When the committee started work on the bill, we quickly agreed that the Scottish bill should be adapted in the light of the information that we collected and the experience that had accrued since the Westminster act was passed, rather than rubber-stamp identical legislation, so this has not been a mechanical exercise.The consultation period on the draft bill ran from 20 July until 31 August 2004, despite the Scottish Executive consultation good practice guidance, which was published earlier in 2004, stating on page 5:"In order to meet existing SE consultation commitments you must … allow consultees at least 12 weeks to respond, except in very exceptional circumstances".The fact that the truncated consultation period spanned the summer holiday...