Decisions on Taking Business in Private
I welcome everybody to the meeting and officially wish you a happy new year. I hope that 2009 brings you everything that you want.
May all your dreams come true.
We will leave out the political dreams.
I remind everybody to switch off their various bits of electronic equipment. For members who are not aware of it, you can switch off your BlackBerry's wireless function and continue to check e-mails that came in before you arrived at the meeting. E-mails should not arrive during the meeting.
We have continuing apologies from Karen Gillon, who is still on maternity leave. Again, we welcome Rhoda Grant as the permanent substitute for Karen.
The main purpose of the meeting is consideration of the draft stage 1 report on the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill. As is standard practice, that will be done in private.
We must first dispense with two other items of business. Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking in private item 3, which is discussion of a paper on possible witnesses for our consideration of aspects of the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill. Although we are the secondary committee for the bill, we will be the only committee to consider those aspects. It is normal practice to discuss such papers in private. I also ask the committee to agree in advance to take future reviews of evidence on the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill in private, as has been normal practice. Do members agree with that?
Members indicated agreement.
In addition, I ask that we take in private consideration of our draft report to the lead committee. For members who have not been in the Parliament before, I point out that, as the secondary committee on the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill, we report on the bill to the lead committee, which is why we have to do things quite quickly. Do members agree to consider the draft report in private?
Members indicated agreement.