Standards and Public Appointments Committee, 28 Feb 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Official Report 124KB pdf

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Cross-party Group

Alasdair Morrison had hoped to be present but, because of the vagaries of the weather and consequential travel arrangements, he has not been able to join us. However, we have before us the proposal for a cross-party group on golf. As with all such proposals, the group is entitled to use the title only if it is first accorded recognition by the committee under section 8 of the code of conduct.

Committee members have before them copies of the application form from the proposed group and a cover note. Alasdair Morrison is the convener of the proposed group. Unfortunately, neither he nor his proposed substitute could quite make it today. Do committee members have any concerns? As far as I can see, the group complies with our current requirements.

I have one comment. I thought that inclement weather never hit golf or golf-related activities.

It might hit flying to the golf-related activity.

That sounds like the comment of a golf widow, Christine.

Oh, no.

The group clearly meets the requirements that the Parliament has laid down and we should approve its establishment.

That is correct. However, I have a slight longer-term fear that, just as we possibly have too many cross-party groups dealing with individual medical conditions, we might end up with too many groups on sport. We have a cross-party sports group—next week will we have a group for friends of Andy what's-his-name?

Andy Murray.

Yes, Andy Murray. We could end up with a cross-party group on football. We certainly need it and, as we have actually won two rugby matches, we could have a cross-party group on rugby. I would be sorry if the cross-party group on golf opened the door to a flotilla of individual sports groups but, as Karen Whitefield correctly said, the proposal stands up under the current rules and we have to agree it.

On your general point, the approval of the cross-party group on golf means that we now have 65 cross-party groups. There must be concerns about the viability of such a large number. There is no constraint on the setting up of any group as long as it complies with the rules.

Your point about there being a large number of cross-party groups on medical conditions is true and we also have more than one transport cross-party group. I do not know whether all the groups are actively working, so perhaps we will have to revisit the matter as part of our consideration of the code of conduct to determine whether we might need rather more rigorous rules for the next parliamentary session.

Having said that, we have agreed to the establishment of the cross-party group on golf and I will write accordingly to Mr Morrison in due course.

I have a point of information. You highlighted the fact that we have more than one cross-party transport group. However, the cross-party group on sustainable transport, of which I am the convener, amalgamated all the transport groups under one heading because we were conscious that there were a number of cross-party transport groups and that, in some ways, we were duplicating work. As a result, I think that we now have only one cross-party transport group.

A number of rail groups are still in existence and rail still qualifies as transport. Nevertheless, I commend you for bringing together a number of groups.

The cross-party group on Glasgow crossrail will be delighted to be subsumed in the cross-party group on sustainable transport once we get Executive go-ahead for the crossrail. It pays to advertise, so I thought that I would make that point.

Is that called lobbying?

I will lower the intellectual tone by saying that I hope that members might agree to join my proposed cross-party group on blow football, for which the table in committee room 5 would be a magnificent arena.

I think that we should close the meeting.

Indeed. I will do so before we get any more such suggestions.

Meeting closed at 11:40.