Plenary, 16 Mar 2006
Meeting date: Thursday, March 16, 2006
Official Report
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Motion Without Notice
On a point of order, Presiding Officer.
I lodged an amendment to the Parliamentary Bureau motion that we are about to debate. My amendment may or may not be called for debate. I might not have to move my amendment if you can assure me that the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will continue its search for better temporary accommodation for the Parliament and that it will endeavour to ensure that the costs are met by those who are responsible for the collapse of the beam in the chamber.
The bureau's motion, if it is passed, will mean that more than 30 per cent of members will be deprived of a seat in the committee room. I say also that £16,000 seems to be an awful lot of money for flitting from one room to another in the same building. I believe that there are other options that the corporate body should consider, including the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall, the old Royal High school building, the old Scottish Parliament building on Parliament Square or Holyrood Palace, which is right on our doorstep and which lies empty for most of the year. [Interruption.]
Order. Mr Canavan is making an important point, and we should hear him in silence.
I would be grateful for an assurance that the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will continue to look for other options and that it will report back to Parliament in due course.
On behalf of my SPCB colleagues, I can give Dennis Canavan those guarantees.
It might also be helpful if I give a little bit of background. All contingency planning for Parliament's moving out of the chamber was based on a Parliament of 129 members sitting in plenary session in a room such as this. Months of planning and preparation went into making the Hub ready. It is because of that pre-planning that we have been able to operate here remarkably smoothly—my thanks go to our staff for that.
Of course, we do not have access to the Hub next week. We will try to do the following. We gain four weeks, in reality: we have two weeks in committee rooms 2 and 6, then we have two weeks of Easter recess. During that time—hopefully, starting tomorrow—we will get information from Ove Arup & Partners on what went wrong, how it is to be fixed and how long that will take.
If—I stress the "if", because I do not know—on the far side of that, we need other accommodation, two things can happen. Which one will happen will be decided by Parliament on a Parliamentary Bureau motion. We might find that committee rooms 6 and 2 operate reasonably satisfactorily. Alternatively, we might find that, in the circumstances, we require larger accommodation. That would mean not a peripatetic arrangement, going up and down the Royal Mile from Holyrood, but our meeting somewhere closer. We are considering that. I assure Mr Canavan that all the places that he named have been and are being considered. The decision will be for the Parliament.
In terms of money, Mr Canavan will remember that, right at the start of this saga, I said that we had five priorities. The first priority was safety—that had to come first. The second was getting back to business. So far, we have not lost a single moment of parliamentary business. The third priority was to find out what is wrong, which is what Arup is engaged in at the present time. Once we know what is wrong, we can proceed with putting it right, and we will know how long that will take.
I have always said that there is a fifth priority, which is liability. I assure members—I have been very clear about this throughout my time as Presiding Officer—that the public purse is important. We and our lawyers will do everything that is humanly possibly to redeem the costs to the public purse.
I hope that you find that satisfactory, Mr Canavan.
I wish to move at short notice that Parliament consider a motion, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, to enable meetings of the Parliament to take place in committee rooms 2 and 6 until the end of this month.
Members have that Parliamentary Bureau motion before them, and I am certainly minded to accept the minister's request. Are we all agreed?
Yes
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees under Rule 2.7.2 that the Parliament shall meet in Committee Rooms 2 and 6 of the Parliament at Holyrood as recommended by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body until 31 March 2006.—[Ms Margaret Curran].
I very much hope that my reassurances mean that you do not wish to move your amendment, Mr Canavan.
Dennis Canavan indicated agreement.
Thank you very much—I am grateful for that.