Hansard

The Convener: Lab

Item 3 is our legacy paper. We have to finalise our legacy report in the light of the further information received from the police organisations and the Facu...

Bill Aitken: Con

I am surprised that we have not received a response from the Law Society of Scotland, which I thought would have been quite keen to make an input.

The Convener: Lab

Is there anything contained in the information that members wish to add to the legacy paper? Is there anything that the clerks think is worth drawing from th...

Gillian Baxendine (Clerk):

Members might find the comments from the Faculty of Advocates on the timing of legislation of particular interest. They very much chime with the committee's ...

The Convener: Lab

Is it possible to submit the letters with our legacy report?

Gillian Baxendine:

Absolutely.

The Convener: Lab

Why do we not just include everything and call that the legacy report? The correspondence is fairly short. Furthermore, a future committee might find it help...

Bill Aitken: Con

It is important that we underline how difficult life has occasionally been made for us by having to get legislation through in a manner that is not satisfact...

Mr Hamilton: SNP

The paper from the Faculty of Advocates says that the faculty's law reform committee is keen to have feedback from us about the degree to which a technical r...

The Convener: Lab

We have had at least one meeting with the faculty in which we have talked about the relationship that it might have with the committee. We have made it clear...

Mr Hamilton: SNP

That brings up the prospect of having standing advisers. Although some flexibility is needed for each issue and the committee might want to have an individua...

The Convener: Lab

Yes. I am glad that you have raised that.

Mr Hamilton: SNP

Such advisers would not be here all the time, but we could tap into them as appropriate.

The Convener: Lab

That is an excellent point, which I meant to suggest earlier. I have realised that we should have had an adviser on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. We did v...

Mr Hamilton: SNP

Yes. The committee advisers section of the paper from the Faculty of Advocates says that the faculty would be willing to act in that way, as I presume people...

The Convener: Lab

We could construct a paragraph under the heading "Operational Issues" to say that we greatly benefited from the advisers whom we had and now take the view th...

Mr Hamilton: SNP

That would also combat the problem of short time scales for dealing with legislation or decisions, because we would not have to approve an adviser. The advis...

The Convener: Lab

Given its remit, a committee on justice and home affairs will probably need such a resource.

Mr Hamilton: SNP

Can I stress that I will be available next year at a cheap rate?

The Convener: Lab

No. Is everybody reasonably happy with the proposal?

Stewart Stevenson: SNP

I have an observation. My party colleagues on the Justice 1 Committee said that they had reached a different conclusion about whether two committees should b...

The Convener: Lab

It helps to have that on the record.

Scott Barrie: Lab

The establishment of two committees has worked surprisingly well. I appreciate that other people have a different view on that, but I was a member of the old...

The Convener: Lab

I also hope that in future people will not assume that the justice committees should deal only with criminal-law legislation. One of the system's successes i...

Stewart Stevenson: SNP

We now come to the important issue of when we are going out.

The Convener: Lab

I am sorry, but we have one more quite important item to deal with.