Scottish Election 2021: Call for US-style hearings for top public appointees

A major reform of the Scottish Parliament, including changing the voting system and introducing a US-style hearing system for senior public appointments, should be brought in to ensure Holyrood can effectively challenge and scrutinise the Scottish Government, Willie Rennie has said.
Willie Rennie is proposing a number of radical changes to how Parliament operates.Willie Rennie is proposing a number of radical changes to how Parliament operates.
Willie Rennie is proposing a number of radical changes to how Parliament operates.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader said his party wanted to improve the operation of Scottish politics to “make it work better for people, and address emerging problems in the balance between the elected parliament and the government”.

A raft of proposals would see changing the way Parliament is elected, a return to four-year parliamentary terms, the introduction of a recall system for all MSPs, and a new rule of “Contempt of Parliament” to “ensure minority governments cannot act as if they have a majority, “with Parliament, not ministers having the final say.”

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In a major departure to current procedures, he said top public officials, including the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government, should be appointed by hearings conducted by MSPs rather than by the government.

The position of Auditor General was hailed as one of the most independent public offices in Scotland, he said, as a result of being appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Scottish Parliament and it could set an example for more independent appointments in other areas including education and policing.

"We’ve been in favour of Parliament having the right to appoint more senior people, like the American style hearings.” he said.

“You want to separate inspect functions from policy functions, for instance in Education Scotland, but also to give additional powers of authority to be independent in the same way the Auditor General is, so they are not subject to pressure from government in the way they are just now.”

Asked if that included the most senior civil service post of Permanent Secretary, he added: “It is one of the options we’re looking at. It would be a dramatic change but we believe it needs to happen to give greater accountability and scrutiny of civil servants.

“There would be hearings, the government would still have the right to propose someone, but they would have to get the approval of Parliament. We would have to work out where that line is, but we’ve always been in favour of Parliament having greater control directly over the functioning of the executive.”

There has been mounting concern among a number of MSPs at the Scottish Parliament’s apparent inability to hold the Scottish Government to account, with votes for the release of report and legal advice in recent months, being ignored by the executive.

Scottish Labour has also said major reform of the Parliament and its functions is needed to ensure MSPs can hold the government to account.

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Mr Rennie said his party would be willing to work with Scottish Labour on a Member’s Bill to introduce a recall system which would allow voters to “get rid” of MSPs, including those elected on regional lists. There had been pressure for reform in the wake of the Derek Mackay scandal as neither the SNP or the Parliament could stop the disgraced former minister from continuing to sit as an independent.

Under the current Holyrood rules, MSPs can only be recalled if they are given a jail sentence of 12 months or more.

Mr Rennie said: "That’s one of the options we’re looking at for the next Parliament. After the Mark McDonald issue we got parties to agree to a cross-party meeting to try and take the others with us, because there was an interest in exploring it, but we soon discovered it wasn’t that genuine.

"Now we need to consider if a Member’s Bill is the way to pursue that and with Anas on side there is a potential for us to work together on making that happen.”

He said he would also work with other parties to further a “culture of respect inside Holyrood” and use the experience of remote working in the pandemic to make the Parliament more flexible and family-friendly.

MSPs he said “need more training, there’s no doubt” in being good employers. “Some of the practices they bring in are not satisfactory and that feeds through to staff members. Staff would benefit from induction courses –everyone should be able to benefit from best practice – but ultimately it’s the MSPs who need it.”

He said the failures exposed by the inquiry into harassment of female civil servants, should see the establishment a new complaints process within the civil service, with a strong external element, to give confidence to those wishing to make a complaint against ministers.

In terms of the electoral system he said his party wanted to see the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) at Holyrood elections, which would do away with the current system of a vote for a constituency MSP and then another for an additional member on a regional basis.

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Instead STV would introduce multi-member constituencies where voters would rank candidates. which he believed would be more representational of voters wishes – and stop smaller parties “gaming” the current list system.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats, he said, would also aim to “strengthen and expand the public’s right to information” he said, by expanding Freedom of Information rules to organisations and companies which provide government services, as well as introducing a new “duty to record” so that the public can access accounts of important ministerial meetings and decision-making processes.

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