Plenary, 25 Mar 2009
Meeting date: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Official Report
406KB pdf
“Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament” (Section 6)
The next item of business is a debate on motion S3M-3755, in the name of Gil Paterson, on behalf of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee's report, "Review of Section 6 of the Code of Conduct (Cross-Party Groups)".
Before I get started, I thank on behalf of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee the committee clerking staff, who have been of great assistance in all three matters that I will raise with Parliament today.
I am pleased to speak to the committee's report "Review of Section 6 of the Code of Conduct (Cross-Party Groups)", which is the second piece of work on cross-party groups that the committee has undertaken in this session of Parliament: we also issued guidance to cross-party group conveners in October 2007. In April 2008, the committee agreed to review section 6 of the "Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament" in order to provide greater clarity to members of the Scottish Parliament and other cross-party group stakeholders to help them comply with the code of conduct.
The committee has identified several areas for improvement. First, we recommend changes to the structure of section 6 so that the information on registration of cross-party groups appears immediately after the rules on establishment, followed by the rules on the operation of a group. The committee also recommends rearranging the operational rules that are set out in section 6.3 under a small number of thematic headings, which will mean that all the rules that relate to one theme, such as finance and documentation, can be found under that one heading.
The committee has also recommended a change to the title of section 6.3, from "Rules on Cross-Party Groups" to "Operation of Cross-Party Groups", to make it clear that cross-party groups must comply with the entirety of section 6 and not just section 6.3.
The committee also reviewed the threshold for registering financial benefits that cross-party groups receive. Under the current rules, cross-party groups are required to register any financial benefits that have a value greater than £250. That threshold mirrored the financial threshold in the members' interests order that operated in sessions 1 and 2. However, in May 2007 the Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Act 2006 came into force and established a different threshold for gifts, of 1 per cent of a member's salary. The committee agreed that it would be appropriate for cross-party groups to have a fixed financial threshold similar to the value of the gifts category in the "Register of Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament". The committee therefore recommends that a new threshold of £500 should apply to registration of financial support that is received by cross-party groups.
The committee also considered the role of cross-party group conveners. Section 6 currently requires that a compliance form stating that the cross-party group will comply with the rules on cross-party groups must be signed by an MSP office bearer of that group. In the current session, all such forms have been signed by the conveners of groups. The committee agreed that to reflect that practice, it would recommend that the rules be changed to make conveners signatory to compliance forms and to make them responsible for providing updates to the information that groups are required to register.
Volume 3 of the code of conduct provides guidance on cross-party groups. It is intended to be helpful to cross-party groups, but does not form additional rules with which groups must comply. The committee's report also contains revised guidance on cross-party groups to reflect the proposed changes to the code.
If it is agreed by Parliament, revised section 6 will come into force on 27 March 2009. It will provide greater clarity for everyone on the operation of cross-party groups. I recommend that Parliament agrees to amend the "Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament" by replacing section 6 in volume 2 with revised section 6 in annex A of the committee's 11th report, which is on its review of section 6.
On behalf of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, I move,
That the Parliament agrees to amend the Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament by replacing Section 6 (in Volume 2) with Section 6 as set out in Annex A of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee's 11th Report 2008 (Session 3), Review of Section 6 of the Code of Conduct (Cross-Party Groups) (SP Paper 186), with effect from 27 March 2009.