Issue 74 - April 2008

Events

1 April: Alex Salmond, First Minister, visited US Founding Father Thomas Jefferson's home - Monticello, the only residence in America on the United Nations World Heritage List - where he presented a copy of the Declaration of Arbroath to Doctor Tim Garson, Provost of the University of Virginia.

2 April: Alex Salmond, First Minister, announced that the Scottish Government is to offer the world's largest ever single prize for innovation in marine renewable energy.  The Saltire Prize is a £10 million award designed to encourage world scientists for innovation in the area of clean, green energy.  Mr Salmond made his announcement as part of Scotland Week at the world headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington.

2 April: Alex Salmond, First Minister, commented on the announcement that the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern is to step down from the post. Mr Salmond said he had written to him congratulating him on his term in office and his many achievements as Taoiseach and that he will always be welcome as a steady friend of Scotland.

2 April: John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, commented on the Index of Manufactured Exports.  The statistics show that Scottish manufactured export sales grew by 3.0% over the 2007 calendar year but decreased by 2.0% in real terms in 2007 Q4.  Mr Swinney said that no country can isolate itself from the prevailing global economic conditions but that they can act to make Scotland more competitive, stating that the Government has been doing this by cutting business rates for thousands of small businesses across Scotland.

3 April: Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, speaking after publication of the UK Marine Bill consultation, said that the right solution for Scotland's sea and coastal communities is the devolution of more marine powers.  As it stands the UK Marine Bill proposes that control be reserved to Westminster.  Mr Lochhead said that the Scottish Parliament has already backed demands by the Scottish Government, the fishing industry and conservationists, that control of the marine environment 12 to 2000 nautical miles off-shore be devolved to Scotland.

4 April: Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, congratulated Selkirk on its plans to go 'plastic bag-free'.

4 April: Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, announced a £500,000 two year observer programme that will deliver independent verification of ground-breaking fish conservation measures.  The new scheme will allow skippers to test new ways of fishing sustainably and get verification that they are helping conserve cod stocks.  There will be independent observers on board who will help speed up the delivery of innovative measures such as better net design, throughout the Scottish fleet.

5 April: Alex Salmond, First Minister, and other Ministers from the Scottish Government, participated in the end of Scotland Week 10th annual Tartan Day parade through the streets of New York.

6 April: Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, announced that a historic programme Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities - is now open to interested parties to submit their ideas, offering farmers, foresters, businesses and community groups a share of almost £800 million to develop rural Scotland.

7 April: Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, met with China's Vice Minister of Education, Wu Qidi, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in Beijing.  The MOU establishes formal strategic Sino-Scottish collaboration across a number of different areas.

9 April: publication of the first ever report on the state of Scotland's seas, to help lay the groundwork for the new Scottish Marine Bill.  The report Scotland's Seas: Towards Understanding their State outlines the cleanliness, health and productivity of Scotland's waters.  The main findings are:

  • Scotland's seas are generally clean and safe, with a trend towards reduction of most pollutants over the past 20 years;

  • the seas are generally healthy and biologically diverse, with around 40,000 species of plants, animals and microbial forms living in Scottish waters;

  • the seas are productive and generate around £2.2 billion of marine-industry activity (excluding oil and gas activity) and provide approximately 50,000 jobs in Scotland.

The report was commissioned by the Scottish Government and has been jointly produced by Fisheries Research Service (FRS), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) with assistance from the wider marine scientific community across Scotland and the UK.

15 April: John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, announced publication of plans identifying cash savings of £600 million over the next financial year.  The Efficientcy Delivery Plans also contain details of how the government will move towards 2% savings in both 2009/10 and 2010/11.
Examples of how savings will be made include through:

  • Drug Purchasing: £20 million recurring saving to be delivered through more effective supply side arrangements in the provision of drugs and other prescribed items used in primary care e.g. through prescribing of generic drugs. Savings reinvested to fund the Abolition of Prescription Charges.

  • Countering NHS Fraud: £1 million recurrent saving to be delivered through a mixture of actual recoveries and deterrence.

  • Forestry Commission Scotland: Forestry Commission Scotland has undertaken an exercise to analyse every woodland in its estate and score them against meeting SG objectives.

16 April: Alex Salmond, First Minister, hosted a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State for Wales Paul Murphy, to discuss the arrangements for reinvigorating the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) process.  The JMC is an over-arching body that deals with relations between the administrations at Westminster and the devolved bodies.  It includes Ministers of the UK Government, and Ministers from the Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government and Northern Ireland Assembly.

18 April:  Alex Salmond, First Minister, following a meeting with representatives from the National Grid, said that the development of clean, renewable energy in Scotland is being put at risk by the 'intolerable' electricity transmission charging regime which works against the development of clean, renewable energy in Scotland.  Mr Salmond said both the National Grid and OFGEM have now listened and responded positively to Scotland's case for change.

21 April: the Scottish Government confirmed that it intends to merge the functions of the Deer Commission for Scotland (DCS) into Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

22 April: presentation of the Scottish Government's International Framework.  The Framework shows how the Scottish Government will internationalise Scotland's business in pursuit of increasing sustainable economic growth, further it's strategic objectives, build on areas of excellence such as climate change, renewable energy and life sciences.  More detailed objectives for particular markets or areas of work will be set out in a series of plans under the International Framework.

23 April: Stewart Maxwell, Communities Minister, pressed Westminster to do more to tackle fuel poverty.  Mr Maxwell said that the devolution settlement constrains the Scottish Government form controlling the key factors - fuel prices and household income - which have the dominant impact on fuel poverty.

23 April: at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Alex Salmond, First Minister, launched a new, foreign language website Seafood Scotland to assist foreign buyers.  The website will simplify the sourcing of Scottish seafood by providing up-to-date information, translated into French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian.

25 April: Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson announced that the words in Gaelic 'Pàrlamaid na h-Alba' for 'Scottish Parliament' will now appear on the Scottish Parliament's official logo.

25 April: the first 52 of the 150 additional police offers to be recruited by the Government in the 2007-08 year completed their training.

25 April: Shona Robison, Minister for Public Health, announced funding of £12 million for physical activity initiatives in schools, workplaces, homes and across communities.  Over the next three years the funding will expand a wide range of programmes including outdoor exercise session in parks, lunch time walks for workplaces and walking groups in deprived communities.

28 April: Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, welcomed Lord Sutherland's independent review of Free Personal and Nursing Care.  The review was commissioned by the Scottish Government to look at the total levels and distribution of funding for the policy, and how to secure its long-term sustainability.  Lord Sutherland stated in his review that the UK Government was wrong to remove Attendance Allowance resources from the Scottish budget following the introduction of Free Personal and Nursing Care.  Ms Sturgeon said that the Government will consider the report in detail and in partnership with COSLA and will update Parliament in due course on their response.

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Appointments

28 April: the 15 members making up the commission which is looking into the future of devolution in Scotland was announced:

  • Sir Kenneth Calman, Chancellor of the University of Glasgow (Chair)

  • Colin Boyd, former Lord Advocate, member of the House of Lords (Labour)

  • Rani Dhir, Director Drumchapel Housing Co-operative

  • James Douglas-Hamilton, former Scottish Office Minister, member of the House of Lords (Conservative)

  • Professor Sir David Edward, retired judge of the European Court

  • Lord Elder, member of the House of Lords (Labour)

  • Audrey Findlay, former Leader of Aberdeenshire Council, now convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrats

  • Jamie Lindsay, former Scottish Office Minister, member of the House of Lords (Conservative), Chairman SAC (Scottish Agricultural College)

  • John Loughton, President of the Scottish Youth Parliament (serving in a personal capacity)

  • Murdoch MacLennan, Chief Executive, Telegraph Media Group

  • Shonaig Macpherson, Chair of the National Trust for Scotland and of the SCDI (Scottish Council Development and Industry)

  • Iain McMillan, Director, CBI Scotland

  • Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Glasgow

  • Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary, Unison

  • Jim Wallace, former deputy first minister and former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats

The commission has the support of Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.  The SNP Government is not taking part in the process.  The commission will not explore independence as a future option.

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Bills

30 April: the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill: Stage 3 Bill was passed by Parliament.  The primary policy aim of the Bill is to meet the Scottish Government's obligations under the Hosts City Contract and deliver the commitments in the Candidate City File.  The Bill provides the Scottish Ministers and councils with the powers necessary to achieve this.

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

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

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

 

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Committees

15 April: the Parliament's Justice Committee visited Dundee at the start of a series of fact-finding visits to inform its community policing inquiry.

23 April: the Parliament's Local Government and Communities Committee called for evidence at the launch of an inquiry into child poverty in Scotland.

25 April: the Parliament's Health and Sport Committee issued a call for evidence on the role of rehabilitation services, such a physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, in shifting the balance of health care from primary to secondary care.

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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

 

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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 2008 include:

2 April: Strategic Framework For Scottish Freshwater Fisheries - Consultation Responses.

3 April: Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013.

8 April: Preparing Scotland: Scottish Guidance on Preparing for Emergencies: Executive Summary.

23 April: Scottish Government International Framework: document setting out how the Scottish Government will co-ordinate its international engagements and activity. The Framework draws together how the Scottish Government's international activities support sustainable economic growth in Scotland.

28 April: Independent Review of Free Personal and Nursing Care in Scotland.

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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.

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This page was published on 29 October 2008


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