The sound on this recording is of poor quality, you can download the transcript by following this link . The transcript is only a couple of paragraphs long and is well worth reading.
At this point it might have seemed that the committee had actually decided to refer the petition to the minister for tourism, but on the 7 September a letter was received from the clerk's assistant stating that "The committee agreed that, on the basis that the case for returning visitscotland.com to public ownership has not been made, to close consideration of this petition but agreed to draw the attention of the Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism the dissatisfaction with the national website, call centre and booking system expressed in responses to this petition." As this account bore no relation to the transcript of the meeting itself a complaint was immediately raised with the clerk. The reply received on the 13 September was as follows:-
Mr Keith,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the decision of the Public Petitions Committee to close consideration of your petition, PE1015.
You are correct that the words "the case had not been made" are not recorded in the Official Report, the verbatim record of the meeting. However, that is essentially the conclusion that the Committee came to in its decision to close consideration of the petition and that is what is recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings for the meeting (these record the decisions taken at a meeting of a committee or the Parliament).
Your petition called 'on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to return the national tourism website, call centre and booking system to public ownership.' The Committee agreed that the case for this has not been made therefore it would close consideration of the petition. However, it also noted that issues of concern relating to the operation of the website have been raised in the responses received. Accordingly, in closing the petition, it would forward the written responses received (those considered at the meeting) to the relevant Scottish Government Minister (which has now been done).
As the Convener stated at the meeting last week, "Members have had a chance to consider the correspondence and the responses to it." He also drew attention to the previous Committee's consideration of the petition when oral evidence was given. I can assure you therefore that it was only after a careful assessment of all this evidence that the Committee reached its decision.
Fergus Cochrane
Clerk to the Public Petitions Committee
In response to this letter a formal complaint was sent to the Presiding Officer (Alex Fergusson). Letter to Alex Fergusson
Needless to say the Campaign continues and we will keep you informed of events!