Meeting of the Parliament 30 April 2024
The business of Parliament this week is fluid. Indeed, last night, the business managers were presented with a proposal from the Scottish Government to debate and vote on two motions of no confidence—one was a motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government and one was lodged by me on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives as a motion of no confidence in Humza Yousaf. That one has been successful: Humza Yousaf is resigning as First Minister of Scotland. Therefore, I thought it was right to use the time that the Scottish Government had found for a debate, of just 30 minutes, to get a statement from the Lord Advocate, here in the Scottish Parliament, on her current position and the Scottish Government’s position on the Horizon scandal.
That is a crucially important issue that must be discussed and debated here in the Scottish Parliament. The proposal was put forward by my business manager at the Parliamentary Bureau, and it was rejected by the Scottish Government. I understand that the Scottish Government will look to bring forward that business at a later date, and I hope that it will do that even if this amendment is not successful.
The issue is important. We decided to bring the amendment to the chamber this afternoon so that the discussions are not held behind closed doors and so that sub-postmasters across Scotland can see that MSPs from, I think, across the political spectrum want answers on their behalf. The amendment would not delete any business tomorrow, because the Government has come forward with another debate and there will be a vote of no confidence. The amendment simply proposes that, instead of finishing at 5 o’clock tomorrow night, we stay for an extra 30 minutes until half past 5 to get the Lord Advocate in front of us to make a statement to the Parliament and to the people of Scotland and to answer questions. Across the chamber, there is a clear consensus that the wrong of sub-postmasters being wrongly prosecuted because of a faulty information technology system must be resolved, and resolved as quickly as possible.
It is abundantly clear that a blanket exoneration must be legislated for as soon as possible. However, given the independent legal system—