Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2016
I welcome the fact that members have subjected the Lobbying (Scotland) Bill to close scrutiny throughout its parliamentary passage, and today has been no different.
I am not thin-skinned, but I thought that some of Mr Findlay’s comments went a bit deep and verged on being nasty and offensive. In defence of my position, I will read some of the comments that SALT has published today in response to the amendments that we have passed this afternoon. Willie Sullivan, director of the Electoral Reform Society, said:
“We are delighted that the minister has responded in this way.”
I know that SALT and its members want to go further than we have done. Indeed, Willie Sullivan confirmed that, but he said:
“While we do still have some concerns about the Bill—particularly the fact that only face-to-face meeting are recorded and not emails or phone calls—we are sure that this Bill when enacted will increase public visibility of lobbying.
With a built-in two year review the new lobby register should provide a firm basis and good evidence for parliament to include emails etc following that review.”
That is a positive comment.
Robin McAlpine from the Common Weal, which is also a SALT member, said:
“This legislation is still not as strong as we’d like but the Scottish Government has been listening and we’ve definitely made progress. Above all, there is a commitment that this is a foundation which can be built on in the next parliament. Hopefully Scotland is moving towards a system of lobbying transparency it can be proud of.”
Those are positive comments from some of the people who have been pushing for maximum transparency. I certainly welcome those comments.
Neil Findlay suggested that the CBI would somehow be exempt from the bill because he reckoned that it had fewer than 10 full-time equivalents who worked in Scotland. Let me be absolutely clear about the amendments that we have passed today. First of all, the exemption is not based on the number of staff working in Scotland but on the number of staff working for the organisation irrespective of where they are located. Secondly, we put it beyond doubt that representative bodies are excluded.
Patricia Ferguson asked whether we would consider monitoring the amount of contact with senior civil servants to inform a future review of the bill. We can consider that but, as I said at stage 2, we would have to discuss any changes that we wished to make in relation to senior civil servants with the trade unions and we would have to evidence why those changes would be an appropriate step forward. We did not manage to achieve that at this stage.
In my opening speech, I mentioned the Government’s desire to achieve as much consensus as possible for the establishment of a register of lobbying activity in Scotland. We have achieved that. Some of the positive comments from SALT show that we have made progress in pulling together people from all sides of the argument. Initially, some organisations, such as the Federation of Small Businesses, were very critical of what we had done, but I hope that they now see that we have a bill—and, in future, will have an act—that, as Cameron Buchanan said, is proportionate and gives us increased transparency without being overly burdensome.
Although some of the comments that were made today might suggest differently, the bill has generally been developed in a positive climate of Scottish democracy. The engagement that I have had with stakeholders on all sides has been positive. That is a sign that public engagement remains as strong as ever and that there is a dynamic in support of the Parliament’s openness.
The Government does not want the bill to discourage public engagement in Scotland’s politics. We have kept that principle firmly in mind when promoting measures that are aimed at increasing transparency. The phrase “striking a balance” might seem to be a cliché, but the extensive coverage of the bill highlights the importance of getting the balance right and giving close consideration to the wider implications of any policy proposals.
I put on record my thanks to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. Stewart Stevenson and his committee have devoted a significant proportion of their time this session to helping to develop thinking on our approach. The successor committee will be heavily involved in implementing processes for the lobbying register. Therefore, the debate is only part of a careful and methodical process.
I also thank the wide range of stakeholders who took the time to engage with me and my office over the past three years. That engagement has ensured that the Government has been well informed of contrasting views and ideas and helped us to reach a proportionate balance.
I thank my bill team, who have been working on the bill for some three years and have helped me to introduce and present a bill that I am proud of and which will do the Parliament proud. The bill as amended is now coherent and, above all, provides a proportionate initial framework for the registration of lobbying activity in Scotland.
I ask members to join me in supporting the passage of the Lobbying (Scotland) Bill at decision time.