Meeting of the Parliament 06 January 2026
I am unable to answer that question, because no complaint has come via the independent commissioner to my committee that I am aware of. However, section 9.1 is very specific, in that it is about not only the act of making a complaint, but the intention to do so. We see the reason for that if we go back to a previous parliamentary session and an earlier iteration of the committee that I have the pleasure to convene. It wrote:
“The Committee condemns, in particular, any breaches which risk causing reputational damage to another member in advance of a proper investigation.”
That is why the code of conduct makes reference to intending to make a complaint, because damage could be done without any complaint being taken forward.
In so far as section 9.1 of the code of conduct imposes a restriction on members’ conduct, it goes no further than is necessary for that purpose, and it would not prevent a member from expressing their opinion in relation to matters of public debate or indeed other elected representatives.
The committee concluded that, in this instance, the breach was sufficiently serious to merit the recommendation of a sanction and, on the basis of the facts and circumstances of this case, it determined that the most appropriate sanction available to it was exclusion from meetings of the Parliament and its committees for two sitting days, those days being a Wednesday and a Thursday. The committee considers that period of exclusion to be proportionate, in that the recommendation of any sanction is an extremely serious matter. The committee also considers that the period of exclusion would not be detrimental to the Parliament’s opportunity to consider the general principles of a member’s bill of which Ash Regan is the member in charge.
Members may wish to note that the recommended sanction does not entail withdrawal of the member’s right of access to the parliamentary complex or to any parliamentary services or facilities, which includes the right to lodge both motions and questions over that period.
With that, I will move the motion in my name.