Plenary,

Meeting date: Thursday, May 16, 2002

Official Report 748KB pdf

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Point of Order

Presiding Officer, I gave you advance notice of this point of order.

Earlier this morning, the Executive issued and posted on its website a press release announcing the introduction into Parliament of the Local Government in Scotland Bill. The press release claims that the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services told Parliament about the importance of the bill.

No written question has been posted. No statement is planned for today. I am informed by the Scottish Parliament information centre that copies of the bill will not be available to MSPs until tomorrow. However, an Executive briefing on the bill took place at 11 am this morning.

The only place to which the bill has been introduced today is the media. Presiding Officer, not for the first time, I have occasion to raise with you what I consider to be the Executive's contempt for the Parliament. I urge you to consider the matter and to uphold the rights of the Parliament.

I thank the member for giving me notice, as that has enabled me to look into the matter before ruling. The position is as the member has said. The bill was introduced to Parliament today, but it is not published until tomorrow. The press release, of which I have seen a copy, should have been issued tomorrow and not today.

I understand that that was an administrative error within the Executive, for which it has apologised. There is no great loss to the Parliament in this case because the press release simply outlines the bill's objective, which is familiar to the Parliament's Local Government Committee, which has been dealing with it.

I do not think that there has been any great harm, but the member is technically correct to raise the matter and I hope that it will not happen again.

Further to that point of order, Presiding Officer, I appreciate your comment that it was an administrative error. However, the fact remains that contempt has been shown to the Parliament. We do not have copies of the bill. It has not been introduced to the Parliament, but the media know about it.

Now the member is technically wrong. The bill has been introduced today, but it is not published until tomorrow. Introduction is a technical matter. The bill has been through my office. I approved it yesterday and it has been introduced today. Nonetheless, the member is right that the press release should not have gone out until tomorrow. That was acknowledged by the Executive in a call to my office.

On the same point of order, Presiding Officer. Given that the offence has been committed against the Parliament, is it in order that the Executive acknowledges its error to you rather than to the Parliament? The minister responsible for the bill should be apologising to the Parliament.

Perhaps members will accept that apology through me. Someone pushed a button 24 hours early. The press release is perfectly in order. In this case, no harm has been done. However, it was a technical error and the member was right to raise it.