Plenary, 01 Jul 2004
Meeting date: Thursday, July 1, 2004
Official Report
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Presiding Officer's Ruling
I have reflected on the run of points of order that I had this afternoon and I will deal with them now.
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has a democratic mandate. It is elected by members to make decisions on your behalf. It makes hundreds of decisions a month. If they had to be taken individually on the floor of the Parliament each time, we would have time for nothing else. The SPCB is entrusted to make those decisions and I believe that it has the trust of Parliament. Members regularly consult informally, as I do, on a range of issues. I am perfectly confident that, on the issue of access to Holyrood, there is preponderant support for the position of the SPCB.
I will repeat what I said earlier: access to the chamber, to committees, to the petition process and to members is, and always will be, absolutely free and in accordance with the principles of this Parliament. Tours provided by the education service remain absolutely free. Most important of all, tours conducted by members throughout the complex are absolutely free.
However, apart from being a working Parliament, the building is also a work of art, and there will be those who want that to be specifically explained to them. That means professional guides and, of course, they cost money. That is why we charge only to break even. Otherwise, that facility would have to be subsidised at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
I hope that that is absolutely clear, and I have arranged for a note to be placed at the back of the chamber that spells out the arrangements in some detail.
On a point of order, Presiding Officer.
You cannot make a point of order in the middle of a statement by the Presiding Officer.
I am sorry.
I will now respond to the second point, which was part of Mrs MacDonald's point of order. I suspended this morning's meeting of Parliament under rule 7.4.1(e) of standing orders, which says:
"The Presiding Officer may, if he or she considers it appropriate, suspend a meeting of the Parliament".
I think that there was a preponderance of support for the position that I have just explained and I intend to move on.
The last bang of the gavel. The last decision time. The last day on the Mound. Later this month, we start Scotland's biggest ever flitting. Staff will be moving down the Royal Mile at the end of July and members will follow a month later. We meet in Holyrood for the first time in September, with our new home being opened by the Queen in October. It will not be a building site; as the Auditor General said in his report this week, it will be a building of real quality that will meet the aspirations of the people of Scotland.
It is up to all of us in the chamber to rise to those aspirations. It is not buildings that make a Parliament but the men and women who are elected to represent the people. Holyrood will succeed to the clarity of our vision, the depth of our scrutiny and the quality of our argument.
Have a good break and come back focused on building a better Scotland.