Meeting of the Parliament 22 April 2015
Those are two roles that could have an impact on the public’s perception with regard to conflicts of interest. The committee should certainly start to consider the issue. Those are two examples of roles on which the committee should look to introduce a ban.
Any measures that are aimed at improving transparency should be applied fully to Government ministers as well as to other members. The United Kingdom Government publishes online its ministers’ register of interests, but I do not believe that the Scottish Government does the same. Last June, I asked the Scottish Parliament information centre to check that out and it replied that it had
“contacted the office of the Permanent Secretary who confirmed that the Scottish Government does maintain a register but it is not published.”
Why is it not published? All members of this Parliament have their register of interests published and UK Government ministers have their register of interests published, so I find it inexplicable that Scottish Government ministers, in their capacity as ministers, do not. Not only have they failed to publish a register, but they have even rejected a freedom of information request that was made in 2010 by the Sunday Herald. I find that odd, and I would like to ask the minister for his view on that.
I thank the committee members for the work that they have done so far on these important issues. Labour will support efforts to improve transparency and to have higher standards in relation to members’ interests, but we will also look at whether what is proposed goes far enough and consider in which areas we could do more. I look forward to the committee considering those issues and will support it in its deliberations.
16:43