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Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

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1999–2026

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Showing 60 of 2,095,827 contributions. Latest 30 days: 3,026. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 10 Jun 2026.

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

First Minister's Question Time · Smoking Ban (Assessment)

If one of the hallmarks of the second session of the Parliament was the ban, does the First Minister believe that a hallmark of the next session ought to be a reduction in the instances of long-term conditions, in particular respiratory diseases, and better provision for those...

6. Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

First Minister's Question Time · Smoking Ban (Assessment)

To ask the First Minister what assessment has been made of the impact of the first year of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places. (S2F-2810)

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Somebody reading that paragraph cold might not know what we are trying to say.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

If that is agreed, I am happy to find a building for the unit.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

I have a point to raise about that poor girl, IRIS, who we are shoving around all over the place. Paragraph 18 states:"The Committee recommended that the Executive should relocate its Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit".From where to where: Glasgow to Edinburgh, or one depa...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Paragraph 16 suggests that legislation should be consolidated"where principal regulations are amended on 5 occasions".I understand the point, but do we need to be so specific? Legislation might need to be consolidated after four or six amendments of the principal regulations. ...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Medical Training Application Service

The minister may be aware that concerns have been expressed about doctors from other parts of the UK in effect flooding the application process in Scotland. I appreciate that those concerns are based simply on press reports, but has he talked to counterparts in other parts of ...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

We need to ensure that the public sector promotes the sensible use of alcohol.

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

No.We agree with the extension of the alcohol test purchasing pilot to all of Scotland in 2007. That is an important development in the updated plan. We also wish to see the progressive roll-out of bottle tracing schemes such as the one that was successfully piloted in the Twe...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

I want to concentrate on health issues. Many statistics on alcohol have been published recently. As Stewart Maxwell mentioned, alcohol misuse now costs the economy more than £1 billion per annum. However, the statistics also show that there has been a 72 per increase in alcoho...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Free Personal Care

Will you estimate roughly how much resource transfer from the NHS contributes to overall budgets? Some evidence shows that resource transfer has been used to establish projects, which is fine, but Mr Vestri's report contains an interesting discussion about mainstreaming resour...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Free Personal Care

Have local authorities indicated to you that they would need extra resources? Have they set out a bill for doing what you suggest they need to do?

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I refer to my entry in the register of members' interests. I give Dennis Canavan credit for pursuing the matter over a number of years, but what I find difficult in what he is saying is that he suggests that the protection order system has reduced access throughout Scotland. T...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Executive Responses

I do not think that we should detain ourselves on the matter.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

I am content with that.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

Individuals can be distinguished by their different dates of birth, for example, so the order would not have to use the person's name. It could mention the person who was born in or around January 1947, so that the person who was not would not be transferred. I do not understa...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

I will need to think about that.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

I am trying to think of examples that would not involve amending existing legislation.

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

The power will be subject to affirmative procedure if the legislation is being amended, otherwise it will be subject to negative procedure. In what circumstances would it be subject to negative procedure? I can envisage some, but it would be interesting to find out your though...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Carers (Strategy)

Does the minister agree that there is a need to invest more in carers centres, especially where there are no carers centres or where the carers centres are finding it financially difficult to continue?

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill

The records in the Borders case were incomplete and, to a degree, inaccurate. The issue was not that they were not available; it was that they were not kept correctly. The issue is about keeping proper records.

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill

I echo the minister's thanks to the committee's clerks and to the witnesses who came before the committee for their efforts, observations and help in assessing and improving the bill as it has passed through its stages. I am grateful for the way in which the Scottish Executive...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I agree with Scott Barrie. There is a risk with amendment 4 that we would be trying to manage the work of social work departments by statute, which would not be appropriate. It is a matter for the exercise of discretion by the social work departments of local authorities.

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Amendment 1 is similar to an amendment that was debated at stage 2. Although I recognise the good intentions behind it, I have reservations that its provisions would be inflexible, and might give rise to circumstances in which a visit could not go ahead because a GP was not av...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Social Workers

I thank the minister for that most encouraging news—an increase in the number of social workers of 25 per cent is valuable. Does the minister plan to continue the fast-track graduate recruitment scheme? If so, what will be the timeframe? Does the minister agree that that schem...

2. Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Social Workers

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social workers there are and whether the figure has increased in recent years. (S2O-12024)

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Coeliac Disease

I also congratulate Margo MacDonald on securing the debate and I thank the people who were involved in this morning's reception and the display that has been set up outside the chamber.If one in 100 people is affected by coeliac disease, as I am sure is the case, about 1,000 p...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Making the National Health Service Local

Yes, I see no reason why community pharmacies should not be involved in that, in co-operation with others who retail such products.We can do so much more to improve the health and well-being of the nation. Lives can be made better if we develop anticipatory care, improve the s...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Making the National Health Service Local

This is an important debate, particularly if it really does mark a sea change in public policy. My party has long wanted a new emphasis on, to use the words of the Minister for Health and Community Care's motion, a shift in the balance of care away from episodic care in the ac...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Cigarettes and Alcohol (Under-age Sales)

In a recent answer to a parliamentary question, it was stated that there have been only around two or three prosecutions for selling cigarettes to under-16s. Is the minister thinking of measures to revise the law on selling cigarettes to under-16s to make it more workable, or ...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Bottle Marking Scheme

Will the minister look to evaluate a number of such schemes, including the one that has been running for some 18 months in Peebles, in my colleague Jeremy Purvis's constituency, and others in south Edinburgh? As she says, the schemes are an important way of combating under-age...

3. Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Bottle Marking Scheme

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to promote and extend the traceable bottle marking scheme nationwide. (S2O-11968)

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Executive Responses

But then I could be in a minority of one.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Executive Responses

That is but one opinion. I do not think that the matter merits reporting, frankly.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Executive Responses

I should refer to my entry in the register of members' interests, as president of an angling association in the area concerned. I do not see the purpose of reporting the order at all. The purpose of the order and of the combination of powers is to provide a more coherent worki...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Executive Responses

I do not see why we should not write to the Executive, which has ultimate responsibility for these matters. We can discharge our duty simply by saying, "There you are." It will be fine if the Executive responds; if it does not, that will be its problem. However, we should cert...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

In the consultation about increasing the age to 18, can we ask young people themselves to reflect on what you said about the ways in which people are recruited so that we find out whether they validate those observations?

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

I note from your submission that Cancer Research UK's poll found widespread support for the ban among young Scots, which is reflected in my constituency. I have always found it difficult to understand why there is a continuing recruitment of young girls to smoking. I presume t...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

But that issue is not covered by the bar study or the community study.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

I am asking about the methodology that is being used.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

It would be interesting to find out a little more about the people who have just changed where they smoke, especially if they are now smoking more in front of their family and children than hitherto.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

Presumably, the idea is to determine whether the ban per se has been a trigger for people to give up smoking or whether it has just altered their behaviour and they are smoking elsewhere.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

I want to ask about the qualitative bar study that involves three communities and the qualitative community study that involves four communities. How many people are involved? On measuring behaviour, there is reference to reported behaviour and observed behaviour. Given that t...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

I note the figure of 371 bar workers in the study. Roughly what percentage is that of the total number of bar workers? Is it 1, 2 or 3 per cent, perhaps?

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Smoking Ban <br />(Public Health Impacts)

Did you adjust the results of the research to take into account the number of people who were in the bars when the measurements were taken? I presume that different readings would be obtained if there were a lot or a few people in a bar.

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Battle of Passchendaele<br />(90th Anniversary)

I add my congratulations to Murdo Fraser on having secured this debate on an important subject. He talked about the nature of the battle of Passchendaele and how it saw the greatest loss of life. He also mentioned the significant contribution that Scots soldiers made to the ba...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

No, I am in my last minute.The issues that I have just mentioned are subsidiary to the main point, which is that there is a better way to achieve the objectives that Bill Butler has set out in his bill. Those objectives are shared, and the search for an alternative way of achi...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

No; that question shows a fundamental misunderstanding.I want to discuss the three subsidiary points mentioned by Bill Butler. First, I do not think that he really addressed—although he tried to—the issue of remuneration. Secondly, as he said, the 14 constituencies will have t...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Ms Robison has just heard an indication of support for the proposal from within the chamber.The committee I was referring to would likely be based on social work services, in which there is an increasing need to co-ordinate activities with health care professionals. I believe ...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

I congratulate the member in charge of the bill, Bill Butler, on the way in which he has progressed his proposal thus far. I appreciate the courtesy that he extended to me personally and to my Liberal Democrat parliamentary colleagues by coming to discuss the bill with us on t...

Euan Robson: LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · MSSA Infection

I thank the minister for his helpful and detailed answer and welcome a number of the measures that are being taken. However, does he think that measures specifically to combat MSSA need to be introduced? If so, should further guidance in that regard be issued to health boards?

1. Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Chamber

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · MSSA Infection

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce MSSA infection rates in hospitals. (S2O-11795)

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Transposition and Implementation of European Directives Inquiry

We could put in "for example", which would not necessarily commit us all to the suggestion that the unit should go to the First Minister's office.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Transposition and Implementation of European Directives Inquiry

As you posed the question, I do not think that the First Minister's office is the appropriate place for IRIS. I agree that we should put it somewhere more prominent, but I am not clear that the First Minister's office is the right location. Having said that, if you were to ask...

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Transposition and Implementation of European Directives Inquiry

No problem at all. If the same words can be read in two different ways, that is marvellous.

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Transposition and Implementation of European Directives Inquiry

With all due respect, because of the can be's and the possible's and so on, that paragraph is somewhat convoluted. The main point is about timescales and penalties. We could have a separate paragraph to say that in most instances where instruments involve penalties and timesca...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD Committee

Executive Responses

Euan Robson: LD Committee

Treatment of Drug Users

It struck me forcefully that there is an absence of good evidence—of proper statistics. From looking at some of the reports that we have been given and hearing the witnesses, it appears that there are part surveys, bits of information and assumptions based on small samples. Is...

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Chamber

Plenary, 29 Mar 2007

29 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

First Minister's Question Time

Smoking Ban (Assessment)

Robson, Euan LD Roxburgh and Berwickshire Watch on SPTV

If one of the hallmarks of the second session of the Parliament was the ban, does the First Minister believe that a hallmark of the next session ought to be a reduction in the instances of long-term conditions, in particular respiratory diseases, and better provision for those who suffer from them?

In the same item of business

6. Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD

To ask the First Minister what assessment has been made of the impact of the first year of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places. (S2F-2810)

The First Minister (Mr Jack McConnell): Lab

Studies so far have indicated that air pollution in pubs has dropped by 86 per cent and that the health of bar workers has dramatically improved. I am certai...

Euan Robson: LD

If one of the hallmarks of the second session of the Parliament was the ban, does the First Minister believe that a hallmark of the next session ought to be ...

The First Minister: Lab

Both of those points are important. I hope that the Parliament will continue to tackle them in the next session. We can all be very proud of much of the legi...

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): SNP

I welcome the First Minister's comments on the success of the first year of the smoking ban, although I remind him what he said a few short years ago. Accord...

The First Minister: Lab

In the spirit in which the question was asked, I point out that, in the first session—before Stewart Maxwell was in the Parliament—Hugh Henry proposed a ban ...

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): Lab

Will the First Minister give a commitment that, when he returns next month as First Minister, he will continue to promote the healthy living agenda that has ...

The First Minister: Lab

There is further action that we can take in relation to young people in particular—I am sure that each of the parties will comment on that over the next five...

The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid): NPA

Members will be aware that this final plenary meeting of the second session of the Scottish Parliament will continue for another 20 minutes or so. I ask Murr...