The next item of business is consideration of business motion S4M-07648, in the name of Joe FitzPatrick, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a revision to the business programme for today.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament agrees to the following revision to the programme of business for Tuesday 10 September 2013— after followed by Scottish Government Debate: Scotland’s Historic Environment, The Way Forward insert followed by Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Debate: Amendment to the Scottish Parliament Salaries Scheme—[Joe FitzPatrick]

I have to admit that I was a wee bit surprised that this amendment to the business motion was still going ahead and particularly that so little time is expected to be given to debate the detail of the change that is being proposed. I hope that the minister will be given an opportunity to explain in a little more depth why we are being asked to debate the issue at this time.

It is pretty clear that this solution would be on the list of the various possible solutions to an urgent situation—if one existed now. It is probably not the ideal solution, but all the others are impossible to implement with current powers or impossible to implement retrospectively. We should spend some further time resolving those two issues, particularly in light of correspondence from the Scotland Office, which appears willing to discuss alternative solutions, and possibly solutions that we would prefer to implement if the powers were given to us.

I hope that the minister will be able to explain in a bit more detail why we are being asked to treat this as though it is still an emergency situation when it no longer is.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Under standing orders, I can call only one member at this stage, so I now return to the minister.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body discussed issues around this debate at its meeting on Thursday and requested that a motion be lodged. The Parliamentary Bureau unanimously agreed that we should take this forward and have the motion on the agenda today, and it is therefore proposed to change today’s business to allow the debate to take place.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

The question is, that motion S4M-07648, in the name of Joe FitzPatrick, be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

There will be a division. As this is the first division of the afternoon, I suspend the meeting for five minutes.

14:05 Meeting suspended.

14:10 On resuming—

We move to a 30-second division on motion S4M-07648.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

The result of the division is: For 96, Against 5, Abstentions 1.

Motion agreed to,

That the Parliament agrees to the following revision to the programme of business for Tuesday 10 September 2013— after followed by Scottish Government Debate: Scotland’s Historic Environment, The Way Forward insert followed by Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Debate: Amendment to the Scottish Parliament Salaries Scheme