Scotland Act 2012

4 Presiding Officer and deputies

(1) Section 19 of the 1998 Act (Presiding Officer) is amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1) omit “at its first meeting”.

(3) After subsection (1) insert—

“(1A) The Parliament must do so—

(a) before it conducts any other proceedings, except the taking by its members of the oath of allegiance (see section 84), and

(b) in any event, within the period of 14 days beginning immediately after the day of the poll at the election.

(1B) The Parliament may, at any time, elect from among its members one or more additional deputies.”

(4) After subsection (2) insert—

“(2A) But standing orders may make provision for additional deputies to hold office for a shorter time than provided by subsection (2).”

(5) In subsection (3), after “deputy” insert “elected under subsection (1)”.

(6) In Schedule 3 to that Act (standing orders), for paragraph 5 substitute—

“5 (1) The standing orders shall include provision for ensuring that the available officers do not all represent the same political party.

(2) The available officers are—

(a) the Presiding Officer and the deputies appointed under section 19(1), except in the case where one or more of them is unable to act and there is at least one additional deputy;

(b) in that case, such of the Presiding Officer and deputies as are for the time being able to act.”