Hansard

As the deputy convener of the SPPA Committee, I am happy to close the debate. This has been a busy time for the committee, with both the Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill and the Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill on top of our more regular responsibilities, and now with what I gather is the first committee bill of the session, which the committee is proposing. I join other members in thanking the clerks for their support.

From this brief debate, it is clear that there is a strong consensus that responsibility for setting the terms of financial assistance to non-Government political parties should be transferred from the Scottish Government to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body by means of the bill that is proposed today.

As the convener highlighted—as well as David Stewart, on behalf of the corporate body—the Short money contributions, as they are colloquially termed, were introduced in the House of Commons in 1974 with the aim of providing greater support to Opposition parties to fulfil their parliamentary functions. Since then, that financial assistance in the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Scottish Parliament has been fundamental to Opposition parties fulfilling their parliamentary roles. It was useful to get a little smidgeon of history from Dave Stewart. The early debates in 1999 seemed to focus more on the level of Short money rather than the administrative function of how it was distributed, which is, of course, the purpose of today’s debate. As we go forward, we might have interesting debates about what the level of Short money might be.

I can almost declare an interest, in that, although I was not an MSP in the first session of the Scottish Parliament, I spent a period of time working for Robin Harper, the first Green MSP, assisting him to introduce the first Green member’s bill in the Parliament. At that time, with a single MSP in Parliament, it was hugely important to have a little bit of resource to support his parliamentary work. We had a toehold in Scottish politics—at the time, we did not have full-time members of staff, so we did not have a lot of capacity to support our first-ever parliamentarian. Over the years, I have seen the value of Short money, particularly in my role as convener of the Green parliamentary group in the Scottish Parliament.

Elaine Smith reflected on how Short money helps level the playing field. It is about campaigns and the legislation that political parties bring forward, but it is also about our ability to scrutinise the Government, which has an army of civil servants ready to answer every question and legislate for every line in every bill.

I agree with other members who have spoken in the debate that it is appropriate that, following the Scotland Act 2016, the responsibility for submitting draft orders should be transferred from the Scottish Government to the SPCB. The SPCB is made up of representatives who are elected by the Parliament and it is therefore better placed as a neutral body to take decisions in relation to the provision of financial assistance to Opposition parties. The SPCB also has responsibility for setting members’ salaries, and for their allowances and expenses, so it can be argued that taking on the proposed role in relation to financial assistance is a logical extension of its role.

The committee has worked to develop the proposal, following the Scottish Government’s indication that it would be content to support the transfer of the provisions to the SPCB. The committee’s report sets out the full background to the proposal and includes a draft bill. As the convener indicated, the bill is narrow in scope and would not, as currently drafted, affect the amount of financial assistance paid to parties.

I am happy that widespread support has been expressed for the proposal and I hope that it will progress through the various stages of the committee bill process to enactment.