Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2015
When we debated the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill at stage 1 on 3 February this year, I pointed out that the unifying theme in legislation is trust: trust that communities all over Scotland know what is best for themselves and have the desire and ability to make their ambitions reality; trust that the bill will give them a range of tools to make their desires reality; and trust that our public services will rise to meet the opportunities that the bill presents them with to empower the communities that they serve. The levels of input and engagement that we, as parliamentarians, have received from communities across Scotland as we have considered and amended the bill vindicates that view.
The 16th century philosopher and statesman, Sir Francis Bacon, is reputed to have coined that well-known expression, “Knowledge is power.” In this case, knowledge is empowerment. Therefore, a special duty falls on the Scottish Government, local government, and other public bodies to empower communities across Scotland by informing them about the legislation and the powers that it provides. Whether it is about the ability to assume control of local community assets, such as community halls or leisure venues, or about requests from local groups to participate in delivery of public services in order to achieve an outcome, communities across Scotland can only take full advantage of the new powers if they know about them and have the necessary support to use them effectively. I call on all members to promote the value of the legislation to our constituents, and to encourage them to be active in community-based organisations so that they can empower themselves and their communities.
As the convener of the committee that scrutinised the lion’s share of the bill at stage 1, I know well the appetite that exists in communities across Scotland to be empowered with the tools that allow them to help themselves. The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, which we have finalised this evening, will provide the foundations for a new framework of empowerment across Scotland. Crucially, it will be a framework of empowerment that will be designed and delivered by ordinary folk who live and work in their communities. It will help to free their ambitions from the often well-intentioned but stiflingly dead hand of officialdom and bureaucracy.
Since the bill was introduced in Parliament in June 2014, Scotland has undertaken a remarkable journey of civic and community empowerment. The extraordinary level of public engagement and participation in the independence referendum, which carried through to the recent UK general election, provided the perfect platform from which to launch the bill. However, as with so many things in this life, the bill is not the end of a process, nor is it a means to an end. We should rather see it for what it is: a new staging post on the journey of empowerment that so many communities across Scotland are already embarked on.
If used to their fullest, the powers in the bill can provide the confidence and impetus that our communities need to be able to take their future wellbeing into their own hands. That does not necessarily mean that the task will always be easy—most worth-while pursuits in life are not—but I trust that it is a challenge that folk all across Scotland are more than ready to meet.
I thank again the thousands of ordinary people from across the length and breadth of Scotland who engaged with the Local Government and Regeneration Committee on the bill. Their vital contribution has helped to shape the bill in ways that will benefit generations of Scots far into the future.
I truly believe that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill will shift the balance of empowerment away from the agencies of the state towards ordinary people and the communities in which they live. Communities across Scotland need to feel as though they are in a partnership of equals with the agencies that provide them with the services that they need. Too often in the past, that has not been the case. The bill will go far towards redressing the balance. For that reason, I look forward to our voting the bill into law at decision time this evening.
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