Working Group on Scotland without Nuclear Weapons: 9 April 2008
Governance arrangements and proposed ground-rules for the Working Group on Scotland without Nuclear Weapons
Governance arrangements
The Working Group will be chaired by the Minister for Parliamentary Business, representing Scottish Ministers.
The Group will report to the Scottish Ministers. In the first instance, the Group will submit its conclusions to the Minister for Parliamentary Business.
The Minister for Parliamentary Business will update the Scottish Cabinet on the Group's findings and progress and provide feedback, as appropriate, to the Group.
Members of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Scottish Government will provide Secretariat to the Group. The Secretariat will assist the Group to draft its products which will be shared with the Minister for Parliamentary Business in final form.
Concise minutes of the meetings will be published on the Scottish Government website, once these have been agreed with Group members, in recognition of the broad public interest in the work of the Group.
Proposed ground-rules
The Group will focus on discussions pertinent to the five key tasks identified in the remit and will remain aware of the current devolution settlement within which the Group operates.
Group members are asked to respect "Chatham House rules" and not to divulge attributable comments outwith the meetings. This is to ensure that we can have a free and frank debate.
Group members are asked to treat documents shared with the Group as confidential and not to disclose these to other parties without the prior agreement of the Group.
The Minister for Parliamentary Business will serve as the official spokesperson for the Group. When commenting externally on Government policy or matters related to the Group, Group members must be clear about the capacity in which they are commenting: Group members may, of course, comment in an individual capacity but must be clear that views expressed are not necessarily those of the wider Working Group nor of the Scottish Government. Group members are asked not to attribute views heard at the Working Group, or to disclose detail of the discussions or progress of the Group in advance of, or supplementary to, the published minutes of the Group. The Secretariat will advise Group members, as required.
The Group will agree a short communiqué for the press at the end of each meeting, and on the key messages to be fed back to the Cabinet.