Plenary, 08 Dec 2004

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Official Report 409KB pdf

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Parliamentary Bureau Motions

The next item of business is the consideration of three Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask Margaret Curran to move motion S2M-2123, on the approval of a Scottish statutory instrument.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament agrees that the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning) (East Coast) (No. 2) (Scotland) Order 2004 (SSI 2004/500) be approved.—[Ms Margaret Curran.]

The Executive has agreed to do a magnificent U-turn, but it seems to be taking a long time to do it. Last week, the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care kindly gave me some sort of timescale. She also told me who would be giving her advice. If I may, this week—before encouraging members, correctly, to vote against this motion—I would like to ask her when she will publish the information that she is collecting in advice form so that members can have knowledge of what the schemes are likely to be. The Health Committee would like to see the fine print. Of course, the Conservative party will vote against this motion.

Discussions with the industry are continuing. The Food Standards Agency is involved in discussions with officials from the Scallop Association, the Mallaig and North West Fishermen's Association, the Clyde Fishermen's Association and Seafish. The agency also sits on the Scottish scallop advisory committee. There are complex negotiations going on at the moment. I do not want to make decisions on the hoof about when information will come forward.

This is a critical area in terms of public health and public confidence in the scallop industry. I am not prepared to take risks with public health and the Conservative party should not be prepared to do so either.

I ask Margaret Curran to move motion S2M-2124, on the approval of a Scottish statutory instrument, and motion S2M-2125, on the designation of a lead committee.

Motions moved,

That the Parliament agrees that the draft Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2004 be approved.

That the Parliament agrees that the Justice 1 Committee be designated as lead committee in consideration of the draft Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004 (Incidental, Supplemental and Consequential Provisions) Order 2005.—[Ms Margaret Curran.]

The questions on these motions will be put at decision time.