Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Official Report 1003KB pdf

Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Further to the point of order that my colleague Stewart Stevenson raised in relation to Douglas Ross’s contribution to the fisheries debate, in which Mr Ross indicated that he represents the Moray area and mentioned communities that straddle two Scottish parliamentary regions, is the matter deserving of guidance being brought to the chamber on how members should properly describe themselves in the chamber with regard to the areas that they were democratically elected to represent?

I thank Mr Lochhead. The issue has been highlighted not just today but a number of times. In the extract that Stewart Stevenson read out, Douglas Ross did not misrepresent himself. He just talked about an area—he did not claim to represent it or to represent an area outwith his own.

Furthermore, Mr Stevenson did not make a complaint. If he or Mr Lochhead did wish to make a complaint, the proper procedure would be to do so privately to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee and not in the chamber.

Again, I urge all members, first, not to misrepresent the places that they represent and, secondly, not to bring these sorts of complaints to the chamber. It does all members a disservice to complain about each other in this manner. These are political matters to be fought out in the election campaign.