Results 1–20 of 800 for speaker:Adam Tomkins

Scottish Parliament: Oaths and Affirmations (12 May 2016)

Adam Tomkins: took the oath.

Scottish Parliament: Scotland’s Future in the European Union (26 May 2016)

Adam Tomkins: It is a great honour to make my maiden speech in the Parliament as one of Glasgow’s two newly elected Conservative MSPs. Given that I have taught European and British constitutional law at the University of Glasgow for the past 13 years, I suppose that it is apt that I am making my first speech in a debate on the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union. On the subject of the...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: I welcome Angela Constance to her role and congratulate Jeane Freeman on her appointment as Minister for Social Security. Angela Constance’s brief is broad indeed, covering communities and local government, housing, planning, equalities and social security. From these benches, Annie Wells will speak on equalities, Graham Simpson on local government, Maurice Corry on veterans and Alex...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: We are not in coalition with the Liberal Democrats any more and we are still doing it. Fairness dictates that it is not only the poor who should benefit from tax cuts. In the past five years, 140,000 more Scots have become higher-rate tax payers. One in 10 nurses pays income tax at 40 per cent, as does one in three police officers and a quarter of teachers. They, too, deserve a tax cut, which...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Let me finish my point. Scotland will not benefit from becoming the highest-tax part of the United Kingdom. The Scottish NHS will not benefit from that and neither will Scottish schools. It will not make Scotland fairer; it will make life in Scotland harder. Our policies, by contrast, are working. They are producing a fairer Scotland. Building a strong economy and creating jobs are helping...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: The fact is that 2.5 million jobs have been created in the United Kingdom since David Cameron became Prime Minister. The past year alone has seen 152,000 disabled people who were not working a year ago go into work. As we all know, the Scottish Parliament will have significant welfare powers as well as fiscal powers. Welfare devolution is new, so it is important that we understand what is...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Let me finish the point. The dignity of the pay packet is much to be preferred to the indignity of a system that assumes that someone is not fit for the workplace. Of course assessments about a claimant’s fitness for work must be made in a manner that fully respects the individuals involved. However, such assessments need to be made and claimants will not always get what they think that...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: That is why the entirety of the DLA or PIP is being devolved to this Parliament; that is why I want to see that devolution sooner rather than later; and that is why I have pressed the member’s ministerial team for the early devolution of those powers to this Parliament—so that this Parliament can take ownership of those issues and deal with them. We have two core aims when it comes to the...

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Will the member take an intervention?

Scottish Parliament: Taking Scotland Forward: Creating a Fairer Scotland ( 2 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Will Mr Doris acknowledge that the Scottish Conservatives brought to the Smith commission table the prospect of devolving such powers? We published the proposals in our Strathclyde commission report before the independence referendum. The devolution of welfare powers is a Conservative idea that has been legislated for in the Scotland Act 2016 by a Conservative Government.

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Surely the difference between a GP and a named person is that a GP is there to assist, whereas a named person is there not only to assist but—behind the backs of parents—to discuss issues of wellbeing. [ Interruption .] It is in section 19(5)(a)(iii). The named person is there to discuss questions of wellbeing—behind the backs of parents—with any “relevant authority”. Is that not...

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: John Mason is of course right that social workers already enjoy extraordinarily coercive and necessary powers to intervene in cases of suspected risk of harm or neglect, but that is not what the named person legislation is about. It is expressly about wellbeing, which significantly lowers the threshold for intervention. Does Mr Mason not accept that?

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Will the member assist me by pointing me in the direction of the provision in the legislation that enables a parent to challenge the appointment of a named person? I could not find it.

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: The principal problem with this law is its overreach. Of course we should have robust and effective child protection laws that focus on harm, abuse and neglect and which require intrusive powers, but we already have them, and everybody in the chamber fully supports them, especially Conservative members. The named person legislation sits in addition to all those powers, but here—unlike in...

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: Let me finish this point. Tavish Scott says that there should be such a right; I agree with him, but the law as enacted does not allow for it. The only way of putting that right is to rewrite the law, which is precisely why we are asking for its implementation to be paused.

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: The second problem with the legislation—and this is precisely the answer to the minister’s question—is the bureaucracy that it entails. Wellbeing is so compendious a topic that named persons will be required—again, the word is “required”—to consider an astonishing 222 risk indicators and 304 outcome signifiers as represented in the SHANARRI wheel of wellbeing, the resilience...

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: I will let the Deputy First Minister in in a minute. Let me be clear: our focus should resolutely be on children who are at risk of harm. Anything that undermines, lessens or obstructs that focus is contrary to the public interest and should be resisted.

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: As the Deputy First Minister well knows, opinion on the named person scheme is divided. We have evidence from the Scottish Parent Teacher Council; from Maggie Mellon, vice-chair of the British Association of Social Workers; from the Scottish Association of Social Workers—and it goes on. I have no doubt that the named person legislation was well intentioned, and I do not believe for a moment...

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: It is the job—

Scottish Parliament: Named Person Policy ( 8 Jun 2016)

Adam Tomkins: It is the job of this Parliament to act as the revising chamber for the laws passed in the last one. That is why we are asking in the motion for this law to be paused. Everyone here knows that we think that the named person law should be buried, not paused, but that is not what we are asking for today. All we are asking is for the Parliament to take another look, to take stock, to reconsider,...


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