Standards Committee, 24 Apr 2002
Meeting date: Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Official Report
177KB pdf
Committee on Standards in Public Life (House of Commons)
Good morning and welcome to the seventh meeting this year of the Standards Committee. I extend a particularly warm welcome to our witnesses from the consultative steering group working group on the code of conduct.
Before we hear from the witnesses, we must deal with item 1 on our agenda, which concerns a draft submission to the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Members will recall that, at our last meeting, we agreed to make a submission to the committee's inquiry into standards of conduct in the House of Commons. The committee wants to draw on the experience of the devolved legislatures. The draft submission sets out our work on the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Bill, lobbying and members' interests. I have been invited to give evidence to the committee when it visits Edinburgh next month. The written submission will be a useful basis from which to work.
Members will be familiar with the material in the submission. Before I ask for comments on it, I point out that it contains a line that was added in error. The line,
"The Committee reports to the Parliament as follows—"
should not be there.
Are members content with the draft submission?
I congratulate the clerks on the submission, which is excellent. I have read through it but I cannot find any reference to the fact that, under the Scotland Act 1998, criminal procedures would kick into action if there was a suggestion of criminal activity or to the fact that such matters would go to the procurator fiscal rather than the standards commissioner. That is probably different from the set-up at Westminster and would be worth drawing to the committee's attention. We operate under a quite different regime.
That is a useful suggestion. I will incorporate that into the paper.
Members will notice that, as we agreed at our previous discussion, we have not answered the 13 questions that were asked in the committee's consultation but have described our system, leaving the committee to draw the comparisons.
Do members agree to approve the submission?
Members indicated agreement.