Video transcript

Committee Chair, Paula Bradshaw, discusses the Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill

This is a written transcript of the video in which Committee for the Executive Office Chairperson, Paula Bradshaw, discusses the Committee's scrutiny of the Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill.

Interviewer: 

So if you could introduce yourself and tell us about the Committee and what your role involves.

Committee Chairperson, Paula Bradshaw:

Okay, so my name's Paula Bradshaw, I'm the Chair of the Committee for the Executive Office so that means that I will manage our weekly meetings of the Committee and I will try to keep the business going.

Interviewer: 

So for this legislation, what does the Committee want to examine and why is it important to hear from witnesses?

Paula:

Okay, so this piece of legislation was campaigned for for many, many years and a lot of people really want to see it work for them and we, as a Committee, want it to work for them as well so we will be putting out a 'call for evidence' shortly and we really want people to feedback what they want to see in it and where they have some difficulties with some parts of it and we, as a Committee, will listen to them.

Interviewer: 

And when someone appears before the Committee how does it work? Who asks the questions?

Paula:

Okay, so they will be invited by the Committee team and in advance things like their mobility needs or any other particular circumstances will be taken into account. So when they arrive at the Committee they will be seated in front of all the Members and they will have an opportunity to put in a written submission in advance and or they'll be asked questions about their concerns about the Bill. So we'll try to keep it as straightforward as possible and everybody will be given fair treatment when they sit before us.

Interviewer:

Great, and what happens with that information and how will it help the Committee's work?

Paula:

Okay, so we will be what's called 'scrutinising the Bill' over many weeks and then we will start to review that feedback and the information that's been fed into the process and we will look to see whether we should try to amend the Bill, to change the Bill, but ultimately all the information that we receive as a scrutiny Committee will end up in the final report and that will be part of the Consideration Stage which is where we're moving to after this.

Interviewer:

Great, thank you. So for this legislation what does the Committee want to examine and why is it important to hear from witnesses?

Paula:

So we, as a Committee, have put out a 'call for evidence' for 12 weeks, conscious that for the summer a lot of people will be away. What we want is for people to feed back to us what they think is good in the Bill but also what they would like to see changed in it and when we come back then in September we will look to see that information that's been provided to us.

We're very conscious that there are some parts of the Bill already that have caused some upset to people and we really want to listen to them so I would encourage people to come forward. They may feel that they've told their story over a number of occasions but for us to get this Bill right we really want people to respond to our 'call for evidence'.