly.

On a more serious note, I am pleased to see the references to Africa in paragraphs 22 to 25. In the lead up to the G8 summit, the committee produced a report that suggested that not only the UK Department for International Development, but the Scottish Executive, should take a continuing interest in Africa. I am pleased by the references to the visit by the First Minister to some of the projects that flowed from that and to the meeting of the Commission for Africa that was held in the Scottish Parliament on 16 May.

If everyone is content to move on, the third item of correspondence is a reply from the Executive on the impact of the working time directive and opt-outs on sectors that are of particular interest to Scotland, such as power generation, road haulage, fisheries and agriculture. The letter responds to a question that Mr Gallie asked at the 24 May committee meeting, which arose from the pre-council agenda for the employment, social policy, health and consumer affairs council meeting of 2 to 3 June. As members have no comments, do we agree to note all three items of correspondence?

Members indicated agreement.