Meeting of the Parliament 25 April 2017
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I apologise for giving you only very late notice of my intention to raise this point of order about the financial resolution.
Rule 9.12.3 of standing orders requires that a financial resolution be passed in respect of certain bills before the bill can progress past stage 1. I do not think that we are in breach of that rule in any way, but I ask the Presiding Officer to reflect on it. The rule states that a financial resolution is required
“Where a Bill contains provisions ... which charge expenditure on the Scottish Consolidated Fund, or ... the likely effect of which would be to ... increase significantly expenditure charged on that Fund ... give rise to significant expenditure payable out of that Fund for a new purpose; or ... for an existing purpose”.
However, we are debating today a bill whose principal financial impacts will be through taxation revenue, not increased charges on the consolidated fund. The existing rule is, indeed, triggered in respect of the bill, but the financial memorandum that the Government has provided addresses only additional expenditure aspects, and the Government is not required to produce a financial memorandum that goes into the taxation revenue impacts of the financial impacts of the bill. Will you consider whether that rule in our standing orders is still adequate, now that we are in the era in which we legislate on bills such as the Air Departure Tax (Scotland) Bill, whose principal financial impacts are on tax revenue?