Education, Children and Young People Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Official Report 439KB pdf

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Deputy Convener

Our next task is to choose a deputy convener. Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener. I ask for a nominee from that party.

I am happy to nominate Kaukab Stewart.

Thank you for that nomination.

Kaukab Stewart was chosen as deputy convener.

I congratulate Kaukab Stewart on her appointment and I look forward to working with her. We had a brief introduction yesterday and I think that we will get along famously.

Congratulations, Kaukab. Would you like to say anything?

Thank you to the convener and the rest of the committee. This is a dream come true for a teacher of 30 years’ experience who has worked across two local authorities and across all demographics. I hope that I can bring that experience to bear in some way. My ears will listen widely. Like the convener, I look forward to getting to know my colleagues so that we can take on together the serious work that is ahead of us.

As I said, we had a brief conversation yesterday and I look forward to being the beneficiary of Kaukab Stewart’s experience from her 30-year career as a teacher. We will all benefit from that.

Let me be the first to congratulate you, convener and Kaukab Stewart, on your roles. I am sure that we all look forward to working on the committee, which is important, as you said. I was extremely pleased to hear your undertaking to work in a non-partisan and inclusive fashion.

I seek clarification on one point. It has been 14 years since I had the honour of serving on a parliamentary committee. When I was deputy convener to the late Alex Fergusson on the then Rural Development Committee, his practice was that we, as convener and deputy convener, worked closely together—for example, I attended all the pre-meeting sessions with the clerks, along with Alex Fergusson, and I participated in administrative and other decisions about the committee’s work, including decisions about the terminology of correspondence and the setting of agendas. We never had a cross word. His chairmanship was exemplary and that committee worked in a collegiate fashion, with Elaine Murray from Labour and Mike Rumbles from the Liberals. That committee operated exactly in the way that you described, convener.

We all have our political views, but we want to lay those aside as far as we can for our work on the committee. Convener, will you confirm that your approach will be to work in partnership with Kaukab Stewart in the way that Alex Fergusson worked with me years ago?

You make an excellent point and I appreciate your bringing that to the fore in our opening meeting. I absolutely intend to work in partnership with Kaukab Stewart, so that we have a sound basis for the aspiration that I described of our being collegiate, as far as we can be.

As Fergus Ewing said, we are politicians and we will have political views on things, but, if we work together and have a commitment to being evidence led in our proceedings, we can reach across the parties and do something that the Parliament should perhaps do more of—set aside our tribal instincts and work together for the good of the people of Scotland. That is my aspiration, and I know that it is yours, too.

Many thanks for those assurances.