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Enterprise and Culture Committee

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Enterprise and Culture Committee calls for evidence on proposed creation of a Scottish Register of Tartans

CENT006/2006 | 6 October 2006

Views on the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill are being sought in a call for written evidence issued today by the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Culture Committee.

See the call for evidence.

The Member's bill seeks to establish an official Scottish Register of Tartans and a Keeper of the Tartan Register to maintain the register.

The bill was introduced in the Parliament by Mr Jamie McGrigor MSP on 28 September 2006 and has been referred to the Enterprise and Culture Committee for its consideration.

Convener of the committee, Alex Neil MSP said:

"This bill would create an officially recognised register of tartans. Tartan is so closely associated with Scotland all over the world that it is important that the issues surrounding the registration, ownership and use of tartan are given careful consideration.

"This bill could have significant implications for the cultural and tourism sectors. We are keen to hear what people think about the merits of this bill."

The main areas of interest and discussion to date have been-

• Whether the creation of such a register would be beneficial;

• The fate of the current registers in existence;

• The definition of 'tartan';

• What information regarding the tartans would be registered;

• What would the role of the Keeper be and who would make the appointment;

• Likely costs and fees for registering both old and new tartans;

• Implications for copyright and intellectual property law

The bill itself, the call for evidence and the explanatory notes and accompanying documents are available via the following link-

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/76tartans/index.htm

The closing date for written evidence is 10 November 2006. If required, oral evidence sessions are likely to take place later in November/early December 2006.

Background

Responses should preferably be no more than four sides of A4 in length. The committees of the Parliament operate electronically wherever possible, and ask for responses to be made in Word format to the following email address:

tartanbill@scottish.parliament.uk

Policy on treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees

A copy of the guidance on this matter can be found here:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/parliamentaryProcedure/ParliamentPolicy.pdf

Please read this before you make a submission to the committee.

The contact for members of the media is:

Richard Holligan: 0131 348 5605
RNID TypeTalk calls welcome
Email: richard.holligan@scottish.parliament.uk

Enterprise and Culture Committee contact information

For public information enquiries, contact: 0131 348 5000 or 0845 278 1999 (local call rate)
Text phone: 0845 270 0152 RNID Typetalk calls welcome
email: sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk

Visit our website at: www.scottish.parliament.uk