Issue 56 - April 2006
Events
2 April: George Reid, Presiding Officer, started a seven day visit to the USA designed to promote Scotland in America, to forge new links and share parliamentary practice with State legislatures. Mr Reid was accompanied by a cross-party delegation of MSPs.
5 April: a new Friends of Scotland Caucus was formally inaugurated in Washington DC with the aim of promoting Scottish interests in the US.
4 April: Ross Finnie, Minister for Rural Development, announced publication of the second phase of a consultation programme on how money should be spent in rural areas.
12 April: Cathy Jamieson, Minister for Justice, announced funding worth £2 million over two years to support projects that will provide intensive supervision and intervention for individuals and families involved in antisocial behaviour.
18 April: Jack McConnell, First Minister had a meeting with John Brumby, State Treasurer and Minister for Innovation, Industry and Regional Development for the State of Victoria, Australia, on his visit to Scotland and both agreed to examine the scope for greater collaboration to develop their life sciences industries.
19 April: two new MSPs were sworn in at Holyrood to replace two list MSPs who had stepped down in order to contest the Moray by-election due to take place on 27 April. Maureen Watt, SNP, replaced Richard Lochhead and David Petrie, Scottish Conservatives, replaced Mary Scanlon. Maureen Watt took her oath of allegiance in the Doric dialect of Scots as well as in English, the first time a member had done so.
20 April: Tavish Scott, Minister for Transport, launched a consultation on Scotland's future transport. The resulting strategy will determine infrastructure investment from 2012.
21 April: Rhona Brankin, Deputy Minister for Environment, announced that scientific research programmes linked to key environmental and health policies in Scotland will benefit from £200 million of funding over the next five years.
24 April: the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body published its Equal Opportunities Report covering 2005. The report highlights steps taken by the Corporate Body to fulfil its commitment of promoting equal opportunities.
24 April: Jack McConnell, First Minister, announced a £300,000 government grant to help the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney to establish the world's first quality control standards for wave and tidal energy technology.
25 April: the Parliament launched a new resource pack aimed at providing tutors with information about learning and teaching resources about the Scottish Parliament. The pack contains twenty activities concentrating on engaging with the Parliament and MSPs and how members of the public can get involved. These packs will be distributed to literacy projects throughout Scotland.
27 April: Malcolm Chisholm, Minister for Communities, announced publication of a new planning policy that strengthens green belt protection and ensures that councils plan effectively for the long term, managing the land and environmental resource carefully.
27 April: Nicol Stephen, Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, announced funding of almost £800,000 to help businesses forge more productive links with Scotland's world-leading science base. Mr Stephen said that the awards granted under the Executive's SEEKIT grant scheme will help to increase Scotland's company research and development rate. Information on SEEKIT grants are available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2006/03/08154608
28 April: the Moray constituency by-election Holyrood seat was won by Richard Lochhead of the SNP with 12,653 votes. Mary Scanlon of the Scottish Conservative party came second with 6,268 votes. The by-election came about after the death in March of Margaret Ewing, SNP, who had a majority of 5,312 over the Conservatives at the last Holyrood elections in 2003.
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Appointments
4 April: Iain A Robertson, CBE, was appointed as the new Chair to the Scottish Legal Aid Board.
Bills
No Bills were passed by Parliament in the month of April.
A summary of the Bills passed by the Parliament in the 1999-2003 session can be found on the Parliament website at www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsPassed/billsum-s1.htm
Committees
13 April: the Parliament's Finance Committee published a report that recommends the establishment of a single fund to combat deprivation. The proposed fund would merge existing funding streams and allow the introduction of supplementary funding, ensuring best value.
18 April: the Local Government and Transport Committee endorsed the general principles of the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Bill. The bill aims to modernise both the administration of local elections and services enabling people to register 'vital events' such as births, marriages and deaths.
26 April: the European and External Relations Committee launched an inquiry on how best to spend the future money of the European Structural Funds. Due to the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 member states, the money available for Scotland could be cut by as much as 55% in 2007-2013.
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
Some of those published in April 2006 include:
4 April: Enhanced Fees Consultation Responses Universities Scotland.
20 April: Scotland's National Transport Strategy: A Consultation.
24 April: Matching Renewable Electricity Generation With Demand: report on work carried out in the Institute for Energy Systems at the University of Edinburgh by Thomas Boehme, Jamie Taylor, Dr Robin Wallace and Prof Janusz Bialek.
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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.
This page was published on 29 October 2008