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Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

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Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
The second fairly significant area of contention that is generated by the bill is to do with the Electoral Commission’s role in testing the intelligibility of questions, in particular the provision in section 3(7), which bypasses that function of the Electoral Commission for w...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I welcome the fact that there has clearly been constructive engagement between your office and the Electoral Commission. I wish it were otherwise, but unfortunately the evidence that we have in front of us today does not allow us to reach the conclusion that that constructive ...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
07 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
How does it enhance democracy for this Parliament not to be allowed to debate whether there should be any future referendum? That is the question before us today. I will move on to the role of the Electoral Commission. It has become a much-valued, widely respected and absolut...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
At stake here is a very simple principle that has applied to every referendum that has been held in the United Kingdom since the creation of the Electoral Commission. The principle is that ministers propose referendum questions, the Electoral Commission tests those questions, ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
No, I do not. I am coming to that point. The evidence that we received from the Electoral Commission at stage 1 was clear and unambiguous: the Electoral Commission’s role as an independent scrutineer of the intelligibility of referendum questions must be protected and employe...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Amendment 80, in my name, would ensure that the date of any referendum that was held under this bill would not be the same day on which any other election or poll was scheduled to be held throughout Scotland. The amendment would give effect to a recommendation of the Electoral...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
We will be supporting amendment 21, which is the only Government amendment in the group. I will let the cabinet secretary speak to that in due course. I will speak to my amendments 1 and 2. The operative one is amendment 2, which seeks to enshrine what has become known as the ...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
10 Dec 2020
Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Bill: Stage 1
The bill is fine, sensible and pragmatic, with two exceptions. I shall focus on those exceptions, leaving the remainder of the bill to one side. Two provisions of the bill are unacceptable in their present form—sections 5 and 8—each for the same reason: both give ministers f...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I thank all members and the cabinet secretary for their contributions to the debate on this group of amendments. No group is unimportant, but this group is on one of the most important issues that the bill raises. Referendums decide things. Referendums decide big things—thi...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I agree with quite a lot of what Patrick Harvie said. A missed opportunity in the bill, so far, has been that we have not thought carefully or deeply about the relationship between democracy by referendum, parliamentary democracy and other citizen initiatives, including citize...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
22 Jun 2017
Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Amendment 15 would establish a poverty and inequality commission in statute. Independent scrutiny of the Government’s delivery plans and progress reports with regard to child poverty will be essential if we are to succeed in our collective ambition to realise aspirations and a...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
There is no amendment on the table that would allow the Electoral Commission to bind Parliament. The Electoral Commission’s role under PPERA is to independently test the intelligibility of referendum questions, and that would be its role under my amendment 79. It will then be ...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
General Question Time · Referendums (Scotland) Bill
Not only is the cabinet secretary seeking to impose on Scotland a second independence referendum that Scots do not want, but he is seeking to rig its rules by bypassing the critical role of the Electoral Commission in its independent testing of any referendum question. In a u...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
03 Jun 2020
Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill
I start with the important points that Sarah Boyack and James Kelly made to the minister. It is important that we all understand that, today, the Electoral Commission said that it continues to recommend that all legislation relating to elections must be clear at least six mont...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Amendments 81 and 82 are concerned with what is informally known as the purdah period for referendums. Amendment 81 extends the period governed by purdah rules in relation to publications, principally by Government, to the whole of the referendum period, which we have all agre...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
04 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Like Alex Rowley and Murdo Fraser, I am very sympathetic to the intention behind the amendments in this group, which is to clean up political campaigning and inject a sorely needed requirement for truth into our political campaign statements. Let me reflect a little on the re...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Okay, thank you. As I understand it—it is a long time since I looked at it, so please correct me if I am wrong—PPERA legislates for a three-way relationship as regards to the roles of the Electoral Commission, the Government and the Parliament. The Government proposes a quest...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
We all accept that there should be a period of purdah; that is, a period in which Government cannot use its ordinary resources and in which—as Mr Russell referred to—the ordinary business of Government is interfered with in the interests of voters and of voter confidence in th...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Group 8 is concerned with what are informally known as the rules on purdah. As the law stands, for the last 28 days—four weeks—of any referendum campaign, the Government is prohibited from publishing general information about the referendum, information that deals with any of ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
08 Feb 2018
Social Security (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
We support the Government’s amendments in this group. We think that the creation of a statutory commission, which the committee called for in its stage 1 report, is an extremely important step forward, and we welcome the functions that are to be given to the commission by the ...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
13 Jun 2018
Sustainable Growth Commission
I was going to thank the Liberal Democrats for making their time available to hold this afternoon’s enlightening debate, which I think has shown Holyrood in its best light, but I will allow the Official Report to speak for itself. Amid the noise, I have been able to pick out ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I am grateful to the minister for the clarity of his remarks. It might well be that there are some things about referendums that we do not yet do well in the United Kingdom. However, one of the things that we do well is the three-way relationship between ministers, the Electo...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
04 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I am grateful to the cabinet secretary and Patrick Harvie for their remarks. My concern about Mr Russell’s amendment 72 is that it would impose on Scottish ministers a duty to consult the Electoral Commission, but would not confer on the Scottish Parliament the right to see th...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
No. The rules should be those that apply under this bill, but no such referendum should be held within six months, because that is what the Gould principle means. During a number of the debates that we will have this afternoon, we will hear references not to the Gould princip...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I am not in the business of proposing amendments that are outwith the competence of this Parliament, which imposing legislative restrictions on Her Majesty’s people’s Government would be. The Government’s response to the amendments is disappointing. This is the third set of ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Yes, I am, because I think it is preposterous to imagine that we would hold a referendum on a question the day after we had held a referendum on the same question. No matter how important the issues are, referendums will not be held on them according to that sort of timescale....
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Committee
17 Dec 2020
Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Bill: Stage 2
Thank you for accommodating me. Having a power in the bill to provide for the eventuality of an all-postal ballot in next year’s election—where that election is delayed due to the coronavirus—is sensible. However, that power should not be in the hands of ministers, or of mini...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
22 Jun 2017
Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
This has been a good and useful debate on the whole. I am afraid that I have not heard anything from any member that affects or changes the core recommendation that the committee made only a few weeks ago—which it made unanimously—that “the Committee believes that the establ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I am trying to think how one might elegantly draft a provision that could provide an additional hour in the middle of a polling day. That would be something of a challenge between now and stage 3. I hear the force of the criticisms that have been levelled at the effect—but not...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
06 Feb 2020
Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill: Stage 1
Broadly, we welcome the bill, and we will be supporting it at stage 1. It contains mainly technical, but nonetheless important, changes to aspects of electoral law. I will confine my remarks to three areas, in each of which there are a number of questions for the minister to ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I have three further follow-up questions on that point, on which your written evidence is very strong. It says: “The Bill should be amended to ensure that: The Electoral Commission must be required to assess any referendum question proposed in legislation ... regardless of w...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I can understand why you want to sit on that fence, but I am not going to allow you to—I am sorry. From a parliamentarian’s point of view, the material difference is that individual MSPs can seek to amend primary legislation, whereas, whether as individuals or in large groups,...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
29 May 2019
Next Steps in Scotland’s Future
I thank the minister for early sight of his statement. In a week in which new figures show that more patients than ever are waiting more than 12 weeks for treatment in Scotland’s national health service, we might have expected a ministerial statement on the Scottish National ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
That is very helpful. Mr Highcock and Mr Hunter said that it would be ideal, or helpful, to have the same rules from event to event, whether they are authorised by an act of the Scottish Parliament or the UK Parliament. It is notable that one of the principal differences betwe...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Is that the relationship that you would like to see set out in the bill? Do you think that it is the right one, as far as the respective roles and responsibilities of the Government, the Electoral Commission and the Parliament are concerned?
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
It might be that we take the view that we want to have the referendum, but we want to have it in accordance with the Electoral Commission’s recommendations and not contrary to them. If the referendum question is set in secondary legislation, that is an impossible position for ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I understand that. You want to give us advice, but I presume that you also want us to be able to act on that advice if we choose to. If we proceed with the bill as drafted, we simply will not be able to do that because we will not be able to amend a proposed question to take i...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
18 Sep 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
The Electoral Commission’s advice is not about whether a referendum should be held but about the intelligibility of a proposed referendum question. That is the advice that you need to feed into the democratic process to enable us to make a decision about whether we should go a...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
26 Sep 2019
General Question Time · Independence Referendums (Two-thirds Majority Requirement)
Yesterday, in evidence to the Finance and Constitution Committee, the cabinet secretary said that he wanted referendums in Scotland to follow international best practice, and I welcomed that statement. However, he proposes that any second independence referendum should bypass ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
On page 11 of the Electoral Commission’s September 2016 report on the 2016 EU referendum, recommendation 3 states: “the starting assumption for Governments and legislatures should be that referendums are”— I am sorry, convener, but I am looking at the wrong section. I should...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I have nothing further to say. The Electoral Commission is pushing for 10 weeks, not 12, and has welcomed amendment 75, in the cabinet secretary’s name, which specifies a minimum 10-week referendum period. I am happy to support amendment 75. The cabinet secretary has twice su...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I have a question about amendment 24. I want to ensure that I have understood it properly. It says: “Before giving a direction to a registration officer, the Chief Counting Officer must consult the Electoral Commission.” However, I do not understand what those directions are...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I warmly welcome amendment 27 and have no questions or comments about it. Amendment 28 puzzles me a little and I want to make sure that I have fully understood it, so I have a few questions. First, where is this coming from? Is it something that the Electoral Commission or P...
7. Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
General Question Time · Referendums (Scotland) Bill
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Electoral Commission since the Referendums (Scotland) Bill completed stage 2. (S5O-03947)
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill
We all know the reality, Presiding Officer. This was not intended, and never was intended, by the Scottish National Party to be a framework bill for all referendums on any subject. This is a paving bill for indyref2. The cabinet secretary has given the game away by his demeano...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill
That is right. There is a degree of flexibility about that. However, it does not address the critical question, which, as Michael Russell said in his opening remarks, is the one that has bedevilled British politics for the best part of three years: what is the relationship bet...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
08 Nov 2017
Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I am glad that the cabinet secretary recognises that all the amendments that we supported, pressed and made at stage 2 were designed to strengthen the bill. It is important that there is a statutory Poverty and Inequality Commission. I welcome the fact that the cabinet secret...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
21 Dec 2017
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2018-19
The Scottish Fiscal Commission, at paragraph 51 of the report “Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2017”, which it published on the same day as the budget, states: “To support the Scottish Parliament and the public in understanding and scrutinising the Scottish ...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
25 Jan 2018
Social Security (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
It is really important that the commission is independent, that its recommendations are made public and that ministers have to give reasons if they disagree with or want to depart from the commission’s recommendations—I think that that is the view of the whole committee, given...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
08 Feb 2018
Social Security (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
The Scottish social security system comprises three parts: the streams of assistance that are devolved in full, which include carers assistance and disability assistance; the power to top up any reserved benefit, which is provided for in section 45 of the bill; and the power t...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
25 Jan 2018
Social Security (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Throughout our scrutiny of the bill, we have been thinking hard about the relationship between primary and secondary law-making powers. We must now also think about the relationship between the powers and functions of the Parliament and those of external advisers, such as the ...
The Convener Con Committee
22 Sep 2020
Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Thank you, minister. That was very helpful. You touched on a number of issues that have been raised with us in our evidence sessions and which members will want to explore with you. I will start on one of them. The bill emanates from the work of the Scottish Law Commission, b...
The Convener (Adam Tomkins) Con Committee
17 Nov 2020
Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 28th meeting in 2020 of the Justice Committee. We have no apologies. Our first item of business is to continue our consideration of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. This morning, we will take evidence from three diffe...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
02 Mar 2021
Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill
As we have heard, the bill, which originated in the work of the Scottish Law Commission, puts the Scots law of defamation on a statutory footing that is fit for the 21st century. In doing so, it addresses and balances two competing rights—the right to freedom of expression and...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
13 Dec 2017
Finance
In its manifesto for last year’s election, the SNP promised to freeze the basic rate of income tax throughout the lifetime of this parliamentary session. That was the SNP’s electoral vow, its solemn oath and undertaking, and its covenant with the Scottish people. SNP ministers...
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con Chamber
31 Jan 2018
Budget (Scotland) (No 2) Bill: Stage 1
Three themes have emerged from this afternoon’s gentle discussion about the budget. The first is that this is a high-tax budget: it is a budget that taxes success and aspiration. However, it is also a budget that, as we know, has been presented in a climate in which the Scotti...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
12 Nov 2019
European Union Citizens’ Rights
I am sorry to interrupt George Adam’s fine electoral rhetorical flourishes, but I will quote to him what the current Home Secretary in Boris Johnson’s Government has said. I and invite him to explain to Parliament where and how he disagrees. She has said that we want to introd...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I am grateful to Patrick Harvie for making that point. My point is simply this: we had a problem in Scotland in 2007, when multiple electoral events took place on the same day, and we invited an independent investigator to report on that for us. He concluded that it would be a...
Adam Tomkins Con Chamber
19 Dec 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
As we have heard, this bill is forward facing. It is framework legislation for referendums to be held in the future in Scotland. As introduced, section 37 would give ministers broad powers to amend the bill in the future—by order or regulation—in order to take into account dev...
Adam Tomkins Con Committee
27 Nov 2019
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
That experience was an unhappy one and it should not be repeated. If this Parliament were to legislate to the effect that no referendum should be held on the same day as another significant electoral event, the UK Government would want to take that very seriously. Absent that,...
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Committee

Finance and Constitution Committee 27 November 2019

27 Nov 2019 · S5 · Finance and Constitution Committee
Item of business
Referendums (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Tomkins, Adam Con Glasgow Watch on SPTV
The second fairly significant area of contention that is generated by the bill is to do with the Electoral Commission’s role in testing the intelligibility of questions, in particular the provision in section 3(7), which bypasses that function of the Electoral Commission for what are, in essence, repeat referendums. The committee took strong evidence on the matter at stage 1, including from the Electoral Commission, which said: “The Commission firmly recommends that it must be required to provide views and advice to the Scottish Parliament on the wording of any referendum question ... regardless of whether we have previously published our views on the proposed wording.” I do not think that anyone apart from the cabinet secretary demurred from that evidence from the Electoral Commission. When the committee reached its conclusions on the matter, we unanimously recommended “that the Cabinet Secretary recognises the weight of evidence ... in favour of the Electoral Commission testing a previously used referendum question and must come to an agreement, based on this evidence, with the Electoral Commission, prior to Stage 2.” It is unfortunate that the evidence that is before us for stage 2 indicates that no such agreement has been reached. The cabinet secretary wrote to the convener last week about the matter and said only that the Electoral Commission “is aware of” the amendments in his name in this group; he did not say that the Electoral Commission had agreed to them. Indeed, the Electoral Commission said, in its briefing for stage 2: “The Electoral Commission’s primary concern is that Parliament is able to access the Commission’s independent advice on the intelligibility of a proposed referendum question at any point it requests it, regardless of whether a question has been asked within that parliamentary session.” That is the Electoral Commission’s view; it is as strong and unambiguous as it was at stage 1. It seems to me that the committee has three options available to it at stage 2. The first is not to amend the relevant provisions in section 3 and for those to go on to stage 3 unamended, so that the Electoral Commission will effectively be bypassed with regard to any referendum question that has previously been used. That is what will happen if we do not amend those provisions today. The second option is to accept the cabinet secretary’s amendments, which do not have—at least, we have not been told that they have—the agreement of the Electoral Commission. The cabinet secretary is shaking his head. I am happy to take an intervention from him.

In the same item of business

The Convener (Bruce Crawford) SNP
Good morning and welcome to the 27th meeting in 2019 of the Finance and Constitution Committee. I remind members to switch off their mobiles, or at least to ...
The Convener SNP
Amendment 76, in the name of Adam Tomkins, is grouped with amendments 77, 1 to 3, 78, 18, 23, 29, 42, 49 and 61.
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) Con
Good morning, everyone. The first group of amendments concerns the power in section 1 of the bill to provide for referendums. Section 1 as drafted is extraor...
The Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations (Michael Russell) SNP
It is always my approach to a bill—members of the committee know this, because we have been in this position before—to seek to enhance it and to reach agreem...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green) Green
We have debated the question of whether specific legislation should always be required for referendums in the future, and I was willing, with an open mind, t...
Adam Tomkins Con
I welcome the cabinet secretary’s support for amendment 1. In light of that, and in the expectation that the committee will vote for amendment 1, I will seek...
The Convener SNP
Amendment 79, in the name of Adam Tomkins, is grouped with amendments 90 to 92.
Adam Tomkins Con
The second fairly significant area of contention that is generated by the bill is to do with the Electoral Commission’s role in testing the intelligibility o...
Michael Russell SNP
On page 2, the Electoral Commission’s briefing says: “The Commission had a constructive meeting with the Cabinet Secretary to discuss Amendments 90, 91 and ...
Adam Tomkins Con
I welcome the fact that there has clearly been constructive engagement between your office and the Electoral Commission. I wish it were otherwise, but unfort...
Michael Russell SNP
We have heard from Adam Tomkins about why he believes that my amendments should be rejected and his amendment should be accepted. I have the opposite point o...
Adam Tomkins Con
I am grateful to the minister for the clarity of his remarks. It might well be that there are some things about referendums that we do not yet do well in th...
Michael Russell SNP
I will disagree with your definition, using the words of the Electoral Commission. When giving evidence to the committee at stage 1, the Electoral Commission...
Adam Tomkins Con
On a point of information, convener.
The Convener SNP
You will have an opportunity to make the point when you wind up.
Michael Russell SNP
As I said, I believe that the amendments meet exactly the requirements of the committee. I am asking the committee to support the amendments with the proviso...
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) SNP
I disagree with Adam Tomkins’s comments about there being only one course available to the committee. That is obviously a political statement, and the realit...
Adam Tomkins Con
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
John Mason SNP
Yes.
Adam Tomkins Con
There is no amendment on the table that would allow the Electoral Commission to bind Parliament. The Electoral Commission’s role under PPERA is to independen...
John Mason SNP
That is exactly my point—the Electoral Commission should not be able to bind Parliament, but the suggestion with amendment 79 is, almost, that we try to get ...
Adam Tomkins Con
No.
John Mason SNP
Well, that appears to be the case. Amendments 90 to 92 would put a time limit on how often a referendum question has to be assessed, which is a reasonable c...
Alex Rowley (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Lab
The cabinet secretary has failed to reach agreement with the Electoral Commission. I still do not know why he is so insistent on this point and has not been ...
Patrick Harvie Green
I am sorry that the tone of the debate so far has been needlessly confrontational. Adam Tomkins said that what the cabinet secretary is offering is very near...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Con
When the committee produced its stage 1 report, it unanimously resolved that the Scottish Government and the Electoral Commission must come to an agreement o...
Angela Constance (Almond Valley) (SNP) SNP
Later in stage 2, when we come to group 17, we will debate the pros and cons of placing a duty on ministers to follow the advice of the Electoral Commission....
Gordon MacDonald (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP) SNP
A key policy in the Labour Party manifesto for the forthcoming election is the holding of a referendum on the Brexit deal within six months. Given the timesc...
Alexander Burnett (Aberdeenshire West) (Con) Con
I heard what Patrick Harvie said. Given the amendment to section 1, the Parliament could add a role for the Electoral Commission in analysing the question. D...
Patrick Harvie Green
It is clear to all of us that legislation can always be amended. This Parliament cannot pass legislation that is unamendable by a subsequent Parliament. If t...