Scottish Ministers and disclosure checks: FOI release

Information requested

1. Whether Scottish Ministers undergo any form of disclosure check before, during or after their appointment as a Scottish Minister.

2. If yes, please provide the outcomes of these checks for each current Scottish Minister.

3. Please also state whether the First Minister is aware of any criminal convictions (either spent or unspent) of any other Scottish Minister and if so, specify which ministers have a criminal conviction, the nature of the conviction and when John Swinney was made aware of the conviction.

Response

Disqualification from membership of the Scottish Parliament and the UK House of Commons is set out in statute to ensure that parliamentarians are 'fit and proper' and are able to carry out their duties and responsibilities free from undue pressures from other sources. The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 provides for the disqualification of a range of public office holders, including Members of the UK Parliament. These disqualification provisions are extended to cover membership of the Scottish Parliament under section 15(1)(d) of the Scotland Act 1998. As a result, the law disqualifies from membership of the Scottish Parliament anyone:

• who is not either a British citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland or an eligible Commonwealth citizen;
• under the age of 18;
• currently subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order or debt relief restrictions order made by a court in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or whose estate has been sequestrated by acourt in Scotland and has not been discharged;
• convicted of an offence who has been sentenced to be imprisoned or detained for more than a year and are detained anywhere in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or are unlawfully at large; and
• convicted or reported guilty of a corrupt or illegal electoral practice or of an offence relating to donations.

In relation to disclosure checks, Ministers are office holders rather than employees of the Scottish Government. They are selected by their political party and employed by the Scottish Parliament. Responsibility for disclosure checks therefore does not lie with the Scottish Government and you may wish to approach the Scottish National Party and/or the Scottish Parliament to raise your questions about disclosure checks with them. This is a formal notice under section 17 of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.