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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 23 December 2024
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Displaying 570 contributions

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Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

If the Electoral Commission and I had come to a conclusion on that at the end of yesterday’s meeting, we would have already enacted something to sort it. As we have already said in this conversation, there are a lot more variables in the scenario to consider. We need to get to the stage of making sure that we know that the data is correct. I have already spoken, as have colleagues here today, about anecdotal reasons why people will not register and about the inaccuracies in the data. All that I can do is assure you that my officials and I are working towards getting that information further forward.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

I am happy to work with the Electoral Commission, because all of us—politicians and the Electoral Commission—have responsibility for the issue. I am quite happy to work with the commission to find a way to get the detail and data that we need, so that we can break that down further and I can sit here in front of you and say, “This is the issue, and here is my solution.”

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

Ironically, for the past half hour, we have been discussing barriers to people being able to vote, and now we are talking about another barrier. I am still not convinced that the way forward is to use voter ID. Anecdotally, as an activist in the election, I was aware of a level of confusion among many voters as to how they were going to exercise their right to vote. However, I will bring in Iain Hockenhull to give you the details from the officials’ point of view.

09:15  

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

If I may be brutally honest, I have had conversations with special advisers in particular because the fact that special advisers are part of the problem with making progress has been noted in numerous reports. However, to be fair to them—you do not often hear people say that with regard to special advisers—there was a point when a lot of FOIs were coming in and there was no leadership in Government dealing with it. A request would float about the organisation for a while until it appeared on someone’s desk with 24 hours to go. That has changed, because we have case handlers who are constantly following up matters. It is as simple as saying, “That is your FOI for your directorate; you need to get that done.” We have managed to keep moving on that as well.

Special advisers probably do not get anywhere near as many FOIs as they did previously, because of some of the things that have been brought up in the report and because they are dealt with at Government level within the directorates and portfolios themselves. Things have moved on and we have taken on board many bits of advice. It comes back to me again. My conversations with the commissioner are to discuss when we come out of special measures and move forward, because we have created a system that is getting better as time goes on. As I mentioned, the commissioner said at a recent meeting that he thought that the Government was an example of an organisation that had struggled with FOIs but had turned that around.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

Well, I do not like to say that it is all about me—

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

Yes.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

I know that. Some of the things that have been said over the past couple of weeks about that seem strange to me because, in my time in Government, basically every decision has gone through the Government’s SCOTS information technology system on my Government laptop. If I have a meeting with Jill McPherson and I say, “You’ve given me three options. I’m taking option B,” she will send me an email that will say, “Minister, at our meeting, we had this discussion and you decided to go for option B. Is that still your thought?” That is a simplistic way of saying—Mr McKee, as a former Government minister, will back me up on this—that it ain’t going to happen if it’s no in the SCOTS system. Nothing will get done unless it is done in that way.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

It is funny, because one of the disagreements that you and I have had—for two and a half years—is about how we make Parliament—

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

Yes—and that tends to be in the process as well. Obviously, in the old days, we referred to a ministerial box. The minister used to go about with a box full of papers, but there is now an inbox. In effect, all that information will be captured digitally in the system. As I have said, it will go down to the meetings that we have had, the decisions that were made and the discussion. Those will be captured in the system.

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 23 November 2023

George Adam

As always, it is a case of personalities and individuals talking to one another and having a conversation as a starting point. You and I have done that on numerous occasions, and the convener and I have, too. Ivan McKee approached me about something not long ago, too. I am generally someone people can talk to or approach, and I am happy to encourage that as a starting point, so that we can then develop some ideas. You and I may find out that we disagree on some points, but we will find common ground, as always.