Official Report 174KB pdf
Item 1 is on stage 2 of the Education and Training (Scotland) Bill. Simon Watkins, the clerk, has produced a paper covering a number of issues relating to our consideration of the bill at stage 2, which will begin on 12 June. The recommendation is that the committee agrees to consider the sections of the Education and Training (Scotland) Bill at stage 2 in numerical order. It is incumbent on the committee to decide in which order it will take the sections of the bill. Are there any comments on the paper?
I reiterate the point that I raised during the pre-meeting presentation. It would save us a lot of time if the Executive were to produce an amended illustrative subordinate instrument. If it does not, there might be a lot of probing amendments to explore the issues that we considered during our evidence sessions, including rurality, whether self-employed people will be included and how disabled people can be provided for and not discriminated against. If the Executive were to give us some clear guidance by providing a fresh subordinate instrument, it would make the task that we must complete in a very short time much easier.
Thank you, Fergus. We shall make that request to ministers and see what their views are. If there are to be any illustrative regulations, we should have those before the deadline for the submission of amendments to the bill, which is Thursday 8 June at 5.30 pm. We are looking for something from the Executive in relatively short order, but we can certainly make that request.
Are members happy with the suggested timetable?
There will be a meeting of the committee on 12 June to begin stage 2 consideration. There will also be a meeting in our usual time slot on Wednesday 14 June for other business.
Is it expected that the meeting on 12 June will be an all-day meeting?
At this stage, that is like asking, "How long is a piece of string?" As Fergus Ewing said, that is contingent on whether there are probing amendments. We can judge the length of the meeting only when we have seen the amendments on 8 June. We should assume that we will have an all-day meeting, starting at 10 o'clock on 12 June. Obviously, if we need less time, members will not be detained for longer than is required.