Plenary, 04 Mar 2004

Meeting date: Thursday, March 4, 2004

Official Report 638KB pdf

---

Presiding Officer's Ruling

Good morning. Yesterday I undertook to give my views on issues of legislative competence and admissibility of amendments, which Dennis Canavan and Allan Wilson raised. It should be clear from what I said yesterday that any dispute about the admissibility of an amendment is a matter for the committee convener at stage 2 and for me as Presiding Officer at stage 3.

Under our rules, the legislative competence of an amendment is not a criterion for admissibility and is therefore not an issue for a convener or for me in ruling on any dispute. That means that there is nothing to prevent Mr Canavan from lodging the same—or a similar—amendment at stage 3, when the issue of whether to select it becomes a matter for me. That decision will not take into account any issues of legislative competence.