Due to changes made to the official Scottish Parliament website at the start of 2011, our parser that used to fetch their web pages and convert them into more structured information has stopped working. We’re afraid we cannot give a timescale as to when we will be able to cover the Scottish Parliament again. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Financial Services Sector (Support)
First Minister's Question Time
12:00 pm
Derek Brownlee (Conservative)
To ask the First Minister, in global financial services week, how the Scottish Government is supporting the financial services sector. (S3F-820)
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
From day one, the Government has fully supported Scotland's financial services industry. We recognise the key role that the industry plays in the Scottish economy and we are happy to work closely within the unique partnership of the Financial Services Advisory Board, which I am delighted to chair and on which I am joined by both John Swinney and Jim Mather. Global financial services week was initiated by the board.
As John Campbell, the industry deputy chair of the board, said at Tuesday's launch, the industry is grateful indeed for the smooth transition and the rapidity with which ministers and civil servants got
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
I am delighted that Derek Brownlee has given me the opportunity to inform him and Parliament that, later this afternoon, I will announce an important new initiative arising directly out of that partnership working. Our intention is to create a financial services skills gateway for Scotland. It will draw together key partners that are committed to the success of Scotland's financial services, including the Government, the trade unions, Scottish Financial Enterprise and others such as our universities and further education colleges. I have asked David Thorburn—the chief operating officer of the Clydesdale Bank—in a personal capacity to lead the industry group to take forward that initiative.
Derek Brownlee (Conservative)
I thank the First Minister for his very comprehensive reply. He reeled off a whole list of senior figures in the industry, many of whom he meets in his day-to-day business. Can he name just one of them who supports his Government's plans for a local income tax?
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
I can tell that the leading figures in the industry support the Government, as demonstrated by The Scotsman 's poll of only three weeks ago, which showed, if I remember correctly—I am open to correction by Derek Brownlee—that there had been a 40 per cent movement towards support for Scottish independence. I do not know whether Derek Brownlee was counted in the figures but, nonetheless, it is an interesting statistic.
Karen Gillon (Labour)
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. You selected a question from me to be asked this week about what legal advice had been sought with regard to Scotland withdrawing from the common fisheries policy. That question was not lodged in a vacuum or with regard to the situation in an independent Scotland. It was lodged because the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment's consultation document on fishing quotas, which was published last week, said that the Scottish Government is seeking to leave the common fisheries policy. I therefore asked a specific question about the situation that pertains now, not in an independent Scotland. It is discourteous to the chamber that the First Minister chose not to answer that question, even if the answer would have been "none".
Alex Fergusson (None)
As I have repeatedly said, such matters are not points of order. The whole chamber was aware of the question that you asked—as you said, it was clear and succinct. The First Minister would be equally aware of the question, and the whole chamber also heard the response.