Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): I remind members that the Committee Stage is about to conclude. The Committee's report needs to be agreed today. I am looking at the time, and I am fairly confident about what the answer to this question will be: do members require a reading period to peruse any aspects of the report before we go ahead to agree content? I am not hearing any indications on that. If it any point anything arises where any member feels we need to go into closed session to discuss anything in any further detail, please indicate. I will move through this, and it will be largely paragraph by paragraph where possible. Will we be working through this as per the brief?

The Committee Clerk: Yes, it will be paragraph by paragraph for the executive summary, the background, the Committee approach and consideration. That takes us from paragraph 1 up to paragraph 58. There is then a very detailed section that summarises all of the issues that the Committee has been discussing along the line. That can be agreed by section, and that is in paragraphs 59 to 225. Then you will want to review the decisions that you made last week on each clause. That is at the very end of the report. If the Committee is happy to agree the report, the order-to-print date will be today's date. Once we get our Hansard report, all of those papers will go up on the website.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): That is great. Thank you. For my own understanding of what you highlighted, I want to check something: if we are working through the briefing, will that take us through the report in the sequence that you outlined? Have I understood that correctly?

The Committee Clerk: We were hoping to do it section by section, but we have checked the guidance, and it should be done paragraph by paragraph for the most part.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): So I should be referring to these notes?

The Committee Clerk: Yes.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): OK. Keep me right here to make sure that I cover this correctly, as we are working off a slightly different structure than what I had anticipated. The first section that we need to look at is the executive summary, which is paragraphs 1 to 8. Are members content with paragraphs 1 to 8 of the report as drafted?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): We move on to the "Background" section of the report, which is at paragraphs 9 to 32. Are members content with those paragraphs as drafted?

The Committee Clerk: Take a minute and make sure that you are happy.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): We are now at the "Committee Approach" section of the report, which is at paragraphs 33 to 43. Are members content with each paragraph of that section as drafted?

The Committee Clerk: That is just the chronology.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): We move to the "Consideration of the Bill" section of the report, which is at paragraphs 44 to 58. Are members content with those paragraphs as drafted?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): We will take paragraphs 59 to 225, which provide detail on the clause-by-clause consideration, as one section. Are members content with that section of the report as drafted?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): We move to the section on clause-by-clause decisions in the report. Just to check, Clerk, can I take those as a block of paragraphs as listed here?

The Committee Clerk: Members will want to recall our meeting last week. There was only a bit of nuance around clause 1, whereby the Deputy Chairperson advised members that he would be tabling an amendment and the Chairperson advised that he was content with clause 1 at this time without prejudice to later developments at Consideration Stage. Other than that, the Committee agreed to each clause of the Bill. Are we all happy with that record?

Mr Sheehan: For the record, that amendment has been tabled.

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): To confirm, that section is at paragraphs 226 to 229, and then there are the decisions on clauses 1 to 16 and the long title. Are members content with that section on Committee decisions as drafted?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): Are members content with appendices 1 to 7 as currently drafted in the report?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): As we have agreement on all of that, I need to get agreement on a couple of other items. Is Committee content that we order the report on the General Teaching Council Bill to be printed?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): I also seek agreement for a copy of the minutes of today's meeting to be included in the report. Are we agreed?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): I also seek agreement that an electronic copy of the Committee's report on the Bill be published on the Committee web page and sent to all organisations that provided evidence to the Committee on the Bill. Are we agreed?

The Chairperson (Mr Mathison): That concludes the Committee Stage of the General Teaching Council Bill.