Plenary, 24 Feb 2005

Meeting date: Thursday, February 24, 2005

Official Report 804KB pdf

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Business Motions

The next item of business is consideration of business motion S2M-2448, in the name of Margaret Curran, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a timetable for stage 1 completion of the Abolition of NHS Prescription Charges (Scotland) Bill. I ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press their request-to-speak button, and I call Margaret Curran to move motion S2M-2448.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament agrees that consideration of the Abolition of NHS Prescription Charges (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1 be completed by 22 December 2005.—[Ms Margaret Curran.]

As I intimated to the Presiding Officer, I ask the Parliament to oppose the motion, which seeks to delay Parliament's consideration of my member's bill to abolish NHS prescription charges.

Members should be aware that the bill, which was originally lodged in June 2003, now faces a two-and-a-half-year wait for a stage 1 debate. That is a ridiculous length of time that sends an unwelcome signal that members' bills, which have an important role to play in the Parliament, are not treated with any sense of urgency. The motion means that the Health Committee would sit with this important bill in its in-tray for a year. I understand that the Health Committee has a lot of hard work to do; the question is, what priority is given to members' bills? The answer is clearly not very high priority, of which the motion is evidence.

Either this type of timetable is standard, in which case there is a prima facie case for establishing two health committees, as we did for justice, or it is not standard, in which case all the committee's other work is taking priority over my bill. Members who have presented or are presenting their bills to Parliament will acknowledge that the process is difficult enough and that the resources that are available are already scant. Delays such as this are, therefore, completely unacceptable. If the scheduling of my bill is typical, it means that there is little chance of members' being able to pursue more than one proposal in the course of a parliamentary session.

Furthermore, the bill has had to navigate the change in rules that was introduced by the Procedures Committee. All members' bills have faced that change since the beginning of this second session of Parliament. We started out playing football only to see the rules changed to rugby halfway through. Now, the game appears to have been postponed for a year. I would hate to draw the conclusion that the bill has been put on the equivalent of the parliamentary slow boat to China simply because it is sponsored by an SSP MSP, but that is a difficult conclusion not to draw.

I put to the minister what I believed to be a reasonable alternative, which sought to bring forward the timetable by two months. I ask back-bench MSPs in particular to protect our right to introduce bills into the parliamentary timetable, I ask Parliament to reject the motion and I ask the minister to come back with an acceptable alternative.

I am disappointed by Colin Fox's speech, as he was a bit more constructive at the Parliamentary Bureau. I make it clear to Parliament that I am speaking on behalf of the bureau. It was not the minister who challenged the timetable that Colin Fox proposed, but the Health Committee. The deputy convener of the committee was at the bureau, speaking on behalf of the convener as well. I also make it clear that the views that I am about to articulate were widely held across the parties in the bureau. Colin Fox is looking for a political agenda that does not exist. I would have thought that he has enough political problems without having to search for some more.

In coming to its decision, the bureau listened carefully to the arguments that were put to it, including the views of the member. We take the role of members' bills seriously and want to ensure that members' bills are given appropriate support. People should not interpret our attempt to manage the legislative programme and all the Parliamentary Bureau's demands as evidence of a personal agenda against them. That leads to people getting things out of perspective.

We have been influenced by the argument that the Health Committee's workload is significant and we have been persuaded that the committee is dealing with this bill in the same way as it has dealt with others. Given those persuasive arguments, it would be remiss of the bureau to cut across the Health Committee's work. We would do that only if there were a forceful argument for doing so. As we did not hear any such argument at the bureau meeting, I ask the chamber to support the bureau this afternoon.

The question is, that business motion S2M-2448, in the name of Ms Margaret Curran, be agreed to. Are we agreed?

No.

There will be a division.

For

Adam, Brian (Aberdeen North) (SNP)
Aitken, Bill (Glasgow) (Con)
Alexander, Ms Wendy (Paisley North) (Lab)
Arbuckle, Mr Andrew (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD)
Baillie, Jackie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Baker, Richard (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Barrie, Scott (Dunfermline West) (Lab)
Boyack, Sarah (Edinburgh Central) (Lab)
Brankin, Rhona (Midlothian) (Lab)
Brown, Robert (Glasgow) (LD)
Butler, Bill (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab)
Chisholm, Malcolm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)
Crawford, Bruce (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP)
Curran, Ms Margaret (Glasgow Baillieston) (Lab)
Deacon, Susan (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab)
Douglas-Hamilton, Lord James (Lothians) (Con)
Eadie, Helen (Dunfermline East) (Lab)
Fabiani, Linda (Central Scotland) (SNP)
Ferguson, Patricia (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab)
Fergusson, Alex (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (Con)
Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Gallie, Phil (South of Scotland) (Con)
Gibson, Rob (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
Glen, Marlyn (North East Scotland) (Lab)
Godman, Trish (West Renfrewshire) (Lab)
Goldie, Miss Annabel (West of Scotland) (Con)
Gorrie, Donald (Central Scotland) (LD)
Grahame, Christine (South of Scotland) (SNP)
Henry, Hugh (Paisley South) (Lab)
Home Robertson, John (East Lothian) (Lab)
Hughes, Janis (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab)
Hyslop, Fiona (Lothians) (SNP)
Ingram, Mr Adam (South of Scotland) (SNP)
Jackson, Dr Sylvia (Stirling) (Lab)
Jackson, Gordon (Glasgow Govan) (Lab)
Jamieson, Margaret (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab)
Johnstone, Alex (North East Scotland) (Con)
Kerr, Mr Andy (East Kilbride) (Lab)
Lamont, Johann (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab)
Livingstone, Marilyn (Kirkcaldy) (Lab)
Lochhead, Richard (North East Scotland) (SNP)
Lyon, George (Argyll and Bute) (LD)
MacAskill, Mr Kenny (Lothians) (SNP)
Macdonald, Lewis (Aberdeen Central) (Lab)
Macintosh, Mr Kenneth (Eastwood) (Lab)
Maclean, Kate (Dundee West) (Lab)
Macmillan, Maureen (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
Martin, Paul (Glasgow Springburn) (Lab)
Marwick, Tricia (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP)
Mather, Jim (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
Maxwell, Mr Stewart (West of Scotland) (SNP)
May, Christine (Central Fife) (Lab)
McAveety, Mr Frank (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab)
McCabe, Mr Tom (Hamilton South) (Lab)
McConnell, Mr Jack (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)
McFee, Mr Bruce (West of Scotland) (SNP)
McLetchie, David (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con)
McMahon, Michael (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab)
McNeil, Mr Duncan (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab)
McNeill, Pauline (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab)
McNulty, Des (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab)
Milne, Mrs Nanette (North East Scotland) (Con)
Mitchell, Margaret (Central Scotland) (Con)
Monteith, Mr Brian (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Morgan, Alasdair (South of Scotland) (SNP)
Morrison, Mr Alasdair (Western Isles) (Lab)
Muldoon, Bristow (Livingston) (Lab)
Mulligan, Mrs Mary (Linlithgow) (Lab)
Mundell, David (South of Scotland) (Con)
Munro, John Farquhar (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD)
Murray, Dr Elaine (Dumfries) (Lab)
Neil, Alex (Central Scotland) (SNP)
Oldfather, Irene (Cunninghame South) (Lab)
Peacock, Peter (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
Peattie, Cathy (Falkirk East) (Lab)
Purvis, Jeremy (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD)
Radcliffe, Nora (Gordon) (LD)
Robison, Shona (Dundee East) (SNP)
Robson, Euan (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD)
Rumbles, Mike (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD)
Scanlon, Mary (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Scott, John (Ayr) (Con)
Scott, Tavish (Shetland) (LD)
Smith, Elaine (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab)
Smith, Iain (North East Fife) (LD)
Smith, Margaret (Edinburgh West) (LD)
Stephen, Nicol (Aberdeen South) (LD)
Stevenson, Stewart (Banff and Buchan) (SNP)
Stone, Mr Jamie (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
Sturgeon, Nicola (Glasgow) (SNP)
Swinney, Mr John (North Tayside) (SNP)
Tosh, Murray (West of Scotland) (Con)
Turner, Dr Jean (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Ind)
Wallace, Mr Jim (Orkney) (LD)
Watson, Mike (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab)
Welsh, Mr Andrew (Angus) (SNP)
White, Ms Sandra (Glasgow) (SNP)
Whitefield, Karen (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)
Wilson, Allan (Cunninghame North) (Lab)

Against

Baird, Shiona (North East Scotland) (Green)
Ballance, Chris (South of Scotland) (Green)
Ballard, Mark (Lothians) (Green)
Byrne, Ms Rosemary (South of Scotland) (SSP)
Curran, Frances (West of Scotland) (SSP)
Fox, Colin (Lothians) (SSP)
Harper, Robin (Lothians) (Green)
Harvie, Patrick (Glasgow) (Green)
Kane, Rosie (Glasgow) (SSP)
Leckie, Carolyn (Central Scotland) (SSP)
Ruskell, Mr Mark (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Scott, Eleanor (Highlands and Islands) (Green)
Sheridan, Tommy (Glasgow) (SSP)

Abstentions

MacDonald, Margo (Lothians) (Ind)

The result of the division is: For 99, Against 13, Abstentions 1.

Motion agreed to.

That the Parliament agrees that consideration of the Abolition of NHS Prescription Charges (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1 be completed by 22 December 2005.

The next item of business is consideration of business motion S2M-2449, in the name of Ms Margaret Curran on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a timetable for legislation.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament agrees—

(a) that the Justice 1 Committee report to the Justice 2 Committee by 4 March 2005 on the draft Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2005;

(b) that the Justice 1 Committee report to the Justice 2 Committee by 4 March 2005 on the draft Advice and Assistance (Financial Conditions) (Scotland) Regulations 2005; and

(c) that the Justice 1 Committee report to the Justice 2 Committee by 4 March 2005 on the draft Civil Legal Aid (Financial Conditions) (Scotland) Regulations 2005.—[Ms Margaret Curran.]

Motion agreed to.