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Meeting of the Parliament 16 March 2011

16 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Public Records (Scotland) Bill

O'Donnell, Hugh LD Central Scotland Watch on SPTV

This will perhaps be an easier task than is often the case with winding-up speeches. Many members who are not in the chamber have missed a trick in relation to the bill. All too often, bills that are allegedly big pieces of legislation get all the headlines, but the small, significant ones slip in below the radar. From my personal perspective, that seems to be the case in relation to the Public Records (Scotland) Bill, because an accurate reflection of how we keep records lies at the heart of, and is key to, many of the things that we do in our own days, whether that involves legislation on additional support for learning or any other area. Record keeping is fundamental to the process.

We know that the bill’s genesis lies in the Shaw report. There is great diversity across local authorities, public bodies and the voluntary sector in how and why they keep records.

Some of the concerns that were raised in that regard have been mitigated by the minister’s amendments. Based on communications that I have received, I guess that the voluntary sector feels a bit easier about how everything will work. However, as Margaret Smith highlighted, questions remain about the keeping of common good records. That is particularly important as we move into times of economic stress, when we need to know what local authorities are doing with common good land and moneys.

Ken Macintosh referred to Jeremy Paxman’s participation in “Who Do You Think You Are?” The keeping of accurate records is a long-term role. I well remember from work in my previous life how one organisation found itself being increasingly visited by people from Canada whose grandparents or great-grandparents had died. In the course of dealing with their effects and so on, they had come across some reference to the fact that their great-grandparents or grandparents had been looked after and provided for by that charitable organisation. It was the quality of some of the records—not all of them, it must be said—that had been kept by the organisation that allowed those people, two generations away, to identify their family roots.

Ken Macintosh referred to “Who Do You Think You Are?” In a similar context, I occasionally have cause to watch an interesting programme called “Heir Hunters”, always in the forlorn hope that I have inherited some money from some long-distant relative—it has not happened yet.