Plenary, 05 Oct 2005

Meeting date: Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Official Report 388KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I submitted a written question on 19 September to the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning regarding alleged European subsidies in relation to Fergusons in my constituency. As members know, the matter is a serious one for me. I received a holding response on 3 October.

This morning, The Herald published an article that was based on Nicol Stephen's written answer. I want to point out that I did not receive the written answer until 10.30 am this morning, after my staff contacted Nicol Stephen's office, having read the article in The Herald. That behaviour from a minister is totally unacceptable.

The point of order is primarily one for the minister and his civil servants. They will certainly take good note of it. In terms of guidance on ministerial statements, it is clear that best practice and common courtesy should ensure that the constituency member receives an answer to a question before it goes public. I am sure that Mr Stephen and his civil servants will take note of that.

We move on to the next item of business—[Interruption.]

Let him in.

Order. I call Mr Stephen.

I am sorry, Presiding Officer. I pressed my request-to-speak button to indicate my wish to reply to the point of order.

I give the member an unreserved apology. What happened should not have happened. Yesterday morning, I cleared the parliamentary question for answer. I understand that the information was passed on to the First Minister's spokesperson for a press briefing. I also understand that he, in good faith and believing the question to have been answered—[Interruption.]

Order.

He issued information about the question and made available the answer. I do not know the full details. I will make further inquiries and give a detailed explanation to the member and to other members who are interested in the matter. The question was not answered until this morning. That was a mistake; it should not have happened, and I apologise.

I am grateful to you for that statement, Mr Stephen. It is an apology and I suggest that we let the matter rest there.