Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 03 March 2016
03 Mar 2016 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
General Question Time
Fracking
Neil Findlay says that the spirit of openness and transparency is new, but as far as I am concerned, it is old; I have always been open and transparent, as members know. Consistent with the spirit of openness that I hope I have followed for the past 16 years as a member of the Parliament, I entirely support the Scottish Government policy of pursuing the matter on the basis of evidence. That is the approach that Scotland has bequeathed to the world through the great thinkers of the Scottish enlightenment. If it was good enough for them, it is good enough for me.
In the same item of business
4. Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on fracking. (S4O-05618)
The Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism (Fergus Ewing)
SNP
The Scottish Government is taking a precautionary and evidence-led approach to unconventional oil and gas, including hydraulic fracturing. In January 2015, w...
Neil Findlay
Lab
We know that a moratorium on fracking is in place and that the research will—conveniently and, I am sure, totally coincidentally—report after the election. A...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
Neil Findlay says that the spirit of openness and transparency is new, but as far as I am concerned, it is old; I have always been open and transparent, as m...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
Now that even the Liberal Democrats have seen sense on fracking, is it not time that the minister was true to his own instincts and joined the growing consen...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
I am absolutely determined that the people of Scotland should have the benefit of the most substantial corpus of evidence that has been produced in relation ...
The Minister for Youth and Women’s Employment (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
Who told you that?
Fergus Ewing
SNP
Well, I did think so, but perhaps it was a mistake. Is Murdo Fraser, as a lawyer, like myself, not willing to look at the evidence first and to come to his c...
John Wilson (Central Scotland) (Ind)
Ind
In the light of the openness and transparency that the minister has outlined, could he give us some transparency about the community organisations that are b...
Fergus Ewing
SNP
The process of consultation to which we have committed, that we have expounded and that we have explicitly stated in many public utterances, including parlia...