Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Official Report 440KB pdf

---

Legacy Paper

Item 6 is the legacy paper that was prepared by the previous committee to show the work that it covered and to indicate the areas that it felt we should look at. I would like to get the committee’s permission to write to the session 5 committee members to thank them, particularly the convener, for their work and for the legacy paper, which encompasses a huge amount of work and raises a number of significant questions that we will look at. Do I have the committee’s agreement to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

We move to a discussion about the legacy paper. I see that Alexander Stewart would like to comment on it.

I echo many of your comments about the legacy paper. The committee is vital in ensuring that we are seen by those in the Parliament and by the general public in Scotland to be performing our roles and responsibilities. I had the opportunity to be a member of the previous committee, and I very much concur with the approach that is suggested in the legacy paper. It mentions specific areas that might require to be revisited for further development.

For example, it is vital that we get the scrutiny and governance right for members’ work outside Parliament. Tackling sexual harassment has been very high on the agenda both inside and outside the Parliament, and that will have to be looked at. Lobbying will also have to be looked at. We need to take a firm stance on those three areas. As we progress as a committee, we will need to make developments in those areas to ensure that we have the confidence of the Parliament, communities and Scotland as a whole. I look forward to going through the legacy paper with members, finalising our priorities for the committee’s first year and then progressing those.

I concur with what Alexander Stewart has said. I draw members’ attention to two aspects of the legacy paper. The first is sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour. It is clear and explicit in the legacy paper that the Parliament should never be complacent in dealing with such matters. We are urged to keep them under constant review, as we, of course, should.

We should be mindful of the comments that we made at the start of the meeting about the committee’s membership not being particularly reflective of Parliament as a whole. That does not mean that we cannot do our job, but it should not have to be this way. I want to put that on the record.

The legacy paper also mentions involving people in our work. Just because we are a small committee and it might seem that we are dealing with the nuts and bolts and the mundane aspects of the Parliament—they might be a bit dry, but they are vital—does not mean that we should not reach out and involve various stakeholders and individuals in our work. Of course, we should, and I see that the previous committee did that, so I thank it for putting that on the record.

Finally—I know that I said that I would talk about two aspects—there is the section on the Parliament’s practices and procedures. It is a real strength that we have new members on the committee, because I have been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 2007. The Parliament has been engaged in parliamentary reform in recent years, and some of that is bedding in, but it is very good to have a fresh set of eyes on the workings of Parliament. I call on fellow committee members who are new to the Parliament to work constructively and to look at the workings of the parliamentary process with a degree of scrutiny, because it is important to have a fresh look at such issues when we have new members coming in. We can get set in our ways if we are not careful.

I look forward to working collegiately in taking forward many of the issues that are raised in the legacy paper.

I concur with the comments that have been made. Involving people in our work is important. We need to reach out to as many people as possible and ensure that we listen to all parts of society. We have not mentioned the Scottish election, but it was mentioned in the legacy paper. We all went into the election thinking that turnout might drop, but the opposite happened, so it would be good to understand the reasons behind that. We should obviously try to encourage as big a turnout as possible in future elections. A bit of work and investigation into that would be very helpful so that the trend of increased turnout can, I hope, continue.

I concur with what has been said. I am looking forward to working with the rest of the committee.

I absolutely agree with all the statements that have been made. I envisage that the committee will work collegiately across what some people call political boundaries but what I prefer to call the political spectrum. We have a good balance of new members and experienced members. To echo what Bob Doris said, I think that we are a group of people who genuinely want to involve other people in our work. We do not have the answers sitting in the committee, so people who feel that they have answers to problems relating to procedures and other matters can come to us and will get a listening ear.

Before I close the public part of the meeting, I thank every member of the committee and the clerks who support us behind the scenes. I look forward to meeting in September, and I wish everyone a lovely recess.

09:31 Meeting continued in private until 10:11.