Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, March 28, 2013

Official Report 807KB pdf

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Point of Order

I wish to raise a point of order under standing order 8.1.7, Presiding Officer.

Yesterday I raised a point of order and asked what steps members could take under standing order 7.3.1 to correct what they had said when they had misled the chamber. You advised that there are opportunities to do that in such cases.

Yesterday I pointed out that an email had been sent to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ head of media and communications to ask whether COSLA had called for Scottish Government legislation to prevent bedroom tax evictions, or for the Scottish Government to meet the rental-income deficit, given claims that were made earlier in the day that it had done so. The reply to both questions was no. Jackie Baillie then told Parliament that she had not misled the chamber, stating, “I shall say—

Mr Hepburn, we heard what Ms Baillie said yesterday. Can you get to your point of order?

Just to remind members, Jackie Baillie said that COSLA had passed a motion.

Earlier today, COSLA was asked to confirm that such a motion exists. It has provided no such confirmation. At most, evidence can be found of a discussion of housing legislation, in relation to what is or is not a bedroom. So far, nothing has been found in relation to evictions. [Interruption.]

Order.

To mislead the chamber once might be considered unfortunate; to do so twice might be considered more than a little careless. If Ms Baillie cannot provide us with the motion, can you advise what action is available to you, to Parliament collectively or to Ms Baillie herself to ensure that what she said is corrected?

As I told Jamie Hepburn yesterday, this is not a matter for me. The Presiding Officers are not responsible for what members say in the chamber and it is up to individual members to reflect on what they say.

On a related point of order, at the end of February COSLA considered a motion seeking changes to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. I suggest to Jamie Hepburn that instead of using parliamentary time in this way, he might want to use it to introduce measures to protect the 100,000 vulnerable Scots who will face the bedroom tax on Monday.

Where is it?

As I said yesterday, Ms Baillie, that is a debating point.

Where is the motion?

Order!