The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee is seeking views on the general principles of the Apologies (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 3 March 2015. A copy of the Bill can be found at the following link:
The Bill would give legal protection to an expression of apology, in certain circumstances, and has the broader purpose of encouraging a cultural and social change in attitudes towards apologising. The Justice Committee is particularly interested in your views on the following areas:
- is there merit in providing legal protection to an expression of apology as set out in the Bill?;
- do you agree with the legal proceedings covered under section 2 of the Bill, and the exceptions for fatal accident inquiries and defamation proceedings?;
- do you agree with the definition of apology in section 3 of the Bill;
- do you agree that the Bill will facilitate wider cultural and social change as far as perceptions of apologies are concerned, as suggested in the Policy Memorandum on the Bill?;
- are there any lessons that can be learned from how apologies legislation works in practice in other legislatures?
Further details on the Bill are contained in the Policy Memorandum and Explanatory Notes.
The Justice Committee is due to take oral evidence on the Bill at meetings on 2, 9 and 16 June, before reporting on the general principles in September 2015.
Format of written submissions
The Justice Committee invites all interested organisations and individuals to submit written evidence on the provisions in the Bill no later than 5.00 pm on Friday 8 May 2015.
Before you draft a submission, please read the Parliament’s policy on the treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees. Please also ensure that your submission:
- is up to 4 sides of A4 (longer submissions should include a short summary of the main issues)
- is set out with numbered paragraphs
- includes hyperlinks or full citations when you are referring to existing published material (rather than quoting extensive extracts)
- is provided electronically in word processing format (e.g. Microsoft Word or Apple pages) wherever possible.
Your submission will be published on the Committee webpages. However, if you would prefer your evidence to be treated confidentially, please contact the justice clerks (at the contact details below) before submitting your evidence. It is for the Committee to take any decisions on whether to accept a submission on the basis that it will not be published (although it would be seen in full by the Committee). The Parliament is however required to consider requests for information under freedom of information legislation and therefore we cannot guarantee that the evidence will never be released.
Submit your evidence:
by email to: [email protected]
or in hard copy to:
Justice Committee Clerks
Room T2.60
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
If you have any queries about written submissions, please contact the justice clerks on 0131 348 5220 or at the contact details above.