– in the Scottish Parliament at on 18 January 2018.
6. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland’s campaign, get it minuted. (S5F-01925)
The Scottish Government is fully committed to openness and transparency. I agree with the campaign’s view on the importance of ensuring that appropriate records of business are taken. When meetings involving ministers meet the criteria that are set out in the civil service guidance, appropriate records are routinely taken.
In my hand, I have a list compiled by STV journalist Aidan Kerr of 40 unminuted ministerial meetings and counting. The widespread practice of failure to record must end, so I commend the get it minuted campaign, which is simply asking that agendas, notes and minutes of Scottish Government meetings are held.
When asked earlier about the unminuted meeting with the former chair of the Scottish Police Authority, the First Minister told Parliament that she is fine with the way in which the justice secretary is conducting Government business.
Sticking with justice, the First Minister’s official Paul Johnston met the chief constable on 30 November. Was that meeting also unminuted? If so, does the First Minister accept that such practice is not only a bad look but simply wrong? Will she make a commitment today that from now on all important Government meetings will be minuted?
I will make a commitment that we will continue to ensure that the guidance for civil servants about keeping minutes is complied with. I believe that that guidance is publicly available for any member to look at.
This Government has done more to put more information into the public domain than any previous Administration. For example, under previous Administrations, it was not the practice to proactively publish details of meetings and travel. We now do that. We will continue to ensure that the guidance is complied with and of course that ministers are properly accountable to this Parliament.
It was suggested earlier that no minutes were taken when the justice secretary met the SPA to discuss the chief constable because it was just a mere “chat”. However, we checked meeting room bookings, which show that to have that “chat”, the justice secretary went to the trouble of booking an eight-person meeting room for two hours.
The Presiding Officer:
Let us hear the question, please.
Is it general Government policy not—[
Interruption
.]
The Presiding Officer:
Let us hear the question, please.
Is it general Government policy not to minute eight-person two-hour meetings on the fate of senior public servants, or would a minister have to specifically request that no minutes are taken?
I was not at the meeting, but I am hearing from the justice secretary that the meeting that we are talking about took place in his office, so I am not entirely sure what on earth Liam Kerr is talking about. If Liam Kerr wants to come back to the chamber at some point and ask a coherent question that I can understand, I will do my best to answer it.