Committee
Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 14 Jan 2003
14 Jan 2003 · S1 · Education, Culture and Sport Committee
Item of business
McCrone Agreement
I have some sympathy with Brian Monteith's request—the McCrone agreement is central to the future of Scottish education. However, time is against us. The committee is set to have 10 meetings before Parliament is dissolved.The danger of dipping into the McCrone agreement is that it is overarching and complex and parts of it have not been fully implemented. It would take a lot of time to consider the issues carefully. A short, sharp inquiry would not do the subject justice, which I regret, because that would have been the right approach for the committee to take. The best that we can do is use our legacy paper to highlight the McCrone agreement as a major issue that must be examined closely, dispassionately and, as Brian Monteith said, non-politically. It will be up to the new committee's members to decide whether to follow that advice.Appointing a reporter and having a couple of evidence sessions now would make little difference. That approach might also be slightly dangerous, because the resulting report would not shine a full light on the issue. Reluctantly, I do not support Brian Monteith's proposal.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
I ask Brian Monteith to introduce the correspondence that members have received from him.
Mr Monteith:
Con
The purpose of my letter was to give the committee the opportunity to consider how to deal with continuing communication to members, through e-mails and tele...
Michael Russell:
SNP
I have some sympathy with Brian Monteith's request—the McCrone agreement is central to the future of Scottish education. However, time is against us. The com...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
There is little to disagree with in Mike Russell's remarks. In the short time available before the election, the committee could not do the McCrone agreement...
Cathy Peattie (Falkirk East) (Lab):
Lab
I agree with Jackie Baillie and Michael Russell. It would be valuable to look at the McCrone agreement, but it is still being implemented and much work remai...
Ian Jenkins:
LD
I agree. The issue merits something better than we could manage in the time available. The committee could only do something superficial, which is not the ri...
Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
My views are similar to those of other members. I understand that the Auditor General for Scotland has an investigation of McCrone as part of his work progra...
The Convener:
Lab
I have done some background work on the agreement, and Irene McGugan is almost right: the Accounts Commission for Scotland has the agreement in its proposed ...
Mr Monteith:
Con
I am rather disappointed with members' unanimous view that we should not proceed with my request. In a sense, the rationale seems to be that it might have be...
The Convener:
Lab
With all due respect, the letter that you have submitted does not seek a report on the current situation. As I understand it, we have reached all the key mil...
Mr Monteith:
Con
From the language that you are using, convener, am I to assume that, in your view, we should not even consider the possibility of examining the McCrone settl...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
Far be it from me to defend the convener, who is probably big enough—although certainly not ugly enough—to do so herself. However, it is entirely unjustified...
The Convener:
Lab
In fact, there will be only six meetings of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee before dissolution. There will be three meetings of the ad hoc committ...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
I stand corrected—there is even less time than I said there was.
The Convener:
Lab
We have a tight timetable. If, for example, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill is agreed to at stage 1, the Parliament will require the committee to conside...