Committee
Health and Sport Committee 23 March 2021
23 Mar 2021 · S5 · Health and Sport Committee
Item of business
Retiring MSPs
It will be hard for me to say just a few words, convener, but I am happy to say something in my last contribution. Like many members, I have served on a number of committees during a couple of parliamentary sessions. However, I can say that I have enjoyed my time on this committee the most. I have always been interested in health, but what was fascinating was the dynamic within the committee. Irrespective of our party-political views, we all got on extremely well together. For example, I remember when Emma Harper, Brian Whittle and I visited Westminster and became full members of the Scottish Affairs Committee for one meeting, which is very unusual in my experience in Parliament. I noted in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way that we and the officials were all staying at the Mad Hatter hotel on Blackfriars Road, but I do not know whether that reflects on the committee at all. With regard to our annual report, I think that we have worked very hard as a committee. We have had excellent officials, led by David Cullum, and I have personally learned a lot from the witnesses not only in the formal sessions but in the informal sessions, such as when the convener and I went to Inverurie and spent a whole day effectively planning the health service of the future. That was a very unusual experience. It is important to have an open and accessible Parliament, and I am sure that MSPs in the next session of Parliament will consider that issue carefully. Finally, I want to thank you, convener. You have been an excellent convener and have worked extremely well. I want to thank the other members of the committee, the clerks and the witnesses. I have spent an enjoyable three years in this committee, and I can safely say that it has been the best committee that I have been a member of. I thank everyone for their co-operation and ask everyone to keep in touch. It has been a pleasure to be a member of this committee.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
As this is the last meeting of the Health and Sport Committee in this session of Parliament, I will now offer those members who are not seeking re-election a...
David Stewart
Lab
It will be hard for me to say just a few words, convener, but I am happy to say something in my last contribution. Like many members, I have served on a nu...
Sandra White
SNP
As David Stewart has done, I would like to praise everyone on the committee and also David Cullum, the clerks and the Scottish Parliament information centre....
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much, Sandra and David. This is also my final meeting of a parliamentary committee, so I would also like to thank my fellow committee members...