Plenary, 12 Feb 2003

Meeting date: Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Official Report 650KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. We are now in an unfortunate position—parliamentary business could finish at about a quarter to 4 and we had expected to be here until 7 o'clock, which means that we are facing a void for the next couple of hours, although there is, of course, Tom McCabe's important members' business debate, which I hope members will stay to hear.

Will the Presiding Officer give guidance on whether there is anything in our procedures—a motion without notice or another mechanism—that would allow us to instate business at this late stage? What has happened this afternoon is that Parliament, on the Executive's initiative, has not replaced an Executive debate on fishing with something else but has cancelled business—unlike the suggestion made by Euan Robson earlier. Is there any mechanism that could instate other business now? If not, what guidance can the Presiding Officer give business managers to ensure that this does not happen again? It was made clear that the stage 3 debate on the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill would take only an hour and a half. It is important that we use the Parliament's time valuably.

I think that the only point of order for me in that was whether there is a mechanism whereby other parliamentary business can be brought forward. The answer is no. The only way that that can be done is by a business motion, which must come from the Parliamentary Bureau. We debated the issue earlier and the Parliament was well aware when we took the vote this afternoon that business was being removed, and the only addition was the extra members' business debate. The matter is entirely in the hands of the Parliament.