Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, January 28, 2016

Official Report 289KB pdf

Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill: Stage 2

Next is the Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill. I welcome Joe FitzPatrick, the Minister for Parliamentary Business, to the meeting. We have no amendments to deal with, but standing orders require us to consider each section and schedule of the bill and the long title, and to agree to each formally. Before moving to the formal process, I invite Joe FitzPatrick briefly to put on the record the purpose of the bill.

As colleagues know, this is a short and straightforward bill. To recap for the record, it will move the Scottish Parliament elections that are currently scheduled for 7 May 2020 to 6 May 2021, and it will move the local government elections that are scheduled for 6 May 2021 to 5 May 2022.

Thank you for what you said and for the brevity with which you said it. We will now take the sections in order and the long title last. Standing orders allow us to put a single question where groups of sections are to be considered consecutively, so unless members disagree, that is what I propose we do.

Sections 1 to 4 agreed to.

Long title agreed to.

That ends stage 2. Thank you, minister, for your attendance.