IOG: Parliament News, issue 2/november 2000

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

THE CABINET

Following the sudden death on 11 October of Scotland's first First Minister Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish was elected by the Scottish Parliament as the new First Minister with a total of 68 votes, against John Swinney (SNP) with 33, David McLetchie (Conservative) with 19 and Dennis Canavan (Independent) with 3 and was sworn in by the Queen on 27 October.

On 29 October Henry McLeish announced the reshuffle of his new Ministerial Team, with two new appointments:

Jackie Baillie to Minister for Social Justice
Angus MacKay to Minister for Finance and Local Government

and the following change of posts:

Jack McConnell was moved from his previous post as Minister for Finance to Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs
Wendy Alexander was moved from her previous post as Minister for Communities to Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
Sam Galbraith was moved from his previous post of Minister for Children and Education to Minister for Environment, Sport and Culture

Four new people were also nominated to join the Executive as Deputy Ministers:

Malcolm Chisholm (Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care)

Margaret Curran (Deputy Minister for Social Justice)
Tavish Scott (Deputy Minister for Parliament)
Allan Wilson (Deputy Minister for Sport and Culture)

In addition:

Rhona Brankin was moved from her post as Deputy Minister for Culture and Sport to Deputy Minister responsible for Rural Development
Ian Gray was moved from his post as Deputy Minister for Community Care to Deputy Minister responsible for Justice
Nicol Stephen was moved from his post as Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning to Deputy Minister responsible for Education, Europe and External Affairs
Alasdair Morrison was moved from his post as Deputy Minister for Highlands and Islands and Gaelic to Deputy Minister responsible for Enterprise, Lifelong Learning and Gaelic
Peter Peacock was moved from his post as Deputy Minister for Children and Education to Deputy Minister responsible for Finance and Local Government

Those leaving Cabinet positions were:

Frank McAveety, Local Government
John Home Robertson, Fisheries
Ian Smith, Parliament

BY-ELECTIONS

The Anniesland by-election for the seat of the late Donald Dewar who was MP and MSP for the constituency is to be held on 23 November. The candidates selected by the various parties are:

For the Westminster seat:

Scottish Labour Party : John Robertson
Scottish National Party : Grant Thoms
Scottish Liberal Democrats : Christopher McGinty
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: Dorothy Luckhurst
Scottish Socialist Party : Charlie McCarthy
Family Action Movement : William Lyden

For the Holyrood seat:

Scottish Labour Party : Bill Butler
Scottish National Party : Tom Chalmers
Scottish Liberal Democrats : Judith Fryer
Scottish Conservative and Unionist party : Kate Pickering
Scottish Socialist Party : Rosie Kane
Socialist Labour Party : Murdo Ritchie
Scottish Green Party : Alastair Whitlaw

A by-election for the Falkirk West seat is likely before the end of the year following the decision by Dennis Canavan to resign his Westminster seat. This decision was made on 20 November in spite of Mr Canavan's earlier statement that he was entering into negotiations with Labour with a view to rejoining the party.

POLICY CHANGE

During his first Cabinet meeting Henry McLeish announced his intention for a review of policies and gave his Cabinet 10 days to submit proposals that would bring benefit from a change of emphasis or direction. Some existing policies will be discarded. Mr Tom McCabe will first meet with Ministers to discuss submissions and prepare the final papers for Mr McLeish and Jim Wallace and the Cabinet. MSPs in the coalition partnership (Labour and Liberal Democrats) will have until the Christmas recess to give their approval.

Much of the policy change focus so far has been on transport and the first shift in policy has been the scrapping of plans to levy charges for workplace parking in cities. Mr McLeish also noted his intention to look again at the recommendations of the Sutherland Commission on care for the elderly.

Mr McLeish also announced his intention to investigate and review the work carried out by all of Scotland's 'quangos' which comprise 120 public bodies that spend £6 billion of public money every year. Some of the first to be looked at will be the Scottish Forestry Commission, the Scottish Tourist Board, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Scottish Health Boards and Trusts.

A quango watchdog will be set up within the Scottish Executive to carry out the review with the objective of reducing the number of quangos, ensuring that those remaining work better and creating public confidence in the public bodes that are needed.

In what he described as a 'progressive programme' for change Mr McLeish indicated his desire to find a way to take forward the recommendations of the Kerley Report and the issue of proportional representation for local government elections.

Debates

Mr McLeish's first parliamentary debate as First Minister concerned the access to official information and a Motion that stated that the Executive and the Parliament observe the following principles:

the Executive should always seek to make as much information as possible publicly available and should respond positively to requests for information from the Parliament and its Committees;
officials are accountable to Ministers and Ministers in turn are accountable to the Parliament and while officials can provide Committees with factual information, Committees should look to Ministers to account for the policy decisions they have taken;
where, exceptionally, Committees find it necessary to scrutinise exchanges between officials and Ministers on policy issues, arrangements should be made to ensure that the confidentiality of these exchanges is respected.

Some of the other debates in Parliament during the last month have dealt with:

the Scottish Paralympians and Olympians and their success in Australia (on 1.11.00)

cultural activity in Scotland and the important contribution it makes to Scotland's economy and to the quality of life of people throughout Scotland (on 2.11.00)

the role that a system of specialist drugs court could play in dealing with drug-related crime and called upon the Scottish Executive to develop an appropriate pilot scheme with a view to moving towards the establishment of drugs courts in areas of Scotland where adequate rehabilitation and treatment resources exist (on 2.11.00)

the possible correlation between participation in the UK's Nuclear Test Programme in the 1950s and the development of subsequent illnesses (on 8.11.00)

Glasgow street homelessness, recognising that the problem of rough sleeping is most acute in Glasgow and compounded by the continued existence of wholly inappropriate and unacceptable hostels in which many people who would otherwise be homeless are accommodated (on 9.11.00)

alcohol misuse and the issues of health and violence arising from it should receive greater attention (on 9.11.00)

looking at ways of helping those on lower incomes to deal with increases in water and sewerage charges (on 15.11.00)

transport infrastructure of Glasgow and the West Coast of Scotland and the lack of a direct rail link to Glasgow Airport and a Glasgow north/south rail link (on 15.11.00)

Publications

Scottish Executive publications can be accessed on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/recent.asp.

Some of those published in the last month include:

The Role of the Arts in Regeneration: a study to investigate the role of art-based projects in local and city-wide partnerships and to ascertain the long-term and sustainable impacts of arts-based projects on the regeneration of deprived areas. (25.10.99)

Further Education in Scotland 1999: the Scottish Ministers' Annual Report on Further Education in Scotland for 1999. (25.10.00)

Proposals for the Revision of the EC Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information: inviting comments from organisation in Scotland or those with Scottish interests that could be affected by the proposed revised Directive. (26.10.00)

Higher Education Graduates and Diplomates in Scotland: 1998-99 Statistics. (2.11.00)

First Destination of Graduates and Diplomates in Scotland: 1989-99 Statistics. (2.11.00)

A Review into Exam Results Issues Concerning the Scottish Qualifications Authority. (3.11.00)

New Deal in Scotland - A Study of the Full-Time Education and Training Option in Scottish Colleges and Private Training Providers: a study of New Deal in 36 Scottish Education Colleges and 60 Private Training Providers carried out in the last quarter of 1999 to evaluate the effectiveness of the Full-time Education and Training option. (6.11.00)

Framework for Economic Development - Analysis and Background: a technical paper setting out some of the technical questions and arguments that lie behind economic thinking on growth and development and illustrating statistical trends. (6.11.00)

Equality Strategy: Working together for Equality: outlines the Scottish Executive's strategy for delivering equality in Scotland.

Links to other issues of Parliament News

Contact

Should you have any comments or enquiries please do not hesitate to contact Margaret MacPherson at the Institute of Governance.

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