Meeting of the Parliament 20 December 2023
It has been an afternoon of the minutiae of law and standing orders, and of how places operate. This item is no less important than the stage 3 procedure that we have just gone through. The motion before the Parliament invites us to agree that a permanent proxy voting system be introduced.
The pilot is due to end on 31 December. As members will be aware, it provides for a member to arrange for their vote to be cast by another member acting as proxy in any vote of a meeting of the Parliament or a committee of the whole Parliament.
We recognise that there might be certain circumstances in which members need to step away from the obligations and responsibilities that being an MSP places on us. That might be for a period of time due to illness, parental or caring responsibilities or, sadly, in some cases, bereavement.
The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee has conducted an evaluation of the pilot, including an internal consultation with all relevant stakeholders. The responses have indicated that there is support for the provisions of the temporary system to be made permanent.
The committee has reflected in its report on future parliamentary procedures and practices that we consider that proxy voting accords with the very founding principles of this Parliament in ensuring that it can be more inclusive and accessible. Furthermore, the recent gender-sensitive audit of Parliament recommended that the committee propose a permanent standing order to introduce a proxy voting system.
We wish the permanent system to broadly mirror the current temporary arrangements—namely, that the standing order sets out in principle that a member may arrange for their vote to be cast as a proxy but that the details of how such a vote may be exercised sit in a separate scheme that is administered by the Presiding Officer.