Plenary, 04 Mar 2004

Meeting date: Thursday, March 4, 2004

Official Report 638KB pdf

---

Presiding Officer's Ruling

I will now deal with the extended point of order made by Margo MacDonald at the end of First Minister's question time today. I promised to get back to her as quickly as possible.

I confirm that the Executive is not responsible for the resolutions of the Parliament. Clearly, responsibility rests firmly and properly with the Parliament itself.

The question that Margo MacDonald lodged last week asked the First Minister to urge action on a matter that was outwith the Executive's general responsibility. The fact that the question related to an issue, the Iraq war, that had been debated extensively in the Parliament—indeed, the First Minister participated in those debates and took a position—does not alter what I said to Ms MacDonald in my letter of 6 February. The issue is about questions, not about answers. Under the rules, parliamentary questions must relate to matters within the general responsibility of the First Minister, the Scottish ministers and the Scottish law officers. There is no such constraint on motions and debates.

Ms MacDonald implied that rule 13.3.3 of the standing orders was a general application to what the First Minister says in debate, but that is not the case. The rule relates specifically to questions put to the Scottish Executive. If she has concerns about the accuracy of information given by ministers, that is not a matter for me but relates to the ministerial code.

Thank you for that response, Presiding Officer. I greatly appreciate the time that has been given to this extremely important question.

There is a possible question about whether members voted to support an Executive amendment on the basis that they believed that the position that they were supporting was legal. If it is shown at a later date that the course of action did not follow either legal precedent or legal advice, we will have a moral responsibility, and probably a responsibility under the "Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament", to correct any decisions that we took that were not based on correct, sound legal opinion.

I took a substantial amount of time this afternoon to read and reread what you said earlier in the day in your extended point of order. I think that it would be helpful, Ms MacDonald, if you studied the considered opinion that I have given to Parliament. If you wish to revert to the matter, there is always next week.