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Chamber and committees

Plenary, 03 Nov 2005

Meeting date: Thursday, November 3, 2005


Contents


Point of Order

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind):

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I refer to the matter that I raised last week about the accountability of this Parliament, which is impressed on us by the words on the mace and by our standing orders. We must achieve optimum accountability in the conduct of our business. I believe that to have been compromised yesterday with the Home Secretary's admission that he did not know the opinion of this Parliament, the Lord Advocate, the Solicitor General for Scotland or the Minister for Justice on the Terrorism Bill that is currently going through Westminster.

We owe it to our standing orders to debate the matter in order to report our opinion to the Home Secretary, because we will have operational responsibility—direct responsibility and accountability—for acting on the decisions taken in Westminster on the matter. I urge the minister who is responsible to ensure that we have a debate as soon as possible.

The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):

That is, of course, a matter not for me, but for the Parliamentary Bureau. However, you have given advance notice of the issue, and I think that the Minister for Parliamentary Business—I am looking at her now—would confirm that she is willing to discuss the matter with you in advance of the next meeting of the bureau.