About The Committee
Welcome to the Education and Culture Committee’s webpages, which provide full details of the Committee’s work.
Like other subject committees, the Committee scrutinises the policies and performance of the Scottish Government and its agencies by considering relevant legislation; conducting inquiries; scrutinising spending proposals; and carrying out any other work that it considers appropriate.
In practice, the Committee considers a variety of topics such as:
- early years and children’s services
- school, further and higher education
- lifelong learning
- the Gaelic and Scots languages
- culture and the arts.
The Committee usually meets on Tuesday mornings. Details of meetings can be found on these webpages and public gallery seats can be booked in advance from Visitor Services.
If you wish to receive regular updates on the work of the Committee please email the committee mailbox with your details and you will be added to the Committee’s email contact list.
Current Business
The Committee has taken oral evidence on broadcasting at the following meetings:
The following letters were received by the Committee:
The following letters were issued by the Convener on behalf of the Committee:
The Committee has now issued a call for evidence. The closing date for written submissions is 26 July 2013.
The Committee took oral evidence on 16 and 23 April. Written evidence submitted can be found here:
The Official Reports of the meetings are available here:
The following letter was received from the Scottish Government:
A further submission was received from the Scottish Government:
The following supplementary evidence was provided by Campbell Deane following the evidence session on 16 April 2013:
The following supplementary evidence was provided by Lord McCluskey following the evidence session on 23 April 2013:
The Convener, Stewart Maxwell MSP, wrote to the Cabinet Secretary on behalf of the Committee on 24 April 2013:
Stage 1 oral evidence has now been concluded.
The Committee published its Stage 1 report on 20 March 2013.
The following letter was received from the Scottish Government in response to the report:
The following letter was received from Skills Development Scotland in response to the report:
The Stage 1 debate took place on Wednesday 27 March 2013.
Stage 2 proceedings will begin on Tuesday 14 May 2013.
The call for written evidence closed on 28 August 2012. The Committee considered these responses at its meeting on 25 September and agreed to write to various bodies, including the Scottish Government, to ask for a response to certain issues raised in the written evidence. These further responses were published on 14 December 2012.
As part of its inquiry, the Committee undertook a series of visits.
Following the visits the Committee took oral evidence on specific issues relating to the children's hearings system.
The Committee agreed its approach to the remainder of the inquiry on 5 March 2013. Details of that approach are available here (163KB pdf).
The Committee published its interim report on 28 March 2013.
Committee Meetings
16th Education and Culture Committee Meeting
Date: 16th Meeting, Tuesday 21 May 2013
Location: Committee Room 6
Inquiry into decision making on whether to take children into care
Post-16 Education (Scotland) Bill
Committee Reports
Read the latest report from the Education and Culture Committee