Chamber and committees

I come to Mr Haggart.

Thanks very much, Mr Haggart. I am keen to open questions to members, so if you have anything to add, Mr Thomson or Mr Stevens, I ask that you keep it fairly brief.

Thank you for that. I will now invite members to ask their questions. Each member will have around 10 minutes.

I will bring in Rona Mackay for the smallest supplementary.

That brings us to the end of our evidence. I thank all the witnesses for attending the committee this morning. We hope to have further engagement with the new chief constable in due course, and certainly by the end of the year.

There will be a short suspension to allow a changeover of witnesses and for members to take a brief comfort break.

Thank you very much.

We move to questions from Pauline McNeill and Rona Mackay.

There is time for one or two more.

Thank you very much. That brings us to the end of the evidence session, and I thank the witnesses very much for their attendance.

There will be a very short suspension before we move on.

Our final item of business today is to review a supplementary legislative consent memorandum on the UK Government’s Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill.

The LCM has been lodged because a small number of relatively minor amendments have been made to the bill since we last considered the issue of consent, and they impact on devolved competences. As outlined in the LCM, the new amendments fall within the Scottish Parliament’s legislative competence, as they relate to the way in which the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery carries out its functions, in so far as they relate to Scotland, with regard to criminal investigations and the review and investigations of deaths or harmful conduct. The amendments therefore require the Scottish Parliament’s consent.

Before we start, I point out to members that the new amendments do not affect the key parts of the bill that we have looked at and the Scottish Government has not changed its view that the Scottish Parliament should not consent to the relevant parts in this bill for reasons that we have already discussed and, after a vote, agreed with. I should also point out that, because of the timetable in the UK Parliament and our recess, the bill passed into law last night. Therefore, all we need do today is note this development.

If no one has anything else to add, do we agree to note the supplementary LCM?

Members indicated agreement.