Realising the Vision: a Parliament with a Purpose An audit of the first year of the Scottish Parliament Barry K. Winetrobe Funded by: October 2001 (c) 2001 Barry K Winetrobe Prepared for the Constitution Unit, UCL This is the final draft of this work, produced solely and entirely for submission to the commissioning body, The Constitution Unit, UCL. No other use may be made of it, or any part of it, without the prior written permission of the author. Executive Summary • Contrary to the conventional view that the Scottish Parliament was created by a clear, consistent policy process, its founding blueprint betrays a confused, contradictory variety of approaches to the Parliament’s role in devolved governance. The influence of UK politicians and officials ensured that the Parliament, as established, was firmly within the ‘Westminster model’ family, especially in its relationship with the Executive. • In the Parliament’s first year, it sought to reconcile these various visions and the reality of its inherited statutory rules. It has had to review and adapt many procedures and practices in the light of experience, while seeking to retain the basic operational structure of its initial Standing Orders. • The centrality of political party involvement and competition within the Parliament has ensured a more adversarial, less consensual parliament than was suggested by some of the more idealistic rhetoric of the ‘new politics’. The success of the Parliament has been in synthesising these two pressures to produce a lively and very productive assembly, embracing genuine debate and disagreement within an ethos of collegiality unknown at Westminster. • The committees exemplified this trend, even though they faced greater workload and resource pressures, particularly due to the volume of Executive legislation, than was anticipated. These constraints prevented them from exploiting as much of the innovative and participative working practices, or being as involved in the first budgetary process, as they would have wished. • The Chamber has become more central than originally foreseen, rather overshadowing the committees, at least in terms of media and public attention. The creation of a First Minister’s Question Time in January 2000 was a stark acknowledgement of this trend. • The Parliamentary Bureau has proved to be less an open, transparent and inclusive business committee model, and more a formalisation of Westminster-style ‘usual channels’ practice. The weighting voting system in the Bureau has consolidated the power of business managers and the Executive at the expense of MSPs as a whole. • While the Parliament continues to face up to the problems caused by its initial blueprint and the conflicting expectations of its operation, it - has successfully established itself as a permanent feature in Scottish governance, - is outgrowing these limitations and restraints, - can now develop genuinely innovative practices, and - is developing a more coherent, individual ethos. • An essential component of that success is that it has some form of underpinning vision to guide it. Unlike Westminster, it is genuinely a parliament with a purpose. 2 CONTENTS Executive Summary _____________________________________________________________________ 2 1. Introduction__________________________________________________________________________ 5 1.1. Scope of this Study_________________________________________________________________ 5 1.2. Measuring the performance of the Parliament__________________________________________ 7 1.3. Methodology______________________________________________________________________ 9 2. Planning the Parliament ______________________________________________________________ 11 2.1. Devising a parliament _____________________________________________________________ 11 2.2. The Scottish Constitutional Convention ______________________________________________ 12 2.3. The Crick-Millar proposals _________________________________________________________ 14 2.4. The Consultative Steering Group____________________________________________________ 15 2.5. The CSG Key Principles____________________________________________________________ 17 2.6. Establishing itself _________________________________________________________________ 20 3. Representing the people ______________________________________________________________ 23 3.1. The first general election ___________________________________________________________ 23 3.2. Representing the people ___________________________________________________________ 25 3.3. Representational practice and problems______________________________________________ 27 3.4. MSPs’ allowances _________________________________________________________________ 30 3.5. Relationships between constituency and regional MSPs ________________________________ 32 3.6. Lessons and prospects _____________________________________________________________ 36 4. Arranging the Parliament’s business ___________________________________________________ 39 4.1. Arrangement of Parliamentary business______________________________________________ 39 4.2. The role of the Presiding Officer ____________________________________________________ 41 4.3. The Parliamentary Bureau _________________________________________________________ 42 4.4. The normal pattern of business management _________________________________________ 45 4.5. The ownership of parliamentary time________________________________________________ 46 4.6. The Parliamentary timetable________________________________________________________ 48 5. Committees: the Parliament’s powerhouse ______________________________________________ 51 5.1. Introduction _____________________________________________________________________ 51 5.2. Establishment ____________________________________________________________________ 52 5.3. Composition _____________________________________________________________________ 54 5.4. Activity _________________________________________________________________________ 58 5.5. Information-gathering _____________________________________________________________ 63 5.6. Location and openness ____________________________________________________________ 63 5.7. Conclusion_______________________________________________________________________ 66 6. Shared business: legislation ___________________________________________________________ 70 6.1. Making laws _____________________________________________________________________ 70 6.2. The place of Executive law-making in the Parliament __________________________________ 72 6.3. Executive legislation in the first year_________________________________________________ 76 6.4. Members’ legislation ______________________________________________________________ 85 6.5. Legislative consultation and participation ____________________________________________ 90 3 6.6. Subordinate legislation ____________________________________________________________ 94 6.7. Law-making in the Parliament______________________________________________________ 96 7. Committee-driven business: scrutiny of devolved finance ________________________________ 99 7.1. Parliamentary scrutiny of financial issues ____________________________________________ 99 7.2. Legislating for the new financial procedures _________________________________________ 101 7.3. The budget process ______________________________________________________________ 102 7.4. Initial evaluation and prospects ____________________________________________________ 104 8. Committee-driven business: petitions _________________________________________________ 109 8.1. Petitioning: positive participation__________________________________________________ 109 8.2. Processes and practice ____________________________________________________________ 110 8.3. Operating the petitions process ____________________________________________________ 112 8.4. Initial evaluation_________________________________________________________________ 114 9. The Parliament in plenary: representing the people together _____________________________ 116 9.1. The role of the plenary meeting ____________________________________________________ 116 9.2. Making collective decisions _______________________________________________________ 117 9.3. Scrutiny and accountability _______________________________________________________ 122 9.4. Conclusion______________________________________________________________________ 130 10. Managing itself ____________________________________________________________________ 132 10.1. Introduction ___________________________________________________________________ 132 10.2. The legal basis of the Parliament __________________________________________________ 132 10.3. The SPCB and its staff ___________________________________________________________ 136 10.4. Review and reform of the Parliament’s procedures __________________________________ 138 10.5. Maintaining the Parliament’s standards ____________________________________________ 142 10.6. Conveners’ Liaison Group _______________________________________________________ 146 11. Realising the vision: innovative design _______________________________________________ 149 11.1. Introduction ___________________________________________________________________ 149 11.2. Cross-Party Groups _____________________________________________________________ 149 11.3. ‘Parliamentary Prayers’: Time for Reflection ________________________________________ 152 11.4. First Minister’s Questions ________________________________________________________ 154 12.