This search includes all content on the Scottish Parliament website, except for Votes and Motions. All Official Reports (what has been said in Parliament) and Questions and Answers are available from 1999. You can refine your search by adding and removing filters.
Had the committee asked me questions, I would not have sought to evade them.The Executive keeps in close contact with the DCMS on tourism issues at ministerial and official level. That meant that we were briefed first at official level and then the First Minister discussed our concerns with Tessa Jowell.
We took evidence from the Scottish Executive last week; the Official Report was published only this morning, so you will not have had the chance to see it.
In those circumstances, I will use the powers that I have under standing orders and section 26 of the Scotland Act 1998 to require witnesses to give evidence under oath.
We also visited Ireland to discuss with Government officials, members and clerks from the Houses of the Oireachtas how works legislation is conducted in Ireland.
That might be a question for one of the officials to respond to. One of the tests that we must use is to ask whether we would be spending £5 million more if nothing had happened.
We would expect you to disagree with the official figures, which we got from the research that was carried out by the University of Aberdeen, but why do you disagree with them so much?
Before you come to that, I want to clarify something. When I read the Official Report, I might find that this point was covered satisfactorily, but I want to be clear in my mind.