Parliament Workbench
Data: Official Report to 12 Nov 2026

Official Report · Committee

Continued Petitions

Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 (PE1791)

Wednesday 16 December 2020 Public Petitions Committee About 10:45 Petitions 6 contributions · 5 speakers

Speakers

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The record

6 contributions
Johann Lamont Lab The Convener · Glasgow
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The next continued petition on our agenda today is PE1791, by Mike Fenwick, calling on the Scottish Government to recognise and respond to concerns that section 39 of the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 establishes a legal challenge, namely that it breaches protections afforded by the Human Rights Act 1998.

Submissions have been received from the Scottish Government and the petitioner. The Scottish Government’s submission advises:

“Section 39 specifically relates to court proceedings which are about ‘questioning the number of ballot papers counted or votes cast as certified by a counting officer or by the Chief Counting Officer’, section 39 does not cover court or other procedures relating to concerns relating to campaigning, or any other issue.”

Do members have any comments or suggestions for action? My own sense is that we have come to a natural conclusion on this one.

Gail Ross SNP Caithness, Sutherland and Ross
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I agree. We have had the response back to say that the eight-week limit applies only to the number of ballot papers counted or votes cast. The point that the petitioner has brought up is completely unaffected by the eight-week limit so hopefully that has answered the question.

I thank the petitioner for lodging the petition and propose that we close it under rule 15.7 of standing orders.

Maurice Corry Con West Scotland
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I agree fully with Gail Ross, and I move to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders.

David Torrance SNP Kirkcaldy
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I agree with my colleagues. I am happy to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders.

Tom Mason Con North East Scotland
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I agree with that. We have gone as far as we can go with this.

Johann Lamont Lab The Convener · Glasgow
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Thank you. We agree to close the petition as we have come to a conclusion. The Public Petitions Committee took the petition seriously and tested the argument that was being proposed by the petitioner. We thank the petitioner for his engagement with the committee.

In this meeting

Everything on 16 Dec 2020 →
  1. 09:30 Decision on Taking Business in Private Procedure · 1
  2. 09:30 Continued Petitions Petitions · 54
  3. 10:15 Continued Petitions Petitions · 7
  4. 10:30 Continued Petitions Petitions · 10
  5. 10:30 Continued Petitions Petitions · 7
  6. 10:30 Continued Petitions Petitions · 10
  7. 10:45 Continued Petitions Petitions · 6
  8. 10:45 Continued Petitions Petitions · 10
  9. 10:45 Continued Petitions Petitions · 15
  10. 11:45 Continued Petitions Petitions · 7
  11. 11:45 Continued Petitions Petitions · 6
  12. 12:00 Continued Petitions Petitions · 6
  13. 12:00 New Petitions Petitions · 10
  14. 12:30 New Petitions Petitions · 8
  15. 12:30 New Petitions Petitions · 6
  16. 12:45 New Petitions Petitions · 8

The type of each item (debate, statement, questions, members’ business and so on) and the times shown are worked out by this site from headings, the chair’s opening words and the Official Report’s running timestamps. They are not the Parliament’s own classification. Text: the Scottish Parliament Official Report.