Plenary, 14 Mar 2007
Meeting date: Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Official Report
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Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. The Inshore Fishing (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Lorn) Order 2007 (SSI 2007/186) was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 7 March 2007. Article 1, "Citation and commencement", states:
"This Order … shall come into force on 12 March 2007."
That clearly breaches the 21-day rule that an order shall not commence until 21 days after it is laid. I have been informed that the Executive intends to replace this incompetent order with another correcting the date from 12 March to 29 March. At this stage, however, the order will clearly still breach the 21-day rule.
Although I appreciate that the order is a negative instrument, and the 21-day rule is sometimes breached on exceptional grounds of necessity or in order to fit in with United Kingdom laws, no such necessity or urgency exists in this case, especially as the research that the order seeks to protect has already been going on for months. The only necessity or urgency seems to be that the Executive wishes to get the order through before the Parliament dissolves. What is the point in having a 21-day rule to allow time to inform the public of a change in the law if it can be breached for no good reason?
I thank Mr McGrigor for giving me advance notice of his point of order.
I understand from the Minister for Parliamentary Business that the error to which Mr McGrigor refers is an administrative one and that the Executive now intends to revoke the current order and lay a new one within the next few days. It is also intended that the new order will come into force on 29 March, which, on the face of it, will also breach the 21-day rule. In these circumstances, instruments include a letter to me setting out the reasons for the proposed breach. The reasons will be considered by the Subordinate Legislation Committee, which will then report its views to the relevant lead committee, which, in this case, is the Environment and Rural Development Committee.
I trust that that explains the position, Mr McGrigor, but if you have any concerns you can lodge a motion to annul the order, which will then be considered by the lead committee.
I will speak briefly, Presiding Officer, because you have explained the situation.
I can inform the chamber that we intend to revoke the order and relay it tomorrow, if that is appropriate. However, I would like to offer Mr McGrigor our apologies for this administrative error. We take these matters very seriously. We would not breach the 21-day rule lightly and for no good reason. There are procedures to force us to give good reasons and due explanation for a breach. I am happy to commit to informing Jamie McGrigor of all the implications of the situation if he wishes to have further discussion. Again, I apologise to the chamber for this error.