Hansard

I, too, offer my thanks to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee for its work in bringing forward the stage 1 report.

Mr Stevenson offered a quotation on brevity, and I will use the adage from “Hamlet”:

“Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief”.

The bill contains a short and sensible pair of proposals, and it will receive the support of the Conservatives at decision time. Before I approach its substance, it is worth reflecting that the powers that we are exercising are yet another example of further devolution in practice. The powers have been devolved initially by order in council and will be made permanent by the Scotland Bill, which is currently before the UK Parliament.

The devolution of electoral administration for the Scottish Parliament is yet another example of my party’s commitment to the Smith commission process, as reflected in the Smith agreement, and further fulfilment of the pledge to create a United Kingdom in which more decisions are made closer to the individuals and communities that they affect.

We have developed cross-party agreement in the Parliament on elections to the Parliament not falling on the same day as general elections to the House of Commons or, potentially, other significant elections. Following the Gould report in 2007, that has worked its way into almost something of a constitutional convention. I think that it is a sound one.

I know that there have been one or two dissenting voices. I believe that Mr Stevenson expressed reservations in committee, and Dr Richard Simpson’s submission has already been referred to. However, the Smith commission expressly rejected that option. I was a member of that commission, and I support the findings of its reports, which were approved by representatives of all parties in the Parliament.

The agreement confirms that, although control over Scottish Parliament elections should be almost entirely devolved, UK legislation should prohibit the holding of a Scottish Parliament election on the same day as a UK general election, local government elections or elections to the European Parliament. That is incorporated into clause 5 of the Scotland Bill. However, I sympathise with the wish to see a more established convention that regulates the length of parliamentary sessions for the Scottish Parliament. Mary Fee made some interesting and thoughtful observations.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 is now a reasonably well-established part of the British constitution in relation to Westminster and, as such, there will have to be a real debate on the timescale for Scottish Parliament elections. As the minister indicated, the powers over elections beyond 2021 are unlikely to be devolved before this session ends. As he has made clear, that makes the future position a question for the next session, when I and many others will no longer be members of the Scottish Parliament. I am offering purely personal reflections; my party will, of course, have to confirm its position during the next session.

The minister has said that he agrees with the parliamentary session being set at five years, which mirrors the length of this session, and the 2021 election date has been agreed by our colleagues in the devolved Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland. There is no doubt that there is some advantage in consistency there. However, having a five-year session has been more of a default position that has been adopted out of necessity than a positive conclusion that was reached because five years is necessarily the best length of session for a devolved Parliament.

It is worth remembering that the four-year model has a long history. It dates back to the recommendations of the 1973 Royal Commission on the Constitution, or Kilbrandon, report, and it is a thread that runs through the pre-history of the Scottish Parliament, from the Scotland Act 1978 through the conclusions of the Scottish Constitutional Convention to the Westminster debates in the late 1990s, which led to the Scottish Parliament being created.

Although I reserve judgment on the merit of doing so, to my understanding it would still be possible to maintain a four-year electoral cycle by moving Holyrood elections to a different time of year. Again, I do not seek to state that there would not be too great a political clash in those sessions when devolved and UK elections fell less than a year apart; I merely observe that the option is there. I also observe that elections falling in May is a relatively recent innovation. There are plenty of examples in recent decades of elections falling in October, November or even December. I simply want to demonstrate that there is scope for debate. That is where I disagree with John Wilson—I think that the debate is important and needs to take place.

An enduring settlement on parliamentary terms is essential to fulfil the very reasonable decision that the Scottish Parliament should have consistent, fixed terms. It will not fall to me to play a role in the process; it will be the responsibility of members of the next Parliament, but I urge members to keep an open mind about it. In the meantime, I support the bill.