, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 8
And you talked about the rotating chair—not as in spinning around—but changing the chair of the FISC. You've chaired one of those sessions—what was your experience of doing that and, then, the experiences of the Scottish Government and the Treasury being able…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 8
You talked about the Heads of Devolved Governments Council. What does the engagement that you've had with the Westminster Government on that, or is that not really functioning that well, or not meeting that regularly—? Is it beholden on the Prime Minister to…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 8
Croeso cynnes—a warm welcome. We've got a lot of questions, but we're very grateful to you for the written evidence that you've already provided. It's been very, very useful. If we don't happen to get through all the questions that we have, we may write to…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 8
Welcome.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 8
Moving on to our first substantial item this morning, which is evidence session No. 8 on fiscal inter-governmental relations. Welcome, Cabinet Secretary, to the meeting. Could you introduce yourself and ask your officials to introduce themselves as well…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
On the papers to note, we'll note the letter that we've had, and we've had another letter as well. That was a late paper, but we'll note that on the record next time. The two letters are about petitions. I'd like to write back to the Petitions Committee to…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We'll move on, therefore, to the papers to note. We have one paper to note and there is one late letter that's come in, but we'll be noting that next time.
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
A warm welcome to this meeting of the Finance Committee. We have one apology to start—Rhianon Passmore is running a little late, but she'll be joining us in due course. Otherwise, everyone else is here and it's good to see you this morning. This meeting is…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
Thank you very much. Diolch, Chair.
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
That will be the new by-election process, effectively. Just finally, then, from me, if you decided—. We're going with the Jane Dodds example at the moment, but if you decided halfway through that petition and that process, and you thought, 'Actually, no, I'm…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
That's fine. And talking a little bit about the system that we will have and the closed lists, and we are of the same mind that we'd prefer an STV system, but we are where we are with that, should the by-election bit be—? Basically, the petition would be—. As…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
And was it 'yes' and 'no' for that, or was it just the one vote to say, 'Yes, recall'?
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
So, you wouldn't have known that you'd got to 19 per cent earlier.
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
Okay. And, just looking at—. You said, again, that 10 per cent was the threshold to call a by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire, but you got to 19 per cent, should they have stopped after 10?
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
And, from your experience in Brecon and Radnorshire, when the process was happening there, you talked earlier about six weeks being a very long time, finding that balance—you seemed to indicate that it should be a shorter period of time. Given your last…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
And, assuming that we've agreed that these are the triggers, that the standards committee, or whoever, has decided, looking at the evidence, that those triggers have been met, there's been a report to the Senedd, the Senedd has voted to agree that report, and…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 9
Diolch, Cadeirydd. Just stepping back slightly to the question before last around custodial sentences, what if somebody was protesting and it was on a matter of conscience, not paying a fine or something? We've seen lots of examples of that. Would you still…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 8
A final question from me, Chair, if that's okay. The way that it's drafted currently allows for the Member, once they're aware that it is a false statement or the fact has been proved to be wrong, to be able to put the record straight within 14 days. So, that…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 8
And in looking through some of that documentation and in reading the papers before today, do any of those international examples jump out at you as something that we could adopt parts of, or something that you read in there that was particularly useful that…
, Standards of Conduct Committee
Inquiry into Individual Member Accountability: Evidence Session 8
Good morning, and thank you very much for your time this morning. In your deliberations there and in coming to some of your conclusions, obviously, you've read the drafting. Have you drawn on any international comparators or anywhere where this has been used…
, Finance Committee
Motion under Standing Order 17.42(ix) to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting
Under Standing Order 17.42(ix), I'll decide now to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting. Is everyone content? Yes. Thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 7
Thank you very much, Ed. It's always a pleasure to have you here. Thank you very much for attending today. There will be a transcript of the session sent to you for you to check that for factual accuracy.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 7
Well, thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 7
But it allows for those regional voices to come through, because you need that regional voice of that regional party, I suppose, to be able to hold that coalition together.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 7
But in places like Italy, you've got multiparty, rather than, in Westminster, it is red and blue and a few of the others, so it tends to be much more of an adversarial two-party state, rather than a—. When we were talking about America, then it certainly is a…
