Public 'should keep complaints about MSPs' service for elections'

Jim Dyer, the Scottish Parliament's Standards Commissioner, said voters could get rid of MSPs at election time if they did not like them, but should not be able to table formal complaints just because they did not agree with the way an MSP dealt with a problem.

Dr Dyer said some people had unrealistic expectations about what their MSP could achieve for them and, because of Holyrood's list system, they could go to one of several other MSPs if they were dissatisfied with the service of an individual.

He said: "Anybody who has dealt with complaints in any kind of public service knows there is always a small group of people who have an unreal sense of injustice about something. They have a very great difficulty in stepping back from it.

"They might range from people saying, 'I wrote to my MSP a month ago and I haven't had a reply', to people saying, 'My MSP has dealt with this for four years and now they are saying there is nothing more I can do about it'."

Dr Dyer stressed that he felt it should be a matter of principle that the service provided by an MSP should not be judged by a standards commissioner or even the Presiding Officer, who handles such complaints.

He said: "The appropriate place is at the ballot box and possibly, because of the list system used in the parliament, by party leaders."

Earlier, when he addressed Holyrood's standards committee, Dr Dyer said: "I'm not saying MSPs shouldn't be accessible and shouldn't conscientiously represent their constituents.

They are answerable to the electorate and I think the standards system should be reserved for issues of propriety and conduct, issues of transparency over financial interests and that sort of thing."

However, Graham Blount, of the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, told the committee

: " I don't think you can say (to a constituent who has a complaint about an MSP] that the next time there is an election then you know what you can do. There should be an avenue for complaint."

The standards committee will produce a report on the complaints procedure against MSPs. A decision on the way forward will then be made by parliament.