IOG: Parliament News, issue 66/april,may,june 2007

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

3 May: the Scottish Parliament Election.

4 May: results of the Scottish Parliament Election:

	Constituency MSPs	Regional MSPs	TOTAL MSPs
Scottish National Party	21	26	47
Labour	37	9	46
Conservative	3	13	16
Liberal Democrats	11	5	16
Green	0	2	2
Independent	0	1	1
No party Affiliation	1	0	1
	73	56	129

According to the Parliament Fact Sheet (14 May 2007) turnout in the election was 51.7% in the constituency vote and 52.4% in the regional vote, up from 2003 where the turnout was 49.4% in both the constituency and regional vote. According to David Denver (Scottish Affairs No. 60) if what we are interested in is the proportion of electors who make the effort and therefore 'total turnout' (i.e. including rejected ballots) and voting in 2007 involved marking a single ballot paper, turnout in the constituency contests and for the regional lists was identical, standing at 53.9%, an increase of 4.2% on the 2003 figure.

Of the 129 MSPs there are 41 MSPs (31.8%) who did not serve in the previous term.

43 women (33.3% of MSPs) were elected to the third Scottish Parliament, down from 51 (39%) in the previous term.

9 May: the newly elected MSPs were officially sworn into office at the Scottish Parliament after pledging allegiance to the Queen. Brian Adam, SNP MSP for Aberdeen North, made his affirmation in Scots, while the first Asian MSP, Bashir Ahmad, made his in Urdu. Several MSPs also took their oath in Gaelic.

14 May: Alex Ferguson, MSP, was elected as the Parliament's Presiding Officer following a secret ballot of newly elected Members. Alasdair Morgan, MSP, and Trish Godman, MSP, were elected as Deputy Presiding Officers.

16 May: Alex Salmond, MSP, was elected First Minister by the Scottish Parliament. Mr Salmond was voted into office by 49 votes to 46, after he was supported by the Greens. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives abstained.

16 May: Alex Salmond, First Minister, announced his cabinet. There are six Cabinet Secretaries (Cabinet Ministers) including the First Minister:

Nicola Sturgeon: Health and Wellbeing (and Deputy First Minister)
John Swinney: Finance and Sustainable Growth
Fiona Hislop: Education and Lifelong Learning
Kenny MacAskill: Justice and Communities
Richard Lochhead: Rural Affairs and Environment

and ten Ministers who report to a Cabinet Secretary:

Bruce Crawford: Parliamentary Business
Linda Fabiani: Europe, Affairs and Culture
Jim Mather: Enterprise, Energy and Toursim
Stewart Stevenson: Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change
Maureen Watt: Schools and Skills
Adam Ingram: Children and Early Years
Shona Robison: Public Health
Stewarrt Maxwell: Communities and Sport
Fergus Ewing: Community Safety
Mike Russell: Environment

23 May: Alex Salmond, First Minister, gave a speech announcing the strategic priorities of the new session of Parliament (available on line at www.scotland.gov.uk/News/News-Extras/strategicobjs). The strategy includes:

the appointment of a Council of Economic Advisers to provide independent advice on making the most of opportunities in the global economy;
Scotland to be nuclear free and to take the lead in the 'green energy revolution' and the development of renewable technology;
the abolition of tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges.

24 May: Elish Angiolini was re-appointed as Lord Advocate by the Parliament. The main functions of the post are to head the systems of prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland to provide legal advice to minister. Alex Salmond, the First Minister, advised Parliament that the Lord Advocate will no longer be a member of the Cabinet.

24 May: the Parliament elected four Members to serve on the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB):

Alex Johnstone MSP
Tom McCabe MSP
Tricia Marwick MSP
Mike Pringle MSP
The Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP will chair the SPCB.

22 May: the first official meeting of the Scottish Cabinet took place.

31 May: Jim Mather, Minister for Energy, made a statement to Parliament saying that Scotland did not need and did not want any new nuclear power stations (statement available on-line at www.scotland.gov.uk/News/News-Extras/scotlandukenergypolicy).

31 May: the Parliament approved plans to abolish tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges.

6 June: Kenny MacAskill, Minister for Justice, announced that knife crime and organised crime are to be subject to an uncompromising approach while policing capacity is to be increased by the equivalent of 1,000 police officers. Mr MacAskill also said that money confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act is to be re-invested in deprived areas.

7 June: Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, announced plans for a Scottish Skills Strategy that would:

highlight the skills valued and required both by employers and individuals;
demonstrate how sectors from Further Education/Higher Education to schools, community learning and workforce development can contribute to the skills agenda;
outline the responsibilities of those involved in skills development.

11 June: Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, attended his first European Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting. Mr Lochhead said that while it was a relatively low key Council meeting he ensured that key Scottish concerns were reflected in the UK position. He also said that watching 27 countries, some landlocked, debating fishing policy underlined the importance of giving the historic fishing nation of Scotland a much greater say on the future of our fishing communities.

13 June: Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, announced that, with Parliamentary approval, the Scottish government intends to scrap the graduate endowment fee (currently £2,289).

14 June: Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, announced plans to establish an independent review of free personal care to investigate the level and distribution of resources to local authorities. Ms Sturgeon said that Lord Sutherland, who was Chair of the Royal Commission that paved the way for the introduction of free personal care, has agreed to lead the review.

18 June: Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Climate Change, met the UK secretary of State for the Environment David Millibrand. Mr Stevenson reiterated the Scottish Government's commitment to tackling climate change and vowed, where possible, to work with the UK government.

19 June: Alex Salmond, First Minister, signed a Joint Agreement with Ian Paisley, First Minister of Northern Ireland, and Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. They have agreed to work together in the following areas:

raising understanding of each other's history and culture;
encouraging education programmes and building on existing links between their Universities and Colleges;
collaborate on tourism issues through the tourism group of the British-Irish Council;
renewable energy and its effect on the environment;
to strengthen co-operation between the devolved administrations.

19 June: the Parliament published its Annual Report detailing the work of Holyrood from 1 July 2006 to 2 April 2007. The report covers the day-to-day work of Holyrood, including in-depth information on each parliamentary committee, as well as key Chamber debates and legislation. Over the period 27 bills received royal assents and became Acts of the Scottish Parliament. Of these Acts, 20 were Executive bills, four were private bills, two were Member's bills and one was a Committee bill.

21 June: at an NHS Confederation's annual conference in London Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, stated that the Scottish government is opposed to the use of public money to help the private sector compete with the NHS. Ms Sturgeon also pledged that the Scottish government would take its own decisions on key issues like junior doctor recruitment if it were in the best interest of Scotland.

21 June: Alex Salmond, First Minister, announced that the Scottish Government had submitted the Scotland Rural Development Programme to the European Commission, and that the Programme includes a £10 million package of measures dedicated to supporting new
entrants into farming.

25 June: as the UK government launched a public consultation on plans for the geological disposal of radioactive waste, Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, announced that the Scottish Government does not accept that it is right to seek to bury nuclear waste. Mr Lochhead said that they will continue to work closely with UK government and devolved administrations in other areas of radioactive waste policy where they share agreed objectives.

27 June: the SNP minority government suffered its first defeat on the Edinburgh tram proposal, but immediately after the vote John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, said that the government will accept the will of the Parliament. Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Transport, announced that the new Scottish Government will move forward with a transport programme that will be ambitious, achievable and value for money.

27 June: Tony Blair stood down as UK Prime Minister after 10 years in the job. Alex Salmond, First Minister, wrote to Mr Blair's successor Gordon Brown to congratulate him on his new appointment as Prime Minister.

28 June: John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, outlined his plans for the strategic spending review 2007. Mr Swinney said that there was a £242 million underspend in last year's Scottish budget and from this total, £135 will be carried forward as EYF underspend. Mr Swinney said that these resources - part of the £1.5 billion of Scottish money currently held at HM Treasury - will be used to deliver on the new government's commitment to increase sustainable economic growth.

28 June: start of Parliament's summer recess. Parliamentary business will resume on 5 September.

30 June: the terrorism threat level in the UK was raised to 'critical' following the discovery of two car bombs in London and the incident at Glasgow International airport when a burning vehicle crashed into the front of the terminal.

Appointments

No new appointments in this period.

Bills

A summary of the Bills passed by the Parliament in the 1999-2003 and 2003-2007 sessions can be found on the Parliament website at

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsPassed/billsum-s1.htm

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsnotInProgress-s2/index.htm

Committees

As Parliament was dissolved on 30 March in the lead-up to the Election on 3 May there were no Committees of the Scottish Parliament in April.

Research opportunities

The Scottish Parliament has a budget for commissioning research for Parliamentary committees and holds a database of researchers interested in tendering for committee research. Anyone wishing to be included in the database should complete the on-line form on the Parliament website at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/recruitment/extResearcher/index.htm

Scottish Executive Publications

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

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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