Plenary, 05 Jun 2008
Meeting date: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Official Report
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Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. On 24 April, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop, informed Parliament that, with regard to national qualifications and baccalaureates for science and languages:
"I will provide further details of the baccalaureate later in the session."—[Official Report, 24 April 2008; c 7870.]
Members in the chamber assumed that that announcement would be made to the Parliament and that they would be afforded an opportunity to question the proposals and scrutinise them in detail.
This morning, outwith the Parliament, at a conference in Stirling, the cabinet secretary—[Interruption.] If the ministers—
I will decide what is in order, Mr Purvis—please continue. I ask for silence from front-bench members.
The cabinet secretary made the proposals public at a conference in Stirling. A press release was issued with a 9.30 am embargo. At 9.11 am, the convener of the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee was e-mailed a letter, which was dated Thursday 5 June. The letter states:
"I will be announcing further details of the awards on Thursday 5 June and wish to ensure that the Committee is aware of my plans."
Presiding Officer, is it a courtesy to members for them to get notice of such a significant announcement 19 minutes ahead of the press being able to comment on it and report it publicly? What constitutes a significant announcement that should be made in the chamber to allow members an opportunity to ask questions of ministers? Finally, will you rule on whether it is appropriate that the clerks of our committees will be under a considerable burden to contact the convener, ask for permission for other members to be notified and allow all members of the Scottish Parliament to have the information?
When a public statement is to be made shortly after 9.30 am and an e-mail is sent at 9.11 am, it is nigh on impossible for all members of the Parliament to be notified appropriately of such a significant announcement. If, in the future, the Government sneaks in such announcements in accordance with the bare minimum of what is required, our clerks will become an arm of the Government's communications department instead of providing a service to members of this Parliament.
I thank the member for giving me rather brief notice—although that was not his fault—of the point of order. I have not—[Interruption.] May I have some order while I say what I wish to say? I have not had the opportunity to consider the matter in great detail, but I refer the member to the "Good Practice Guidance by the Presiding Officer on Announcements by the Scottish Government", which sets out a number of methods by which the Government can make announcements to the Parliament. It is for the Government to decide which of those methods is the most appropriate in the circumstances, but I always hope that the Government will do so only after careful consideration of the position of the Parliament.
I would like to give Mr Purvis's final point further consideration this afternoon, and I will come back to the chamber at decision time to say something further on that point.