Partnerships (Prosecution) (Scotland) Bill [Lords]

Mike Weir Excerpts

Monday 22nd April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)]

I would also like to add my support to the Bill. You may be witnessing an almost unique occasion, Mr Deputy Speaker: all parties in this House and the Scottish Government and Parliament support the Bill and are anxious for it proceed. As has been said, the genesis of the Bill was the Rosepark fire—a great tragedy in which many people unnecessarily lost their lives—and the inability, because of this quirk in Scottish partnership law, to prosecute. It is important that that is put right.

We had a good debate in Committee. The speech from the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) probably went on as long as the Committee stage, but the Bill was considered in Committee in detail. As he said, the Law Society of Scotland still has a concern—I should perhaps declare a tangential interest as I used to be a member—regarding its impact on partnerships. We went into this in some detail, and I think none of us could come up with a way of dealing with this particular issue. However, it is important to make the change, irrespective of slight concerns. I hope the Bill proceeds. As the hon. Gentleman rightly said, there is nothing we can now do for the people who so tragically lost their lives at Rosepark, but we can ensure that it does not happen again. We have come together to do that.

The Minister and the hon. Member for Glasgow North East were slightly naughty to present the Bill as an argument for the Union, as it could have been introduced in any place that had the power to do so, whether in Edinburgh or London. The hon. Member for Glasgow North East said that this was the third Scotland-only Bill on a reserved matter to be debated in this House since devolution. It will undoubtedly be the last—the next will be in an independent Scottish Parliament.

[David Mundell]

With the leave of the House, I will seek to conclude this debate on the basis of agreement. I am sure that this will not be the last Bill affecting only Scotland brought before the House, but we will leave those debates for another day.

I concur with the hon. Members for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain) and for Angus (Mr Weir) that the Bill will, I hope, go some way to set right the wrongs of the Rosepark fire and bring some comfort to the families of the victims on that terrible evening.

I would like to thank members of staff in the Scotland Office and the Office of the Advocate General who worked hard to bring the Bill before the House. I am pleased that we can now move forward with it in a spirit of consensus in order to deal with an identified anomaly in the existing laws of Scotland. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read the Third time and passed.