Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:30 pm on 7 October 2025.
Pauline McNeill
Labour
2:30,
7 October 2025
I reassure the Cabinet secretary and Liam Kerr that I do not intend to press Amendment 58 or move amendment 60. I just felt that we needed to flush out some of the issues. The Government and Liam Kerr have raised some of those issues, which is really helpful. The Government’s amendment 2 will achieve what I was trying to achieve, so I will be delighted to support it.
I am also pleased that the Government will support amendment 59, which states that the Lord President must set out the rationale for using the power. I welcome what the cabinet secretary said earlier about its use, because that is the important part to debate. The default will be physical attendance, but we need flexibility to allow vulnerable witnesses and people who are ill to attend the court virtually, and we know that that process works. All that I am ensuring is that we as legislators—we are not practitioners—close every possible gap.
The cabinet secretary was right to say that it is quite hard to consider who would test whether a connection was good enough. However, as I have said many times, I have sat through a custody court session in which the sheriff literally asked me to come to chambers and told me, “Look, this is what I have got to put up with. It is just an appalling quality.” That is where I am coming from.
I am reassured that the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has said that the technology is a work in progress, but we have to ensure as a Parliament that we reach a point at which it is satisfactory. It is capable of being so, but we need to ensure that it works regularly on that basis.
I intend to move amendment 59, but I will withdraw amendment 58, and I will not move amendment 60.
Amendment 58, by agreement, withdrawn.
Amendment 59 moved—[Pauline McNeill]—and agreed to.
Amendment 2 moved—[Angela Constance]—and agreed to.
Amendment 60 not moved.
After section 2
Amendment 1 moved—[Liam Kerr]—and agreed to.
Section 4—Digital productions
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
