Petitions

The fourth item on the agenda is consideration of petitions. I refer members to petition PE373 from Raymond Dorricott, which concerns amending current legislation with regard to summary warrants to local authorities in so far as it relates to the rights of alleged debtors to reply or make comment before a warrant is issued. As members will see from the background briefing note, there does not have to be a hearing; in certain instances, a local authority can simply move to enforcement proceedings.How does the committee wish to proceed on the petition? The deadline for responses to the report from the working group on a replacement for poindings and warrant sale, entitled "Striking the Balance—a new approach to debt management", was 17 October. The Scottish Executive justice department is currently analysing those responses and will shortly present its findings to the Minister for Justice. I understand that summary warrants form part of the consultation.Against that background, I am open to suggestions about how we should proceed with the petition. Do members want to defer detailed consideration of the petition until the Minister for Justice makes a statement on the working group's report, or do they wish simply to note the petition and take no further action?

So you are suggesting that we defer consideration of the petition until we have received the Minister for Justice's response.

Will the issue come to the committee?

That I cannot say. There was a promise that it might come to the committee, but I have been told that it was not written on tablets of stone. I certainly hope that it comes to us, as we heard the evidence. Gordon Jackson knows more people than I do, and he says that it is coming to us.

Even so, if we are going to defer it, we should do so for both justice committees.

Obviously, if we were to defer the petition and the matter did not come to this committee, we would refer the petition to the Justice 2 Committee. I certainly hope that poindings and warrant sales come to us, as we dealt with Tommy Sheridan's Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill in the first place. I would like to think that we are informed on the issue.Are members agreed to defer the petition until we receive the Minister for Justice's response?Members indicated agreement.