Scottish Parliament
Finance Committee
Tuesday 14 March 2006
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: [The Convener opened the meeting at 10:00]
Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill:
Financial Memorandum
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The Convener (Des McNulty): : I open the eighth meeting of the Finance Committee in 2006. I will not welcome members of the press and public because no one is here. We have received apologies from Wendy Alexander and Mark Ballard. Robin Harper plans to attend as a substitute for Mark Ballard, but he has not yet arrived.
The first item on our agenda is consideration of the level of scrutiny that should be applied to the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill's financial memorandum. In the clerk's note, it is suggested that we adopt level 2 scrutiny, which will involve our taking written evidence from bodies on which costs will fall and oral evidence from Executive officials. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
Crofting Reform etc Bill:
Financial Memorandum
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The Convener: : The second item on our agenda is consideration of the level of scrutiny that should be applied to the Crofting Reform etc Bill's financial memorandum. Because the costs will be minimal, the clerk's paper proposes that we adopt level 1 scrutiny, which would involve our seeking written evidence from bodies on which costs will fall and our sending to the lead committee any submissions that we receive. However, given our previous interest in the options that were considered when it was decided that the proposed Scottish civil enforcement commission will be a non-departmental public body, it is suggested that we also ask the Executive to provide us with details of the options that were considered before it decided to turn the Crofters Commission into an NDPB. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
Item in Private
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The Convener: : The third item on our agenda is to decide whether to consider our draft report on the financial memorandum to the Planning etc (Scotland) Bill in private at our next meeting. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
The Convener: : We will move into private session to consider the remaining two items on our agenda, which are the report on our inquiry into deprivation and the report on our inquiry into the cost of the local authority single status agreement.
: Meeting continued in private until 12.22.