Plenary, 28 Oct 2004

Meeting date: Thursday, October 28, 2004

Official Report 755KB pdf

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Parliamentary Bureau Motions

The next item of business is consideration of four Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask Margaret Curran to move motions S2M-1905 and S2M-1906, on the membership of committees, S2M-1907, on the substitute membership of a committee, and S2M-1908, on the membership of a committee.

Motions moved,

That the Parliament agrees that Mr Frank McAveety be appointed to replace Rhona Brankin on the Education Committee.

That the Parliament agrees that Mrs Mary Mulligan be appointed to replace Rhona Brankin on the Audit Committee.

That the Parliament agrees that Margaret Jamieson be appointed to replace Rhona Brankin as the Labour Party substitute on the Enterprise and Culture Committee.

That the Parliament agrees that Mr Frank McAveety be appointed to replace Kate Maclean on the Finance Committee.—[Ms Margaret Curran.]

Presiding Officer, I am grateful for the opportunity to provide you and other members with a brief report on the outcome of my investigation into the circumstances surrounding yesterday's introduction of the Transport (Scotland) Bill.

As you said in your remarks yesterday, Presiding Officer, it is normal practice for the Executive to wait until bills have been printed before any public comment is made. However, due to a communication error between officials, the important distinction between the day of introduction and the day of publication was overlooked on this occasion. As a result, my colleague the Minister for Transport was advised that it would be acceptable for there to be some form of publicity on the day of introduction.

I stress to you and to all members that no discourtesy was intended to the Parliament and the I have instructed officials to put in place robust mechanisms that will avoid any similar situation arising in the future. You have my assurance on that.

I am grateful to you for that statement, Ms Curran, and I am sure that the whole Parliament is grateful too.