Details of Provisions
Subsection (1) provides that Her Majesty may by Order in Council provide for the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to make payments to registered political parties to assist their MSPs in performing their parliamentary duties. These payments would be made out of the Scottish Consolidated Fund.
Subsections (2) and (3) restrict the power of the SPCB to make payments in pursuance of an order under subsection (1). Under subsection (2) payment is restricted to those parties who do not have one or more of its members as a member of the Scottish Executive or junior Scottish Ministers. However subsection (3) provides that the Order in Council under subsection (1) may provide for the fact that an MSP is a member of the Scottish Executive or a junior Scottish Minister to be disregarded in any circumstances which may be specified in the Order.
Subsection (4) provides the Order may determine the circumstances in which a member of the Parliament and a party are regarded as connected for the purposes of this section. This is intended to deal with situations such as where a member ceases to be associated with a party but remains a member of the Parliament.