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The problem is not whether the standards commissioner can consider complaints against former MSPs but that, if we include such provision in the bill, first we must seek to change our remit, which covers the conduct only of serving MSPs.
Can we report back to the Procedures Committee to say whether any issues arose from it? I mentioned MSP training and MSP staff training and we might want to revisit a couple of other points that were raised in the evidence-taking session.
First, I agree with the recommendation that MSPs should not submit petitions. Most of the MSPs with whom I have had contact agree that there are other ways in which we can pursue issues that are raised in petitions.
After all, if one were being cynical, one might take the view that it is in the interests of the MSPs concerned to kill off the matter as early as possible.
Will the SPCB acknowledge in its legacy paper that constituency case work is a vital and substantial component of the work of MSPs and seek to explore how appropriate staff and other resources can be made available to MSPs to enable them to undertake that task?
We know that the view that is taken by the press—that MSPs treat the recess as a holiday—is a fallacy but, just as MSPs take holidays during recesses, particularly the summer, so do Executive staff.