Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, September 28, 2017

Official Report 300KB pdf

Complaint

We move to agenda item 2 of the 18th meeting in 2017 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. This morning, the committee has been considering a complaint about a member of the Scottish Parliament. On behalf of the committee, I will now read a statement, which sets out the committee’s findings.

The committee has considered a complaint from Christian Allard about Alexander Burnett MSP. The complaint is that Alexander Burnett failed to declare his registered interests when submitting parliamentary questions on 4 August 2016.

The committee is unanimous in the decisions reached on the complaint. First, it agrees with the findings in fact and conclusion of the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. Secondly, it considers that the breach justifies the imposition of a sanction on Alexander Burnett.

The final decision on whether to issue a sanction lies with the Parliament. The committee will recommend that Alexander Burnett be prohibited from lodging parliamentary questions for written answer for a period of two weeks.

I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the committee, to remind all MSPs that they are obliged by law and by the “Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament” to make the appropriate written and oral declarations if they have a declarable interest, before taking part in any proceedings of the Parliament.

Full details of the complaint and the commissioner’s investigation of it will be included in the committee’s report, which will be published this afternoon.

Item 3, which is consideration of our draft report, will take place in private.