Official Report 126KB pdf
Item 6 on the agenda is guidance on cross-party groups. Members may recall that, at our meeting on 2 October, we agreed to consider the guidance to be issued to the conveners of all cross-party groups, highlighting key aspects of their operation. The paper that we have today outlines areas that could be considered for guidance. At this stage, we are looking for members' views on that.
The guidance as it stands is good. Much of what we need to do is a gentle reminder to the relevant responsible elected members and other office bearers of cross-party groups of their obligations in relation to their formation and the recent letter that we discussed previously. A little refresher might not do any of us any harm in terms of doing those things properly.
I agree. We should give all the help that we can. As a convener who has made mistakes in the past, I know that it is easy to miss something out. For example, we spoke about the applications. One application says that the amount per group member per year for subscriptions is £5, but is there a space on the form to detail what the money is to be used for? If there is only one space, someone can put the £5 in and think that they have filled in that part—although that is not a mistake I have made myself. We need to be helpful, because people try to fill in the applications in between everything else.
I think that that will be covered in the guidance. Going back to our previous discussion, it was a question of giving a warning to MSPs—especially new MSPs—about the possibility of lobbying or leaving themselves open to accusations and about better conduct of the cross-party groups. We had to temper that with the fact that we did not want to end up in a policing role. The paper gives that balance.
Previous
Code of Conduct