TWELFTH REPORT
The Committee on Standards and Privileges has
agreed to the following Report:
REMUNERATED EMPLOYMENT AS
A MEMBER OF ANOTHER ELECTED BODY
1. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has
reminded us that the rules of the House on the registration of
interests require Members who have been elected to the Scottish
Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Northern Ireland
Assembly to register their membership under Category 2 (Remunerated
Employment, Office, Profession, etc.). All those Members who are
required to register have now done so.
2. Any financial interest which requires to be registered
falls within the scope of the advocacy rule. A Member of the House
who is also a member of the Scottish Parliament (for example)
is thereby precluded from initiating any parliamentary proceeding
which relates "specifically and directly to the affairs and
interests" of the Scottish Parliament; and in participating
in a proceeding initiated by another Member he or she may not
"seek to confer benefit exclusively" upon the Scottish
Parliament.
3. We consider that no useful purpose is served by
applying the advocacy rule so as to restrict the participation
of Members with a dual mandate in proceedings in which any other
Member representing a Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland seat
could take part without such constraint. We believe that the same
considerations apply to Members who are members of the European
Parliament or receive remuneration as members of a local authority
in the United Kingdom (and who are also required to register their
membership). In all these cases membership of the body in question
results from a democratic election and is a matter of public record.
4. Accordingly we recommend that paragraphs 58.1
and 58.2 of the Guide to the Rules be amended so that, in the
case of a Member who is also a member of the Scottish Parliament,
the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly,
the European Parliament, or any local authority in the United
Kingdom, the expression "a body (or individual) outside Parliament"
does not include that body. The restrictions imposed by the advocacy
rule will therefore not apply in such cases.
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