Committee News Release
03/2003
Friday 29 August, 2003
PROCEDURES COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS CHANGES TO FIRST MINISTER’S QUESTION TIME
First Minister’s Question Time (FMQT) should be extended to 30 minutes and should not have to follow Question Time. These two recommendations from a report published today by the Procedures Committee will, subject to agreement by Parliament, pave the way for a trial period of FMQT moving to 12 noon on Thursdays.
Convener of the Committee, Iain Smith said:
“It was clear to our Committee that increasing the time available for First Minister’s Question Time by ten minutes is widely supported. Two of the expected benefits are that this will better enable to Presiding Officer to ensure a fair balance in the allocation of questions and supplementaries and that it will enable more of the six selected questions to be taken.
“However, whilst most who responded to our questionnaire agreed that FMQT should not have to immediately follow Question Time, there was less agreement about exactly when FMQT should happen. Our Committee has therefore proposed a trial period of at least a few months for FMQT to move to 12 noon on Thursdays.”
He continued:
“We believe that regularity within the Parliamentary week is very important. The timetable does, after all, impact on school visits, broadcasters as well as on MSPs. We intend to review the results of the change after Christmas.”
The report published today follows 2 months of evidence taking and information gathering, including questionnaire submissions representing the views of 57 MSPs, 11 journalists and 19 other individuals.
Parliament is scheduled to debate the Committee’s report on Wednesday 3 September from 4.30-5.00pm. If the full Parliament endorses the report at Decision Time on 3 September, it should be possible for FMQT to be scheduled in accordance with the revised rules for Thursday 11 September.
The Committee’s report also makes reference to the wider inquiry on oral questioning they are now undertaking and they reserve the right to revisit recommendations in light of any new findings.
Background
Parliamentary business timetabling is a matter for the Bureau to recommend, and the Parliament to agree via the regular Business Motions that propose the timetable for Chamber Business.
Key Statistics
94 per cent of those who responded to the questionnaire agreed with the suggestion of extending FMQT from 20 minutes to 30 minutes each week.
During the first session, the fifth selected question for FMQT was reached only on 65% of occasions, with the sixth question reached on only 21 per cent of occasions.
83 per cent of questionnaire respondents wanted to see FMQT detached from Question Time.
49 per cent of respondents wanted to see FMQT moved to 12 noon on Thursdays, with 36 per cent against and 15 per cent undecided.
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