Plenary, 15 Feb 2007

Meeting date: Thursday, February 15, 2007

Official Report 691KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Last Thursday, the Parliament voted down the Executive's proposal that the Parliament

"commits to a replacement crossing across the Forth and calls on the Cabinet to commit to preparatory work to start immediately".

Yesterday, the Minister for Transport, Tavish Scott, said:

"Cabinet agreed today to take forward the replacement crossing. Work will continue to assist a final decision … on where the crossing will be".

In making that announcement, the minister clearly acted directly contrary to the will of Parliament as expressed in a decisive vote in the chamber. He has also behaved in a deeply disrespectful way to members of the Parliament, who voted against the proposal just six days before. Presiding Officer, I seek a ruling from you at decision time on whether the minister is in breach of rule 3.1 of the ministerial code of conduct, which requires that

"The Scottish Executive should be accountable to the Scottish Parliament",

and of rule 7.3 of standing orders, which requires that members show respect to members of the Parliament.

I have just received notice of this point of order. I will reflect on it and, if appropriate, I will comment at decision time.

Meeting suspended until 14:15.

On resuming—