Standards Committee, 26 Sep 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 26, 2000

Official Report 108KB pdf

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Standards Adviser

The third item on our agenda is consideration of a paper that sets out details of the working arrangements to be adopted in implementing the temporary adviser's role and remit. The paper is based on the specification for the post that the committee agreed at its meeting on 31 May. Do members have any comments on the paper?

The first bullet point of paragraph 8 states:

"The Adviser will provide regular updates to the Clerk on the complaints which he/she has received to enable the Clerk to ensure that the Convener is appraised of particularly serious or sensitive complaints which may need to be brought to the attention of the Committee at an early stage."

It is for the clerk to report to the committee, rather than to the convener, in these matters. We should modify the paper to reflect that. Clearly, she will report to the convener, but we should have it written down that the clerk will report to the committee.

We will alter that. However, practically speaking I will be the clerk's first point of contact.

Yes, but it should be written down that the clerk will report to the committee.

Do members have any other comments?

There is a contradiction in paragraph 9. It states:

"Correspondence should be addressed to the Adviser via the Standards Committee Clerks."

However, we then note on the Parliament's website that

"the Adviser has his/her own web page."

Are those two points not contradictory? Should we not say that all information should come to the adviser via the clerks, who will be responsible for running the web page for the adviser and passing necessary information on to them?

I am not sure what is on the web page, but I will ask the clerk to address Des McNulty's point.

The web page does not yet exist. We will meet Garry Watson on Thursday. The clerks could have access to the e-mail account, if members want everything to reach the adviser via the clerks.

There is logic in that. Apart from anything else, we will be paying the adviser for every item of work that he does. The clerks should therefore be the first port of call for information. They can then pass necessary items to the adviser. We will be able to scrutinise the process through the clerks' reports. That is the right way to do it.

That is most appropriate.

On a related issue, the committee's report on models of investigation will be published later this week. Members may consider it appropriate for a press release to accompany the publication of the report. Are members happy for that to take place?

I have no problem with that. However, it would be appropriate for the adviser and the committee to meet. Perhaps we could ask him to come to our next meeting. He should be settled in by then.

That is a good point. I will speak to the clerks about inviting the adviser and about the press release on the publication of the report.