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Scotland Bill

I welcome you back to the chair, Ms Primarolo. I hope that, unlike the hon. Member for East Lothian (Fiona O'Donnell), you did not have a sleepless night in anticipation of the debate. Given the level of interest that has been expressed, the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr Donohoe) has clearly done the Committee a service by promoting a debate on these issues. Let me say at the outset that the Government will not support the new clauses, principally because we believe that a fundamental part of the devolution settlement that was voted for in the 1997 referendum was the agreement that the Scottish Parliament should be elected on a proportional basis. There is a range of debates to be had on issues relating to proportionality, and some of those issues have emerged this afternoon, but it is clear that a fundamental aspect of the Scottish Parliament is that it is a proportionally elected institution. I must confess that during my time in the Scottish Parliament I was a regional list Member. Therefore, I must defend that cadre. Many Members from all the main political parties in Scotland have served with distinction as regional list Members, including Peter Peacock, who served on the Scotland Bill Committee, and Lord Foulkes, who was mentioned in our debate yesterday. We should not accept any general diminution of their contribution to the Scottish Parliament, as they have played their roles. It was clear from the start of the Parliament that the role of list Members had not been fully thought through. I was interested to hear it suggested earlier in our debate that there had been a vision for the role of list Members in 1999, because when the Scottish Parliament convened it was not clear that there was a specific job description. Over time, that role has emerged. There have been various initiatives to set out the responsibilities of constituency and list Members, including the Reid principles of the former presiding officer, George Reid. The Government believe that the Scottish Parliament should regulate the relationships between Members of the Scottish Parliament, and that it is not appropriate for this Parliament to regulate those arrangements. That is why we cannot support new clause 2, which seeks for this Parliament to set the financial constraints to be placed on Members who do not abide by such rules. An example was cited of a regional Member of the Scottish Parliament who is said to have breached the rules, but it can also be said that a process was followed, a complaint was made, and the presiding officer has dealt with it, and that therefore there is no evidence to support the view that the Scottish Parliament is not capable of making its own rules and arrangements for the regulation of MSPs. I was interested in many of the comments about Members standing on both regional lists and in constituencies, and the hon. Member for Angus (Mr Weir) highlighted a number of examples from within the Labour party. In 2006, I witnessed the passage of the Government of Wales Bill, when the then Labour Government argued that legislation must be put in place in Wales to prohibit candidates standing both on the list and in constituencies. Interestingly, such proposals were never brought forward in relation to Scotland, and shortly thereafter Labour changed its internal party rules to allow the same candidate to stand both on the list and for a constituency. We now see that a number of sitting MSPs are moving to stand on the list, so if they fail to be re-elected by one route, they have every chance of being re-elected on the regional list.