Committee
Procedures Committee, 06 Mar 2007
06 Mar 2007 · S2 · Procedures Committee
Item of business
Parliamentary Time
To a certain extent, I am fairly ambivalent about whether the report goes ahead or not, because I have not been involved in the tortuous process of compiling it, as other committee members have. However, if the bureau is talking about precedents, it is unprecedented that a committee report should be picked to bits by the bureau and not given time for a debate because the bureau does not agree with large parts of it. I am not happy about that situation and I am not aware that it has ever happened before.As to what the committee can do about it, there are three or four weeks left of this parliamentary session, and although we are not happy about the situation, I suggest that nothing can be done about it. If the bureau has decided that the report is not going to be given parliamentary time, then it is not going to be given time.We are going to discuss the legacy paper later. I would be reluctant to ask a future committee to take this report to Parliament, because it would have to go through the whole process again. I agree that it is an absolute waste of the time of everyone who has sat on the committee and of the very few MSPs who got involved and responded to the consultation. Some of the committee's activities have, as a result, involved a huge waste of money. I hope that, if the committee agrees, it will express that feeling to the bureau. However, I do not think that anything can be done. We should not waste any more of the committee's time on it, to be honest.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
LD
The next item is our review of parliamentary time. Members have a paper that contains the correspondence on the subject between the committee and the Parliam...
Chris Ballance:
Green
Feel free. I have no desire for privacy.
The Convener:
LD
Chris Ballance spoke up and some others in the bureau expressed some support for us, but it was clear to me and to Andrew Mylne, who came to the meeting as a...
Kate Maclean (Dundee West) (Lab):
Lab
To a certain extent, I am fairly ambivalent about whether the report goes ahead or not, because I have not been involved in the tortuous process of compiling...
The Convener:
LD
Chris Ballance has two angles, as it were, on the issue.
Chris Ballance:
Green
Again, without breaching any of the confidences of a bureau meeting, a particular business manager argued on the one hand that MSPs hate parts of the report ...
Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab):
Lab
I am perhaps more sanguine about the situation. The committee has been here before. The previous committee, of which I was not a member, held a massive inqui...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
It is the same with any committee.
Richard Baker:
Lab
Yes, that is right. Although colleagues did not grasp our report, it would have been worse had we gone to the floor of the chamber with it and found out that...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
Richard Baker is right that the previous Procedures Committee dealt with the subject before. Reports by other committees have also not been debated—it happen...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
I have a further point on something that the bureau said. If one of the criteria for getting items debated in the chamber was that members had read the relev...
Chris Ballance:
Green
I should add that there is substantial opposition from more than one business manager to the concept of giving more notice of motions. That is deeply depress...
The Convener:
LD
It is helpful to get colleagues' views. We come from slightly different angles, but we all agree that we are disappointed.The only opportunity to mention the...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
Are you suggesting that we have that debate and not push the matter to a vote?
The Convener:
LD
Whatever colleagues think. I have challenged the business motion several times in the past. Occasionally, the vote in favour of my challenge has got into dou...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
That would be 10 votes, then.
The Convener:
LD
It is, nevertheless, an opportunity for setting out a case on which members of the committee have strong feelings. I presume that the Minister for Parliament...
Chris Ballance:
Green
That is quite a good idea. The advantage of challenging the business motion is that the convener would get three minutes in which to tell the entire chamber ...
Karen Gillon:
Lab
I would be cautious about that approach, convener. It might look as though we had had a fight, lost it and were taking our ball away in a big huff. Some othe...
Kate Maclean:
Lab
Have certain committee reports not been debated because the bureau did not like their content? I cannot think of any precedent for that.
Karen Gillon:
Lab
They were never scheduled for debate by the Conveners Group, so we do not know whether it was because the bureau did not like their content. Committee busine...
The Convener:
LD
You are right to say that it would not be something to do lightly or inadvisedly. Nevertheless, if there was a brief debate and the subject was aired, that w...
Richard Baker:
Lab
It would be good to put on the record the fact that we have looked into the issues in some depth and that they should not just go away. However, I am torn as...
The Convener:
LD
If we wrote to the bureau, is there any means by which the letter could become a public paper and the figures would be on the record?
Kate Maclean:
Lab
Could we not write to the bureau and copy the letter to all members?
Richard Baker:
Lab
Why do we not do that? That would be sensible.
Kate Maclean:
Lab
We could include a copy of the Official Report of today's meeting.
Chris Ballance:
Green
It would not be on the public record in the same way.
Karen Gillon:
Lab
It is on the public record as a result of this meeting.
Kate Maclean:
Lab
To be honest, if the matter is discussed in the chamber at decision time—when there are never any members of the press there—it will not be any more on the p...