Plenary, 24 Jun 2004

Meeting date: Thursday, June 24, 2004

Official Report 742KB pdf

---

Points of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I gave prior notice of my point of order, which surrounds the problems that arose earlier this afternoon when the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport was late in coming to the chamber in order to answer questions. He duly apologised to the chamber in the following terms:

"Sorry, Presiding Officer. I was unavoidably detained during the Scottish Arts Council Book Awards."

My information is that, at the time that he should have been in the chamber, Mr McAveety was in fact having lunch in the cafeteria, when he was reminded by another minister that he should be here.

I have no doubt that Mr McAveety was detained at the book awards and I am equally sure that he would not seek deliberately to mislead the chamber. However, in fairness to all concerned, he should give the chamber a more detailed explanation of his absence. If his absence was caused in part by oversight, then that is an offence of which we have all been guilty from time to time and I feel certain that the chamber, if given the appropriate explanation, would be satisfied with an apology. Will you, Presiding Officer, direct Mr McAveety so to do?

Before I respond, I have notice of a further point of order from Alasdair Morgan.

My point of order is further to Bill Aitken's point of order, as I was here earlier this afternoon. If the minister missed his allotted slot at question time because he was detained on ministerial business, that is a discourtesy to the Parliament. However, if he was detained for other reasons, that is a fairly serious error, although perhaps forgivable. If, however, he came here and claimed that he was detained for the former reason when it was in fact for the latter reason, that is not only a serious error; it is a serious misjudgment that demands a serious response.

This is indeed a serious matter; it is a matter for the ministerial code, in which due remedy is laid out. I inform members that I received a letter from Mr McAveety a short time ago in which he apologised unreservedly for failing to be present in the chamber and for inadvertently misleading Parliament. It might be that Mr McAveety wishes to add to that.

As I indicated in my letter to you, Presiding Officer, I repeat to the chamber that I wish to apologise unreservedly for failing to be present at the start of question time and for inadvertently misleading Parliament. It was not my intention to do so and I reiterate my apologies. I will discuss the matter with the First Minister in relation to the ministerial code.

I judge that the ministerial code has been observed timeously and at speed and I now propose to move on.

We do not wish to take the matter any further, but if the minister will give a satisfactory explanation of why he was not here, we will be content. He owes a fuller explanation to the chamber. If it was an oversight, let him say so.

In my view, the minister has come to the chamber with a fairly unreserved apology. He has dealt with the issue and, in a spirit of solidarity and forgiveness, we should probably leave it at that.