Jackson Carlaw: We know that Christmas is coming, because this question always precedes it. I can say to Jackie Baillie that, as part of the annual budget cycle, the SPCB considers the indexation of all provisions, including staff cost provision. The index to be applied is a matter for SPCB judgment rather than automatic application, and it will, of course, be confirmed when the SPCB submits its budget for...
Jackson Carlaw: Well, if I am Santa, Jackie Baillie can be one of the elves, and I am happy to support her application in that regard. I take note of what Jackie Baillie says. The corporate body considers the various indices at a point in time. I am not sure that I recognise the figure that she has quoted, but we applied AWE to the staff cost provision last year, and we thought that that was an admirable...
Jackson Carlaw: The corporate body is proud of its ability to attract and retain talented staff from a wide range of backgrounds, despite on-going challenges, with which we are all familiar, in the recruitment market, and with vacancies for some roles outstripping the number of people who are actively looking for work. The corporate body continues to be successful in attracting people with the right skills...
Jackson Carlaw: The corporate body puts fair work at the centre of its approach to employment, and staff survey results show that our staff consistently respond positively regarding the employment package that we offer. We take a number of approaches to ensure that that is the case. Salaries are regularly benchmarked with comparator employers to ensure that they are fair and competitive and attract...
Jackson Carlaw: Will the member give way?
Jackson Carlaw: I think that the answer to Mr Brown’s point is that, given that Hamas has said that it will not observe a ceasefire, there is a belief by Israel that today’s motion, when passed, and the campaign for a ceasefire will be meant to lead to a unilateral ceasefire by Israel. It will be held to the standard of unilaterally ceasing fire, notwithstanding the fact that the other side will not....
Jackson Carlaw: I must say that I approached today’s debate with a tremendous sense of trepidation. I have been overwhelmed with emotion since the events on 7 October. Yes, it is true that I represent Eastwood and that half of Scotland’s Jewish population live in my constituency. However, I have an equally large Muslim population, a Sikh population, a growing Hindu population and constituents who are of...
Jackson Carlaw: In a moment. Therefore, people should understand that, to me, this is not about Palestine and Israel so much as it is about Hamas and Jews, and about the absolute resolve of that terrorist group, harboured within Gaza, on which so much is now being visited, and what it inflicted on the people of Israel on that day. That is what manifestly moves so many people of Jewish faith wherever they...
Jackson Carlaw: Mr Sweeney will be aware that the proposal is the subject of an active petition that is before the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee and that it has d rawn cross-party support. On behalf of the committee and the petitioner, I put the issue directly to the First Minister when he appeared before the Conveners Group just before the October recess. At that meeting, he gave a...
Jackson Carlaw: It is clear that asylum seekers who are under 25 and over a certain age will already be eligible for free bus travel. I do not have an issue of principle with the Government; it is an issue of practical implementation, in that the Government has to identify, in a transparent and measurable way, a cohort of individuals to extend the scheme to. I hope that the minister will be able to advance...
Jackson Carlaw: It is some considerable time since I was last invited to lead a debate in what, during my salad days in this Parliament, our then chief whip David McLetchie used to refer to as “the graveyard shift” and for which I routinely had a season ticket in those early days. I am thrilled and delighted to see so many people here this afternoon to embrace the concept of the committee’s report. In...
Jackson Carlaw: I think that the committee very much feels that citizens panels that are led by Governments and people’s panels, which is what we are recommending in the Parliament, should be there to serve the debate and consideration of the elected representatives, not to act as a separate imperative for action to take place. Interestingly, what came out of our meetings with the people who had...
Jackson Carlaw: In Ireland, the key initial citizens panel was focused on the issue of the legalisation of abortion. It was fascinating to meet many of the 100 people who had participated in that. They had been on quite a journey, because there was a fact-based secretariat that underpinned everybody’s opinion, and there were no bad opinions. That led to a significant change and subsequent recommendations....
Jackson Carlaw: I think that I am out of time.
Jackson Carlaw: I do not think that we went through all the different issues. What I can say is that, in anticipation of members embracing the principle in the debate, the Parliament’s participation and communications team—PACT—which has been established and is now really experienced and effective, came forward with two suggestions that went to the Conveners Group. That group has embraced one of the...
Jackson Carlaw: It occurs to me to suggest to the minister and maybe helpfully to Mr Doris that, although the criteria for drawing people to participate would be random, the basis of those criteria can be determined if a particular panel was going to be held on a specific issue and it was felt that that would be fundamentally important to the consideration. That would be true about some issues, but not...
Jackson Carlaw: It is interesting that, in the Irish Parliament, the Ceann Comhairle—the Speaker—has such discretion. The form of words is for the Speaker to say to the relevant minister that they have perhaps been a little let down by their civil servants in the comprehensiveness of the response that they have just given, and that they might like to add to it a little further. In fact, the existence of...
Jackson Carlaw: I, too, participated in some of those Parliament days. Apparently, in a lot of the work that was done afterwards to establish what the value of those days had been seen to be, it was felt that we had kind of landed, done our thing and gone away again, and that there was no lasting benefit. It was felt that the types of engagement that we should be seeking to take from the Parliament out into...
Jackson Carlaw: One senior Irish politician paid a backhanded compliment to the principle of citizens panels. He said to me, “Jackson, what this is, is a method for gutless politicians to be excused the difficult decisions and to palm them off to somebody else.” However, on some of the big social change issues, that is, as I say, a backhanded compliment, because it means that the change is underpinned by...
Jackson Carlaw: In his very public embrace of Irene Cowan in her moment of deepest grief, and in his reflections and remarks to a packed congregation in the Giffnock Newton Mearns synagogue, the First Minister’s sincerity and empathy were deeply impressive and hugely appreciated by Jewish constituents in my Eastwood constituency. In turn, they know that, perhaps two decades apart, he and I grew up in a...
