Plenary, 30 Jan 2003
Meeting date: Thursday, January 30, 2003
Official Report
759KB pdf
Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament
The next item of business is consideration of motion S1M-3786, in the name of Mike Rumbles, on behalf of the Standards Committee, which seeks to amend the "Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament".
The motion concerns changes to the code of conduct. The changes are set out in the Standards Committee's 12th report of 2002 and are consequential to the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Act 2002, which was passed by the Parliament in June 2002. The changes clearly set out how a complaint against a member should be lodged with the commissioner. They also set out the four-stage investigative procedure that was agreed by the Parliament in November 2000.
Now that we are coming to the end of the first four-year session of the Scottish Parliament, it is important to note that the Standards Committee has never recommended sanctions against any MSP. Moreover, the committee has not had to deal with any issues of probity in relation to any MSP. All the issues that we have dealt with have related to protocol. I draw that to the attention of the media and the press in particular. The Scottish Parliament set out to be different from Westminster and it is.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees to amend the Code of Conduct for Members of the Scottish Parliament in the manner indicated in Annex A of the Standards Committee's 12th Report 2002, The Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Act 2002: Consequential Changes to the Code of Conduct, with effect from 30 January 2003.