Hansard

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.