Meeting of the Parliament 08 May 2024
I agree whole-heartedly with Pauline McNeill. As I said yesterday, she will ask the First Minister a question on the subject tomorrow, but it would probably be more suitable for that question to go to the Lord Advocate, so that we could hear her position on that point and many others.
As I sum up, I am left wondering why SNP and Green MSPs will not support the change to business. Is the Lord Advocate comfortable with that? Is she sat in her chambers saying, “Don’t allow time for me to come to the Scottish Parliament to explain my position like I did in January this year”? Or is the Scottish Government now blocking the opportunity for her to come to the chamber? That is her right, and it is our right, as MSPs, to ask her here.
I simply ask the minister this question. If none of his SNP and Green colleagues could intervene and tell me this, perhaps he can. Does Scotland’s Lord Advocate, who sits round the Scottish Government Cabinet table, still believe that it would be wrong to have a mass exoneration of sub-postmasters in Scotland?
I move amendment S6M-13122.1, to insert after “the following programme of business—”:
“Thursday 9 May 2024
11.40 am Parliamentary Bureau Motions
11.40 am General Questions
12.00 pm First Minister’s Questions
followed by Members’ Business — S6M-12342 Collette Stevenson: Shining a Light on Domestic Abuse in LGBT+ History Month
2.00 pm Parliamentary Bureau Motions
followed by Appointment of Scottish Ministers
followed by Legislative Consent Motion: Data Protection and Digital Information Bill - UK Legislation
followed by Stage 1 Debate: Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill
followed by Statement by the Lord Advocate on Post Office Horizon Prosecutions
followed by Appointments of the Chair and Commissioners of the Poverty and Inequality Commission
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.30 pm Decision Time”.
17:40Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.