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.
I have stated repeatedly that it is not the role of the Presiding Officer to verify any ministerial response—that is a matter for the ministerial code of conduct. I can say no more than that in this instance.
It is the practice of successive governments, reflected in the Scottish Ministerial Code and the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, that the fact and content of legal advice is not revealed.
The report suggests providing some kind of guidance or code of practice that would augment the primary legislation—the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012—so that any chair would have more prescriptive guidance on how to fulfil the functions in the act.
However, the canals are 250-year-old structures that do not come with any plans, any design code or any consistent construction, and they have hidden challenges.
The industry has a duty of care, too, and there has been a suggestion that a voluntary code of conduct should be developed. I presume that those will be some of the points that come out of the work that has been going on with young people.
As the convener said, there may be the opportunity to adopt voluntary codes, but we need local authorities and others to embrace the approach; we can make a transformational change on the ground, but we need to keep pushing at it.