Roseanna Cunningham: I welcome the action that Angus MacDonald has taken to enable the Grangemouth community to work in partnership with others to seek solutions. I am clear that the Scottish Government will place communities and environmental sustainability at the centre of our plans for economic growth. As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, SEPA has a role to play in that, and I welcome Angus...
Rt Hon Jack McConnell: The statistics that we currently use include council tax as one measurement of income and expenditure. Many of the factors to which Margo MacDonald refers are already included. That is why our statistics are respected internationally and are consistent with the work of academics, campaign groups and others across the board in the UK and Europe. We want, of course, to maintain that position. I...
Nicola Sturgeon: We had a summit in Glasgow just last week, which included people from England. Margo MacDonald might have been right—if we were focusing on the link between Glasgow and Edinburgh as the be-all and end-all. However, ultimately, we want Scotland to be fully linked with high-speed rail right to London. That will bring economic benefits, so the Scottish Government should work towards that....
Lord Marland: The cost projections in the Mott MacDonald report were produced to provide an up-to-date set of assumptions on the costs of generation technologies at that time, to inform government policy. Mott MacDonald's assumptions on the costs of different electricity generation technologies were used to inform the modelling of the electricity system for the electricity market reform (EMR) project. The...
Ian Blackford: This afternoon I have received the sad news, courtesy of the Press and Journal, a newspaper in Scotland, that a young man from Fort William, Hamish MacDonald, known as Callum MacDonald, is in an induced coma in Paris having been caught up in the events in the Bataclan. What support can we give to the family in this situation—not just the young man involved but his extended family—and what...
Alex Salmond: Lewis Macdonald will know that we have taken a policy decision to bring the boards that are under parity towards parity, and to try to do so in a way that does not cut services elsewhere. He should also be aware that this week I visited the new health village in Grampian, which is the first of the hub initiatives. It will have 500-600 staff working in combined service delivery, and from 10...
Tavish Scott: I associate myself with Lewis Macdonald’s sensible question. I ask the minister to reflect on the fact that the Sumburgh crash, which Lewis Macdonald mentioned, is now six years past and there has still not been a fatal accident inquiry. Will the minister at least undertake to speak to the Crown Office to press the case for that fatal accident inquiry to begin, given that the families of...
Nicola Sturgeon: Angus MacDonald is absolutely correct to raise that point, which was raised strongly by stakeholders during the engagement sessions in the summer. Rightly and understandably, we tend to concentrate on bringing together health and social care, but we must remember that, if older people are to be supported to live independently for as long as possible, that requires a wider range of services,...
Kenny MacAskill: I am extremely surprised by Mr Macdonald's attitude. The previous criticism was that there had been a rush to make a judgment and that a decision had been taken without proper consultation. We are now in a position in which a process of full consultation and discussion—with Mr Macdonald or anyone else—is under way. The member is a victim of his own success. He wished there to be...
Ben Macpherson: .... I, too, will start by paying tribute to Bob Doris for bringing the motion to the chamber today, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Marie Curie. It was great to hear from our colleague Gordon MacDonald, because one of my earliest memories of being an MSP was when Gordon MacDonald and I met at Ainslie Park swimming pool, in my constituency, to throw our support behind a swimathon to...
Derek Mackay: Lewis Macdonald is right to say that there is a needs-based formula. There is also the ability for councils to raise council tax. On top of that, Aberdeen City Council has the 85 per cent floor which, incidentally, the Labour Party never gave to Aberdeen or North East Scotland when it was in power; it was established by the SNP Government. I am sure that Lewis Macdonald and many other members...
Des McNulty: To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister, his private office officials or any of his special advisers have met Mr Donald Macdonald or representatives of his company and, if so, what the dates of any such meetings were, whether any matter referred to in the planning application in Aviemore in which Mr Macdonald or his company had an interest, or the adjudication of that...
Tavish Scott: I hope that Margo MacDonald accepts that I have sought to be entirely consistent in my desire to ensure that all our capital transport projects hit their budgets and timescales and that we deliver what we agreed with the promoters. Parliament has scrutinised that in its consideration of private bills. I understand the important arguments that have been made about Granton by Margo MacDonald...
Michael Russell: I welcome Mr Macdonald as a trailblazer in his party, because he has got exactly the point about college regionalisation and college change that I have made to his colleagues for some time. He sees precisely that we must focus the outcomes of further education on a region’s employment needs. I saw the report, which justifies the process that we are going through. I very much welcome Mr...
Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been paid from the public purse to (a) Arup Group, (b) Balfour Beatty, (c) Kier Group, (d) Laing O'Rourke, (e) Mott MacDonald Group, (f) Skanska UK, (g) Dialogue by Design, (h) Capita Symonds Ineco JV, (i) Parsons Brinckerhoff, (j) URS Scott Wilson, (k) the ERM Temple Group Mott MacDonald Consortium, (l) Terra Quest, (m) Mouchell and...
Alex Johnstone: The minister will be aware from my correspondence with her about the concerns of a Mrs MacDonald at Brechin Road, Arbroath. Mrs MacDonald feels that the local authority is using her area as a place to dump antisocial people. She and her neighbours have already suffered a good deal of abusive behaviour and regularly suffer large groups of youths congregating around individual houses. What...
Hugh Henry: The Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services in his reply to the Local Government Committee articulated some of the concerns about how the power of well-being would and could be used. The power of well-being cannot be used for illegal activities, but it can be used to promote the well-being of different groups in different areas within local communities. The power of well-being is...
Alex Salmond: If I followed the logic of Margo MacDonald’s position, that would mean that Britain could not be an independent country within the European Union and any of the unionist parties here that wanted Britain to be an independent country would have to advocate its leaving the European Union. Just for the sake of argument—and given the occasional difficulty that Margo MacDonald can offer...
Malcolm Wicks: My Department is currently working up its impact assessment on smart metering, which will take account of the analysis by Mott MacDonald, as well as that of a number of other organisations. The Mott MacDonald report, with other analysis, will be published later this month, together with the Government's impact assessment and their response to the metering and billing consultation. As part of...
Malcolm Chisholm: Those are issues of development planning and it is key that enough land should be designated for that. Murray Tosh's first point relates to infrastructure. Lewis Macdonald will make a statement soon about the water industry investment programme. I have been in discussions with Ross Finnie and Lewis Macdonald about that, as it is a matter that has been raised with me quite often since I took...