Public Petitions Committee, 15 Dec 2009

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Official Report 250KB pdf

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New Petitions (Notification)

The final agenda item is notification of new petitions, which was provided to us in advance. If we accept them, the appropriate petitions will be brought to the committee at its first meeting in the new year.

We have received notification of three new petitions, convener. I question the validity of the third, which calls on the Scottish Government to carry out enhanced disclosure checks on all candidates for public office. I do not disagree with the principle or the intention behind the petition, but I do not know whether the committee could take the matter forward. There are issues concerning the democratic rights of people in this country to seek election, although there are some restrictions on individuals. The petition also opens up the debate on enhanced disclosure being carried out by the Government, and where the information is stored and how it is used.

As I understand it, the petitioner is asking for enhanced disclosure checks to be carried out and for the Scottish Government to use that information for some purpose. The difficulty is in what the purpose of carrying out an enhanced disclosure check would be and what the Government would do with the information that was gathered. That could almost take us towards a Big Brother state, with the Government of the day carrying out enhanced disclosure checks and being able to use that information to debar people from seeking election to public office. Local authorities already carry out disclosure checks on newly elected members, so why is the petitioner asking for enhanced disclosure checks on those who seek election? Perhaps Fergus Cochrane has some further information on that.

I do not have a copy of the petition in front of me, but I recall that it concerns those who are seeking election. We looked at the provisions in the Scotland Act 1998 that deal with the disqualification of members. We also had a look at members' code of conduct, although that comes into effect when a person has been elected. I am happy to have another look at the petition and reflect on what John Wilson has said.

John Wilson has raised some legitimate issues. We can have another look at the petition and reassess its validity.

Over the course of the year, we have had 18 meetings, 15 of which have taken place in the Scottish Parliament building and three of which have taken place in outlying parts of Scotland—Easterhouse, Fraserburgh and Alness. We have debated 79 new petitions and 277 current petitions, and we have sent out 2,000 letters of inquiry—today's meeting has added to that number significantly. We have also lost a member of the committee—Bashir Ahmad is missed by us all. We acknowledge the contribution that he made as a committee member as well as the contributions that he made before he became an MSP on behalf of the areas that he represented.

It has been an eventful year, and we will have further journeys to make in the early part of the new year—we are still determining the locations. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 12 January at 2 pm. I wish everyone a peaceful and merry Christmas and new year.

Meeting closed at 16:35.