[THE DEPUTY PRESIDING OFFICER opened the meeting at 14:30]
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Presiding Officer. Could you give me some advice on procedural matters? They arise out of the message from the Presiding Officer in business bulletin No 7. According to that very thoughtful message—I am not sucking up— Mr Gorrie's motion on the Holyrood Parliament site is unlikely to be taken until after the Parliamentary Bureau has met. I ask the First Minister, or the person who is sitting in his chair, for an assurance that no more public contracts will be signed until the Parliament has had the chance to see a review of the current position.
The Holyrood project is a responsibility of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The appropriate course for the member to take is under rule 13.9 of standing orders: to lodge a question to the Presiding Officer on the matter.
May I too seek some procedural advice from you? Yesterday a number of us pressed the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on the issue of the publication of concordats. We were told that it was unclear when they would be published. This morning, I read in The Herald details about one of the concordats, in relation to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office—a concordat and gentleman's agreement between the First Minister and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. What procedural advice can you give me about how this matter can be addressed and how this Parliament can be treated with more respect and courtesy than the contempt it is receiving from the Executive?
The member should be careful of using points of order as points of argument, but I indicate to him that the whole matter of parliamentary privilege will be considered by the Standards Committee prior to bringing forward recommendations on a code of conduct for members.
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