Meeting of the Parliament 09 December 2014
Naturally, I would: the Mary Berry skills of the average Scot are exemplary.
I must say that the announcement of Ross Finnie’s appointment had passed me by—I missed it. Some of us on the Conservative seats in the chamber had thought that the Deputy Prime Minister might have seen fit to ennoble Mr Finnie, but instead he saw in colleagues from past sessions of this Parliament talents that some of us had not fully appreciated.
Thankfully, Mr Finnie has now found favour with the Scottish Government, which has given him a useful occupation. I thought that he might have joined us in the gallery today, but obviously the meter is not running yet. Nonetheless, I wish him every success in exercising his responsibilities. He is a serious player and he will, given his experience, be a first-class appointment. Those basal tones that have been lost to us here, which used to revive debates at that late hour in the afternoon as they boomed forth, will no doubt be well founded in his new role.
I hope that I do not sound too irreverent, because the bill is an important piece of legislation. As Nanette Milne said, the very fact that there were so few amendments underpins the broad cross-party consensus that exists.
In my years in the motor trade, we used to carry out customer satisfaction surveys. It was interesting, because people in the west of Scotland were never 100 per cent satisfied with anything, but we had to phone them up and tell them that they were, because sums of money depended on whether people were completely satisfied. I have always been very suspicious of those surveys ever since.
I bring that experience to bear on the issue of the subjectivity that will underpin fixed-penalty notices. It is very important that, in the forthcoming secondary legislation, there will be a common standard and understanding with regard to how fixed-penalty notices will be applied and the criteria that will underpin them. I hope, on a serious note, that the minister will ensure that that is the case, because many small businesses could find themselves being adversely affected if variable and subjective criteria are applied.
Nonetheless, I very much welcome the bill. I know that the minister will be grateful that it has not been the most difficult bill that she has inherited and has had to take through Parliament, and we look forward to supporting it in a few minutes’ time.