THE Scottish Parliament was set up to bring governance closer to the people and has rightly taken considerable pride in makings its business open and transparent.
However, it is all too easy for principles to be obscured in the processes of daily business.
This appears to be the case with corrections to mistakes at Holyrood. Guidance for MSPs states that, if they realise they have made an inaccurate statement, this should be corrected on the record immediately. If a significant error comes to light later, MSPs, including ministers, "should seek to make a statement in the chamber or committee at a later date". For more minor corrections, the guidance provides a number of ways to make the correction known including writing to the MSP who raised the matter, placing a copy in the library and copying correspondence to the Presiding Officer and other relevant MSPs.
As became clear last week, however, when Alex Salmond corrected the Official Report but no announcement was made about the alteration, a grey area seemed to emerge. The first problem is to decide whether an inaccuracy is significant and so merits a public statement in the chamber or is so minor as to simply require correction and notification to those with a known interest. Mr Salmond's error involved the number of people employed in renewable energy across Scotland. He had told MSPs the sector had produced 18,000 jobs but later corrected this to 11,000 in the Official Report, effectively designating it as a minor amendment.
Because the incorrect figure was to his political advantage, the unannounced correction left him open to a charge of deliberately failing to publicise it. This probably gained extra resonance from its timing. The mistake followed closely on the heels of an error about the level of college funding by Education Secretary Michael Russell, who later apologised to the parliament for the inaccuracy.
Opposition parties sought to make political capital of this, sparking counter charges from the SNP that opposition leaders had failed to correct mistakes of their own. This increasingly heated atmosphere takes Holyrood perilously close to the yah-boo politics it promised to eschew.
Fortunately this has been recognised as a warning light by Liz Smith, Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, and Tricia Marwick, the Presiding Officer. Following letters from both, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee is to review the transparency and understanding of the corrections process at its meeting next week. This is a welcome development.
There is an audit trail of corrections but that can only be followed if its existence is known. Unless indicated to MSPs and the general public corrections are liable to go unnoticed. That adds to the likelihood of inaccurate information continuing to be circulated, undermines trust in MSPs and potentially damages the reputation of the Scottish Parliament.
The Presiding Officer has provided an early opportunity to close what has been exposed as a loophole by making the guidance stronger and more specific. The committee must seize it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article