Seòmar agus comataidhean

Under item 3 the committee will take evidence on subordinate legislation. I welcome Tom Arthur, Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, and his officials John St Clair and Ian Thomson, who join us remotely. I invite the minister to make an opening statement.

The code relates specifically to members of public bodies. You talked about the code of conduct for councillors. I will express my point as a concern. Surely there is no need to have identical codes for councillors and members of public bodies because the institutions and responsibilities are different. Are you confident that the code for members of public bodies reflects the unique nature of the bodies on which they serve and to which they answer, rather than just repeating the councillors’ code and retitling it?

The question is, that motion S6M-01125 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

Edward, do you have a comment on that?

Thank you for that, minister. Before I come to the first set of questions, I remind everyone that the microphones are operated by broadcasting, so we do not need to press any buttons or ensure that anything is on. It will all be taken care of. I will also indicate who is going to speak to ensure that broadcasting knows who is next.

Once again, I thank Tom Arthur for his short introductory remarks. A couple of questions arise from them, and I will take them in reverse order from the way in which they had originally been laid out.

The code has been around for a while. Why was it felt that amendments were needed at this stage and not earlier or later? Does this form part of a rolling programme of regular reviews of the code?

The result of the division is: For 3, Against 0, Abstentions 2.

Motion agreed to.

Do members agree to formally recognise the CPG on medicinal cannabis?

Members indicated agreement.

I am grateful for that. We now move into private session for agenda item 7.

It very much does, Tom. It is reassuring that every public body needs to consider the matter and base its code on the model code. I assume that, if there were a drift away from the model code, you would expect an explanation of why an item had been omitted.

Edward Mountain has some questions about the code. Minister, if someone on your team is better placed to answer, we are fine with hearing evidence from them.