Chamber
Plenary, 21 Mar 2007
21 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
In my brief speech, I will record my party's support for the bill. This is a short, circumscribed but very important bill, which, because it has received support from all parties, will probably not make any headlines in tomorrow's newspapers.
I, too, pay tribute to everyone who has been involved: Des McNulty, whose member's bill received Green support; the parliamentary committees that dealt with the matter; and, of course, the mesothelioma sufferers and their families who have campaigned for so long.
It is a good day when the Parliament is able to right a wrong. It was wrong that 80 per cent of mesothelioma sufferers were not pursuing their claims in order to protect the financial situation of their loved ones in the future. The bill will remove that anomaly and enable sufferers and their families to make choices together about compensation, without risking the family's access to compensation in the future. I commend the speed and the consensus with which the Executive and the Justice 1 Committee worked on the amendments on retrospection at stage 2. The Green party supported those amendments as well.
There is so much consensus that I shall not use my four minutes—I simply wanted to put my party's voice on the record. We are about 10 days away from dissolution. During the election campaign, we may well be asked what difference the Parliament has made to people's lives in Scotland. Well, here is one instance in which the Parliament has righted a wrong and made a real difference to people's lives. My party supports the bill whole-heartedly and will vote for it at decision time.
I, too, pay tribute to everyone who has been involved: Des McNulty, whose member's bill received Green support; the parliamentary committees that dealt with the matter; and, of course, the mesothelioma sufferers and their families who have campaigned for so long.
It is a good day when the Parliament is able to right a wrong. It was wrong that 80 per cent of mesothelioma sufferers were not pursuing their claims in order to protect the financial situation of their loved ones in the future. The bill will remove that anomaly and enable sufferers and their families to make choices together about compensation, without risking the family's access to compensation in the future. I commend the speed and the consensus with which the Executive and the Justice 1 Committee worked on the amendments on retrospection at stage 2. The Green party supported those amendments as well.
There is so much consensus that I shall not use my four minutes—I simply wanted to put my party's voice on the record. We are about 10 days away from dissolution. During the election campaign, we may well be asked what difference the Parliament has made to people's lives in Scotland. Well, here is one instance in which the Parliament has righted a wrong and made a real difference to people's lives. My party supports the bill whole-heartedly and will vote for it at decision time.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
NPA
The next item of business is a debate on motion S2M-5628, in the name of Cathy Jamieson, that the Parliament agrees that the Rights of Relatives to Damages (...
The Deputy Minister for Justice (Johann Lamont):
Lab
The Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) (Scotland) Bill is a short but significant piece of legislation that will help a small group of people who ...
Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP):
SNP
I apologise, as I will have to leave the debate before the conclusion of the final speeches to go to a meeting of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.T...
Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con):
Con
It is a pleasure to speak in support of this short and unusual bill. It is a measure of the unanimity of the support for the bill that there were no stage 3 ...
Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD):
LD
I am pleased to speak at stage 3 of the Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) (Scotland) Bill.I have been in the Parliament for only four years, wher...
Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab):
Lab
I think that the member is correct. I cannot recall a previous occasion on which there were no amendments to a bill at stage 3—although I am sure that I will...
Mike Pringle:
LD
Absolutely—without question.The non-contentious nature of this bill was clearly evident in the shortest ever briefing from the Law Society of Scotland. I was...
Mrs Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab):
Lab
I, too, am pleased to speak in the debate. As members said, many people should be congratulated on their support for the bill: my Labour colleagues Des McNul...
Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP):
SNP
As I have said before, we whole-heartedly welcome the bill as a means of bringing some justice to those who are affected by mesothelioma and their relatives....
Eleanor Scott (Highlands and Islands) (Green):
Green
In my brief speech, I will record my party's support for the bill. This is a short, circumscribed but very important bill, which, because it has received sup...
Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP):
SSP
The Scottish Socialist Party very much welcomes and supports the bill. Politics is about power: who has it and how they use it. Although I am part of the con...
Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab):
Lab
Members know that there has been a long history of tackling the injustice of mesothelioma. The Parliament has attempted to use its powers to reform the law, ...
John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP):
SSCUP
By the law of averages, I have no right to be standing here, because I worked in the shipyards. In 1947—60 years ago now—I worked in the city of Johannesburg...
Mike Pringle:
LD
The Deputy Minister for Justice set out all the essential details of the bill, so I will not go over them again. She made an extremely good point about an is...
John Swinburne:
SSCUP
I think that it was not so much that the employers did not know, as that they did not care. That is the difference.
Mike Pringle:
LD
I agree almost entirely with that point. That shows how irresponsible some of our industries were, given that the facts were known a long time ago.This is a ...
Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con):
Con
I declare a technical interest, in that I am the beneficiary of an insurance company pension. I am sure that this is the first time that anyone in the Parlia...
Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP):
SNP
It is no great secret that we have some fairly confrontational debates in this place from time to time and that, although we speak this afternoon in a spirit...
The Deputy Minister for Communities (Des McNulty):
Lab
I am delighted to have the opportunity to wind up this debate on the Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) (Scotland) Bill, which takes forward the w...