UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 21 March 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Michael Russell Michael Russell Scottish National Party

A genuine difficulty has arisen for Mr Greene. As he said, his amendment 62 relates to the reporting requirements in the bill. At stage 2, there was a range of proposals on reporting, including one from Mr Golden. It was accepted at stage 2 that we would endeavour to bring together those reporting requirements so that the bill would work better. As I understand it, given the fast-developing situation this afternoon, there are two problems that Mr Greene has identified. First, he is concerned that his amendment 62 does not cover the identification of reporting and the number of deficiencies being provided in advance, as his original amendment did at stage 2. I am happy to give a commitment on the record that that information will be provided in advance.

Until a few moments ago, I had hoped that that would be sufficient to address Mr Greene’s concerns. However, I understand that there is now another objection in that, as he said, his amendment 62 would remove section 36A, which calls for a general review of the act. I want to see whether I can help with that problem, too. It is up to any committee to review any act and, in this case, I would expect the Finance and Constitution Committee, for example, to be willing to review the eventual act. If one of Mr Greene’s two possible objections is about the number of deficiencies that are identified in advance, I will commit to the information about those deficiencies being provided in advance—there would be no difficulty in doing that. If the other issue is about there being no specific mention of a review, I would be very happy—although I cannot tell parliamentary committees what to do—to encourage a review of the eventual act by the Finance and Constitution Committee or any other committee at an appropriate time. Clearly, that is because I would like to keep reviewing the issues of Brexit.

In all those circumstances, amendments 43 and 62 would create a cogent and coherent system of reporting. That is why we wanted to make a change and why we agreed to have negotiations. I do not know how it happened, but it is clear that at some stage Mr Greene has lodged amendments that he now disagrees with. That happens, but I think that what my amendments propose is the best way forward and I therefore wish to move them.