20.06.2011
Representatives from the police, church, legal profession and Scottish football have all been invited to give evidence to the Justice Committee on Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 June.
The evidence sessions are part of the committee’s scrutiny of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill, published on Friday 17 June.
On Tuesday 21 June at 10am in committee room 6, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, the Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs; Assistant Chief Constable Campbell Corrigan from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, Chair of the Football sub-committee; Les Gray from the Scottish Police Federation and Dr David McArdle from Stirling Law School, will give evidence alongside Bill McVicar and Alan McCreadie from the Law Society of Scotland.
On Wednesday 22 June at 12.30pm in committee room 5, Neil Doncaster from the Scottish Premier League; Stewart Regan from Scottish Football Association; David Martin, the Head of Security and Operations at Rangers Football Club and representatives from the Church of Scotland will give evidence to the committee.
Committee Convener Christine Grahame MSP said:
“The Justice Committee feels that due to the speed at which this important Bill is scheduled to go through Parliament it is vital that we have some independent scrutiny from key stakeholders.
“Though there will be no Stage 1 report, we hope that over the course of these evidence sessions our committee will prove to be a valuable resource in informing the Scottish Parliament’s scrutiny of this Bill.”
Organisations and members of the public are invited to submit evidence to the Justice Committee via the 'call for written evidence' page
The Stage 1 Debate on the Bill will take place in the Chamber on Thursday 23 June.