Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Official Report
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Point of Order
There is a point of order from Michael McMahon.
Presiding Officer, section 1.2(c) of the “Scottish Ministerial Code”, says:
“It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to the Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.”
My concern is that, in answering my question to him earlier today, the First Minister misled the Parliament with the content of his response. The First Minister advised members that his colleague Alex Neil had been referring to councillors in North Lanarkshire Council when he made an allegation that the local authority was not fit for purpose. In my question, I quoted the comment that Alex Neil’s criticism would
“do little for the morale of thousands of low-paid, loyal, dedicated and hard-working public servants.”
That quotation came not from councillors, but from trade union representatives who are alarmed by Mr Neil’s attack on the staff members of North Lanarkshire Council.
The unions’ concerns relate to the statements in Mr Neil’s recent article in the Wishaw Press. Mr Neil stated in that newspaper that the education department was bloated; not that there were too many councillors, but that there were too many staff members. He stated that the social work department refused to help people; not that councillors refused to help, but that the staff did so. The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment also claimed that the finance department badgered people on low incomes; not that the councillors did that, but that the staff in that department did.
It was the unions that responded, in the manner that I outlined at First Minister’s questions, to Mr Neil’s claims. They did so because they know who was the target of the insults. It may be the case that the First Minister was himself misled by his minister, but it is clear to the staff in North Lanarkshire Council that Mr Neil was talking about them and not about the elected members when he made those allegations. I therefore ask the First Minister to correct his earlier assertion and I repeat the request that I made to him earlier today: I ask that he and Mr Neil apologise to the staff and not play fast and loose with the truth in this matter.
Mr Crawford has a comment further to that point of order.
With regard to what Mr McMahon said the First Minister said to him at First Minister’s questions, the relevant paragraph in the Official Report shows that the First Minister said:
“I read in The Herald that Alex Neil said:
‘Any sensible person knows my comments were directed at the Labour leadership ... not the workers for whom I have the highest respect.’”
I hope that that entirely clears up the matter of exactly what the First Minister said.
I thank Mr McMahon for giving me notice of the point of order that he raised under the ministerial code. He will be aware that I have no involvement whatsoever in the ministerial code. If he believes that the First Minister has misled the Parliament, I refer him again to the code and suggest that he takes it up with the First Minister in writing.