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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.

129
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2,095,827
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
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Showing 60 of 2,095,827 contributions. Latest 30 days: 3,357. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 10 Jun 2026.
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
22 Mar 2011
First Minister’s Question Time · Job Creation
Three of the jobs that have been created in the past four years have been the highest paid in the public sector. I refer to three top bosses of Government bodies, who are under contracts that were signed by the First Minister’s ministers, with terms and conditions that his min...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
22 Mar 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · College Principals (Meetings)
The minister, like all members, knows that the Scottish budget for the forthcoming year is being reduced by 2 per cent as a result of a reduction in revenue funding from the Westminster Government. However, the Scottish Government’s reduction in revenue funding to the college ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
22 Mar 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · College Principals (Meetings)
1. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met college principals. (S3O-13399)
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
22 Mar 2011
Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I apologise for not being able to give you advance notice, and I am not sure, as it is the last day before dissolution, what can be done, but I am seeking advice.On 22 February, the Finance Committee approved contingent liability for the...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
17 Mar 2011
First Minister’s Question Time · Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)
Well, when?
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
17 Mar 2011
First Minister’s Question Time · Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)
When? This year?
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
16 Mar 2011
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011
We will not block the council tax freeze and we will vote in the same way as we have done on previous local government finance orders. We register our concern about some of the implications, but the measures will not be blocked by Parliament. I did not enjoy being asked in the...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
16 Mar 2011
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011
When the evolving debates began, I think that the Conservative policy was to halve the council tax for all pensioners. For the record, and so that I understand the member’s party’s position, is that still Conservative policy?
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
16 Mar 2011
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011
Is the cabinet secretary very pleased by how that £700 million has been distributed between the wealthiest people living in the biggest houses and the poorest people living in the smallest houses?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
As Robert Brown clearly indicated, the bill is a very strong taking forward of the proposals of the Steel commission, of which I was a member.Paragraph 3.34 of “Your Scotland, Your Voice” states:“Scotland would continue to operate within the sterling system until a decision to...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
I am grateful, Presiding Officer.The Scottish Government’s use of the powers that it has illustrates the SNP’s approach. The Government treated the Parliament shabbily in relation to its tax-varying powers. A full Finance Committee inquiry found that the Government’s treatment...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
I welcome the fact that in the SNP election campaign we are going to hear that Iceland is the country that we need to follow.There was a similar situation in relation to Ireland, up to the point at which the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism described the Irish Gover...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
If that is the SNP’s view, why has no Government minister mentioned Iceland in two and a half years? I will give way to a former Government minister.
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
If I have time towards the end of my speech, I will certainly give way to Margo MacDonald.As well as that settled will, throughout the period—and more acutely now—we have seen that great political seducer, nationalism, appealing to the weak spot in any political view. It says ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
I have here a newspaper clipping from the New York Times. Perhaps unusually, members might think, it covers a political meeting in Stow in my constituency in the Borders. The public meeting was described as “Radical and dangerous”. Four thousand people were present, and Afghan...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Scotland Bill
Will the minister give way?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
On the issue of finance, the most recent example that we have in Scotland of stripping away from a regional model to a single national model is provided by Skills Development Scotland. The regional delivery of skills through our local enterprise companies was stripped away to ...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
I apologise, Presiding Officer. I thank the member for letting me in after my unwarranted sedentary comment. My point was that it is clear that the member has made up his mind that there should be one police force for Scotland.
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
My point is on this issue.
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
Will the member give way?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
I am arguing to retain G division of Lothian and Borders Police because there has always been a focus on that area. The point that is being made—I am sure that George Foulkes is aware of it—is that G division of Lothian and Borders Police is coterminous with Scottish Borders C...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
The point that I am trying to make is that there are alternative solutions in those areas if there are co-located police stations. I am sure that there are many of them in the Highlands. There are some in the Borders, but there needs to be more in the Borders.If we are conside...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
There have been some comments about how one defines local accountability. I have to say that, after Mr Lamont’s speech, I am none the wiser about the Conservatives’ approach to directly elected police commissioners in Scotland: as he says, those ideas have still to be thought ...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
John Lamont always tries to be accurate, so I am sure that he will recall the commitment in the Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto of 2007 for more than 1,000 extra community police officers to link directly into communities such as those in the Borders that John Lamont and I...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
As the member will know, the previous Government aborted a programme of amalgamating police forces in England and Wales because it was going to be highly expensive. Can he guarantee that any reduction of the police forces in Scotland to a single force will cost less?
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Mar 2011
Local Services
The consultation is due to be completed on Thursday 5 May and the Christie commission is due to report in June. Did I pick up the cabinet secretary correctly? Did he say that all the responses from the consultation will be collated, assessed and passed on to the Christie commi...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
09 Mar 2011
“Report on preventative spending”
This is an important debate, which is why I am particularly sorry that I will have to leave before the end of it, as I have a meeting regarding my constituency with the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism. I apologise to you and other members, Presiding Officer.First a...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
09 Mar 2011
“Report on preventative spending”
I heartily endorse the cabinet secretary’s comments, but does he recognise that the committee found it difficult to establish what baseline information on outcomes was available and to judge whether we were meeting those outcomes? That shapes the budgets that follow.
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
03 Mar 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Planning Application (Milngavie)
This question raises the issue of cost, and no doubt the minister will reply to me as he did in the last part of his reply to Mr McNulty.The United Kingdom Government increased the maximum fee that can be charged to applicants for planning applications in England and Wales, bu...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
03 Mar 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Community Hospitals
The cabinet secretary will be aware of the profoundly important role that Hay Lodge hospital in Peebles plays in the Borders and Tweeddale and she might well be aware of plans to reconfigure that service. The circular on capital investment that the Government issued last Augus...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Committee
01 Mar 2011
Public Bodies Bill
I have one brief question. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that the Scottish Government has no difficulty with how the statement of funding policy will operate in relation to the bill?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Scottish Borders (Economic Development)
The minister will be aware of, and has been supportive of, moves to secure faster and more reliable broadband and mobile telephony for the Scottish Borders, which are critical for the future economic wellbeing of the region. He will also be aware that the Scottish Government r...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Scottish Borders (Economic Development)
5. To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting economic development in the Scottish Borders. (S3O-13030)
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Regeneration
Will the minister give way?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Regeneration
Thank you for getting my name correct, Presiding Officer. I am not saying that the Coalfields Regeneration Trust will be replaced by any of those bodies. It should come as no surprise that I pay due credit to the work that Helen Eadie does, but the number of organisations that...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Regeneration
I give way briefly to Helen Eadie.
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Regeneration
If I have time, I will do so.
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
24 Feb 2011
Regeneration
I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate. As John Park said, when the Parliament has debated regeneration in Government time or in members’ business debates, cross-party consensus has been achieved. That consensus has been strained so far this morning,...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
10 Feb 2011
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2011
Indeed, on the recommendation of the Parliamentary Bureau. That is absolutely true, but I thought that the matter was worth remarking on.There is not much debate about the need for reductions in budgets, even though there is a political narrative from the Government in that re...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Feb 2011
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2011
In last year’s debate on the local government finance order, my colleague Alison McInnes regretted that a one-and-a-half-hour debate was rather too short. Today, we have a very short time in which to debate an order that relates to £11.5 billion. I note that that is a decision...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
10 Feb 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Scottish Parliament Election (Votes for Prisoners)
Does the minister believe that convicted criminals who are serving a community part of their sentence should have the ability to vote?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
Hugh Henry is right that we Liberal Democrats have struggled in a coalition against a party to get a better deal for students. We sought in a coalition to prevent fees from being introduced for students in Scotland. We worked hard in a coalition against the introduction of fee...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
I am afraid that I do not have time.Although I cannot say that the pressure has been removed, I can say that the fact that the Scottish Government has accepted the case that we presented to it is testimony to what can be done. With the additional college places and the securit...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
It is not just a political gain for the Liberal Democrats or any other political party; it is a gain for students, such as the students at Borders College whom I met to discuss the issue last Friday. For one student, the planned reduction to their bursary under the draft budge...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
If Mr Miliband’s statement was a flip, that was definitely a flop, Mr Kerr.When Scotland’s Colleges made a public statement that it was concerned that the reductions in funding over the coming years were “potentially disastrous”, we took note. Similarly, when the shortfall and...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
I will in a moment, because I am sure that Mr Kerr will wish to reply to Mr Miliband, so I will give him the opportunity to do so.If Mr Kerr’s vision has been unimpaired, I wonder whether he read Mr Miliband’s speech. Let me quote what he said about the Labour Party:“We need t...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
Well, indeed, but I had not finished quoting Mr Miliband’s Fabian Society speech. If Labour—
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
09 Feb 2011
Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3
Yesterday, I spoke to a major employer in my constituency where there are major concerns about the future of a number of jobs. The company has a heritage that goes back well over a century in Galashiels and—the Borders being the Borders—I know some of the staff who work there ...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
02 Feb 2011
Non-Domestic Rates (Levying) (Scotland) (No 3) Regulations 2010
What did he mean when he said:“It could be argued that these will be significant developments which can contribute to economic growth and there may be a case for not imposing a financial burden on these developments, particularly at a time of economic downturn”?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
02 Feb 2011
Non-Domestic Rates (Levying) (Scotland) (No 3) Regulations 2010
When the cabinet secretary said in his consultation paper in July—Interruption.
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
02 Feb 2011
Non-Domestic Rates (Levying) (Scotland) (No 3) Regulations 2010
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
02 Feb 2011
Non-Domestic Rates (Levying) (Scotland) (No 3) Regulations 2010
I hear SNP members shouting “Jobs, jobs.” I will come back to jobs in a moment. Perhaps those members are referring to the 8,000 jobs that the Scottish Retail Consortium has said could be under threat from the measure.Alex Salmond opened the headquarters of Tesco Bank—I am tal...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
02 Feb 2011
Non-Domestic Rates (Levying) (Scotland) (No 3) Regulations 2010
This is the third time that we have brought to Parliament concerns about the rates that businesses in Scotland pay. In advance of today, we have consistently raised concerns about the lack of transitional relief for businesses that saw a massive increase in their rates bills a...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
27 Jan 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Does the minister still hold to the view that we should slash corporation tax for those very same companies?
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
27 Jan 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Small Business Bonus Scheme
On the latest Government estimates of the yield from business rates as we come towards the end of the current financial year, what is the latest Government estimate of whether the pot of business rates will be in surplus or in deficit? If it is due to be in net surplus, what i...
Jeremy Purvis LD Chamber
27 Jan 2011
First Minister’s Question Time · Student Support
On Monday, I met three students who are in receipt of bursaries that give them the opportunity to be at college. In my discussions with John Swinney on the draft budget, I have indicated that we will work with the Government to tackle the £1.7 million real-terms reduction in t...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD Chamber
27 Jan 2011
First Minister’s Question Time · Student Support
6. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government considers that the choices made in its draft budget 2011-12 represent fair support for college students. (S3F-2869)
Jeremy Purvis LD Committee
26 Jan 2011
Subordinate Legislation
I will try to be brief, convener.I believe that any Government in any part of the UK that seeks to introduce a new tax on jobs and growth should pause for a moment. However, it is obvious that that is not going to happen; indeed, the cabinet secretary has confirmed today that ...
Jeremy Purvis LD Committee
26 Jan 2011
Subordinate Legislation
I know that I am testing the patience of the committee this morning, convener. The latest GDP figures should give any Government that wants to increase tax on business in Scotland, thereby taxing jobs and growth, pause for thought. Regrettably, it has not given this Government...
Jeremy Purvis LD Committee
26 Jan 2011
Subordinate Legislation
And, even though the amount has differed, the figure in the draft budget is still guaranteed to councils.
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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 22 March 2011

22 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
First Minister’s Question Time
Job Creation
Purvis, Jeremy LD Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale Watch on SPTV
Three of the jobs that have been created in the past four years have been the highest paid in the public sector. I refer to three top bosses of Government bodies, who are under contracts that were signed by the First Minister’s ministers, with terms and conditions that his ministers set. Does he believe that a combined salary of £600,000 plus bonuses is the fair amount or is there a case to reduce the pay of the top paid in the public sector?

In the same item of business

Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP) SNP
4. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government has done to support job creation over the last four years. (S3F-2982)
The First Minister (Alex Salmond) SNP
We have taken a range of measures because job creation and employment are at the forefront of our policy programme. I point in particular to the 300,000 trai...
Kenneth Gibson SNP
According to Scottish Enterprise, between May 2005 and May 2007, 1,733 jobs were lost in North Ayrshire through 28 major redundancies. During that time, Cunn...
The Presiding Officer NPA
Order. Please come to a question, Mr Gibson.
Kenneth Gibson SNP
Does the First Minister agree that that litany of Labour economic incompetence shows that Scotland’s economy is not safe in the Labour Party’s hands and that...
The First Minister SNP
Yes, I agree with that. Laughter. We should all welcome eight months of rising employment in Scotland, as we should welcome the considerable number of positi...
John Scott (Ayr) (Con) Con
The First Minister recognises the need for job creation in Ayrshire. Nowhere is that more important than at Prestwick airport in my constituency. Does he agr...
The First Minister SNP
John Scott knows my interest in Prestwick airport and that I visited recently. Vital though the airport is, we should think of it not only as an airport but ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD) LD
Three of the jobs that have been created in the past four years have been the highest paid in the public sector. I refer to three top bosses of Government bo...
The First Minister SNP
Jeremy Purvis well knows the measures that John Swinney has announced to freeze the pay of top civil servants and people throughout the public sector. I hope...