Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Tuesday 25 April 2000 (Afternoon)

I welcome everyone to the seventh meeting of the Public Petitions Committee in 2000. I also welcome members back from the recess—I hope that they had an enjoyable break from the Scottish Parliament.I extend a special welcome to John Scott, the new member of the committee. As members will know, John was the victor in the recent Ayr by-election. Despite what we might have thought about him then, I welcome him warmly to the committee. I am delighted to see him and look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.

I also welcome to the meeting Fergus Ewing, who is here to contribute to the debate on PE148 on organophosphates, and Duncan Hamilton, who is here to support PE175, on Toward Primary School. Margaret Ewing may join us later to speak to PE171.We have received apologies from Helen Eadie, but I think that everyone else is here—we are almost at full complement.As members will see, the petitions have multiplied during our absence. We have 33 petitions on today's agenda and seven requests from petitioners to speak to the committee. We also have a number of MSPs who wish to contribute to the meeting and 11 responses to current petitions. Therefore, we have a heavy work load. If members wish to contribute to the discussion of a petition, I appeal to them to keep their contributions as brief as possible. In particular, when we are hearing from petitioners, members should ask questions and should not make speeches, as that leads to hours and hours of—

It might take the fun out of it, but we will get through our business only if we are as brief as possible and contribute to the debate only when we feel that it is absolutely essential.