Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to extend rail links into the Formartine and Buchan areas to the north of Aberdeen.
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to extend rail links into the Deeside area to the west of Aberdeen.
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has considered introducing a waiting time standard for people who have suffered their first seizure, given that there are no neurology standards to prevent individuals with suspected epilepsy waiting for more than six months for intervention and treatment.
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received since 1999 in respect of applying waiting time targets to particular illnesses.
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria are for determining which illnesses should have waiting time targets of less than six months.
Maureen Watt: I, too, welcome the bill. There is no doubt that the laws on adoption that were made early in the previous century are no longer fit for purpose. I am glad that important aspects of the bill are getting a thorough airing, so I do not intend to refer to section 31, other than to comment that although arriving in the Parliament mid-term had its disadvantages, because I have had to play...
Maureen Watt: I welcome the chance to debate the motion, and I thank John Scott for coming on board the Farmers Weekly campaign, albeit at least a month after my motion on the subject was lodged. Perhaps we can add the 33 who signed my motion to the 38 who signed his. There is some duplication, but nevertheless 55 members have signed either one motion or the other. I understand that John Scott was told to...
Maureen Watt: Just a minute. The Tories might be credible if they supported the countryside in the round, which includes public transport, but no Tories were present at this time last Wednesday when we discussed the problems that bus deregulation and the lack of sustainable bus transport in rural and urban areas have caused. The rest of us wonder about the Tories' commitment to the rural economy. It was...
Maureen Watt: I was just making the point that milk is part of local food, yet the Conservatives say nothing about it. The margin between the production costs and selling price of milk is so large that processors can afford to haul milk—some of it not even from Scotland—north, south, east and west, while thinking nothing of the amount of diesel that is wasted in doing that. Is any Tory here big enough...
Maureen Watt: I congratulate Mike Rumbles on securing this debate, which will be crucial in determining how NHS Grampian configures services throughout the region—not only maternity services but services for older people and diagnostic and treatment services. I expected my colleague Stewart Stevenson to be back from Georgia for this debate. I am still hoping that he will come through the door, but if he...
Maureen Watt: Does the member agree that, with the best will in the world, midwives cannot be there at crucial times for women who are at home—for example, if they have problems with latching on? It is best to ensure that the process is going well when they are still in the maternity unit rather than at home. Does the member agree that NHS Grampian's proposal to have mothers in and out in six to 12 hours...
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase grant aided expenditure to local authorities to allow them to adopt unadopted roads, pavements and footways.
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive how many years at current spending rates it will take each local authority to repair and renew all (a) roads, (b) pavements and (c) other footways in its area in order to bring them up to an acceptable standard.
Maureen Watt: I welcome the debate. The subject may be a reserved matter, but the vote at the end of the day will clearly show Scottish voters where the current crop of MSPs stands on the issue. Jackie Baillie's amendment is a typical fudge. Her hypocrisy beggars belief. Her speech was full of nice, soppy words, but nobody was fooled. Labour here and in the other place is morally bankrupt. After hearing...
Maureen Watt: The outcome of the debate will be of particular interest to people who participated in the long walk for peace, whom I had the privilege of joining for part of the way. Those people were from all walks of life and backgrounds and were of all ages. They will watch the vote at 5 pm carefully. The motion is clear and unequivocal: people are either for or agin Trident, now and in the future....
Maureen Watt: Where are Margaret Curran and Cathy Peattie today? All those—except the Greens—who vote for any amendment will be seen as worms wriggling to get off the hook.
Maureen Watt: No, thank you. Few dispute that the nature of world security has changed from the situation half a century ago. We have gone from superpowers and cold wars to intrastate rather than interstate conflict and from cross-border disputes to no-borders terrorism. In such situations, nuclear weapons are useless. Only Bush, Blair and their followers believe that they can bomb their beliefs on the...
Maureen Watt: To ask the Scottish Executive how many nuclear waste storage facilities are expected to be built in Scotland in the next 20 years and where these will be sited. (S2O-10645)
Maureen Watt: Will the minister confirm that spent fuel that is now transported to Sellafield is unlikely to be reprocessed, given the proposed closure date for the thermal oxide reprocessing plant—THORP—of March 2011? Will on-site storage of such material now be considered?
Maureen Watt: Is the minister aware that The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen recently stopped offering chemistry degree courses, and that the number of chemistry graduates has declined in Scotland? What is the minister doing to promote chemistry in particular as a degree course, given its relevance to the energy sector and the life sciences sector in the north-east?
