Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Thursday, June 25, 2026

Official Report 447KB pdf

Interests

Good morning and welcome to the first meeting of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee of session 7. We have received no apologies.

This committee has a unique role in the Parliament. We are guardians of the Parliament’s standards, as set out in the code of conduct for MSPs, and of the Parliament’s rules, as set out in our standing orders. This is a privileged place and, no doubt, we will have some substantial issues to discuss. Party politics will never be fully absent from our work, but there is a special responsibility on all of us to leave our party hats—if I may put it that way—at the door. I hope that we form a collaborative and trusting relationship; I am committed to doing so.

Our first agenda item is a declaration of interests. Each member of the committee must make their declaration of interests relevant to the remit of the committee. As the clerk’s paper explains, if you think that you have relevant declarations to make, you should do so in a reasonably clear and transparent manner. I remind you also that this is a general declaration of interests—we also have a duty to make declarations where necessary in relation to specific items of business that we may have in future.

I will start. Per my entry in the register of members’ interests, I have no registered interests to declare. However, I have made declarations of voluntary interests, which include that I am a member of the Islay Energy Trust and RSPB Scotland, and a trustee of the Museum of Islay Life. I do not derive any financial benefit from any of those. I also have a shareholding in the Islay Energy Community Benefit Society, which returns, on average, 4 per cent interest per year.

I turn to committee members, in alphabetical order.

I have no relevant interests to declare. I refer people to my entry in the register of members’ interests.

I have no relevant interests to declare. Just to let everyone know, I am a farmer and I operate my own business—I own a sheep farm up in Buckie. I am a former councillor; I operate as the chief whip for my party, the Scottish Conservatives; and I am a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

I have no relevant interests to declare. In the interests of transparency, I stipulate that my partner, Cat Smith, is the British Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre and is chair of the House of Commons Procedure Committee—so, obviously, this committee has some connection to her work.

I have nothing to declare.