In its first report, the Procedures Committee has produced a draft set of standing orders which will be debated by the full Parliament on December 9 (10.30am) and if accepted, will be adopted as the new ‘rules’ relating to Parliamentary business.

The new document would replace the present standing orders which were conferred upon the Parliament by a UK Statutory Instrument.

The Committee’s convener, Murray Tosh MSP, welcomed the publication and believed that the report and draft standing orders would lead to an overall improvement in the smooth operation of parliamentary business. He said:

"This report is the outcome of a lot of hard work on the part of committee members and parliamentary officials. It gives the Parliament the opportunity to adopt its own standing orders and, as such, marks another historic milestone in the development of the Parliament. As a committee, we were required to place a draft set of standing orders before the Parliament by May next year. We have succeeded in doing this five months early.

"It is hoped that this report will iron out the most urgent of the procedural difficulties which have been identified in the early days of the Parliament, such as the ability of single-member parties to initiate debate and the apparently ‘restrictive’ remits of some committees.

"Perhaps the most obvious changes we propose are to Question Time. Though the committee feels that, after a patchy start, Question Time is improving, it has agreed with the views of – among others - the First Minister and leaders of the Conservative and SNP parties, that some adjustment was required.

"The Committee now propose that the current 45 minutes set aside each Thursday be extended to one hour. The first 40 minutes will be a Ministerial Question Time, with supplementaries allowed from any Member. The last 20 minutes will be specifically questions to the First Minister. In order to aid topicality, the deadline for lodging First Minister’s Questions will be shortened from eight days to three and up to six questions will now be picked instead of three.

"The introduction of a First Minister’s Question Time is intended to address concern among Members that a key element of accountability should be the ability of Members to question the First Minister on a weekly basis. Indeed, this is a view that was expressed by the First Minister himself in the summer. If Parliament agrees, the new-style Question Time should be seen for the first time on January 13."

The standing orders provide the rules of debate in both the Parliamentary Chamber and Parliamentary Committees. It is expected that these rules will continue to evolve as the Parliament develops.

The Procedures Committee will have a key role in continuing to monitor the performance of the standing orders and parliamentary procedure generally across all areas of parliamentary business.

BACKGROUND NOTES

The document ‘First Report of the Procedures Committee: Proposed Standing Orders of the Scottish Parliament’ has been prepared by the Procedures Committee.

It is available on the Parliament’s web-site – www.scottish.parliament.uk – in the What’s Happening and Parliamentary Business (committees) sections.