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Showing 35 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
I welcome the panel. The bill takes a radical approach with regard to giving voting rights for residency as opposed to citizenship and extending that right across the board to all comers, which goes way beyond the present Commonwealth and EU citizens. What are the panel’s view...
Tom Mason Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Do you see a difference between the franchise at local government level and the franchise at national level? Local government is a creature of statute of the Scottish Government, and the bill could result in quite substantial changes in the law at national level, which may or ...
Tom Mason Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
I think that I have covered the second one. It was to do with the extension of the franchise beyond EU and Commonwealth citizens and the general process of extending the franchise. I think that I got the answers.
Tom Mason Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
To follow on from that, if we were to extend the franchise, I would be worried about the nature of the responsibilities and obligations on the people who got the franchise. Otherwise, we would have two classes of citizens—those who had voting rights who were just residents, an...
Tom Mason Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Not entirely, but I will leave it there.
Tom Mason Con Committee
12 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Hope is a poor bedfellow. Laughter.
Tom Mason Con Chamber
19 Sep 2019
General Question Time · Regulation of Legal Services (Review)
A number of my constituents have raised serious concerns about existing practices in the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, particularly around transparency of investigations, the lack of oral representation during proceedings and the lack of available appeal mechanisms. Th...
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
I am trying to understand the logic behind this. Why is voting specifically separated out from other losses of rights that happen with imprisonment? Prisoners lose the right to family life as well as all sorts of other things. Voting is just one of several rights that are lost...
Tom Mason Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
But many other things could be maintained in prison, if we think of open prisons—for example, the right to access newspapers and television and all sorts of things.
Tom Mason Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Some of my questions have already been answered, but I would like to know what is happening on the international scene. Who is doing what and where? Will you distinguish between the franchise to vote and the right to stand in elections, which we have not yet discussed very muc...
Tom Mason Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
What is the situation in places such as America and South America?
Tom Mason Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
What about standing for elections?
Tom Mason Con Committee
19 Sep 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
The issue of standing for election opens up a spectrum of issues.
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
03 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
The residential requirement is three months, and the proposal is that, if you are resident, you get a vote. Turning the thing on its head, if a person has been resident in Scotland and then moves away for work purposes, when do they deregister?
Tom Mason Con Committee
03 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
If somebody was resident and voted but then moved away to work—to London or somewhere else—for how long could they continue to vote in any election?
Tom Mason Con Committee
03 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
What is the definition of a permanent shift? A lot of people—including members of my family—did not get a vote in the referendum because they were working away from home.
Tom Mason Con Committee
03 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Where is that defined? How do you define it?
Tom Mason Con Committee
03 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Is that governed by case law? Who determines that?
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Do you anticipate any pushback on the proposals? Refugees and people who have the right to remain will have the right to vote and change Scottish law. If we were independent, that would include decisions about going to war. They will have the right to influence legislation tha...
Tom Mason Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Yes, but we are talking about people with different statuses. Those who are not Scottish citizens would not have anywhere else to go.
Tom Mason Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
I understand that, but how do you explain that to the Scottish citizens who cannot move out or go somewhere else?
Tom Mason Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
No, my questions are more about the timeframe.
Tom Mason Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
The bill will come into force for the 2021 election. If certain parts of it are ready before then, do you anticipate that they will come into force if there is a by-election before 2021, for example?
Tom Mason Con Committee
10 Oct 2019
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Conversely, if everything is not completed by 2021, will parts of it be put in place with the rest to follow, or will it all be put in place in one lump?
Tom Mason Con Committee
14 Nov 2019
Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill: Stage 1
Do you not think that a system of representation based on Scotland’s additional member system, in which there would be identification with a constituency, would work better for proportionality?
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
Amendments 17 and 18 seek to address an anomaly in relation to people who have residency in this country, as opposed to people who have citizenship. As the bill stands, individuals who arrive in the United Kingdom will, in a relatively short time, have the same franchise as th...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
As I said, the bill represents a change in the fundamental principles of voting in Scotland. Amendment 18 seeks to extend the time period for residency of a qualifying foreign national. At the moment, anybody who arrives here can establish their residency in as little as three...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
Amendment 19 seeks to bring the requirements for candidacy into line with the requirements for voting that are outlined in amendments 17 and 18. It is largely a technical amendment that does not raise any considerations in relation to qualification other than those that have a...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
I am fairly sympathetic to this in some ways. My biggest worry generally is the inconsistency of the age where people are seen as coming into adulthood—the age of legal competency and so on. My biggest worry here is that it is proposed as a change by regulation and not by pri...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
I am very sympathetic to the amendment. That payment happened a long time ago and people go back into politics for various reasons. We can never tell what will happen in the future. I, for one, have come back. If I had accepted that payment way back—not that it applied to me—I...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
Amendment 20 seeks to address an anomaly between UK general elections and Scottish parliamentary elections, in relation to overseas voting. Currently, a Scot who is living abroad can vote for their representative at UK level, provided that they have lived at home at some point...
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
I move amendment 20. I would like to hear what the cabinet secretary has to say.
Tom Mason Con Committee
16 Jan 2020
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 2
I heard what the cabinet secretary said. However, I will press my amendment, for the purpose of the record.
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
06 Feb 2020
Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill: Stage 1
Because elements of the bill relate to local government, I declare an interest as a councillor in Aberdeen City Council. The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee has been pleased to scrutinise the bill, and I am grateful to the minister for his response to ...
Tom Mason Con Chamber
12 Nov 2020
Portfolio Question Time · Covid-19 Restrictions (Tourism Sector Input)
The Scottish Conservatives have called for a business advisory council to give businesses the seat at the table that they have been asking for since this pandemic began. That council should almost certainly include representation from the Scottish tourism sector, which has bee...
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Committee

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee 12 September 2019

12 Sep 2019 · S5 · Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Item of business
Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill: Stage 1
Mason, Tom Con North East Scotland Watch on SPTV
I welcome the panel. The bill takes a radical approach with regard to giving voting rights for residency as opposed to citizenship and extending that right across the board to all comers, which goes way beyond the present Commonwealth and EU citizens. What are the panel’s views about that approach? What are the downsides? The witnesses from the refugee side have been very positive, but there are some negatives in there. There are always unintended consequences.

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
Agenda item 2 is evidence taking on the Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill. I am pleased to say that we are joined by Jen Ang, partner/di...
Jen Ang (JustRight Scotland)
Thank you so much for inviting JustRight Scotland to come and give evidence. I am here on behalf of our rethinking citizenship project, which is about buildi...
The Convener SNP
You can say a wee bit about that now and we will probably come back to it later. Perhaps you could give us a small taster of what you intend to say.
Jen Ang
Of course. I will highlight just two areas, the first of which relates to the restriction on the right to stand for election with respect to people who have ...
The Convener SNP
Thank you. We will come on to those issues, but it is useful to have an idea of the direction of your thinking. Would anyone else like to respond to my ques...
Andy Knox (Lanarkshire Community Law Centre)
I thank the committee very much for inviting me along. Lanarkshire Community Law Centre receives funding via Citizens Advice Scotland to assist European Uni...
Lorna Gledhill (Scottish Refugee Council)
Thank you—that is your third “thank you”—for having us here. I am from the Scottish Refugee Council. We work to support people who are seeking asylum and ref...
The Convener SNP
So you are looking at the significance of the bill in terms of citizenship and bringing the population together on these important issues.
Neil Findlay Lab
I want to pick up on your point about voting education, which is critical. When I was a councillor in West Lothian, we had a team that was involved in voting...
Lorna Gledhill
I can speak only about the sector in which I work. The organisations that support people who are refugees or in the asylum system are chronically underfunded...
Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) Green
Are there particular areas of Scotland in which there are well-developed partnership approaches between non-governmental organisations and councils to workin...
Lorna Gledhill
Due to the way in which asylum dispersal works, the large majority of people who have come through the asylum system are in Glasgow, and the way in which the...
Jen Ang
The Scottish Refugee Council’s focus is very much on asylum seekers and refugees, who are a subset of the larger group of people who migrate to Scotland. Wha...
Andy Knox
I think that the policy memorandum says that 65,000 nationals who are currently not entitled would have the franchise. I reaffirm Jen Ang’s observations abou...
The Convener SNP
Thank you for those insightful comments.
Maureen Watt (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP) SNP
I take your point that there is not the same access to legal advice, although citizens advice bureaux are pretty good in Aberdeen—I cannot speak for Invernes...
Andy Knox
The need is for advice about entitlement to register to vote. Sometimes, migrants fear engagement about the franchise and distrust the system. The bill will ...
Maureen Watt SNP
Okay; we will come back to that, I think.
Tom Mason (North East Scotland) (Con) Con
I welcome the panel. The bill takes a radical approach with regard to giving voting rights for residency as opposed to citizenship and extending that right a...
Jen Ang
You are right in thinking that, because of the context in which we work, I see the bill as overwhelmingly positive. It is important to remember that there is...
Andy Knox
From a purely technical perspective, there is an inherent tension between the provisions in the bill that seek to ensure that EU citizens will continue to ha...
Tom Mason Con
Do you see a difference between the franchise at local government level and the franchise at national level? Local government is a creature of statute of the...
Andy Knox
I could not comment on that. Jen?
Jen Ang
I suppose that I do not see a difference. Obviously, different powers are exercised between those levels, but there is a role in giving people a voice at bot...
The Convener SNP
Thank you very much for that good explanation. Maureen Watt has a couple of questions on the number of people who will be enfranchised by the bill’s provisi...
Maureen Watt SNP
Andy Knox mentioned the figure of 65,000 but, according to the 2011 census, the figure is 55,000. Given Brexit and everything else, we are not sure exactly w...
Andy Knox
I do not know, because I do not have any empirical data. I think that the latest national reported figures that we have come from the 2011 census. As an indi...
Maureen Watt SNP
Will it make a big difference if we base the number on the 2011 census? Do we need a more up-to-date figure?
Andy Knox
It would be useful to have a more up-to-date figure.
Lorna Gledhill
To clarify, my understanding is that the estimate in the bill documentation is 55,000 newly enfranchised voters, which would not necessarily include EU natio...