Meeting of the Parliament 26 March 2024
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I thank all the members who have contributed to this afternoon’s debate. As I said in my opening remarks, it is very unusual for the Parliament to debate such a small bill, but I am very grateful for the time to engage in the process and to share our views. I am also grateful to the committee for the process that it has undergone.
The committee’s convener, Paul O’Kane, Annie Wells and others have mentioned the need for Government and Parliament to reflect on how we can better deal with small bills such as this one, which are technical fixes. That is not a matter only for Government, but for Parliament. As the institution is still relatively young, it is important that we all learn and understand what more we can do to make the process easier.
Paul O’Kane mentioned the challenge that we all have when we are discussing areas that are to do with legislative competence. That applies not only when a bill is introduced through what the Government does, but also when we debate and vote on amendments at stages 2 and 3. I suggest that we—not only the Government, but the Parliament—reflect on that.
I am conscious that we are making this technical fix because of a Labour amendment that was made at stage 2, which was strongly supported by the Scottish Government at the time. That is an important aspect that we need to reflect on as we go through the bill process, and I hope that the Parliament can come back to discussing that. I am particularly conscious of that given that the proposed human rights bill will go through Parliament in due course. I am sure that we will be pressed by many people—quite rightly—to go as far as possible on that and that we will start having debates about legislative competence on the issue. We all need to be aware of how we can best do that as we go through the process.