Official Report 352KB pdf
The third item on our agenda is for the committee to approve its annual report. It is required to produce a report each year under standing order rule 12.9.
Committee members have a draft report in front of them. Do they wish to make any comments on it?
You know me so well, convener.
I am content with the report as it stands. Paragraph 5 mentions that we published our report about lobbying, which has gone to the Government, which is thinking about it. However, I wondered whether we would have a debate on that report. I know that there was one at the beginning of the process.
We are masters of our own destiny in that regard, but we are now waiting for a formal response from the Government. We have not yet had it. We have had an indication that it is not arriving as promptly as it sometimes does, but that is because the Government is preparing to legislate on the matter. The next step is to determine our response to the Government’s plans.
The Government will consult on its proposals. We have, in essence, done pre-legislative scrutiny, except that we have not seen the legislation. We certainly expect to see something from the Government before the recess, and the indications are that it will be rather sooner than that. The next step is to wait for that to happen, but I am in the committee’s hands.
That is my understanding.
In the normal course of events, we prepare a report, send it to the Government, get its comments and have a debate at some point. I know that there was a debate at the beginning of the process but, before the Government presents its ideas in the form of legislation, it might be a good idea to have Parliament reflect on what the committee said about the matter. However, I am not desperate to do that.
I do not want to give you false certainty, but I think that the response from the Government will arrive on a timescale that does not leave us that opportunity and that we will provide our response to what the Government proposes before the recess. I am in the committee’s hands on the matter, but that is where I think that we should go. Of course, provided the Parliamentary Bureau agrees, we will be the committee that considers any proposed legislation that is introduced. I would be astonished if it were any other committee, but that is not our call.
If there are no other comments on the draft report, are members content for it to be submitted in the form that is before us?
Members indicated agreement.
That is helpful.
I am looking at the time and I am anxious that we deal today with agenda item 5, which we need to consider precisely and formally, so I propose that we consider the code of conduct at our next meeting. Is everyone content with that?
Members indicated agreement.
That is helpful. I move the meeting into private.
10:42 Meeting continued in private until 11:30.Previous
Election of Committee Conveners