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The committee has a duty to identify the framework with which we expect MSPs to comply, so that members of the public can access information that might well have an effect on decisions that MSPs take about the issues that they choose to pursue.
Yes, but special interest groups also inform MSPs who attend their meetings. If MSPs then want to do something with that information that is perfectly valid.
It is, however, a useful first step to put it in place as soon as possible. It is directed at MSPs rather than at their staff, because MSPs are responsible for their staff.
I would welcome Mark Richards's comments on how substantial the test is as it applies to MSPs. How would it be interpreted by a court, rather than just by other MSPs?
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.