The first item for consideration is petition PE272 from the National Farmers Union of Scotland, which should have been circulated to members. I am concerned that we are short on committee members, so although I am happy to discuss the petitions, I would also be content to defer any decisions until next week's meeting, when we will have broader representation, if members feel that that is appropriate.
Official Report · Committee
Petitions
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- Alex Johnstone Con 5
- Fergus Ewing SNP 2
- Rhoda Grant Lab 1
- Mike Rumbles LD 1
The record
11 contributionsIf we are to delay any decisions, we should delay discussion as well, because we will just have to repeat ourselves next week. If we do not repeat ourselves, the people who are not here will not know what our views are. It will be a duplication to discuss the petitions and not make any decisions.
I am keen to emphasise that we have a quorum, and that we are entitled to deal with the petitions. However, if we feel that there are views that would be expressed by members who are not here, I would be keen to defer making decisions.
My view is straightforward. Representatives of all four political parties on the committee are present, but I also support the view that if we are going to defer taking decisions, we must defer discussion as well. Either we get on with it, or we do not.
I agree with Rhoda Grant. It would be better to defer substantive discussion until next week, because some members are not present. However, it would be quite easy for us to make some progress on the petition on the salmon farming industry, because it is obvious that we will want a response to that from the Executive.
Members
link
We have that.
I am sorry. I hunted for a response. If I did not find it, mea culpa. Fair enough—obviously I have more reading to do.
I admit that the response took quite a bit of finding.Do we agree to defer discussion on petition PE272 until next week's meeting?Members indicated agreement.
We have several petitions that relate to the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill. They have been brought together for consideration before we complete our stage 1 report. Are we content to take the same decision on those petitions as we did on PE272 and defer discussion to next week's meeting?Members indicated agreement.
The next item on the agenda is discussion of the draft report on the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill. We have agreed to take that in private.
Meeting continued in private until 14:45.
In this meeting
Everything on 27 Feb 2001 →- Scottish Parliament Rural Development Committee Tuesday 27 February 2001 (Afternoon) Committee business · 4
- Foot-and-mouth Disease Committee business · 6
- Agriculture Inquiry Committee business · 37
- Scottish Agricultural College Committee business · 16
- Petitions Petitions · 11
The type of each item (debate, statement, questions, members’ business and so on) and the times shown are worked out by this site from headings, the chair’s opening words and the Official Report’s running timestamps. They are not the Parliament’s own classification. Text: the Scottish Parliament Official Report.