Section 4.22. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid except where required for the maintenance of professional qualifications.
Please scrutinise all the proposed amendments and replies before commenting or voting. Short comments are most often read and must not exceed 100 words. You can propose an Amendment at the bottom of this page - please read the guidelines .
Note that the original wording appears again first below and sustains the same comment & voting regime as all other amendment proposals.
Section 4.22. Section 4.22. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid except where required for the maintenance of professional qualifications.
Section 4.22. I have often thought that, in addition MPs should be required to hand over, for the duration of their mandate, the management of all their assets to a public trustee who would be required to carry out such management independently but in the best interests of the MP.
Section 4.22. Caledonialan - apologies for writing this here but can't find where you made your comment on my suggestion about candidates paying all their taxes to Scotland and how it is ambiguous. First of all, thank you for that comment and I should say that of course I'm not an expert but just felt the need to have included in our constitution a condition or condition that prevented candidates from being in a position where they decide how tax revenues are to be spent when they themselves are tax exiles. I leave it to experts such as yourself to express this in lucid legal terms. Again I apologise for leaving my response here.
Section 4.22. Yes - I can't find your suggestion or my comment for the moment, either! I think there is a difference, though, between being a tax exile and not paying all one's taxes in Scotland. One can hardly prevent MPs from having any foreign income whatever, and that income may well be taxed in the country where it is earned. However, it seems self-evident that MPs must be primarily, indeed overwhelmingly, resident in Scotland in order to carry out their duties, so they will necessarily be tax-resident in Scotland and will have to pay whatever tax Scots law requires on both their Scottish and foreign income. There are, of course, other taxes, such as local taxes on property owned abroad (which will, of course, include the other parts of the formerly United Kingdom), VAT on purchases made abroad, inheritance tax on property inherited abroad, etc., which it would be inappropriate for Scotland to claim of its MPs.
Section 4.22. Will expenses be publicly audited and only be for carrying out their duties relating to the office. Not living expenses etc. Why should citizens have to pay all their expenses from their salary and MPs could get theirs paid for by taxpayers?
Section 4.22. What about MPs with business interests? This could be anything from being a partner in e.g. a GP practice to a privately/wholly owned business, to shareholdings in a company / board member etc etc. I can't imagine anyone who runs a business, no matter how big or small, would relish relinquishing control of that to stand for parliament, for what might be only one term. Yes, if they're passionate enough they would do this, but I don't think that this will have the desired effect? I suspect many people from those backgrounds just wouldn't consider standing for election on that basis. I think the constitution would be better served focussing on scrutiny of parliamentarians and other elected roles, and offer protections to the public, so that MPs can be recalled much more easily, increase transparency around outside dealings and enforce real/stricter sanctions on wrongdoing encoded in the constitution, rather than stipulating rules on who can or can't stand and what they can or can't do.
Section 4.22. I think that it would be worthwhile to establish a maximum salary rate for MPs, tied to the statutory minimum wage. This would ensure that they cannot raise their own pay out of proportion with the wages of the general public. Something like no more than 5 or 6 times the full time minimum wage.
Section 4.22. By any measures our Western democracies(under 15% of the world) are being left behind in the wake of the Asian tigers. Our major Political parties have become corrupted, self-serving and ineffectual managers of our society. A declining US & the UK is almost universally despised by most of the world and half its own people; here in Scotland a well-intentioned SNP is quite unable to deal with big business or high finance.
If I’m to have surgery I want a great surgeon; I want people who can build me a great aeroplane, a car, a house or whatever – we all want the best specialists… except for the most important job –government. This is the primary challenge to this consultation.
Section 4.22. Section 4.22. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. and make a statement of Oath to the State. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid except where required for the maintenance of professional qualifications.
Section 4.22. NSCNICK - This proposal seeks the addition of an Oath but this is already covered in 5.15 . Once again, please read the Guidelines (tab above). Typing Oath into the searchbox on the CfS Constitution page would have shown this. And as previously requested - please provide a Headline on any future proposals. Thank you.
Section 4.22. I suspect that opinions on what constitutes a “good” candidate for election to Parliament will vary widely. In particular consider the screening & selection processes of the Big Party ‘machines’ and their definition of a career in politics and the Swiss system where ordinary people are encouraged to take a sabbatical from their chosen career to serve in Parliament.
https://www.thelocal.ch/20191021/why-switzerlands-parliament-members-only-work-part-time/ Indeed it is useful to refer to the Swiss Constitution for some ‘out of the box’ approaches to a Scottish Constitution.
Section 4.22. . All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. and make a statement of Oath to the State. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid.
Proposed Amendments to Section
Please scrutinise all the proposed amendments and replies before commenting or voting. Short comments are most often read and must not exceed 100 words.
You can propose an Amendment at the bottom of this page - please read the guidelines .
Note that the original wording appears again first below and sustains the same comment & voting regime as all other amendment proposals.
Original Version
Section 4.22. Section 4.22. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid except where required for the maintenance of professional qualifications.
Section 4.22. I have often thought that, in addition MPs should be required to hand over, for the duration of their mandate, the management of all their assets to a public trustee who would be required to carry out such management independently but in the best interests of the MP.
Section 4.22. Caledonialan - apologies for writing this here but can't find where you made your comment on my suggestion about candidates paying all their taxes to Scotland and how it is ambiguous. First of all, thank you for that comment and I should say that of course I'm not an expert but just felt the need to have included in our constitution a condition or condition that prevented candidates from being in a position where they decide how tax revenues are to be spent when they themselves are tax exiles. I leave it to experts such as yourself to express this in lucid legal terms. Again I apologise for leaving my response here.
Section 4.22. Yes - I can't find your suggestion or my comment for the moment, either! I think there is a difference, though, between being a tax exile and not paying all one's taxes in Scotland. One can hardly prevent MPs from having any foreign income whatever, and that income may well be taxed in the country where it is earned. However, it seems self-evident that MPs must be primarily, indeed overwhelmingly, resident in Scotland in order to carry out their duties, so they will necessarily be tax-resident in Scotland and will have to pay whatever tax Scots law requires on both their Scottish and foreign income. There are, of course, other taxes, such as local taxes on property owned abroad (which will, of course, include the other parts of the formerly United Kingdom), VAT on purchases made abroad, inheritance tax on property inherited abroad, etc., which it would be inappropriate for Scotland to claim of its MPs.
Section 4.22. Will expenses be publicly audited and only be for carrying out their duties relating to the office. Not living expenses etc. Why should citizens have to pay all their expenses from their salary and MPs could get theirs paid for by taxpayers?
Section 4.22. What about MPs with business interests? This could be anything from being a partner in e.g. a GP practice to a privately/wholly owned business, to shareholdings in a company / board member etc etc. I can't imagine anyone who runs a business, no matter how big or small, would relish relinquishing control of that to stand for parliament, for what might be only one term. Yes, if they're passionate enough they would do this, but I don't think that this will have the desired effect? I suspect many people from those backgrounds just wouldn't consider standing for election on that basis. I think the constitution would be better served focussing on scrutiny of parliamentarians and other elected roles, and offer protections to the public, so that MPs can be recalled much more easily, increase transparency around outside dealings and enforce real/stricter sanctions on wrongdoing encoded in the constitution, rather than stipulating rules on who can or can't stand and what they can or can't do.
Section 4.22. I think that it would be worthwhile to establish a maximum salary rate for MPs, tied to the statutory minimum wage. This would ensure that they cannot raise their own pay out of proportion with the wages of the general public. Something like no more than 5 or 6 times the full time minimum wage.
Section 4.22. By any measures our Western democracies(under 15% of the world) are being left behind in the wake of the Asian tigers. Our major Political parties have become corrupted, self-serving and ineffectual managers of our society. A declining US & the UK is almost universally despised by most of the world and half its own people; here in Scotland a well-intentioned SNP is quite unable to deal with big business or high finance.
If I’m to have surgery I want a great surgeon; I want people who can build me a great aeroplane, a car, a house or whatever – we all want the best specialists… except for the most important job –government. This is the primary challenge to this consultation.
Proposed Amendment to Section 4.22.
Section 4.22. Section 4.22. All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. and make a statement of Oath to the State. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid except where required for the maintenance of professional qualifications.
Section 4.22. NSCNICK - This proposal seeks the addition of an Oath but this is already covered in 5.15 . Once again, please read the Guidelines (tab above). Typing Oath into the searchbox on the CfS Constitution page would have shown this. And as previously requested - please provide a Headline on any future proposals. Thank you.
Section 4.22. I suspect that opinions on what constitutes a “good” candidate for election to Parliament will vary widely. In particular consider the screening & selection processes of the Big Party ‘machines’ and their definition of a career in politics and the Swiss system where ordinary people are encouraged to take a sabbatical from their chosen career to serve in Parliament.
https://www.thelocal.ch/20191021/why-switzerlands-parliament-members-only-work-part-time/
Indeed it is useful to refer to the Swiss Constitution for some ‘out of the box’ approaches to a Scottish Constitution.
Proposed Amendment to Section 4.22.
MPs REMUNERATION
Section 4.22. MPs REMUNERATION.
Section 4.22. . All Members of Parliament (MPs) will be remunerated with a salary, and permitted allowances, to attract responsible candidates of the highest integrity, loyalty and work ethic. Within their first session of appointment, all MPs will be required to undertake training in accordance with section 13.3. and make a statement of Oath to the State. While in office, MPs are not permitted to undertake any other employment, whether paid or unpaid.