Hansard

I wish to speak in opposition to Parliamentary Bureau motion S5M-24275. The motion is titled “Campaign Recess” but its essential point is that it brings forward the closure of the office of the clerk, which restricts and inhibits members from submitting written parliamentary questions. The important thing to understand about the period that we enter is that, although we head towards an election, we will not have the dissolution that would normally happen. Instead, we are moving into a period of recess, and all MSPs will continue in post until 5 May.

Understandably, because a pandemic is on-going, the Government will be dealing with issues around that. All MSPs continue to get multiple requests on issues such as vaccine roll-out and requests from businesses that are struggling with support, people who are unsure about their job prospects, and pupils and parents with concerns about the on-going issues in the education system. It is important that MSPs are able to continue to submit questions to Government ministers and to hold Government ministers to account. Closing the office of the clerk and stopping the ability to submit written questions from Thursday 11 March restricts MSPs in their ability to do their job of representing their constituents and holding the Government to account. Scottish Labour is therefore not able to endorse that motion tonight.