Committee
Enterprise and Culture Committee, 13 Mar 2007
13 Mar 2007 · S2 · Enterprise and Culture Committee
Item of business
Legacy Paper
That was easy.My other two points are more about process and the lessons that we have learned as a committee. I wonder whether it is worth including a point about opportunities for cross-sectoral or thematic discussions. I shall explain what I mean. Another committee of which I am a member, the Audit Committee, has spent a lot of time talking about that. One tends to spot recurrent themes in many different sectors. Today was a good example, in that many of the issues that were discussed were almost directly paralleled in our round-table discussion on the arts. There are wider issues, for example about how we develop facilities and communities and how we pool budgets and so on. For all that we have said elsewhere that there is scope, and perhaps a need, to narrow or reduce the committee's remit, one of the strengths of having a wide remit is that we can identify such themes. If colleagues agree, it is perhaps worth noting in the paper that there could be scope for building on those sectoral discussions to bring together some of the sectors. That is one suggestion. In a similar vein, my final suggestion relates to a recurrent theme in the committee, which has become more of a recurrent theme in and around the Parliament. I refer to the Executive's involvement, relatively late in the day, in discussion about members' bills. Sometimes there is a good reason for that. The Executive perhaps feels that it is right that members' bills—because they are members' bills—should be allowed to run free from Executive involvement and interference. However, the experience of this committee in particular—I think that we previously reached a view on this—is that earlier involvement would have been beneficial to the overall quality and outcome of the discussion and parliamentary consideration. I wondered whether there was room for a line in the legacy paper to that effect.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
SNP
We still have technical problems with item 2, so we will take item 4. We considered an earlier draft of our legacy paper and another draft has been circulate...
Stephen Imrie (Clerk):
The clerks have endeavoured to make the changes and corrections that were suggested at the most recent meeting at which members discussed the legacy paper. I...
The Convener:
SNP
Just as an aide-mémoire for our successor committee on the way in which to deal with the clerks' notes, they are not something of which we approve or disappr...
Christine May:
Lab
We note the notes.
The Convener:
SNP
The main issue is the legacy paper. We should bear in mind that the paper is purely advisory and that it will be entirely up to our successor committee—or co...
Susan Deacon:
Lab
I have three points. There has been a lot of formal and informal discussion about our legacy paper, so if there is a good reason why my points are not in it,...
The Convener:
SNP
Is that agreed?Members indicated agreement.
Susan Deacon:
Lab
That was easy.My other two points are more about process and the lessons that we have learned as a committee. I wonder whether it is worth including a point ...
The Convener:
SNP
We have written to the Executive about that, particularly with regard to the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Bill. I think that we drew some of the i...
The Convener:
SNP
I think that I am right in saying that our correspondence is always available for anyone who wants to see it. Is everybody happy to include a line on cross-p...
Shiona Baird:
Green
Are there any clerks' notes on the round-table discussion on social enterprises?
Stephen Imrie:
Yes, there are notes. We did not specifically produce the notes on that batch—we were referring to the round-table discussions that we held recently. If the ...
Shiona Baird:
Green
I would appreciate that.
The Convener:
SNP
Yes. Every member of the public can access the notes under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. We are not disclosing anything that cannot be disc...
Stephen Imrie:
The notes are published as evidence for the business growth inquiry; it is just a case of extracting them and putting them alongside the round-table notes. T...
The Convener:
SNP
I am sure that every member of all our successor committees will read all the notes in great detail before they meet. Is everybody happy to agree the legacy ...