Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Official Report 1038KB pdf

Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. On 8 October last year, I wrote to the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity to ask simple questions about the proposed deposit return scheme. Although there has been acknowledgement of receipt of my letter, there has been no response from the minister for more than three months.

Businesses, councils and the public are being kept in the dark about the scheme. The scheme has been delayed twice, the contracts have been hidden from the public and there is no word on start-up costs, risk to public finances or possible job losses at councils.

Presiding Officer, I seek your guidance on how we can ensure that ministers respond in a timely manner to provide answers that are very much in the public interest.

Thank you, Mr Golden. You might be aware that matters relating to ministerial correspondence are not points of order.

However, in relation to the avenues that are available to members to scrutinise the Government, there are a range of options of which you will be aware, whether in the chamber, during committee meetings or through written questions. It is, of course, a matter for each member to consider which of those options they wish to use.