Chamber and committees

Mr Simpson, with the greatest respect, I can talk only about process in parliamentary business. Policy and other such things are not in my remit.

I want to be able to tell you exactly how many bills I am planning to work with, but the answer to whether I can do that is no. However, we are happy to have an on-going look at that to see where we can get to. The Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill might have made me a bit nervous because it seems to have taken forever, after I told everyone here a year ago that it was a bill that the committee was going to deal with. From the committee’s perspective, the bill is so technical that my hell will now be your hell when you are dealing with it. You should, as a committee, be careful what you wish for. The bill is coming to you and will be challenging for you to deal with. I do not for a moment doubt that you will deal with it, but it will be a challenge.

You never lose it, when you have been a salesperson.

If we do not share that part of the process, we can take note of that and make sure that it is included.

It would be best for me to get back to you in writing about that, so that I have time to take a proper look at the matter. I got the information about the order only this morning. Give me time to write to you about that.

On the whole, we do, although there is the odd occasion when such situations arise and we just need to move forward. It is entirely up to the committee to decide one way or the other when it discusses the matter after I have left.

I am suitably chastised.

I feel that I have already explained the Government’s position in that regard, but I always like to give good value, so I will ask Rachel Rayner to talk about what she would look at in going through that process.

Gordon, could you say something from the perspective of the work that you do?

As I said earlier, when the LCM comes in, a decision has to be made about how it affects us—the Scottish Government—and how we deal with the legislation. When we go through the whole process, we have to ensure that we have covered everything. I think that what you are asking about, Mr Kerr—indeed, you said it yourself—is whether there is a template that we can use to cut and paste every LCM, but what I and my officials have been trying to say is that there is no such template, because everything is different. Some things can be more complex than others, and sometimes the process is quite simple and there is no issue. Recently, though, issues have arisen more often than not, and we then have had to lay an SSI before the Scottish Parliament.