Hansard

As convener of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, I have the responsibility of lodging and speaking to motions seeking the Parliament’s agreement to the committee’s recommendation of a sanction when the committee has concluded that a breach of the conduct rules has occurred.

The consultative steering group on the Scottish Parliament recommended a rigorous code of conduct for MSPs, as, in its view, the Scottish people deserve a Parliament and members that the people of Scotland can trust and respect. The code of conduct sets out the standards of conduct for MSPs. Given the statutory underpinning of much of the code, we, as parliamentarians—as lawmakers—must take the rules seriously and adhere to them.

The code also provides for the enforcement of the rules. Over four weeks, the SPPA Committee gave detailed and thorough consideration to the report submitted to us by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland on the complaint made against Maggie Chapman MSP that she had failed to declare a registered financial interest. We carefully considered the provisions of the Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Act 2006 and the code of conduct in relation to declarations of interest.

We concluded, unanimously, that Maggie Chapman MSP had failed to declare a registered financial interest—namely, the remuneration that she had received by virtue of her employment as the chief operating officer of Edinburgh Rape Crisis centre—during the proceedings relating to that registered financial interest at the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 31 May 2022. We agreed with the commissioner’s conclusion that Maggie Chapman MSP had breached the 2006 act and the code of conduct for MSPs.

The central purpose of the requirement to register and declare interests is to provide transparency. That transparency makes certain registrable interests public through their being published on the individual member’s entry in the register of interests. That standards regime aims to ensure that somebody watching or reading parliamentary proceedings is made aware of a financial interest that could influence or give the appearance of influencing a member’s ability to participate in a disinterested manner in any proceedings of this Parliament.

That transparency was missing at the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 31 May 2022. When Maggie Chapman asked a question of the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland that referenced the net worth of Rape Crisis centres in Scotland, she did not, by means of a declaration, make it known that she had a registered financial interest by virtue of the remuneration that she had received as the chief operating officer of Edinburgh Rape Crisis centre. Thus, that transparency, which is central to the understanding of any interests that could influence us as MSPs, was not there.