Plenary,

Meeting date: Thursday, May 22, 2008

Official Report 748KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I seek your clarification on chapter 14 of the standing orders of the Scottish Parliament.

This morning, the Government published "Scotland's Climate Change Programme: Second Annual Report, April 2007—March 2008". The document is welcome and I am sure that many members will want to scrutinise it closely. It has relevance to the remits of several committees of the Parliament. However, although the media had early indication of the report's publication and have already asked me and other members for comment, committee clerks received no prior notice and the Scottish Parliament information centre informs me that hard copies of the report will not be available until next week—[Interruption.]

Order.

Thank you.

It is clear that the Government has been less than forthcoming, but has it complied with standing orders? Given that there have been a number of similar instances in recent times, will you consider publishing reports on each minister's compliance in relation to such matters? Reports on individual ministers could be published annually, monthly or even weekly, if appropriate. [Applause.]

This is not a matter for applause—unless of course members are applauding what I am about to say.

I thank the member for giving me advance notice of the point of order. I understand that the report's publication was notified to Parliament by inspired parliamentary question at 9.30 am today. I also understand that there is no requirement for the document to which Patrick Harvie referred to be formally laid before Parliament, so chapter 14 of standing orders does not apply. However, I always request that the Government make every effort to ensure that such documents are available to the Parliament as soon as they enter the public domain.

As to Mr Harvie's suggestion, I will take it away and ponder it at my leisure. [Applause.] That was a matter for applause.