We had to change the date of this meeting, as we intend to deal with freedom of information legislation and the Minister was not available yesterday. I hope it has not discommoded the people we intended to meet yesterday. It is more beneficial to have the relevant Minister attending the committee to discuss this topic. As chairman of the committee, I therefore agreed to this change of date last week. I am pleased that a number of members are able to attend today.
The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 15 October 2003. The minutes have been circulated and I propose that they be agreed with the following amendments. I wish to record apologies from Senator White for not attending the last meeting. Twice in the draft minutes, we refer to notification that it is proposed to proscribe additional bodies included in the schedule of the Freedom of Information Act. The term "proscribe" should actually read "prescribe". This is important in case some people believe we were attempting to outlaw freedom of information. That was not the intention.
Correspondence on EU scrutiny has been circulated to members of the committee. The EU scrutiny sub-committee has sent a list of decisions that were taken at its meeting of 2 October 2003. The sub-committee has referred two proposals to this committee for further scrutiny. They are COM 2003/446, regarding mutual assistance in the field of direct and indirect taxation, and COM 2003/397 on rates of VAT. Is it agreed that the committee will scrutinise these proposals in the usual manner? Agreed. Does the committee agree to note the remaining proposals considered by the EU scrutiny sub-committee on 2 October 2003? We will note that it has considered the matter.
The EU scrutiny sub-committee has sent a list of decisions taken at its meeting of 16 October 2003. None of these proposals has been referred to this committee for further scrutiny. Does the committee agree to note the proposals noted by the sub-committee on 16 October 2003? Agreed.
Item No. 4 concerns the consideration of the proposed structure to the report on the commercial banking sector. At the last meeting, we discussed this and circulated a draft outline reflecting the way in which committee reports are usually structured. I suggest that this will form the basis of the structure of our report. We have not commenced the drafting of it yet, as we wanted to agree to the structure first. It is in the same format as the report we produced from the freedom of information hearings earlier in the year. Are we agreed to follow the same structure in this report? Agreed.
The next item on the agenda is the report of the delegation to a meeting in the European Parliament Budget Committee in Brussels on 7 October 2003. That was attended by myself and the Clerk of the House and the report has been sent out to committee members with the documentation. It is a brief report to be laid before the House as a result of my presentation at the meeting in Brussels on behalf of this committee. I am sorry - I am informed that it does not have to be laid before the House, but that the committee should note the report. Is that agreed? Agreed.
I want to see if there is any other business to clear, after which we will go back to freedom of information as the final remaining item.