On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I refer to today's announcement by the Scottish Executive of the new appointees to the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board, to which Mrs Christine Davis CBE has been reappointed as chairperson. The Scottish Executive stated in its announcement that neither she nor any other board member holds any other post by public appointment. However, Mrs Christine Davis is, in fact, a member of the independent assessors' panel for public appointments. Do you think that you could use the powers of your office to get the Scottish Executive to tell us the truth for a change, Presiding Officer?
No. I do not think that I should use the powers of my office to do anything of the kind. That was not really a point of order for me. It might be a point of argument with the Executive, but it is certainly not a point of order for this chamber.
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. You will note from today's business bulletin that a number of the amendments for the stage 3 debate that we are about to have were submitted after the deadline. We agreed at our debate on standing orders last week to accept manuscript amendments where they are justified. I ask you to reflect on standing order 9.10.6 and to consider producing guidance to members about what would constitute justifiable manuscript amendments.
I am grateful to the member for giving me notice of the point of order; it is an important one. Members will recall that we changed the standing orders only last week. I read the Procedures Committee's report on the subject, which made it clear that it did not expect the manuscript amendment process to be used as a matter of routine. It is an exceptional process and should be used when last-minute technical changes have to be made to a bill. I have the task of deciding whether those amendments are in order.