Engagements (Aberdeen)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 28 November 2013.

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Photo of Lewis Macdonald Lewis Macdonald Labour

1. To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a substantive response to written question S4W-16703 regarding the First Minister’s engagements in Aberdeen in June 2013, which received a holding answer from the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs on 10 September. (S4O-02642)

Photo of Fiona Hyslop Fiona Hyslop Scottish National Party

The parliamentary question was answered on 21 November 2013, and the delay was due to an administrative error.

Photo of Lewis Macdonald Lewis Macdonald Labour

I am grateful to the cabinet secretary. There is nothing like an oral question to concentrate the mind. I and my MSP colleagues and the MP for Aberdeen South would have been delighted to welcome the Government’s contribution to the Pound for Piper Memorial Trust’s fund at the time, if the First Minister had seen fit to tell us about it then or, indeed, in any of the weeks after the Aberdeen Donside by-election and before the anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster. Can the cabinet secretary confirm whether there has been a breach of the “Scottish Ministerial Code 2011” in this instance? If so, will an apology be issued by her or by any other responsible minister?

Photo of Fiona Hyslop Fiona Hyslop Scottish National Party

There has been no breach. Paragraph 9.20 of the code states:

“Private offices should where possible issue constituency letters”.

On the memorial garden in memory of those who died in the Piper Alpha disaster, the date of the anniversary and the location are fixed. In terms of funding, I think that people expect this Parliament to be respectful in remembering and honouring those who died in the Piper Alpha disaster and that the contribution on behalf of the people of Scotland to the memorial garden was very appropriate. I regret that Lewis Macdonald is treating it in this way.