Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Plenary, 28 May 2003

28 May 2003 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

Scottish Executive's Programme

Swinney, John SNP North Tayside Watch on SPTV

I thank the First Minister for his statement and for the advance copy that he made available to us.

I give a warm welcome to a number of the measures that are in the Government statement. The introduction of the Gaelic language bill, the determination to have a strategic transport authority and the commitments to strategic environmental assessment, to proportional representation for local government and to the abolition of national health service trusts are all welcome. Of course, they formed part of the Scottish National Party's election manifesto. We are glad that the partnership has taken some good ideas from the SNP. We will be able to support other commonsense measures in the fullness of time.

I am disappointed that the First Minister's statement said nothing about the measures that the Government intends to take to guarantee the payment of compensation to hepatitis C sufferers who have been contaminated as a result of errors in the national health service. I am also concerned about the absence of any reference to measures that the Government intends to take to tackle poverty. That was a notable absence.

I have three specific questions for the First Minister. First, the First Minister was long on detail on every aspect of his programme, with the exception of the economy. We have had 40 years of low economic growth and we now have zero economic growth—the lowest economic growth rate in Europe. The Government's breakthrough measure is to modernise the laws of personal bankruptcy and diligence. That will hardly stimulate economic growth in Scotland. It tells us all that we need to know about the Executive—it is high on ambitions but has no powers to deliver the real economic change that people require.

The First Minister said that Governments could not legislate for economic growth. However, real Governments can legislate to reduce business burdens, deregulate and cut the business costs that companies in our country must endure. What specific measures that his Government has not tried in the past four years will the First Minister introduce in the next four years to deliver economic growth of which this country can be proud?

Secondly, the Government says that it will tackle crime and disorder by reducing violent and drug-related crime and cutting reoffending on the very day that it is announced that violent crime and drug crime are at a 10-year high. Will the First Minister give Parliament a commitment today that he will increase not only the number of operational officers but the total number of police officers on Scotland's streets? That would reflect the consensus that exists among the SNP, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats on the need for a real-terms increase in police numbers within Scotland.

Thirdly, will the First Minister take this opportunity to respond to the comments made by a number of his Westminster colleagues over the weekend? They made remarks to the effect that the introduction of proportional representation for local government would be calamitous for the Labour party's power bases in Scotland and that they would do everything in their power to derail the measure. Will he take the opportunity to tell those Labour MPs that PR for local government is a devolved matter and that his Government is determined to introduce it? Will he give a guarantee to Parliament that his Government will do so in time for the 2007 elections? Quite simply, will he tell those Labour MPs to mind their own business?

Search Hansard contributions

Plenary, 28 May 2003

In the same item of business