Hansard

The Presiding Officer (Alex Fergusson): NPA

The next item of business is a statement by Alex Salmond on the ministerial code. The First Minister will take questions at the end of his 15-minute statemen...

The First Minister (Alex Salmond): SNP

I am delighted to be able to inform Parliament of the new and, I believe, stronger ministerial code that comes into force from today. Colleagues in the chamb...

The Presiding Officer: NPA

The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. We have a little over 30 minutes for questions.

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab

It was too much to expect that the Scottish National Party would uphold its previous calls for a bill on ministerial accountability but, in that context, I w...

The First Minister: SNP

I welcome Wendy Alexander's welcome for the new ministerial code. I observe that in eight years of Labour-Liberal governance, she did not think of making any...

Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): Con

I have to say that, to me, the statement is not so much "Blah" as "Eh?" I note the First Minister's intention to appoint a panel of former Presiding Officers...

The First Minister: SNP

I am interested in a party leader who proclaims her wish to avoid more bureaucratic institutions in Scotland but who, in effect, calls for a ministerial tsar...

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): LD

I remind the First Minister that I have consistently raised the issue of independent oversight of the ministerial code with him and his predecessors since th...

Tricia Marwick (Central Fife) (SNP): SNP

Question.

Mike Rumbles: LD

Everyone—apart from the SNP, apparently—recognises that the situation cannot be allowed to continue. As with complaints against MSPs, all complaints must be ...

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): SNP

Is there a question?

Mike Rumbles: LD

Then and only then should the results of any independent investigation be published and reported back to the First Minister for his decision.

Members:

Question.

Mike Rumbles: LD

Presiding Officer, it is up to the First Minister to take action on that. Could I ask him—

Members:

Hooray!

Mike Rumbles: LD

That is interesting, because I am sure that the First Minister will not answer the question properly.Does the First Minister recognise that the will of the P...

The First Minister: SNP

I have no doubt that, from the back benches, Mr Rumbles constantly stimulated his front-bench colleagues to adopt a measure of independence in relation to th...

The Presiding Officer: NPA

We come to questions from back-bench members. An enormous number of members would like to ask questions and I would like to call as many as possible. I there...

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): SNP

Does the First Minister see any scope for a further layer of bureaucracy to deal with these matters? Indeed, who would make any such independent tsar account...

The First Minister: SNP

That is exactly the line of accountability that any First Minister and any ministerial team would have.I say to Labour members that the issue is not so much ...

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): Lab

I am delighted that the First Minister listens to everything that I say. Let me capture his attention a little longer and enlighten him: when ministers breac...

The Presiding Officer: NPA

Question, please.

Jackie Baillie: Lab

Section 1.4 of the new ministerial code states that an investigation will be carried out when the First Minister deems it appropriate. What circumstances are...

The First Minister: SNP

I congratulate Jackie Baillie on finding a contorted explanation for why her three parliamentary questions no longer represent the attitude to which she subs...

Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab): Lab

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. As convener of the Local Government and Communities Committee, I make it clear that our inquiry's remit did not cover...

The Presiding Officer: NPA

That was not a point of order, but the point has been made.

The First Minister: SNP

That was not a point of order, or even accurate. I said that the committee investigated not the ministerial code but the Trump issue. If the committee's conv...

Tricia Marwick: SNP

I welcome the First Minister's commitment to strengthening and improving the ministerial code. Does he recall that, in 1999, Donald Dewar—the then First Mini...

The First Minister: SNP

Like any self-respecting Parliament, the Parliament is well able to undertake its responsibilities. I am unfamiliar with the comments to which Tricia Marwick...

Michael McMahon (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab): Lab

The First Minister may think that his ministers have answered 7,000 questions in six months, but I ask him to answer at least one question this afternoon. I ...