Meeting of the Parliament 15 March 2016
The Scottish Government supports the principles of periodically reviewing the Scottish Parliament working practices and procedures to ensure that they remain fit for purpose.
I acknowledge the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee’s thorough and measured assessment of the current legislative procedures used by the Parliament and the helpful improvements that it has identified.
To be clear, I support the changes that have been proposed by the committee as proportionate and practical ways of ensuring that we maintain an appropriate balance between efficiency and effectiveness in the scrutiny of bills. Government will play its part in ensuring that they are implemented in full in the next parliamentary session.
It will be important to monitor the practical impact of those changes to ensure that they do not give rise to any unintended consequences. I would encourage the committee’s successor to keep that matter under review.