Hansard

No. I have already taken an intervention.

Today’s debate is contrary to the principle of proper and objective scrutiny by the Parliament. By holding the debate now, the entire scrutiny process has been undermined.

What is the purpose of our committee continuing to look at the bill when, by decision time tonight, Parliament will have expressed a simple view on the matter? That situation has caused upset and frustration on many levels. The staff of our committee are placed in the very difficult position of, in effect, having their carefully organised timetable and work interrupted on a whim. They have spent weeks organising witnesses in preparation for writing a very difficult and technical report, as they are obliged to do in line with standing orders. The Scottish Government’s approach is an insult to them and their hard work, and it renders later evidence sessions very difficult, as they will be coloured by the political contributions of any committee member who participates this afternoon.

We hear two frequent refrains in the chamber: first, that the United Kingdom Government does not send ministers to give evidence to our committees, and more widely, that the UK Government does not respect the Scottish Parliament. How much less plausible and less effective are those charges now? The lack of respect here comes from one Government alone, and it is the one sitting in this chamber. Why would a UK Government minister give evidence to the committee when the Parliament will, by decision time tonight, have debated the issue and expressed a view on a UK Government bill? Why would they come? Moreover, how could they expect a fair, objective hearing from a committee in the light of a prior parliamentary debate in which members of the committee will be on record as having voting and called for the bill to be scrapped?

There are other witnesses to think about, too. We have six witnesses who are due to give evidence on Thursday and who have submitted written evidence and taken time out of their schedules to prepare for and attend the committee, but why should they bother? Parliament will have expressed a view on the bill, and if the Scottish Government motion passes, Parliament’s view will be that the entire bill should be scrapped—end of story. Anything that they say now is rendered pointless. What room is left for nuance, subtlety and the balance of opinion to be taken into account in our committee report?

The debate also makes life very awkward for the convener. She has to chair the upcoming evidence sessions on the bill in a neutral manner, and is thus unable to speak in today’s debate when she would of course have had much to contribute, as she always does. The debate puts her in a very difficult position. It is less difficult for me as deputy convener, but if, for whatever reason, I have to substitute for her, how can I do so in an objective capacity?

We are placed in the wholly invidious position of being forced to debate the bill while trying to hear evidence and come to a collective view as a committee in our LCM report, as we are obliged by law to do. The constitution committee has, somewhat remarkably, given the subject matter that it engages with, achieved consensus on a wide variety of topics so far this session. It is one of the best committees that I have sat on as an MSP; every member brings different insights and experiences to our discussion, and even in the most difficult of circumstances, we have somehow managed to find a form of words to agree on, but how on earth do we draft a consensual report when the Scottish Government has blown a hole through the inquiry with this debate?

The proper process would have been to allow a debate on the LCM after the evidence sessions have finished. We did that with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, and we could have done it again with this bill. To those who say that Parliament sometimes debates matters that are the subject of on-going committee inquiries, my answer is that this is a legislative consent process. It is a defined procedure, not least because the subject matter is UK legislation, not Scottish Government legislation, and involves a subject area that is not prima facie within the remit of the Scottish Parliament—it is very different territory. That is why when it comes to LCMs, the standing orders are so clear: they provide that a motion seeking the Parliament’s consent to a UK Parliament Bill

“shall not normally be lodged until after the publication of the lead committee’s report.”

That rule is there to protect the integrity of the committee, its members and perhaps more importantly, its staff, who work so hard in the compiling of that report. We might not technically be within the letter of those rules, but we are plainly within the spirit of those rules.

I have no objection whatsoever to debating the REUL bill, and I heard the whisper of the cabinet secretary saying that I was frightened of debating it. I have no objection to doing so, but only at the proper time, because I want to hear the evidence; it is an important piece of legislation that requires a full and rigorous debate. I remind the cabinet secretary that, as counsel, I acted for the Scottish Government—his Government—in the European Court of Justice just a few years ago. EU law is my meat and drink, and there is nothing that I would like to do more than debate the substance of the bill.

In fact, I would go further than that. I have some misgivings about certain aspects of the bill as drafted. The real tragedy of what has transpired today is that there might have been an opportunity for the Parliament to speak as one on the bill, with every party in agreement, but any good will that might have existed in that regard has vanished. In pushing for a short-term, tactical hit, the Scottish Government has rendered that impossible.

This is not about semantics; it is about the scrutiny of the Executive by the legislature. With every passing day, the Parliament feels weaker as an institution. What a sadness.

I move amendment S6M-06984.1, to leave out from “agrees” to end and insert:

“notes that the Scottish Government has lodged a legislative consent memorandum to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill and that two separate committees are involved in extensive scrutiny of the bill, and have yet to formally report in line with the established process; considers that, by proceeding with a substantive debate on this issue, the Scottish Government is undermining the entire scrutiny process of the Scottish Parliament and the work of the members and staff of parliamentary committees, and agrees that this is against the spirit of the Scottish Parliament’s Standing Orders and contrary to the principle of proper and objective scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament.”