Holyrood, made browsable

Hansard

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
Current MSPs
415
MSPs ever elected
13
Parties on record
2,354,908
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
Coverage span
Official Report

Search Hansard contributions

Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
The Convener: Lab Committee
06 Mar 2007
Scottish Water
Several operational and financial issues have properly arisen, including what are essentially operational issues under Q and S III. It might be helpful if the committee drew to the attention of the Environment and Rural Development Committee—whose work the minister is familiar...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
28 Jun 2005
Correspondence
I will try to be helpful. The letter that we received on 24 February 2004, which was sent from Mark Parkinson at the Treasury to David Reid at the Scottish Executive, confirmed that, in the Treasury's view, the Scottish Executive had followed normal accounting treatment. I am ...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Chamber
21 Dec 2006
Budget Process 2007-08
Karen Gillon thinks that she has a tough job, but we can perhaps all speculate on why the Finance Committee has been given the final slot in the parliamentary calendar before Christmas. One of the more benign explanations is that the business managers hope that, if tomorrow's ...
The Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
07 Feb 2001
The New Economy
I presume that that comment was directed mainly in my direction, convener.I have tried to time my introductions to reflect the estimated length of time for which I shall give evidence to the committee on each item. The first introduction will therefore last for five or six min...
The Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
17 Apr 2002
Lifelong Learning Inquiry
I will mention one area to which we give slightly different emphasis than does the report. The learning market has two consumers: one is the learner—it is right that we should be learner centred—but business is also a key customer of learning. We did some work on the numbers. ...
The Minister for Communities (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
27 Oct 1999
Evidence
Thank you, Trish. Why do I have the feeling that we are not the centre of parliamentary action this morning? Laughter. I will take a few moments to recap where the Executive is on the local government agenda. Frank McAveety wrote to you on 4 October, setting out the Executive'...
The Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
17 Apr 2002
Lifelong Learning Inquiry
I will pick up where the committee left off. I thank the committee for the opportunity to comment on its interim report. I learned from my officials how well the convention went on Monday—I thought that it would be inappropriate for me to attend it.The process of being open an...
The Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Chamber
11 Jan 2001
Careers Service Review
I want to make a statement setting out the key elements of the Executive's response to the Duffner committee's review of the careers service. Copies of the report and the Executive's response are being published today and will be made available directly to each member and to t...
Ms Alexander: Lab Chamber
01 Nov 2001
Teaching and Research Funding (Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Review)
The higher education review that we are conducting will examine the way in which SHEFC operates to encourage businesses to have better links with the university sector in general. I will say more about that in my remarks about research.One reason why we should move now to simp...
The Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Chamber
01 Nov 2001
Teaching and Research Funding (Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Review)
For the benefit of the Scottish higher education representatives in the public gallery, who perhaps do not attend the Parliament as frequently as some of us, let me start by observing that there has been more consensus today than on perhaps any other occasion that we have deba...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
27 Oct 1999
Evidence
There are three circumstances of appointments that we are in danger of confusing.The first circumstance is Executive appointments to quangos. Such appointments are dealt with by a commissioner. I know that this area is of interest to members; there have been discussions about ...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Chamber
25 Jun 2009
Arbitration (Scotland) Bill: <br />Stage 1
The Arbitration (Scotland) Bill is the final bill that we will consider before the recess. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing people from a secondary school in my constituency who were visiting the chamber. Over lunch, they admitted to me that they had found the detail of...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
17 Apr 2002
Individual Learning Accounts
Yes. The committee will appreciate how much of a challenge it is for me not to depart from the script on those aspects that have possible legal implications. It will be a first.Those who have been members of the committee for a long time and who have followed this matter with ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
10 Jun 2003
Work Programme
I hope that we can avoid having a vote on the issue. I want to propose a way forward. The discussion has focused on the First Minister's inquiry and on its remit and role. It is clear that the focus of that inquiry will be retrospective, as it will examine what happened in the...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
04 May 2004
Budget Process 2005-06
It is comforting to have the experts emphasise the complexity of what the committee is trying to do. I want to take a step back and to seek advice.The difficulty that the committee has is that it is trying to perform two functions. The first, to which you point, is to meet its...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
31 Oct 2006
Correspondence
I agree whole-heartedly with that.In paragraph 16 of the clerk's paper, two recommendations relate to the issue of financial memoranda. I have no objection to the first, which is to do with holding an evidence-taking session on the cost of the implementation of the Education (...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Chamber
26 Feb 2003
Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill
As others have said, the bill is certainly the most technical bill with which many members of the Justice 1 Committee have been involved, which is why we are rather glad to have got through it. I echo the congratulations and thanks that Michael Matheson, Lord James Douglas-Ham...
Ms Alexander: Lab Chamber
05 Oct 2006
Motions, Decisions and Parliamentary Time
I take Margo MacDonald's point, and I record the fact that I do not think that she could ever be described as a straw woman either.Today's Procedures Committee has given us a report with a sophistication that is reminiscent of that of the constitutional steering group. We have...
Ms Alexander Lab Chamber
29 Sep 2010
“The recommendations of the Commission on Scottish Devolution regarding Scottish Parliament procedures”
I say to Mr Brown that I will move on.It is almost three years since the Parliament supported the establishment of what has become known as the Calman commission. I can say with certainty that it was Mr McLetchie who recalled Donald Dewar in his remarks, and I will do the same...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
25 Mar 2009
Energy Inquiry
I agree with Gavin Brown that the right thing to do at this stage in an investigation is consider its terms of reference—I did the same thing. I was not on the Caithness visit, but I am quite happy to see the marine stuff simply documented in the report, because I cannot belie...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
25 Jun 2003
Timetable
I note that the committee members are long-standing members of the Parliament. Over the past 36 hours, I have noticed a perceptible shift of tone in the Parliament. I have been to three committee meetings in that time, all of which said that, although they met fortnightly in t...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
01 May 2002
Budget Process 2003-04
No, thank you. I did not amend the first paragraph, which contains the introduction.This is my first appearance before the committee in its consideration of the Scottish budget. On previous occasions, my deputy has appeared before the committee. However, it is not a first for ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
10 Jun 2003
Budget Adviser
It is appropriate that members have the opportunity to suggest people whom they think are missing. That should be done as quickly as possible and I would very much like us to make the decision at our next meeting. I say that because, although it might be valuable to spend half...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
27 Jan 2004
Scottish Parliament Building Project
I propose an amendment to your proposal, convener. It is important that we do not lose the trail of issues in the process—Ted Brocklebank referred to the elapsing of time in that regard—and it would be useful if the clerks could draft two letters. One letter could go to the SP...
The Convener (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
20 Feb 2007
Interests
I welcome the press and public to the meeting. As usual, I ask everybody to turn off their pagers, mobile phones and BlackBerrys.No apologies have been received, but there has been a change in the committee's membership: Dr Elaine Murray has resigned from the committee and has...
The Minister for Communities (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
15 Sep 1999
Briefing
I realise that my paper is rather long, so I will keep my introduction short. The ministerial team looks forward to working closely with the committee during the next year. We all have a challenging task because social inclusion has not featured strongly in Scottish policy mak...
The Minister for Communities (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Chamber
27 Apr 2000
Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I am delighted to have this opportunity to open today's debate on the general principles of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill. In July, Donald Dewar announced the Executive's intention to introduce this legislation. Since then, much work has been done: a...
The Convener Lab Committee
07 Dec 2010
Work Programme
The main item of business is a discussion of the committee’s work programme. We will have an initial discussion in public about what individual members consider to be the issues that face the committee. I should perhaps say that I hope that we will not delve into the finer det...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
29 Oct 2008
Export Promotion, International Trade and Inward Investment (Public Policy Framework)
I will suggest two points that might be included in the final report, and then I will make an observation about how the committee might take the issue forward.First, I have a question: what is left for us to do? This is an impressive and helpful piece of analytical work that m...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
16 Sep 2003
Budget Process 2004-05
It is more of a contribution than a question.I am acutely aware that the development of the budget process took place in a context in which the Scottish Parliament did not exist. Therefore, frankly, thought was not given to the need for longitudinal data to provide a sense of ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
27 Jan 2004
Scottish Water
That takes us to the heart of the political problem that water has created for everyone. It is clear that, under the old regime, in which the total permissible expenditure was spent, we would have been spending in excess of £300 million in return for the high water charges. I ...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
03 Oct 2006
Cross-cutting Inquiry into Deprivation (Executive Response)
I will not say much on the matter, because I was on maternity leave during the latter stages of the inquiry. Suffice it to say that the committee's report was excellent and, as the convener says, the Executive has risen in part to the challenge. If certain issues had not been ...
The Convener: Lab Committee
06 Mar 2007
Annual Report
Thank you. This is the committee's final meeting before the end of the parliamentary session, so it is important that I thank the committee's clerks, Scottish Parliament information centre officials, the official report and everybody else who has served committee members in th...
The Minister for Communities (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Committee
30 May 2000
Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill
Thank you, convener. In view of the widespread interest in this matter, I would like to treat the committee, this stage of the parliamentary process and the movers of the amendments with due respect. I therefore want to outline briefly why the Executive is urging rejection of ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
23 May 2000
Budget Process
I will address that directly in terms of controlling costs. You are right that the money is not for consultants only, but for debt redemption. The spend has been profiled as it has because when Calum Macdonald first examined the issue two years ago his assessment indicated tha...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Chamber
10 Oct 2002
Prison Estates Review
I echo the congratulations that members have offered to the Minister for Justice, Jim Wallace, on listening to the deliberations of the Justice 1 Committee. The parliamentary process is tested when there is no consensus. On this occasion, the minister has listened and I speak ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Chamber
21 Dec 2006
Budget Process 2007-08
Indeed. There are also themes surrounding equal opportunity. I made mention of two priorities, but I happily concur with Mark Ballard on that point. On the issue of overall priorities, we are anxious to work with the Executive and with other committees to deepen subject commit...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
08 Oct 2008
Credit Crunch (Impact on Scottish Economy)
I want to deal with a devolved aspect of the credit crunch. I realise that the options paper deals with all aspects of it, and I might stand back from the discussion about joint working because other committee members have more experience than I do.In his statement to Parliame...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
28 Apr 2004
Budget Process 2005-06
I agree whole-heartedly. Although Elaine Murray and I are on the Finance Committee, we are not really interested in pursuing that agenda through that committee, because the financial accounting aspect is meaningful only if it is linked to the national baseline performance. The...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
07 Feb 2001
The New Economy
George Lyon's final point about the significance of public sector demand in those communities is critical. I will talk from memory, because I do not have the figures in front of me. In Selkirk, were we to seek to use the £0.25 billion to make use of higher bandwidth capability...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
07 Feb 2001
The New Economy
The opportunity for Scotland is to be not just a digital economy but a digital society. The committee may want to reflect on that in its considerations. The ubiquity of access and the familiarity of the technology to the whole population should form our aspiration. That might ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
07 Feb 2001
The New Economy
I could come back five times in the next year.The second committee paper—EL/01/05/02—is fascinating if you get the time to read it. It proves that Scotland has not yet really had the opportunity to take advantage of the productivity spurt that we see in the United States. It s...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
07 Feb 2001
Local Economic Forums (National Guidelines)
I will be quick. As local economic forums were the committee's idea, not mine, I will not go over the case for them. I will just share with you a flavour of the responses that we received and invite you to offer us guidance on the few outstanding issues.More than 100 responses...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
17 Apr 2002
Lifelong Learning Inquiry
At 9 o'clock this morning—before a Cabinet meeting—I told Cathy Jamieson that I would be attending the committee and that, unless we have better articulation with schools than we have achieved in the past to get the skillseekers bit right, it will be impossible to get the two ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
10 Jun 2003
Work Programme
I want to be clear about what I am proposing and why. I am not saying that we should meet in two weeks. I am saying that the public correctly perceive that there is a lack of accountability in relation to the project. They want clear lines of accountability from now on. Accoun...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
28 Oct 2003
Budget Process 2004-05
The data inadequacies have had a thorough airing. It is encouraging that the discussion has moved on to what the priorities might be. I would like to encourage our witnesses to help us to strengthen the treasury function of the committee and the budget that it scrutinises. By ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
11 Nov 2003
Budget Process 2004-05
I thank Arthur Midwinter. I ploughed through all the reports and thought what a nightmare it would be to try to make headway with them as he has done.Most members of the committee agree that the real contribution that the committee can make in the second session of Parliament ...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
09 Mar 2004
Budget Process 2005-06
We need to ask ourselves where we are going to be at the end of our first year of running the Finance Committee. In that regard, I think that two issues that the committee needs to pursue arise from this paper, in which they are slightly conflated. The first is the role of the...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
30 Mar 2004
Spending Review 2004
I think that the timetable has probably also slipped in relation to providing comparisons between what is available in the United Kingdom and what is available in Scotland. We must check that we have the same kind of trend data and capital spend data that are available for the...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
20 Apr 2004
Budget Process 2005-06
First, I thank the convener for helpfully setting out in his letter of 1 April the various outstanding issues from stage 1 of the budget and the performance monitoring processes. We are still waiting for a response from the Executive.Before I come to Arthur Midwinter's helpful...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
25 May 2004
Point of Order
Let us be quite clear. We would diminish the authority of the Parliament and turn it into a plaything by making up as we go along the rules for how members dissent. The issue is not the right to dissent, but how dissent is properly expressed within the procedures of the Parlia...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
25 May 2004
Budget Process 2005-06
Exactly. The paper refers to how problematic it is to get data on local authority discretionary spend. I would like us to discuss that. In the rest of the UK, local education authority spending is pulled out, shown separately and is therefore transparent.Almost without excepti...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
23 Nov 2004
Transport (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
I am aware that time is pressing. I will try to suggest a way forward, based on what we have heard so far. I want to steer completely clear of the policy dimensions, because the remit and focus of this committee is on the financial dimensions. That said, we have heard of four ...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
01 Mar 2005
Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill: Financial Memorandum
I start by saying that I appreciate Dr Wilson's candour. I hesitate to suggest that it is because you come from a professional background, but you have been candid about the difficulties that might be experienced in fulfilling the bill's legislative obligations. However, in yo...
The Convener: Lab Committee
20 Feb 2007
Subordinate Legislation
Agenda items 2 and 3 are on subordinate legislation. The committee does not often have to consider subordinate legislation, although we do it annually in relation to the spring budget revision. I welcome to the committee George Lyon, the Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Ser...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
23 May 2000
Budget Process
That is an important point and I take it in the spirit in which it was made. To publish a budget, we have to make notional allocations—I stress notional. Under the comprehensive spending review, we inherited £330 million for housing in Scotland. Calum MacDonald undertook a not...
The Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab Chamber
29 Mar 2001
Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No 2) Bill
I am delighted to move this motion today. The bill forms the cornerstone of a package that will deliver significant improvements to student support in Scotland.It is a tribute to the workings of the Parliament that it has moved so quickly from the introduction of the bill to s...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
10 Dec 2008
Energy Inquiry
I invite the witnesses to comment on the discussion that the committee will have immediately after their departure, which will be about what we say in our report on energy. If the committee tries to be strategic, over the next three months we could produce something helpful th...
Ms Alexander: Lab Committee
23 Jun 2009
Work Programme
It has been a constant refrain of mine that we should have an expert adviser for this inquiry, so I am surprised that there is no such proposal in the briefing paper. I have done some digging into how the Treasury Select Committee went about its inquiry into UK financial servi...
Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): Lab Committee
27 Jan 2010
Financial Services Inquiry
I declare an interest as a member of Unite. Notwithstanding that, Unite provides an interesting perspective that we have not heard at the committee. I want to work back from the issues that have been touched on so far, the last of which was competition and consolidation in the...
← Back to list
Committee

Finance Committee, 06 Mar 2007

06 Mar 2007 · S2 · Finance Committee
Item of business
Scottish Water
Alexander, Ms Wendy Lab Paisley North Watch on SPTV
Several operational and financial issues have properly arisen, including what are essentially operational issues under Q and S III. It might be helpful if the committee drew to the attention of the Environment and Rural Development Committee—whose work the minister is familiar with—the Official Report of this meeting and highlighted to it that there are on-going issues relating to Q and S III that it should consider. We have talked to the minister only today as a result of time constraints, but it is inevitable that as soon as we get into the debate, we will want to talk to the WIC and Scottish Water as well as to the Executive, as happened when the matter was progressed in 2004. We should urge the successor committee to the Environment and Rural Development Committee to keep a close eye on matters in the next session. That accords with our encouraging committees to take more interest in operational and financial matters relating to their portfolios, which we are about to discuss in the context of our legacy paper. That said, the evidence session has been useful for discussing the progress that has been made so far, which the minister talked about in her opening remarks. I think that committee members feel that progress might have been somewhat slower without our searching scrutiny.I want to raise one more issue for the record. When he was questioning the minister, Jim Mather mentioned the nature of the exchanges between the committee's budget adviser and Executive officials. For the record, at my request, not only our committee clerks, but the Parliament's most senior clerks reviewed exchanges that have been released under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and were satisfied that the budget adviser had sought advice on factual accuracy, rather than Executive views for the purpose of translating those views to the committee. Therefore, the exchanges were not improper. Everybody knows that it is often necessary for committee staff and advisers to liaise with Executive officials in order to ensure that committee business runs smoothly and that material is accurate. Such liaison was particularly necessary in dealing with a matter as technical as the financing of Scottish Water, which has a unique financial structure. I do not expect everyone to share my view, but as Jim Mather gave one perspective, I thought that I should clarify that I had asked the clerks on behalf the committee to find out whether any of the exchanges had been improper. As I said, they judged that they were not. Therefore, the matter is closed for the session.I thank the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development and her officials for attending the meeting. As I said, the committee will say to the Environment and Rural Development Committee that its successor committee might want to consider in the new session what we have discussed.

In the same item of business

The Convener (Ms Wendy Alexander): Lab
I formally open our meeting and welcome the press and public. As usual, I ask that all pagers, mobiles and BlackBerrys be switched off. This is the last meet...
The Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development (Sarah Boyack): Lab
I welcome the opportunity to discuss Scottish Water's performance. I hope that the letter from Tom McCabe—dated 20 November 2006—and my recent letter have ad...
The Convener: Lab
I thank the deputy minister for her opening remarks and will begin by asking about something that she mentioned.We are interested in reflecting on what happe...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
Our perspective is that it was more to do with slippage in the capital programme and, related to that, the need to get in place a vehicle to deliver the capi...
Andrew Fleming (Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department):
No—that was fine.
Sarah Boyack: Lab
The headline issue was a slipping capital investment programme but, in addition, we needed to get in place a vehicle to deliver it. That is the explanation o...
The Convener: Lab
That is helpful. Questions will follow on the extent to which the development constraints that have been experienced over the past four years have been signi...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): SNP
I want to follow up on the convener's question by examining the numbers that we have in front of us. In 2002-03, the amount of borrowing budgeted for was £25...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
There are two issues. The first is about having in place a rigorous system for working out what the priorities were on development constraints. In my opening...
Mr Swinney: SNP
We are talking about a four-year programme and my point is that it is only in the final year of that programme that the actual borrowing figure is in any way...
Bob Irvine (Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department):
In effect, that is what ministers have done in setting the Q and S III objectives, in which relief from development constraints has been given priority. The ...
Mr Swinney: SNP
I say with the greatest respect that I accept that that may be correct with regard to what has happened over the past 12 months and where we are now, but I a...
Bob Irvine:
We must acknowledge that there was such a difficulty over that period. I suspect that many factors should be taken into account, one of which is the signific...
Mark Ballard (Lothians) (Green): Green
I was not a member of the Finance Committee when the extensive discussions on Scottish Water took place in 2004. Contrary to what John Swinney said, it strik...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
That was broadly because the Scottish Executive has always budgeted for the upper limits on what Scottish Water thought it might need to borrow. I repeat my ...
Mark Ballard: Green
According to my rough maths, the potential borrowing was £1 billion, but only £230 million of it was spent. That seems to be a fairly substantial undershoot....
Sarah Boyack: Lab
I suppose that it is partly because we now have a fairly consistent level of investment every year in the work that is going on. Andrew Fleming monitored the...
Andrew Fleming:
The key issue to understand is that, like all businesses, Scottish Water draws upon borrowing last, because there is a cost attached to that. It will first u...
Mr Swinney: SNP
That rather makes my point. There are obviously projects that need to be attended to, which are creating development constraints. Why was some of that borrow...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
I do not think that we can add to the answer that Bob Irvine gave you. If you are gearing up for a large capital programme, you cannot bring in new projects ...
Mr Swinney: SNP
I am talking about what happened over four years, not overnight. Given the political pressure that has been applied about the volume of water investment and ...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
I honestly cannot think of another answer that is different from the previous one.
Mr Swinney: SNP
Right. Thank you.
Mr Frank McAveety (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab): Lab
Members have raised the issue of difficulties with capital investment. The other side of that is charges for customers. Could Scottish Water have considered ...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
Our view is that we are now in a position where we are reducing charges to customers. We have lower increases than the rest of the UK and our charges have in...
Mr McAveety: Lab
On the direction of travel for charges, how sustainable is the charging policy over a three, five or 10-year period? Do you see charges levelling out or cont...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
We see charges continuing on a downward curve, because of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland's agreement with Scottish Water and the Executive about ...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): Lab
I will move, at least temporarily, to the future, rather than the past. Are you satisfied that in the period to March 2010, Scottish Water's investment progr...
Sarah Boyack: Lab
We are confident that it will be not be so constrained. The challenge is to keep the pressure on ensuring that the investment programme happens. I was not pr...
Malcolm Chisholm: Lab
Without going through all the ministerial objectives, which you helpfully outlined at the beginning, I will focus briefly on the one that relates to minimisi...