Committee News Release
CPROC04/2003
Monday 22 December 2003
PROCEDURES COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS NEW FORMAT FOR QUESTION TIME
Proposals for a new format for Question Time have been published today by the Scottish Parliament’s Procedures Committee. If the full Parliament agrees to the proposals, Question Time will be extended to one hour, and could involve an earlier start to the afternoon’s business.
The Committee is recommending Question Time changes to include around 40 minutes of in-depth scrutiny covering three or four Executive departments on a rota basis that covers all Ministers once every 3 weeks. The remaining 20 minutes would consist of questions to all other Ministers, as currently happens.
Convener of the Committee, Iain Smith said:
“Our proposals would enable Members to question that week’s Ministers in greater depth than is possible at present, while still ensuring that topical issues can always be aired.
“Our Committee believes that the proposed changes would keep the best elements of what is right with the current system, but allow the Parliament to experiment with different styles of questioning with a view to improving the scrutiny work of the Parliament.”
The report outlines that under the new system, each week’s Question Time will involve two out of six Ministerial-based subject areas (or “themes”), together with 20 minutes of general questioning. Members will be able to lodge separate questions for each of the week’s ‘subject areas’ as well as for the general element. The subject areas proposed by the Executive in the report are:
- Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning (Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning; Minister for Transport)
- Education, Tourism, Culture and Sport (Minister for Education and Young People; Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport)
- Justice and Law Officers (Minister for Justice; Lord Advocate and Solicitor General)
- Environment and Rural Development (Minister for Environment and Rural Development)
- Finance and Communities (Minister for Finance and Public Services; Minister for Communities)
- Health and Community Care (Minister for Health and Community Care)
If Parliament agrees to a trial, the Committee has agreed to analyse the results and report to the Parliament before the Summer recess. This would enable a fully operational system for oral questions (First Minister’s Question Time and Question Time) to be in place before the Parliament moves to Holyrood.
The Report makes a number of other recommendations about aspects of oral questioning, including changes to allow members of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to be questioned in the Chamber.
The Committee’s inquiry also considered First Minister’s Question Time, but the Report makes no major recommendations for change. The Committee is committed to reviewing early in the New Year the changes it recommended to the duration and timing of FMQT in an earlier report. That review is also expected to involve a recommendation as to when the new format of Question Time should take place.
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.
A wide range of participants gave evidence during the inquiry and this is published in the report’s Annex. This includes:
- oral evidence at committee meetings including the Presiding Officer and Party representatives
- questionnaires issued to all MSPs
- questionnaires issued to members of the public in the public gallery of the Chamber
- civic participation with six community groups from across
Scotland who subsequently provided written submissions after visiting
the Parliament
to see FMQT and QT on 30 October and 6 November.
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