Hansard

That is an interesting point and I will come to it later in my speech.

I turn to the discussions that we had at stage 1 and the stage 1 report from the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. I place on the record my thanks to the convener and the committee members for their scrutiny of the bill and I welcome the report’s recommendation that the Parliament agree to its general principles. The committee took a proportionate approach to its scrutiny of what is a very short bill.

I also welcome the fact that the committee recognised the broad consensus in favour of the bill and expressed its support for the approach that the bill takes in proposing what I believe is a pragmatic solution to the issue of a clash of dates. That broad consensus comes from the range of organisations that have a direct interest in the proposed date changes. We consulted the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Electoral Commission, the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, the Electoral Reform Society, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers. All were supportive of the proposed changes and none raised any issues about the bill’s contents.

I was asked during my evidence to the committee why we had opted to move the Scottish Parliament election to 2021 in order to avoid the 2020 clash of dates and not, instead, opted to bring it forward to 2019. The latter would have meant a three-year term for the next session of Parliament. As I said to the committee, a three-year term would be particularly short in parliamentary terms and we would really have to question whether the Scottish public would wish to return to the polls so quickly. Furthermore, the proposed five-year term mirrors the length of the current parliamentary session. I therefore welcome the committee’s support in its report for a five-year term rather than a three-year one.

The committee also posed the question that John Wilson asked me, about why we are not taking the opportunity in the bill to permanently resolve future clashes of election dates. Richard Simpson suggested in his written submission to the committee that it would be sensible to do so, and I acknowledge John Wilson’s comments. However, the section 30 order that enabled us to introduce the bill at all is specific in giving us the power to change only the 2020 election. As I said, permanent powers over elections in Scotland are in the Scotland Bill, and it will be for members in the next session of Parliament to consider a permanent solution, once the power to do so has been fully devolved.

I was pleased to note that the committee expressed its view that it considers it appropriate that a decision on any permanent changes to the timings of Scottish Parliament elections should be taken in the next session of Parliament.

In his submission to the committee, Richard Simpson went further on the matter, suggesting that voting for the Scottish Parliament, local government and European elections should all take place on the same date. Again, however, I point out that the section 30 order that transferred the powers that allowed us to introduce the bill specifically prohibited us from setting an election on the same day as UK Parliament, European Parliament or any nationwide local government elections. That is in line with the Smith commission’s recommendations and it is how the Scotland Bill deals with the issue. I also reiterate the points that I made earlier about the consensus in support of the Gould report’s recommendation to avoid having different elections on the same date.

I hope that colleagues agree with the assessment that this short bill presents a straightforward and pragmatic solution to a clash of election dates.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill.