Letter to First Minister – remit of political inquiry
On Wednesday the Scottish Parliament debated public trust in Scottish politics and voted for the following motion:
That the Parliament believes there is a need to restore public trust in politics following multiple recent financial scandals, including those uncovered by Operation Branchform; further believes that an independent review into party political finances would go some way towards restoring this trust; believes that, to avoid this becoming a nakedly partisan process, it should be independently led rather than conducted by parliamentary committee, and that its remit must apply to the funding of all political parties; recognises wider concerns about the role of money in politics, including the scale of donations by extremely wealthy individuals, and the influence of organisations that refuse to disclose their funding sources, and calls for the devolution of power over the regulation of political parties and their funding to allow for the implementation of any recommendations of the independent review that would require legislative change.
The exact details of the inquiry have yet to be agreed but since concerns about the role of money in politics is within its remit, we have a suggestion for the First Minister on an area that merits closer scrutiny:
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