Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2021 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. I remind members who are joining us on BlueJeans to put an R in the chat function if they want to speak.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Does the committee agree to take in private item 4, which is consideration of its approach to standing orders rule changes, and item 5, which is consideration of the committee’s work programme?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 3 is an evidence-taking session on the Elections Bill. I welcome to the meeting George Adam, the Minister for Parliamentary Business, and his Scottish Government officials. Penny Curtis is deputy director in the elections and freedom of information division, and Iain Hockenhull is the Elections Bill team leader.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement on the legislative consent memorandum.

Thank you for those opening remarks. There are a number of areas of questioning that members will lead on according to their interests, but I will kick off by looking at the strategy and policy statement that is proposed for the Electoral Commission. You have already explained why the Scottish Government thinks that devolved elections should not be part of that. What discussions have you had with the UK Government on the proposed strategy and policy statement and can you share any outcome with us?

Excellent—thank you. Catriona, as you represent RNIB Scotland, will you comment on the experience of those with sight loss and sight reduction?

Thank you for that overview. Committee members will ask about the use of technology later in the meeting. I ask Ethan Young to comment on behalf on Inclusion Scotland.

Thank you. I am sure that we will explore that later. I hand over to Paul McLennan.

I ask Catriona Burness to come back in after the unfortunate experience with the information technology. You were asked about your confidence in the “reasonable” provision being put into the bill rather than a set of technologies that would assist.

Before anyone answers that, I will let Bob Doris ask the question that he wanted to ask, because I think that it will lead to the open discussion that Tess White is looking for and will allow the witnesses to contribute perhaps on a slightly wider point.

I think that we have lost Catriona Burness. We will give it a couple of seconds to see whether the feed comes back on.

I guess that it has not. We appear to have lost her, but I am sure that she will try to come back in. Does Ethan Young want to comment on that question?

Thank you. Alistair Clark has given evidence in which he states:

“This proposal has been widely criticised as eroding the independence of the Electoral Commission.”

Is there anything that you would like to add to that? I am thinking particularly about the lack of a voice for the devolved nations.