Part of Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 – in the Scottish Parliament at 3:30 pm on 21 June 2000.
The general principle to which the Local Government Committee aspired was that all public bodies should, as far as possible, be covered by the code of conduct. The only disagreement in the committee concerned the way in which the names of many bodies were produced almost as a list, without their having been properly consulted. As the minister has pointed out, there are difficulties in applying the code to some of those bodies because of the legislation that governs them in other areas.
The Parliament should welcome the fact that, at every stage of the bill, the number of the bodies to which it applies has been increased. As the minister indicated, he has now added area tourist boards and the boards of further education colleges to the list of bodies that come under the bill. He has also given a strong commitment to examine ways of including as many other bodies as possible. The Parliament should recognise that the bill now covers the vast majority of public bodies in Scotland and their expenditure. We should unite behind that position and accept the minister's word that he will examine every possible way of enhancing the scope of the bill in future.