Engagements
First Minister's Question Time
Scottish Parliament debates, 5 November 2009, 11:59 am
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
Later today, I will have meetings to take forward the Government's programme for Scotland.
Iain Gray (Labour)
It has been another week of upheaval for our banks. A year ago, the First Minister promised to "strain every sinew" to keep jobs and banks in Scotland. He
"called an emergency meeting of the Financial Services Advisory Board".
He said that FiSAB was
"particularly important at a time such as this."—[Official Report, 18 September 2008; c 10984, 10988.]
He was to chair FiSAB's meetings. When did FiSAB last meet?
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
FiSAB has met throughout the year. If I am correct, the next meeting will take place in two weeks' time. In addition, FiSAB has established a jobs task force. The financial sector in Scotland has mobilised to ensure that we have positive announcements as well as the disappointing job losses that have inevitably occurred. Among the positive announcements are the headquartering in Edinburgh of Tesco retail bank, whose headquarters I was delighted to open, and the 500 job gains in insurance through esure's investment. The Scottish Government supported both those investments. I am sure that Iain Gray would be the first to welcome that positive action for jobs in Scotland.
Iain Gray (Labour)
FiSAB last met four months ago, on 1 June, but the First Minister was not at the meeting. He has not met that key body since February. At that meeting and in the report that was published in June, it was said that FiSAB would start to meet regularly. Why has it not met since 1 June?
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
FiSAB meets throughout the year and the jobs task force that it established is in constant communication. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth and I meet people from the financial sector constantly. Only this week, John Swinney and I have had extensive discussions with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and the permanent secretary to the Treasury to try to secure and save jobs in Scotland.
One of our many key concerns is about the disposal of the Royal Bank of Scotland's insurance
Iain Gray (Labour)
I have had such discussions with the banks and with the workforce this week. However, the First Minister said:
"FiSAB is the key body to look at, promote and enhance the skills of the financial sector in Scotland."—[Official Report, 15 January 2009; c 14066.]
FiSAB should have met on 29 September, but an e-mail from the Scottish Government's financial services team said:
"Hi All We have been contacted today by the First Minister's office advising us that, the First Minister may not be able to attend the agreed FiSAB date of 29 September ... The new proposed date is Tuesday 27 October."
That would have meant a month's delay, but a couple of weeks later, an e-mail said:
"Sincere apologies in advance—but I'm afraid I am going to have to cancel the next scheduled meeting of FiSAB on Tuesday 27 October at the request of the First Minister."
That e-mail rearranged the FiSAB meeting for 9 December, which will be 11 months since the First Minister turned up at a meeting. Will he manage to go along to the next meeting?
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
The First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth have had a range of meetings with key people in the financial sector. FiSAB meetings and communications continue throughout the year. That is why we have been able to take the action that I identified to secure jobs in the financial sector in Scotland. Do we have the Labour Party's support to retain the 1,600 vital insurance jobs in the city of Glasgow?
Iain Gray (Labour)
I think that the First Minister's problem is that he does not have an answer to my question.
Of course Scottish Labour supports any attempts to keep those 1,600 jobs in Scotland. Those are exactly the discussions that I have had this week with the banks and the unions that represent those workers.
It is true that the First Minister meets FiSAB throughout the year—he met it in February and he will meet it again in December. The point is that the First Minister promised to strain every sinew for the Diageo workers, but he blew off the chief executive to draw a raffle on television. He
Rt Hon Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party)
I was straining every sinew when I helped to open the Tesco bank headquarters in Scotland. I was straining every sinew when I announced, with Peter Woods, the 500 new esure jobs in Glasgow. I was straining every sinew when I was on the Diageo march in Kilmarnock—which Iain Gray did not manage to attend. He sent the reassuring message that he would have attended if he had been the First Minister.
It is important that we not only defend Scottish jobs in Kilmarnock but engage with the financial sector, not just to mitigate the potential damage of forced sell-offs, but to engage in the positive announcements by Tesco bank and esure in Glasgow. I am delighted that Iain Gray eventually committed the Labour Party to helping to secure jobs in Glasgow. What a pity that it took two goes to get from him an assurance of commitment to jobs in the great city of Glasgow.