News In Focus
28 February 2007
Five day ban proposed for MSP
An independent MSP faces a five-day Holyrood ban after being found guilty of breaching the code of conduct when he issued a press release ahead of an official committee report.
Brian Monteith, who at the time of the offence was a member of the Conservative group, was found guilty of a breach of confidence by Holyrood's Standards Committee. The committee has now recommended to parliament that he be banned for five sitting days.
If endorsed, this would mean that he would not be able to attend committees or meetings of parliament in that time. However, he will be able to do other work in the building, such as consituency duties.
Mr Monteith put out his own press release after a Holyrood committee gave its backing to a proposed Glasgow airport railway link last year. Although a member of the committee, he disagreed with the scheme and put out his own press release with the same time embargo as the one put out by the committee. The media had then broken the embargo.
Standards Committee convener Brian Adam said Mr Monteith's five-day ban should send out a strong message that a breach of confidentiality was a very serious matter. Members of the Standards Committee found that he had broken two parts of the code - one relating to the confidentiality of committee reports and the other about waiting until reports had been published before going public with dissent.
Mr Monteith said he would decide later if he will accept the five-day punishment or appeal to a full sitting of parliament.