Procedures Committee, 12 Nov 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Official Report 287KB pdf

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Standing Orders

We return to item 1 on the agenda, which is the draft report on changes to standing orders. We agreed it at the previous meeting, and I do not think that it needs to be changed further in the light of the decision that we have just taken. Does Hugh Flinn want to say anything about the report?

Not really, convener. The ground was covered at the meeting a fortnight ago.

Members will have had the opportunity to read the report and to check it against the Official Report and their memory of the previous discussion. If members have no questions or issues on the substantive changes proposed to standing orders, I have one suggestion to make myself. I will then ask whether we are content with the draft report.

The report contains a letter to me from the Minister for Parliamentary Business. It includes various annexes, which are the subject of continuing correspondence between the minister's office and me. As I regard those as unfinished business, I do not propose to circulate the correspondence with the report. The letter addresses issues in the report, but the annexe relates to other matters that were contained in the letter, and it is not essential or particularly logical that the annexe should be contained in the report. It does not relate to the substance of the report, so I propose to omit it from the finalised report.

Do we agree the report, with that amendment?

Members indicated agreement.