Standards Committee, 12 Sep 2001

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Official Report 130KB pdf

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Work Programme

As members know from this morning's discussions, a busy and challenging programme is ahead of us. In addition to our work on lobbying, the members' interests order and confidentiality, we will introduce our committee bill on a standards commissioner shortly. Are there any comments on our programme or the relative priority of the tasks? We have noted that the committee bill on the members' interests order should be ready for September or October next year.

I am whole-heartedly behind the standards commissioner bill, but over the weekend I thought about our difficulties with the staff code of conduct. When that was first put to the Parliament, it seemed to have huge opposition, but when it returned, unchanged, it had no opposition. Between the first and second time that it was considered, consultation took place on it. I am slightly anxious to avoid our getting into a similar situation with the standards commissioner bill.

I invite the clerk to comment on the consultation process for the bill.

The Parliament has debated the committee's proposals twice. The first time was when the models of investigation report was discussed last November. The second time was when more detailed proposals for the committee bill were discussed earlier this year.

Members have had an opportunity to comment on the matter. The clerks, the non-Executive bills unit and the legal office have in mind that the bill will focus on the appointment of the commissioner and his/her role at stages 1 and 2 of the investigative process. Stages 3 and 4, which involve the committee and the whole Parliament if sanctions are recommended, will not form part of the bill. We will therefore need to ensure that, when the bill is introduced, the whole picture is outlined so that members can fully understand the implications of the process.

Such matters should not come as a surprise now to members, although I accept that when we considered the staff issue on the previous occasion, they did come as a surprise.

Patricia Ferguson is right. We should not take members by surprise. The committee will recall our two debates on the staff code of conduct. They took place in the graveyard shift and only members of the Standards Committee attended them. We were very much speaking to ourselves. The other 120 members did not exactly beat a path to our door.

We need a mechanism to inform or advise the rest of the MSPs about such discussions. We are all familiar with those members of the electorate who say that leaflets were not put through their doors when we had actually posted them through their letterboxes ourselves. Similarly, people may say that now is the first time that they have heard of the programme when, in fact, two debates about it have already taken place. We must find a mechanism to ensure that our intentions are explained in relation to not only the bill but the longer term.

That is a very good point. I hope that the bill will be ready for our next meeting. Do the clerks have any suggestions about how we can pursue the issues that have been raised and make the bill more user-friendly?

Sexy.

Exactly.

Perhaps that is going too far.

Yes, we are the Standards Committee.

There are a number of options on which it would be useful to have the views of members. For example, if a standards commissioner had to be dismissed for a particular reason, should that be decided by the majority of MSPs or by a two-thirds majority? It would be useful to have discussions on issues of importance before we crystallise our view.

Indeed. That is why we are bringing the issue to the committee's attention at the next meeting. We want to discuss options. Lord James and I have reported matters to the committee and we have given our thoughts to the drafters of the bill. The issue will come back to the committee when we can discuss the options.

If everyone is content with the forward work programme, we shall move on to item 6.