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It is an integral part of community development, alongside education, healthy living, crime prevention, social care and sport—all the other things that MSPs are interested in as well. Government policies of the 1980s and 1990s penalised councils.
We have already responded to voluntary requests and I welcome that approach. I have answered letters from MSPs, MPs and members of the public. We are happy to make improvements where we can, so I welcome that approach.
They are not members of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, but as MSPs they are entitled to be here. I understand that they both have a particular constituency interest in one of the items on the agenda.
I specifically asked to come to this meeting, as any MSP is allowed to. The usual procedure, as you mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, is that everybody can ask a question, not that some people can ask two or three.
In effect, that gets to the nub of why we are carrying out this inquiry—this is a wider debate and we want to help to improve that process.As a Tayside MSP, I am familiar with the Tayside example.
The third party could also go to an MSP or directly to the minister, because Scottish ministers can also call for an environmental assessment, if they think it necessary.
The Cabinet Secretary for Justice at that time, Michael Matheson, agreed to include Mary Fee MSP, then Convener of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing, on the selection panel.