Meeting of the Parliament 07 January 2016
In opening for Scottish Labour, I say at the outset that we support the principles of the Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill, which outlines the dates for the Scottish elections in 2021 and the local government elections in 2022. As a member of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, I was involved in producing the stage 1 report. I thank the clerks for their help and support with the work that the committee does.
Although the bill is short and contains only two small provisions, the committee sought evidence and received one piece of written evidence from Dr Richard Simpson. We also took oral evidence from the Minister for Parliamentary Business and consulted the relevant sectors.
The decision to have a five-year parliamentary term reflects the timings for other parliamentary and devolved Administration elections in the United Kingdom. With the return of a Tory Government, those are unlikely to change, given the establishment of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. To avoid clashing with the scheduled UK general election in 2020, the Scottish Government has opted for a five-year term and rejected the idea of a three-year term. The options of a three-year and a five-year term both have their merits but, as I said, Scottish Labour fully supports the Scottish Government’s proposal for the next Scottish Parliament election to be held in 2021.
That would impact on the local government elections that are due to take place, so we welcome the move to postpone those elections for one year. Following the confusion that unfolded in 2007, when the Scottish and local government elections were held on the same day, we are keen to avoid any repeat. However, we need to bear in mind that situations can change. At a future time, we might consider revisiting the possibility of holding council and Scottish Parliament elections on the same day—who knows? Should that situation arise, we must work as a unified chamber.