Bill Butler: I welcome the opportunity to support the motion in the name of my Labour colleague Rhoda Grant. I offer her my unreserved congratulations on bringing to the Parliament a bill which, when enacted, will undoubtedly better the lot of victims of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a totally unacceptable and repellent form of behaviour, and she is to be commended for her hard work and commitment in...
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive how it will encourage co-operative business participation in the UN International Year of Cooperatives 2012.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions Co-operative Development Scotland has had with co-operative businesses regarding their participation in the UN International Year of Cooperatives 2012.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide funding to the Energy Saving Trust in 2011-12.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it provided to the Energy Saving Trust in 2010-11.
Bill Butler: 3. To ask the Scottish Executive when it next plans to meet the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. (S3O-13126)
Bill Butler: The cabinet secretary will be aware of recent speculation in The Herald over the future of Glasgow homoeopathic hospital, which is located in my Glasgow Anniesland constituency. Unsurprisingly, that speculation has caused great concern and anxiety among patients past and present throughout the country who have benefited from the care that the institution offers. A number of those patients...
Bill Butler: I urge members to support both amendments. I am particularly pleased that the Government has lodged amendment 3 to section 14. It will place stepgrandchildren and other children who were considered by someone who has died to have been their grandchildren on the same footing as grandchildren by marriage. The shameful anomaly that previously existed discriminated against children based on the...
Bill Butler: I urge members to support all the amendments in group 2. On amendment 2, I agree that the word “annual” should be left out of section 7, as it is unnecessary and potentially confusing. If it remains, there could be a suggestion that the loss of support should be calculated by reference to 75 per cent of only one year’s income. It is clear that that is not the intention of the bill. The...
Bill Butler: The one remaining area of possible dispute between the Government and me is commencement. The bill follows the Scottish Law Commission’s report of 2008, which followed years of piecemeal amendment to the Damages (Scotland) Act 1976. That act has now been on the statute books for 35 years. The law in the area needs to be cohesive and modern to benefit and properly compensate the victims of...
Bill Butler: The minister’s detailed exposition of the effects of amendments 6 to 8 is convincing and his assurance gives me significant comfort. I concur with his wish to ensure that no bereaved person misses out as a result of something that we do inadvertently. His case is compelling, especially with regard to the parliamentary scrutiny function. I have found the minister to be a man of his word. I...
Bill Butler: I rise to speak to the motion in my name that the Damages (Scotland) Bill be passed. The bill, which was introduced on 1 June 2010, has the clear purpose of implementing the recommendations of the Scottish Law Commission’s “Report on Damages for Wrongful Death”, which was published in September 2008. In Scots law, when an individual suffers an injury or contracts a disease as a result...
Bill Butler: This has been a good debate on an important area of the law of Scotland. The bill’s objective, as Mr Ewing succinctly put it in the stage 1 debate, “is about trying to facilitate fair compensation”.—[Official Report, 15 December 2010; c 31545.] It is indeed about fair compensation, delivered as speedily as possible for victims and their loved ones in cases of wrongful death, without...
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39060 by Fergus Ewing on 8 February 2011, how much of the funding detailed in the table was provided via the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Fund, broken down by (a) organisation and (b) year of award.
Bill Butler: When Parliament passed the emergency legislation after the Cadder judgment, the cabinet secretary quite rightly said that he would keep Parliament fully informed. I welcome his statement today. How does he intend to keep Parliament fully informed on future developments regarding this extremely serious matter, which he said himself is a bit of a moveable feast and which is causing some alarm...
Bill Butler: I have been privileged to have been a member of the Public Petitions Committee for almost two and a half years. I record my thanks to its exemplary clerking team, led by the incomparable Fergus Cochrane. During my time as a member of the committee, I have, along with colleagues, witnessed first hand the way in which the public petitions process allows members of the public to become directly...
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-36115 and S3W-37229 by John Swinney on 21 September and 18 November 2010, when it expects to provide the information requested.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive how many anti-sectarianism projects it has funded from the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Fund since 2008, broken down by (a) project and (b) amount.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to the first supplementary to question S3O-11582 by John Swinney on 7 October 2010 ( Official Report , c. 29467), what progress has been made regarding its participation in the UN International Year of Cooperatives 2012.
Bill Butler: To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is in place for the training of jockeys.
