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7. MINISTERS' CONSTITUENCY AND PARTY INTERESTS
Use of Government Property
7.1 It is wrong in principle for Ministers to use for constituency or party work facilities provided at public expense to enable them to carry out their official, Ministerial, duties. This point of principle is reflected in the entitlement of Ministers to a Parliamentary salary in recognition of the time spent in attending to the interests of their electorate, to the payment of secretarial allowances and to the reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses incurred when attending to electorate business, within the limits prescribed by the Parliament. Ministers should thus have their electorate work done at their own expense, as they would if they were Members of the Parliament who did not hold Ministerial office.
7.2 Government property should not generally be used for constituency work or Party activities. An exception is where a building has been designated by the First Minister as an official residence. However, where Ministers host Party events in an official residence, it should be at their own or Party expense with no cost falling on the public purse. The same principle should apply if, in exceptional circumstances, and following consultation with the Permanent Secretary, another Government property is used to host a Party event.
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Cases
7.3 Ministers who are asked by members of the public to submit cases to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman ( SPSO) should, where possible, act no differently from non-Ministerial MSPs. Ministers should accordingly consider requests on their merits in deciding whether to refer complaints to the SPSO, or to take them up with the relevant Minister, or to decline to take action. Where the complainant is not from the Minister's constituency or region, the Minister may want to refer the case to a MSP who represents the relevant constituency or region. Any Minister who has in mind the reference of a case to the SPSO would naturally wish to inform in advance the Minister responsible for the portfolio concerned.
7.4 Where a complaint is about a matter for which the Minister is responsible, the Minister may wish to investigate it personally unless he or she, or one of the other Ministers in his/her team, has already been directly involved in the case. Where a Minister has been so involved, the SPSO should be asked to investigate if the case is within his jurisdiction; and there may be other circumstances in which a Minister will prefer to refer a case to the SPSO straight away.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
7.5 If a complaint made to a Minister falls outwith the remit of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman but is within the remit of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration ( PCA) (commonly known as the 'Parliamentary Ombudsman'), the Minister will not be able to refer the complaint to the PCA himself or herself. The Minister should bring the complaint to the attention of the complainant's MP or advise the complainant to ask his or her MP to refer the complaint to the PCA.
Lottery Bids
7.6 In order to avoid the impression that Ministers are seeking to influence decisions on awards of Lottery money, Ministers should not normally give specific public support for individual applications for Lottery funding. Where a Minister is the constituency MSP for a potential Lottery application, he or she should be guided by the principles set out in paragraph 7.9. Ministers lending support to a specific project should do so on the very clear understanding that it is in a constituency capacity.
References for Constituents
7.7 On occasions, Ministers are asked to provide personal or job references for constituents. Ministers can of course do this provided they make clear that they are doing so as a constituency MSP and not a Minister. Particular care must be taken, however, to avoid any conflicts of interests and in some cases it may not be appropriate for a Minister to provide a reference, even as an MSP. For example, Ministers should not provide references for jobs in the public sector for which their portfolio is responsible.
Deputations and representations (additional guidance specific to planning cases and energy consents is at 8.5 - 8.7 below)
7.8 Ministers are free to make their electorate's views about constituency matters known to the responsible Minister, provided they make clear that they are acting as their electorate's representative and not as a Minister. They may do this by correspondence, by leading deputations, by arranging meetings between relevant parties or by personal interview. In cases involving exercise of discretion by Ministers, Ministers should only express a view in their capacity as an MSP. Particular care is required when expressing views on cases involving exercise of discretion by Ministers (such as school or hospital closures), where representations intended to be taken into account in reaching a decision may have to be made available to other parties and thus may well receive publicity.
7.9 In such cases, Ministers must ensure that:
(a) They avoid criticism of the Government's policies;
(b) They confine themselves to comments which could reasonably be made by those who are not Ministers; and
(c) That they make clear that the views they are putting forward are ones expressed in their capacity as the MSP representing a particular electorate.
7.10 If Ministers wish to take a personal position on a case, whether as a constituency MSP or not , they should ensure that they are clearly divorced from the Ministerial decision-making process on that case.
7.11 Once a decision has been announced, it should be accepted without question or criticism. It is important, in expressing the views of their electorate, that Ministers do so in a way that does not create difficulty for the Ministers who have to take the decision and that they bear in mind the Government's collective responsibility for the outcome. Ministers should also take account of any potential implications which their comments could have in their own field of responsibility.
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