Committee
Equal Opportunities Committee 25 February 2016
25 Feb 2016 · S4 · Equal Opportunities Committee
Item of business
Petition
Access to Justice (Environment) (PE1372)
I differ a little bit with John Finnie’s tone, although I agree about what should happen. The reason I differ a little bit with the tone is that we talked about the issue at the Justice Committee and found that we were compliant. At that time the Scottish Government said that it would look at it at a later date, which it did. We can see from the minister’s letter that he stated on 1 December that the Scottish Government will meet the commitment to publish an options paper on an environmental court. That is to be welcomed and that is what the Justice Committee wanted the Government to do. I think that we should keep the petition open and hope that we will see some light on this issue in the next parliamentary session. I reiterate the fact that the Justice Committee said that we are compliant.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
At agenda item 2 we will consider petition PE1372. When we considered the petition last year, we requested information from the Scottish Legal Aid Board and ...
John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Ind)
Ind
The petition has been about for a long time. I have been on this committee since its inception and I think that it was discussed at one of the early meetings...
Christian Allard (North East Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
I differ a little bit with John Finnie’s tone, although I agree about what should happen. The reason I differ a little bit with the tone is that we talked ab...
John Finnie
Ind
I think that that remains to be seen. Certainly there is an open case for the United Kingdom, and Scotland has a separate legal system—although that is highl...
Annabel Goldie (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
I have a technical question. What is the status of a petition at the end of a parliamentary session? Does the petition remain alive or does it fall?
Ruth McGill (Clerk)
The standing orders are silent on the position of petitions at this point so it is open to interpretation. The latest advice is that both options are open to...
Annabel Goldie
Con
I infer from what the clerk has helpfully advised that to not actively keep the petition open would perhaps by default allow it to fall. That would be unf...
Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP)
SNP
Everything that I was going to say has been said, and I think that we have a consensus here. In a previous life, I was on the Justice Committee when the peti...
The Convener
Lab
The minister said in his letter to the committee: “I stated on 1 December that the Scottish Government will, before the end of this Parliamentary term in 20...
John Finnie
Ind
I understand that the minister answered an oral question on the options paper the other day and that the paper is imminent, so I think that we could just inc...
The Convener
Lab
Are members happy to include the petition in our legacy paper? Members indicated agreement.