Chamber and committees

I am not trying to blame the UK Government for any delay, but that will depend on its response to the cabinet secretary’s letter. The officials may be able to give you some idea of the timescales that we would work to in such circumstances.

Absolutely.

That is particularly the case with regard to the EU element, so that we understand the timings in the context of both the pre-election period and going into the next session of Parliament.

I would like to think—indeed, I would like to be assured—that good conversations are happening between my officials and your clerks to keep the committee apprised of what is happening. If you feel that that engagement can be improved, we will be happy to take that away and look at it.

We will write to the committee to update you once we have that timetable.

The timings between stages 2 and 3 are agreed in conjunction with Parliament. I said earlier that, in comparison with some other years, we are not facing an overly congested legislative landscape between now and the end of the session, but there is no doubt that it is busy. Scheduling stages 2 and 3 of legislation can be challenging at times and I cannot sit here and say that there is a magic wand we can wave to resolve that. We work in conjunction with committees to set deadlines: they suggest the deadlines that they would like and we try to accommodate those or to get as close to them as possible. I assure you that a lot of work goes into that, but I cannot sit here today and assure you that we can magically improve that situation overnight.

Roz McCall’s contribution has made me think that we need to reflect on that with a view to the next parliamentary session. There will be a substantial intake of brand new MSPs who will not have even the four years of knowledge that some of our current MSPs have. When you first become an MSP, it is difficult to try to get to grips with those things. I will take that away and reflect on what we need to do to try to ensure that the new intake of MSPs in particular are able to hit the ground running. If the committee writes to me on the back of the session with any thoughts about how we could do that, I would be interested in the committee’s views.

There is nothing to say with regard to the 289-page environmental amendment regs, which you will all recall, but there are two large SSIs that are due to be laid—one of around 90 pages that is due on 24 November and one of around 84 pages that is due at the beginning of December. Those are the two significantly large SSIs that we are anticipating—unless officials think that we should bring anything else to the committee’s attention.

There might be a further two SSIs to come in the new year, but those are the two large ones in the immediate future.

That brings me back to the conversations that I would hope to have with UK ministers in which I would reinforce that point, on the back of which I would be happy to update the committee on where we have got to.

Thank you for inviting me to give evidence on these three sets of regulations. The regulations that the committee is scrutinising are the culmination of an intense period of consultation and policy development since the passing of the Scottish Elections (Representation Reform) Act 2025. Part 2 of the act, which was passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in December 2024, requires that the Scottish ministers lay draft regulations before the Parliament prohibiting MSPs from holding dual mandates as MSPs and peers. It includes a discretionary power in relation to MSPs who are also councillors.

The public consultation exercise ran in early 2025, to ensure that members of the public, interested stakeholders and political parties had an opportunity to share their views on the issue of dual mandates in the Scottish Parliament. The consultation sought views on the practical steps required to create a workable policy for the institution.

There are three sets of regulations before us, one for each category of dual mandate. The first set of regulations will disqualify MSPs who also hold an MP role if they do not resolve their dual mandate within 49 days of being returned as an MSP or an MP, whichever comes second. That period is intended to limit vacancies that arise before the end of June, thereby seeking to ensure that by-elections do not fall during the typical Scottish school summer holiday period of July and August.

The second set of regulations will disqualify MSPs who also hold a role as a member of the House of Lords if they do not resolve their dual mandate within 14 days of being returned as an MSP or of taking the oath as a member of the House of Lords, whichever comes second. This period is shorter than the other periods proposed, in order to reflect the unelected nature of the Lords and therefore the lack of constituents and the lack of by-elections that would be expected in the other categories.

The final set of regulations will disqualify MSPs who also hold a role as a councillor in a Scottish local authority if they do not resolve their dual mandate before the end of one of the periods of exception. The first exception applies if there are fewer than 372 days between the day on which the person is returned as an MSP and the day that the next ordinary election of councillors is due to be held. The exception allows councillors who become MSPs at an election that falls in the year before the local elections to complete their term as councillors. That is intended to prevent a large number of vacancies and by-elections within a year of a local government election.

The second exemption applies when there are more than 372 days between a councillor being returned as an MSP and the date of the next ordinary election of councillors. In these circumstances, they must resolve their dual mandate within 49 days of being elected to their second role. As is the case with the first set of regulations, this seven-week period is intended to limit by-elections over the summer period.

Although all the regulations will come into force on the day after they are signed, they do not disqualify any MSP until the day of the poll at the next Scottish Parliament election, which ensures that no current MSPs face disqualification, providing around six months’ notice of the change in position and preventing any disruption to the last year of the current parliamentary session.