MSP corrections procedure examined

Dec 6 2012

A Holyrood committee will try to "sharpen" the procedure used by MSPs to correct any inaccurate statements.

Members of the Standards Committee are to examine the issue after the Presiding Officer admitted there is still confusion about the process brought in just over a year ago.

It comes in the wake of First Minister Alex Salmond being accused of trying to quietly change the official record of what was said inside the debating chamber. Committee convener Dave Thompson said: "We do need to look at the procedure just to try to sharpen it up a wee bit."

The mechanism by which an MSP can correct an incorrect statement, made in either the main chamber or one of the committees, was introduced in Holyrood in October last year.

When a correction is made to the official record the incorrect information remains on it, with the correction appearing beside it to indicate that the MSP concerned has identified the error. But Mr Thompson said it had "not been used very much so far" with about half a dozen corrections made in the past year.

The issues raised about the process were "mainly been about how a correction is publicised, rather that the fact that the correction mechanism exists", he said.

In a letter to the committee, Holyrood Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick said "recent comments from a number of members have highlighted that there remains some confusion on the process adopted". The committee should "look again at the current process, in terms of transparency and general understanding", she said.

Labour MSP Helen Eadie argued that if an MSP makes a "substantive" change to what they have said, Parliament should be alerted to it. "Where it's minor error, or a minor correction, I would have thought Parliament would accept it. But if it makes a substantive change to the whole message, then I do think that Parliament needs to have that flagged up to it," she said.

The committee will look at the issue after Conservative MSP Liz Smith accused Mr Salmond of having asked for a figure on the number of green energy jobs in Scotland to be corrected without widely publicising the change.

Last month the First Minister wrongly told Parliament that about 18,000 people were employed in renewable energy across Scotland when the total is closer to just 11,000, according to industry body Scottish Renewables. Ms Smith raised the issue with the Presiding Officer, asking her whether "it is acceptable for a member to amend a substantive point without notifying the Parliament in the usual manner".