Plenary,
Meeting date: Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Official Report
719KB pdf
Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I seek your guidance on a potential ministerial statement. The front page of The Scotsman this morning contains an article about the future funding of Scottish Opera. The article states:
"However, until Mr McConnell explains his role in the affair, there will remain unanswered questions, particularly as the issue is likely to be raised in the Scottish Parliament later this week."
Has the Executive made an approach for a statement to be made on Scottish Opera?
I am concerned that there might have been a breach of paragraph 2.3 of the Scottish ministerial code, which states:
"the privacy of options expressed and advice offered within the Executive should be maintained".
The issue is of particular relevance in view of a letter that was sent this week to members of staff at Scottish Opera by the company's chief executive. An article in yesterday's edition of The Scotsman states:
"Mr Barron said the article, in the Sunday Herald, covered ‘developments which were only made known to myself and the board on Friday'. He continued: ‘The article was the result of a direct leak from the Executive in which clearly the First Minister has been involved.'"
Given that the First Minister is responsible for the enforcement of the ministerial code, and that he himself would be at the centre of any investigation, who would undertake any investigation into the question whether a breach had occurred?
I am not sure that any of that constitutes a point of order. On the basis of the request for information, however, I can confirm that no such request to make a statement has been made. On the matter of the ministerial code, it has been ruled frequently in the past that the code is a matter not for the Presiding Officers, but for the First Minister. I am not in a position to add to that today. I believe that there might be an opportunity for the issue to be raised in question time tomorrow. At the moment, that is the only indication that we have that the issue is likely to be on the agenda this week.
Meeting suspended until 14:30.
On resuming—