Committee
Procedures Committee, 23 Jan 2007
23 Jan 2007 · S2 · Procedures Committee
Item of business
Electronic Voting
Paragraph 10 mentions that the software could not transmit vote details electronically to the official report. However, given that we have official report staff present during committee meetings, the details can surely be transmitted manually. Why do the votes need to be transmitted electronically to the official report instead of being delivered manually, as happens for show-of-hands votes?I am quite content for the technology to be made available in one committee room and for the decision to rest with committees. Committees could bid for the room in the same way that they bid for any other resource in the Parliament. However, we should make it clear that electronic voting should be used only in exceptional circumstances and that it is not the will of Parliament that electronic voting should become the routine. Although there might be an issue in respect of the time that it might take to get a request for electronic voting approved by the Parliamentary Bureau, I am not convinced that we need electronic voting equipment up and running in three committee rooms. If we were to accept the principle that committees should ordinarily use electronic voting, we might need three committee rooms, but if use of electronic voting is to be limited, it will be sufficient to have one committee room kitted out. The information could simply be handed to official report staff. Call me old-fashioned, but I do not think that we need to incur huge amounts of expenditure to enable the details to be transferred by computer.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
LD
The third item on our agenda is electronic voting in committees. Paper PR/S2/07/1/3 sets out a brief history. At some point, Parliament agreed to have a tria...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
I might not have understood the procedures correctly. There was an excessive number of amendments for the Planning etc (Scotland) Bill. My understanding was ...
The Convener:
LD
I cannot honestly remember how much procedure was necessary to enable the Communities Committee to carry out its voting in that way. Perhaps the clerk could ...
Andrew Mylne:
What the deputy convener says is correct. Under the current rules, committees are required to vote by a show of hands unless Parliament has directed otherwis...
Alex Johnstone:
Con
As you are aware, convener, a particularly diligent member of the parliamentary press corps read the paper on this subject in advance and beat a path to my d...
Chris Ballance:
Green
The paper talks about the possibility of flagging up the votes on the public television screens at the same time as the convener gets them. That would certai...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
Has one committee room already been set up for electronic voting?
Chris Ballance:
Green
It has.
Karen Gillon:
Lab
Why, in that case, do we need to set up any more?
Chris Ballance:
Green
I would be happy for us just to change the rules and to instruct Parliament's information technology department to look into the possibility of getting the v...
The Convener:
LD
There was some discussion on that point at the Conveners Group. I did not follow it fully, but it seems that although the pilot scheme was managed without gr...
Chris Ballance:
Green
Page 6 of the paper tells us that the pilot scheme cost £3,744 and that it would cost an extra £6,700 to equip a further two committee rooms. We already have...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
Paragraph 10 on page 4 of paper PR/S2/07/1/3 states that the software that was used to electronically transmit voting records to the official report from the...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
If the equipment in one committee room is up and running—
Kate Maclean:
Lab
The software is not.
Karen Gillon:
Lab
The paper says that it is.
The Convener:
LD
I was trying to remember what paragraph 10 says. I am obliged to Kate Maclean for referring to it.
Kate Maclean:
Lab
Paragraph 10 states:"given the short term nature of the pilot, it was agreed that this work should not be carried out and a method of transmitting the result...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
For me, the first question is whether, in principle, I want more electronic voting in committees. My answer is that I do not. A huge amount is gained from op...
Alex Johnstone:
Con
There is another issue to do with members raising their hands to vote, which arises from my experience. I sat through a stage 2 committee debate—I think Kare...
Richard Baker:
Lab
That takes us back to the point that Chris Ballance made about the software.Karen Gillon said that the software would have to be changed so that people could...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
Paragraph 10 mentions that the software could not transmit vote details electronically to the official report. However, given that we have official report st...
The Convener:
LD
The committee clerk has ingeniously suggested that members could vote in both ways—electronically and manually—at the same time.
Alex Johnstone:
Con
Unfortunately, that would not fit in with our commitment to ensure that disabled people are catered for. People who could not do both things at once would be...
The Convener:
LD
I draw members' attention to the section of the paper that outlines the benefits of electronic voting. Paragraph 15 claims that electronic voting resulted in...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
As the Procedures Committee, we have the responsibility to decide on the procedures and rules under which Parliament operates.The founding principles of the ...
Alex Johnstone:
Con
Interestingly, the electronic voting system is open to human error. Recently, there have been a significant number of cases in the chamber where, during a vo...
The Convener:
LD
Do we want a complete clarification of the subject in order to understand the issues of software, cost and so on, or are we agreed that this is a matter of p...
Richard Baker:
Lab
My preference would be for us to say that committees should take the decision and that we need no more than one committee room to be geared up for electronic...
The Convener:
LD
Right. I suggest that we go through the paper bit by bit. Is it the committee's general view that it is quite enough for one committee room to be fitted up f...