New MSPs will be given training by Holyrood officials to encourage them to be effective parliamentarians and “not just party politicians”, the outgoing Presiding Officer has announced.
Tricia Marwick said Holyrood’s committees are “inherently unstable” with conveners appointed by parties “as a reward” and there are “consequences” if government legislation is not waived through.
The former SNP MSP also criticised party leaders for crowding out backbenchers at First Minister’s Questions (FMQs) and said general questions are “boring”.
Holyrood should serve the whole of Scotland rather than “male, white, middle-class professionals” and more power should be devolved to communities, she said.
Ms Marwick also predicted Holyrood will get a second chamber and said it “can’t be wholly appointed and can’t be wholly elected”.
She dismissed “repeated claims that I was the SNP leadership campaign for presiding officer and that I would be puppet for the SNP”.
“You never knew me at all,” she said at a farewell dinner for departing MSPs organised by the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists Association in Holyrood.
She announced there will be a new four-day induction programme for MSPs elected in May.
“They will be introduced to the workings of the parliament by parliament officials on how the committees operate, how they behave in the chamber and a whole programme aiming to help them to acquire skills to be effective parliamentarians – not just party politicians,” she said.
Some leading MSPs are reluctant to reduce the number of committees and introduce elected conveners, she said.
“Convenerships are handed out as a reward and the parties prefer the patronage that is currently available to them,” she said.
She added: “Select committees at Westminster are fantastic. They have conveners elected by the whole house and they derive their authority from the house itself. Our conveners derive their authority from the parties.”
She said “every government is entitled to try to get its legislation through”, but at Westminster committees “there’s no votes that are going to bring down the government or its legislation”.
“Even the most loyal backbenchers can on occasion say exactly what they think because there are no consequences from that,” she said.
Ms Marwick added: “I’ve always believed that this parliament actually needs a second chamber. I think a second chamber at some point will come.
“But the problem with a second chamber, referencing the House of Lords, how to you ensure that the second chamber is not a challenge to the legitimacy of the main chamber.
“It can’t be wholly appointed, and it can’t be wholly elected, and because that conundrum cannot be answered that, quite frankly, is why the House of Lords has never been reformed.”
The SNP refuses to appoint members to the Lords and has steadfastly called for the “unelected” and “undemocratic” institution to be scrapped.
Mrs Marwick also called for MSPs to hold more sittings in more remote towns to engage a wider audience.
She said: “The vast majority of witnesses that come to us are male, white and middle class. They also tend to be professional and come from the immediate area.”
Mrs Marwick said FMQs is “still a work in progress”.
“One of my frustrations is that the party leaders take far too long, thereby reducing the amount of time that is available to the backbench MSPs to ask questions,” she said.
Outgoing Conservative MSP Gavin Brown said: “I think general questions are dull as dishwater and out of date. I can’t remember the last time a question or answer was any good.”
Mrs Marwick said: “You’re right…I agree with you – it is boring.”