Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, December 7, 2017

Official Report 304KB pdf

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Cross-party Groups

Agenda item 3 is for the committee to consider an annual update on cross-party groups’ compliance with the code of conduct. There are currently 94 cross-party groups, and members will see from the report that compliance with the code is very high. I invite members to comment on the report.

Ninety-four is a tremendous number of cross-party groups and shows that we engage with organisations and individuals. The report says that a number of cross-party groups are making slight infringements, but nothing too dramatic. Therefore, they should be commended on their achievement. We now have the opportunity to provide a bit more support and advice to the groups that need assistance on what they should and should not be doing.

This is a very good story. I am delighted that the majority of groups are complying with the code, fulfilling their roles and engaging with communities, individuals and organisations. That is vital when we have a CPG organisation such as we have in this Parliament.

I agree that no serious action is required. On a number of occasions, the committee has looked at the amount of external membership that some CPGs have. There is not a hard-and-fast rule about it, but we have been encouraging cross-party groups to cast their nets reasonably wide. I suggest that we write to those groups that still have a very low level of external membership and ask whether that is something that they are looking to address, and what actions they are taking.

I appreciate that the annual report is public as it is part of the papers for this meeting, but it might be helpful to share the report with the cross-party groups themselves. If they see the areas in which they are not performing as well as others, they might take action.

Having looked at some of the groups, I know that some have more members attending meetings than they are registering as external. It might be helpful to highlight that they could be more accurate and encourage those people who come to meetings to become formal members.

Does the committee agree, as Patrick Harvie suggests, to write to the conveners of cross-party groups about their external membership and encourage certain groups to increase that membership? Does the committee also agree to share the report with the conveners of cross-party groups, to highlight areas of better practice?

Members indicated agreement.

10:04 Meeting continued in private until 10:45.