Behind the Scenes: SPICe

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre or SPICe has a fairly straightforward objective. Simply put we are here to meet the Parliament’s needs for impartial research and information because only well informed MSPs can contribute fully to the governance of Scotland.

SPICe was established at the very beginning of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It was a unique situation; there are so few examples of establishing new parliamentary information services. We were deliberately not called a library because we wanted to present ourselves as a unified research and information team with one collection of stock. We were able to leave the weight of parliamentary traditions behind and build something truly fit for the 21st century.

My colleagues on the research side spend their days fully immersed in their specialist subjects or attending Committee meetings. MSPs, as political representatives and policy makers, are expected to understand, comment and legislate on a wide range of complex issues. There is now a wealth of information available, on almost any topic you care to imagine to help them in their task. Indeed there is too much information and it is often slanted towards a particular viewpoint. The researchers filter, analyse and repackage the material into a form which is accurate, impartial, balanced, current and importantly alive and readily usable by our Members.

I only came to SPICe very recently from a long career in law firm libraries and a foray into the public sector at HM Treasury and Scottish Enterprise. Working in SPICe is very challenging. The Parliament has a vibrant and positive atmosphere that values improvement. Team working is good. It is a fast moving environment which can be driven by what is happening in the news one day and gone tomorrow, it can be hard to keep up.

One aspect which took me by surprise, twice in the first week of my job to be precise, was the challenge of politicisation. Parliamentary information services are vulnerable to being brought into the political and public arena. Each of our 129 customers are independently-minded political animals who can and do quote our responses and words in public and on the record. And as parliamentary officials there is no public opportunity for reply even if we have been misquoted. Impartiality and objectivity are crucial elements of our work and it is a fascinating balancing act.

31 May 2007

The Bill Briefing: The Finance Bill

The country always listens with wrapped attention to the Chancellor's annual budget.  However after the expert analysis and newspaper comment has died down the Finance Bill, which will enact most of the budget measures, still has to pass through both houses. 

The Bill is firstly considered by a committee of the whole House.  This means that the Bill will be discussed in detail by all MPs present in the chamber; this procedure is normally reserved for finance bills and those of a controversial nature.  The Bill then moves to the Public Bill Committee, after this committee's consideration it will be briefly debated in the House of Lords, although peers do not have the power to make amendments to bills that deal with taxation.

The Conservatives tabled an amendment to stop the Bill receiving a second reading, on the grounds that it failed to equip the UK to compete in a globalised market, penalised enterprise, did nothing to tackle the pension crisis and was ineffective in the fight against climate change.  The amendment was defeated by 115 votes.  The Bill is currently being analysed in the Finance Bill Committee.

31 May 2007

What does a Presiding Officer do?

This month saw the election of Alex Fergusson as the third Presiding Officer of The Scottish Parliament.  The election for the Presiding Officer for this session was delayed.  One of the most important aspects of the Presiding Officers' role is impartiality, and as such they lose their right to vote in debates.  Because the election result was so close many parties did not want one of their MSPs to lose their vote and so discussion regarding the best person for the post took longer than in previous years.

The Presiding Officer is mostly seen chairing business within the chamber, keeping order and ruling on points of order.  However there is also a strong diplomatic element to the role.  The Presiding Officer will attend Royal functions,  speak about Scotland and its Parliament all over the world and receive foreign delegations and British dignitaries who visit the Parliament building.

As well as his duties chairing the chamber and promoting the parliament, the Presiding Officer is also head of the Corporate Body and the Parliamentary Bureau.  The Bureau meets weekly in private and decides on the business of the Parliament.  The Corporate Body essentially deals with the management of the Parliament, including staff.

The equivalent position in Westminster is called the Speaker and tradition dictates that he or she should be dragged reluctantly to the chair when they take up the post.  So far this has not been a tradition emulated in Scotland although Alex Fergusson may well have set the precedent.

31 May 2007

The European Briefing: The EU Russian Summit

While trade between the EU and Russia is currently at an all time high it is no longer possible to paper over the fast developing cracks in their relationship.  The bi-annual summit, which takes place between Heads of Government, was dominated by Russia's relations with new Member States.  Currently Moscow has imposed a ban on imports of Polish meat, in reply to which Poland states that it will veto any new EU-Russian partnership deal.  An argument with Estonia over the removal of a Soviet war memorial has lead to accusations of cyber terrorism on Moscow's part.  The detention of Gary Kasparov, former world chess champion turned dissident, at Moscow airport on the way to the summit also added a sour note to proceedings.  Vladimir Putin, the Russian president was reported to at times look visibly harassed.

Any possible healing of the rift between Russia and the EU is complicated by  eastern Europeans' suspicions of Germany, the current holder of the EU presidency, creating a deal with Russia over their heads.  The 10 central European and Balkan states, which gained EU membership in 2004, are all former Soviet satellites, and memories of Soviet rule are still fresh in people's minds.

Although both sides have claimed that they have made progress on non-controversial issues many commentators have seen the summit as a failure which ended with the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso stating that any Russian action against one EU Member State would be interpreted as action against the whole of the EU.

31 May 2007