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This Parliament should demand, on a cross-party basis, that systems are put in place to ensure that that is put into practice. At the end of the day, if anyone breaks through the net and breaks that line, they must be held accountable for doing do.
My constituency includes the village of Newcastleton, the residents of which one day found that heavy lorries were running through their village to a site some 8km to the north of it.
I showed that information to the insolvency practitioner that day. However, he said, "I'm not interested in anything like that—I'm here to close you down".
However, that is a matter for another day. Today, we are being given the opportunity to consider the circumstances of our potential involvement in the process.
I do not think that Treasury rules prohibited such payments, but a Treasury attitude was certainly involved. To this day, the Treasury and the Scottish Executive claim that they have no legal obligation to give out a single penny in ex gratia payments—indeed, that is why such payments are called ex gratia payments.
We probably could not consider such a paper at our next meeting, as we will take evidence on that day. Margaret Ewing is quite right that we should come to it fresh.
On resuming— I reconvene the meeting simply to advise members that the amendments for stage 2 of the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill should be lodged as early as possible in advance of 2 pm on Monday 8 March, which is the closing date for day 1 of stage 2. I would like clarification on the last issue that we were discussing, which I do not th...