Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Official Report
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Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. This morning, the Finance Committee considered the supplementary financial memorandum to the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill. During the meeting, members were informed by Scottish Government officials that the Scottish Government is
“at this stage ... not in a position to be able to offer estimates”
for the capital costs of the bill. That is in direct contravention of rule 9.3.2 of the standing orders, which states that a bill shall be
“accompanied by a Financial Memorandum which shall set out the best estimates of the administrative, compliance and other costs to which the provisions of the Bill would give rise, best estimates of the timescales over which such costs would be expected to arise, and an indication of the margins of uncertainty in such estimates.”
I understand that the Finance Committee is very concerned about that failure and has written to the minister, asking for an urgent explanation. Presiding Officer, I would welcome your advice on the implications of what is a clear breach of the standing orders by the Scottish Government, what that means for the debate this afternoon and whether this would set a precedent whereby rule 9.3.2 of the standing orders no longer applies.
I thank the member for prior notification of the point of order. I have given the matter consideration and it is clear that, under rule 9.12 of the standing orders of the Parliament, the financial resolution was passed by the Parliament at stage 1 of the bill and a supplementary financial memorandum was lodged, as is required under rule 9.7.8B, as a result of amendments that were agreed to at stage 2. As the member mentioned, supplementary financial memorandums must
“set out the best estimates of the administrative, compliance and other costs to which the provisions of the Bill would give rise”.
I appreciate, from what the member has said, that he has concerns about the information that has been provided in the supplementary financial memorandum to the bill. It is, of course, perfectly legitimate to raise those points in debate. However, it is up to members to decide to what extent they take that into account in taking a position on amendments and the bill. The current rules do not require that the Parliament pass a resolution on a revised financial memorandum.
The member raises an interesting question with the point that he makes. He might like to write to our Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, which—as he may know—is currently reviewing the legislative procedures of the Parliament.
That is my answer, under the standing orders at the moment, to the member’s question on the financial resolution. Members may wish to raise those points as matters of debate.