Meeting of the Parliament 20 December 2022
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I should just point out that a lot of members have not had the opportunity to study the Official Report of that committee meeting. I am not sure whether it has even been published yet, but there certainly has not been time for members who did not attend that committee meeting to have considered the evidence that was taken.
We should be doing the sensible and mind-numbingly obvious thing by pausing the bill in order to let the committee examine it further, and scheduling more than two days for consideration of the stage 3 amendments, even if that means that we delay the final vote until 2023.
I have said it before and I will say it again: there is no good reason why the bill process could not be finished in the new year. Sadly, though, the arbitrary completion deadline of Christmas appears to have been accepted by everyone else. Other members of the Parliamentary Bureau have supported the SNP’s timetable multiple times. Labour voted against our sensible amendments that would have given more time to stage 2, which might have meant that some of stage 3’s 153 amendments would have been dealt with already.
This Parliament’s reputation is in free fall, and we are fast approaching rock bottom. I truly believe that schools and universities will use this parliamentary session as a case study of what happens when an Executive is allowed to go unchecked—unchecked by politicians, officials and everyone.
However, we can fix that. First and foremost, there needs to be a serious recognition that the Scottish Government does not respect this place, which was all too clear with last week’s budget fiasco. Presiding Officer, the Government deliberately ignored you and it will do so again. It will push you and this Parliament as far as it can, until it is told not to, and it is time to tell it not to.
I move amendment S6M-07320.1, to insert after “3.15 pm Portfolio Questions: Rural Affairs and Islands; Health and Social Care; Social Justice, Housing and Local Government”:
I move amendment S6M-07320.1 to insert after “3.15 pm Portfolio Questions: Rural Affairs and Islands; Health and Social Care; Social Justice, Housing and Local Government”—
“delete
Stage 3 Debate: Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
and insert
Stage 3 Proceedings: Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill”.
Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.