Fiona McLeod: I add my thanks and congratulations to Graeme Dey on securing this important debate for Parliament. I also thank him because it means that we get to talk up our constituencies and the work that they are doing. As Ken Macintosh said, fair trade is a grass-roots movement, so it is appropriate for us to take such an opportunity. I also give Graeme Dey and other members my apologies; I have to...
Fiona McLeod: 8. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the latest employment figures. (S4O-02329)
Fiona McLeod: I am sure that all members across the chamber welcome the good employment figures. However, as the cabinet secretary has said and as I am sure he agrees, we could do even better if we had the full economic powers that only independence can bring us.
Fiona McLeod: 1. To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a mechanism for insisting that local authorities follow Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People’s guidance on consulting children and young people on school closures and other significant changes. (S4O-02292)
Fiona McLeod: I thank the minister for that answer. Can I draw his attention to an aspect of yet another saga of East Dunbartonshire Council’s informal consultation on school closures? The council is sending local authority officers into classes of children as young as primary 1, which directly contradicts the advice on page 18 of the commissioner’s guidance, which states that “a genuinely...
Fiona McLeod: 9. To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms are available to the Forestry Commission Scotland for the support of social enterprises. (S4O-02213)
Fiona McLeod: I thank the minister for his answer; it was really interesting. Will he give me more detailed information, perhaps in writing, so that I can help my constituents in Lennoxtown, led by the redoubtable Susan Murray, who are looking to develop Lennox forest, in particular to run an aparthotel as a social enterprise to go along with the cycling development that the group is considering?
Fiona McLeod: 1. To ask the Scottish Government what impact a reduction in winter fuel payments would have on older people in Scotland. (S4T-00382)
Fiona McLeod: In light of that response, does the minister agree that proposals to remove winter fuel payments are the latest in a series of cuts to the fuel poverty budget that started under Labour and which have continued under the present coalition?
Fiona McLeod: I am put in mind of one of my predecessors in my constituency—my mentor Margaret Ewing—who first campaigned for a winter fuel allowance more than 30 years ago. Will the minister join me in seeking to preserve my predecessor’s legacy?
Fiona McLeod: I will concentrate on the level 3 programmes for pain management and specifically the requirement for a residential facility. First, however, I pay tribute to Jackson Carlaw and Hanzala Malik for their speeches. I suffer from chronic pain, and both members summed up the importance of the debate. I had a dreadful episode with my sciatica at the weekend—I was not sure whether I wanted to...
Fiona McLeod: I am sorry, but I am very short of time and I want to concentrate on a suggestion that I want to make to the cabinet secretary. First, though, what is a level 3 programme? Level 3 programmes are about therapeutic care for those with pain and about teaching us pain management skills. It is delivered by interdisciplinary teams. What we are hoping to achieve through that is not just the...
Fiona McLeod: I, too, thank Margaret Mitchell for bringing the debate to the Parliament. In following Siobhan McMahon, I remember her members’ business debate in November 2011, and I remember speaking about a charity that is very close to my heart, which I will speak about again today. That charity, Lucky2BHere, was established in Skye in 2007 by a friend of mine, Ross Cowie, when he had just suffered an...
Fiona McLeod: It is only a short month since we debated the preliminary stage of the bill in Parliament. At that time, as committee convener, I thanked a number of groups and I reiterate my thanks at the final stage of the bill. I thank my fellow committee members and the witnesses who gave written and oral evidence. I especially thank the clerks and the Scottish Parliament information centre staff, who...
Fiona McLeod: I move, That the Parliament agrees that The National Trust for Scotland (Governance etc) Bill be passed.
Fiona McLeod: Funding for science is international. The figures that you give are all very well, but are you saying that, post independence, we will lose all the funding that we get from bodies such as the European Union and American companies?
Fiona McLeod: As a historian entering a science debate, I know that there is definitely an argument in the history community that it was the fact that we had the union that allowed the brightest brains in Scotland to flourish, because the union took away our ability to have our own politics, so we had to drive our intellect into science and technology.
Fiona McLeod: Funding for science is international. The figures that you give are all very well, but are you saying that, post independence, we will lose all the funding that we get from bodies such as the European Union and American companies?
Fiona McLeod: As a historian entering a science debate, I know that there is definitely an argument in the history community that it was the fact that we had the union that allowed the brightest brains in Scotland to flourish, because the union took away our ability to have our own politics, so we had to drive our intellect into science and technology.
Fiona McLeod: 9. To ask the Scottish Government what procedures are in place for funeral directors to attain and retain their accreditation. (S4O-02133)
