Official Report (Hansard)

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Committee for Social Development

Licensing of Pavement Cafés Bill: Draft Report

The Chairperson: The next item on the agenda is the draft report on the Licensing of Pavement Cafés Bill.  You should have a copy of the draft report in front of you.  I am sorry; given our move to paperless work, I am told that it has been e-mailed to you, so it will be in your electronic packs. 

I do not know whether members have had a chance to go through that report.  We can take comments on it this morning, but I want to deal with it formally and expedite it by next week at the latest.  So, we can take comments on it now, if you are happy enough, or, if you are content, we can address it formally next week.  It is up to members.

Mr Wilson: I take it that there are paper copies of the report somewhere as well.

The Chairperson: There is one that you can borrow, but you have to put a £1,000 deposit on it. 

I am getting the sense that members want to deal with the draft report on the Licensing of Pavement Cafés Bill next week.  So, can I say that we will deal with it next week, and we will hopefully dispense with it then?

The Committee Clerk: We will have a more formal draft next week.  I am happy to take comments, which we can incorporate into any draft for next week.  The Committee has to agree the report officially by 13 December, which, in practice means by 12 December.  That is the final Committee meeting.

The Chairperson: If anybody has any comments that they want to discuss, can I ask that they do that early enough for them to be included in the packs so that all members can have advance sight of them before we finally deal with the report next Thursday?  Thank you.