The Committee heard evidence from the following witnesses:

Councillor Corrie McChord, COSLA Social Inclusion spokesman

Eddie Bain, COSLA Legal Adviser

Andy O’Neill, COSLA Policy Officer

The meeting adjourned at 10.00am

The meeting reconvened at 10.04am.

The meeting adjourned at 11.02am

The Committee approved the following Cross-Party Groups:

Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on the Media;

Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Epilepsy.

The Committee also agreed to consider at a later date the question of any post-registration monitoring of Cross-Party Groups.

The Committee agreed:

that it would consult MSPs’ staff on the details of the proposals set out in the Committee’s report on a Register of Interest for MSPs’ staff (2^nd Report 2000) ;

that the closing date for submissions to the Clerk would be Friday 7 April 2000;

that a summary of responses to the consultation paper would be submitted to the Committee at its meeting on Wednesday 3 May 2000.

The meeting adjourned 11.42am

The meeting re-convened 11.44am.

The Committee heard evidence from the following witness:

Frank McAveety MSPDeputy Minister for Local Government, Scottish Executive

In the course of the evidence, the Committee agreed that it would be appropriate for its views on the extent of application of the National Standards Commission model to be made known in the course of Stage 1 consideration of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill.

The meeting closed at 12.22pm