Scottish Parliament
Finance Committee
Tuesday 15 January 2008
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: [The Convener opened the meeting at 14:02]
Public Health etc (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
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The Convener (Andrew Welsh): : Good afternoon, and welcome to the second meeting of the Finance Committee in 2008. I ask members to turn off any mobile phones and pagers—that also applies to members of the public.
Agenda item 1 is to consider our scrutiny of the financial memorandum to the Public Health etc (Scotland) Bill. Members have a paper that outlines the position. Members will recall that we originally adopted level 1 scrutiny and wrote to health boards and to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We had a limited response, but NHS Lothian expressed concern regarding the financial memorandum as it relates to costs on health boards, suggesting that the financial implications of the bill had not been fully considered. Therefore, we agreed to write to those health boards that had not responded to the original call for evidence, and to the Scottish directors of public health group, asking specifically whether they agreed with the concerns that NHS Lothian raised.
We also agreed that we would decide whether further scrutiny of the financial memorandum was required, once we had considered any additional submissions that we received. We now have several, including a late one from NHS Tayside that has been tabled today. Are members agreed that the responses indicate that no further scrutiny of the financial memorandum is required?
Members indicated agreement.
The Convener: : I plan to write to the lead committee convener, explaining this committee's position and enclosing all submissions that we have received. Members might wish to note that the lead committee will take evidence from NHS Lothian as part of its stage 1 consideration, and so it will have the opportunity to examine any remaining concerns.
As agreed at a previous meeting, we now move into private session to consider our draft reports on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill and on the Scottish Government's draft budget for 2008-09.
: Meeting continued in private until 16:59.