Chairman:

Moving on to the financial statements and accounts received, we note the accounts and statements until we consider our work programme. Is that agreed? Agreed. As agreed last week, the secretariat is working to continue the practices of writing to bodies that are late laying statements and accounts before the Houses, and of writing to bodies to explain issues with procurement that have been flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

On correspondence, before we proceed I just want to note that a number of Deputies have emailed their suggestions for the work programme to the Clerk. These items are not included in correspondence as we have our hands full at the moment with what is in front of us but they will of course be addressed as part of our consideration of our work programme, which I would hope to address at next week's meeting.

Today we are considering the B items of correspondence, that is correspondence from Departments and public bodies. As agreed at last week’s meeting, given the volume of correspondence in this category alone, and that we must adjourn at 12.15 p.m., the committee has decided on courses of action in relation to much of the correspondence in advance of this meeting. These items were received since the last meeting of the previous committee on 12 December 2019. I have reviewed the correspondence with the clerk and a list of correspondence with proposed actions was circulated to members earlier this week. Members were requested to respond if they did not agree with the proposed action or would like to suggest an alternative course of action. Members will have noted we are dealing with a significant backlog of correspondence. Some 91 items were included on the B list for today and we will have almost as much for our meeting next week, which is category C, correspondence from and related to private individuals and any other correspondence.

Today’s correspondence includes a number of items that were received after the last meeting of the previous committee. They are primarily responses to requests from the committee arising from matters raised at meetings and I commend the previous committee on the work it has done in raising and pursuing matters that require accountability from Departments and public bodies. I hope we will continue with that good work. I propose that we will note and publish all of the correspondence on the list that has been circulated with the exception of No. 2683. For this item, we will publish the covering letter only. The Department of Education and Skills advises the information was provided on a strictly confidential basis, so we will not publish the attachments for this item but we will publish the covering letter. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We will briefly go through the items where further actions are proposed and if we do not get through the list we will take it up at next week's meeting. The full list of correspondence considered by the committee will be published as part of the minutes of the committee’s meetings, and any body that has written to the committee can see the action that the committee has taken in relation to their correspondence. The first item of correspondence that has been flagged is No. 2645 B from Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll, Secretary General, Department of Justice and Equality, dated 13 December 2019 providing information requested by the committee on the operation of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and the 50% of road traffic cases which do not result in convictions, to include a breakdown of the reason for the cases being struck out. Deputy Munster has indicated she wishes to address this item.