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Is the committee permitted to seek external support for the drafting of a bill, if it considers that urgency is required? Many voluntary organisations have experts in these areas.
One way of taking advantage of those procedures is to lodge amendments early rather than right before the deadline, as many members tend to do for various reasons.
Examples of that are coming to light in our discussion this morning, such as the fact that it can be difficult to re-enter the process to ask supplementary questions and participate in the sort of detailed discussion that many members would like, without relying on the discretion of the convener.
Should we say to Laurence that, yes, he should continue to offer his comments as he has done over many years, but that he should make it clear to reporters that they should make no reference to the fact that he is advising this committee?
That would deal with the possible problem that Kenneth Macintosh mentioned—that we might end up taking evidence from too many people. If we decide that we want to consider evidence from other organisations and people, we might arrange additional meetings.