Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Official Report
799KB pdf
Scotland Act 2012 (Standing Order Rule Changes)
The next item of business is consideration of motion S4M-04298, in the name of Dave Thompson, on Scotland Act 2012 standing orders rule changes on legislative competence statements.
14:19
The Scotland Act 2012 included a number of provisions that we need to reflect in the Parliament’s standing orders. The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee has been working through the changes. This debate is on our second report on rule changes to implement the Scotland Act 2012.
The first set of changes—which, I am sure, members recall—were implemented before the summer and changed references to the “Scottish Executive” to references to the “Scottish Government”, and signified the coming of age of our devolved Parliament. Further changes will follow over the next year, but the committee’s report concerns the statements of legislative competence that are made when a bill is introduced.
At the moment, only members of the Government who are introducing bills are required to make a statement confirming that they consider the bill to be within the competence of the Parliament. On 15 October, when section 6 of the Scotland Act 2012 commences, all bills will be required to have a statement of legislative competence. In the case of members' bills, that will be a statement from the member in charge; for committee bills, it will be from the convener; and for private bills, it will be from the promoter of the bill.
Although that is a new requirement, it should not involve significant extra work. Anyone who is drafting a bill already needs to consider whether it falls within the Parliament's powers. All the Scotland Act 2012 has introduced is a public assurance that the necessary consideration has been given. I should explain that the Presiding Officer is already required to issue her own separate statement of legislative competence for every bill that is introduced. That requirement will remain and is not affected by the Scotland Act 2012 or the rule changes.
The Calman commission, whose recommendations informed the Scotland Act 2012, made a further recommendation that the person in charge of a bill should also be required to explain the considerations that informed the legislative competence statement. The committee considered that recommendation carefully, but decided not to introduce such a requirement. We were concerned that that might distract from scrutiny of the policy merits of the bill. It is, of course, always open to committees to ask for more information if concerns about competence arise during the bill’s passage.
The rule changes in our report make only the changes that are needed to bring standing orders into line with the Scotland Act 2012. I invite Parliament to agree the rule changes that are set out in our report.
Will Dave Thompson explain for those of us who were not part of the committee process whether members will be required to seek external professional legal advice on the question of competence of members’ bills and, if so, who will pay for that?
Cabinet secretary. I am sorry—I meant Mr Thompson.
That was a quick promotion. Thank you for that, Presiding Officer.
No—members will not be required to seek external professional legal advice. It will be entirely up to the member who introduces the bill to state that they believe that the bill falls within the competence of the Parliament. As I said, the Presiding Officer has to issue her own statement in relation to that, too. How people arrive at that conclusion is entirely up to them.
I move,
That the Parliament notes the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee’s 5th Report 2012 (Session 4): Scotland Act 2012 Standing Order rule changes—Legislative Competence Statements (SP Paper 190) and agrees that the changes to Standing Orders set out in Annexe A of the report be made with effect from 15 October 2012.
The question on the motion will be put at decision time.