Referendum (Scotland) Bill Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, October 25, 2012

Official Report 259KB pdf

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Convener

Our second item is to choose a convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as convener of the committee. I am pleased to announce that Bruce Crawford is the SNP’s nominee for the post. I ask members to agree to choose Bruce Crawford as our new convener.

Bruce Crawford was chosen as convener.

Did the SNP members have a say in that? [Laughter.]

I assume that that is so. I congratulate Bruce Crawford; he will take over the role now, so we will swap places.

It is an honour and a privilege to be asked to chair the Referendum (Scotland) Bill Committee. It is a very important committee, as I think we all know and as the nature of its membership demonstrates. I am grateful to all the parties for ensuring that we have the right people on the committee to undertake the task that lies ahead of us.

I thank the young man who undertook the business at the beginning of the meeting. I also thank the clerks, because they were asked to undertake a very quick task in setting up today’s meeting and getting the papers out in such short order. I am very grateful to them.