Hansard

Good morning, colleagues, and happy new year. I welcome this opportunity to join the committee to recommend that the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (Meetings of Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations) (Coronavirus) (No 2) Regulations 2020 be approved. The UK Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 allowed Scottish charitable incorporated organisations—known as SCIOs—and other bodies to hold remote meetings with their members during the relevant period, even when their constitution would not allow that. The relevant period originally ran from 26 March to 30 September. The act allows Scottish ministers to extend the relevant period for SCIOs by three months at a time, and the Scottish Parliament approved a previous set of regulations that extended the relevant period to 30 December. SCIOs are legally required to hold certain meetings. However, given the current Covid-19 restrictions, those meetings will not be possible in person. This further set of regulations allows SCIOs to continue to hold remote meetings with their members, even when their constitution would not normally allow that, until 30 March 2021. The regulations are a final extension to the relevant period for SCIOs. I look forward to taking questions from committee members.