S4M-10243 Hybrid Bills

The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick): The next items of business are consideration of two motions in the name of Stewart Stevenson, on behalf of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee.

The first of the two debates is on motion S4M-10243, on the committee’s report on “Hybrid Bills”.

16:56

Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): I am, of course, proud to have been the minister who introduced the Forth Crossing Bill, which was the first and only hybrid bill to have been considered by this Parliament. The rules for considering hybrid bills were added to standing orders in order to facilitate consideration of that bill, and were an amalgamation of the rules for public and private bills.

The Forth Crossing Bill was successfully passed, and work has now commenced on the Forth replacement crossing, which will be named the Queensferry crossing. When it had completed its work on the bill, the Forth Crossing Bill Committee helpfully produced a report that suggested improvements to the hybrid bill process. That has resulted in the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee recommending a number of relatively minor changes to those rules and to the corresponding rules for private bills. They include clarification of the role of the assessor and streamlining of the production of accompanying documents.

I commend the changes to members; the committee believes that they will improve the process for consideration of hybrid and private bills.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee’s 4th Report 2014 (Session 4), Hybrid Bills (SP Paper 513), and agrees that the changes to Standing Orders set out in Annexe A of the report be made with effect from 27 June 2014