Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Official Report
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Point of Order
On a point of order under rule 13.5.2, Presiding Officer. On 9 October, after Donald Trump had published an email sent to him by a special adviser seeking endorsement of the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, I asked a number of specific parliamentary questions to establish whether the Scottish Government had sent emails to other individuals or organisations seeking endorsement of that decision.
On 5 November, I received a holding reply from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, which promised a full reply to my questions as soon as possible. On 6 December, the Scottish Government published on its website a number of emails sent by special advisers in the First Minister’s office in response to a freedom of information request from a newspaper, which contained precisely the information that I had asked for. The information was then published in newspapers on 7 December, but I received answers to the questions only yesterday, on 10 December.
I am disappointed that the Government chose not to answer my specific questions but instead published the information separately some eight weeks after I had lodged the questions and four weeks after I was promised that I would be replied to as soon as possible. Mr MacAskill’s answer to question S4W-10134 assured me that copies of the relevant correspondence were being placed that same day on the Scottish Government website, when they had in fact been published several days earlier. The answer was provided after 46 days, rather than the 20 days that is laid down under standing orders.
Presiding Officer, you ruled on a point of order raised by Mark Griffin last week. You said that the Scottish Government should not treat members
“with such discourtesy in the future.”—[Official Report, 4 December 2012; c 14284.]
I ask that you use your authority to ensure that there are no further such occurrences and that the Scottish Government answers all questions promptly, in accordance with standing orders, no matter how embarrassing its answers may be.
I thank the member for his point of order. When I spoke last week about courtesy and respect for the Parliament, I expected that to apply to all members and not just to Government members. I am therefore disappointed to learn that Mr Macdonald’s point of order was circulated to the press in advance of it being raised first in the chamber.
I made my position clear last week in response to Mark Griffin’s point of order. I understand that the Minister for Parliamentary Business, who was initially made aware of Mr Macdonald’s point of order from the press, wishes to respond.
We were alerted to the point of order through the press. I confirm that a number of FOI requests were received by the Government on 8 October from various sources. The PQs from Lewis Macdonald were received one day later, on 9 October. The FOI requests were answered on Friday 7 December; the PQs were answered one working day later, on Monday 10 December.