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Plenary, 06 Oct 2005

Meeting date: Thursday, October 6, 2005

Official Report 780KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My point of order is relevant to decision time. During my speech on the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Bill, I asked for a ruling from the Presiding Officer before we vote on the competency of the Scottish Executive's amendment, which misquotes and misrepresents the Enterprise and Culture Committee's report. The amendment states:

"the Enterprise and Culture Committee's Stage 1 report concludes that the Bill does not fulfil this purpose".

That is not the case at all. We said that the bill does not

"of itself achieve this purpose."

There is a big difference. Words matter, especially when some folk are at it. I request a ruling from you as to whether an amendment that is so factually inaccurate can be accepted as competent.

I am not going to make a ruling on who is at it, but I can certainly say that the clerks have given the matter that you raise considerable attention and study this afternoon. My ruling on the admissibility of the Executive's amendment, which you requested, is that the amendment does not contain any direct quotes from the committee's report and that, whatever differences of interpretation there may be about the committee's conclusions, there are no grounds not to admit the amendment under the admissibility criteria in the standing orders.