Hansard

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

27 Oct 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

The Scottish Conservatives have consistently called for a move from the use of blanket bans, such as this order, to a system of health protection based on end-product testing, which is acceptable to the European Union. Blanket bans not only damage the shellfish industry and th...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

10 Mar 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

I wish to speak against the motion, not because the Scottish Conservatives take food safety lightly, but because, as we have stated regularly in the past, the operation of what is a blanket ban unnecessarily disadvantages our fishing communities. According to evidence that a m...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

26 Oct 2004

Subordinate Legislation

Thank you, convener. You are remarkably well trained for such a short time in the chair.I have a simple question for the minister. I am not seeking a full debate, but I would like a response from her in the light of the comments that her senior colleague made on his first visi...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

09 Jun 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

On several occasions in the chamber, we have made it clear that the Executive's proposed method of control of amnesic shellfish poisoning is overkill. It is clear, and we have given the evidence, that the European Union is satisfied with end-product testing. Why then does the ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

17 Jun 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

If nothing else, the Conservative party is consistent.I wish to oppose the motion on the same basis that I have stated previously, which is that this is a very costly way of dealing with the problem. No one disputes that there is an issue of safety, but it would be better deal...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

26 Oct 2004

Subordinate Legislation

I thank the minister for a much more positive response than that given by the previous incumbent of her post. I welcome any reflection on the Executive's previous position, but I ask the minister to answer my first question. Given that there is a public safety concern—no one d...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

14 Feb 2007

Coeliac Disease

As others have said, the problem means that there is no absorption of anything. I had thought that I was doing rather well on my diet, but I found out the hard way that I was not. Because of one of my symptoms, my condition had earlier been misdiagnosed.Eleanor Scott spoke abo...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

07 Mar 2002

Scotch Whisky Industry

Excuse me: the Labour party has been in power for five years. If Brian Fitzpatrick had done his sums properly, he would have realised that we reduced taxation. We did not just freeze it.I come back to today's serious issue. Strip stamps will crucify the whisky industry—there a...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

22 Sep 1999

Tourism

I welcome this debate, which is of major importance to Scotland. However, I am disappointed in the Executive's motion, which does not grasp the major issues that concern the industry. The minister gave the industry a litany of compliments, which is fine, but the industry wants...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

25 Jun 2002

“Overview of further education colleges in Scotland 2000/2001”

I am tempted to talk about PPP but I will not because it is not relevant. However, in evidence that has been given to date, there has been talk about cutbacks in further education course delivery. Dr Clark also made a comment about new income flowing from the higher education ...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

18 Nov 1999

Scottish Economy

That is very kind of you, Mr Reid. I welcome today's debate, but I am a little disappointed that we did not have this afternoon's debate on the digital Scotland initiative earlier, as it would have given a good lead to this debate. I have pleasure in supporting Miss Goldie's a...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

27 Mar 2002

Tourism

I start by making a correction for the record. I was not talking down Scotland in my opening speech. We are debating the Executive's role in supporting tourism and the industry's expectations, not the results that the industry is delivering. Furthermore, I point out that I was...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

04 Sep 2002

Tourism Inquiry

In your presentation, you discussed structure, roles and who does what. The report must produce something that will be useful to Scotland and comparisons are important.Ken Macintosh mentioned limited but focused state involvement in product investment. Are you talking about th...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

19 Dec 2000

Budget Process

The minister was asked many questions on end-year flexibility both in Aberdeen and in the Parliament. End-year flexibility means that if any money that a department is voted for a programme is not spent, there is no need for a breakneck rush for wallpaper by the end of March, ...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

16 Sep 2003

Subordinate Legislation

The committee asked the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care on Wednesday 18 June to write to confirm the number of reported cases of food poisoning that have arisen from amnesic shellfish poisoning. The response was a letter to the convener from Chester Wood of the F...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

16 Sep 2003

Subordinate Legislation

Has there been any communication with the Irish system, which relies totally on end-product testing?

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

16 Sep 2003

Subordinate Legislation

I agree with some of the points that the minister has made and I am a great supporter of the Food Standards Agency. However, when the agency has not raised any specific concerns, one has to ask whether it should not perhaps be developing for itself a future role in scallop fis...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

10 Feb 2004

Subordinate Legislation

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the order, convener. I oppose the principles that lie behind what the Executive is doing. I am not against looking after the health interest of the consumer, but as I said to the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care at a previ...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

21 Sep 2004

Subordinate Legislation

We do not need a formal debate on a position that I have held and declared openly in the Parliament. We have debated the subject in the past. The position is simple: I do not understand why the minister will not consider end-product testing. The evidence for its efficacy exist...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

05 Oct 2004

Subordinate Legislation

The minister will be aware that scallops from Ireland may be sold here at times of the year when they have the same problem that we in Scotland have—when Scottish scallops cannot be sold in Scotland. The Irish use end-product testing. Does the minister intend to have any work ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

30 Nov 2004

Subordinate Legislation

It is kind of you to acknowledge that, convener. I want to ask the minister a couple of questions that I think are relevant to what is going on. First, from which agencies, individuals and organisations have she and the Executive taken advice in the formulation of the new and ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

03 Nov 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

I remind members of our consistent approach on the matter. We oppose the five SSIs relating to amnesic shellfish poisoning for reasons that we have already stated. I ask any minister who responds—although I do not see a health minister present—to confirm what I was told by the...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

25 Nov 2004

Food (Supermarkets)

I recall that, when Alex Fergusson took the Green party's motion apart earlier, he declined to accept the first part and agreed with the second part. I am talking about the Green party's approach to the debate and the things that one or two of its members have said today. I sh...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

01 Dec 2004

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

I was obliged to the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care when she came to the Health Committee this week and gave us some information about the Executive's wonderful U-turn for the industry. In particular, I welcome the fact that the Executive will make contact with ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

19 Jun 2003

Subordinate Legislation

In speaking against the motion, I am being consistent with my party's stance on the matter. Two years ago at least, my colleague Jamie McGrigor spoke eloquently in the chamber about a move to an alternative means of testing scallops. Ted Brocklebank, who is another colleague, ...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

28 Sep 2000

Tourism

We would certainly want that funding to return to the level at which it was before. However, the trouble is that the money comes from local authorities that have, as Mr Ewing knows, different political agendas, and which do not always agree with each other. We need a thorough ...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

23 May 2002

Budget Process 2003-04

Our workshop included representatives from fishing, farming, tourism and the ferry operators. The representative from the last sector was also a councillor, which was helpful.The clear message that came across was that, because of the nature of the Orkney islands, people are f...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

25 Jun 2003

Subordinate Legislation

I will take the minister up on his use of the phrase "consumer safety and choice". I understand from the Food Standards Agency presentation that we had recently that manufacturers of the products that we are discussing have a duty of care under law anyway. Those products are n...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

17 Feb 2000

Tourism

In speaking to my amendment on behalf of the Conservative party, I want to make it clear to the minister—before he leaves the chamber, that is—that parts of his document are welcome. Unlike my colleague Mr Ewing, I do not want to talk Scotland down. I want to use this opportun...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

04 Nov 2004

Pensioners

First, Presiding Officer, I must apologise to you and to the chamber for being delayed in getting to this morning's debate. Today's debate seems to be a bidding war. It is about who can outbid whom on creating a pension. However, there is more to life than just a pension. Ther...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

26 Jan 2005

Older People

We need to be aware of what the debate is really about. We are talking about older people—the generations to whom all of us in the chamber, including the people in the gallery, owe so much. We must put in that context what we are trying to do and what we trying to offer them. ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

27 Jan 2005

Infertility Services

As I listened to Mary Scanlon's speech, I was watching the reactions of members around the chamber. That is one of the reasons why I have chosen to speak in the debate, although I was going to stay and listen anyway. In case anybody thinks that I am the token male in the debat...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

30 May 2001

Teaching and Research Funding (Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Review)

In Scotland, a number of universities are already collaborating formally in certain sectors. One of the issues that I have been discussing with those universities is how they manage intellectual property rights—IPR—which seems to be the goal of some university departments. The...

Mr David Davidson: Con Committee

20 Nov 2001

Private Finance Initiative/Public-Private Partnerships Inquiry

So basically you consider the end product then the way to deliver it.

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

11 Dec 2001

Private Finance Initiative/Public-private Partnership Inquiry

I will pick up on the point about the MBA student. Is that thesis a rerun of the Harvard Volvo project of 25 years ago? That was about changes in working practice and the redesign of the production flow away from demarcation—the unions mentioned that—towards teamwork. If I rem...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

30 Oct 2002

Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

The statement that rang true to those of us who are involved in the Finance Committee was Ross Finnie's comment about there being no blank cheque. However, the Finance Committee has had a series of extremely inadequate financial memoranda. They may be improving in detail, beca...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

07 Sep 2005

Paisley Choral Festival

First, I should apologise to the chamber, because I might have to leave before the end of the debate.I have a connection with Paisley—I used to own a pharmacy just opposite the abbey. I do not recall whether any of the staff sang very often and most of my clients tended to be ...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

03 Oct 2002

Lobbying

As many members know, especially if they have looked at my register of interests, I come from a commercial world. I recall my first experience of being involved in a lobbying process, which was on an interesting trip to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. We were trying to ...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

19 Jan 2005

Closing the Opportunity Gap

We can all approach this matter from different angles, but we must face up to the simple truth that, regardless of the policies of the past eight years, the situation with deprivation is not improving. Such deprivation takes many forms. For example, unemployed people end up wi...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

17 Dec 2002

Holyrood Project

If the bomb-blast testing has been sorted out, another big uncertainty is out of the way. If you ask the project manager for a date, I presume that he could give you one and tell you what he is concerned about. Surely, given his experience and the stage that the project has re...

The Convener: Con Committee

07 Mar 2006

Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

We do not need to agree to section 32 because the amendment to leave it out was not moved; I am told that that means that the section is agreed to. However, I thank Jackie Baillie for her testing question.

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

13 Sep 2005

Council Tax Abolition and Service Tax Introduction (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

You mentioned special groups such as pensioners. How would those groups be dealt with in a rebanding exercise? I presume that means testing would be used.

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

10 Feb 2000

Scallop Industry

I congratulate Jamie McGrigor on obtaining the debate. The subject is just one of the important issues affecting our fishing and coastal communities. This is a serious problem, but unfortunately we saw over reaction and overregulation, instead of an approach that used the trem...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

13 Sep 2001

Men's Health Week

I congratulate Mary Scanlon on her first members' business debate, especially as it raises an important and often-underdeveloped topic. This is men's health week 2001, and I came across a document from the Men's Health Forum Scotland. I am amazed that we have got so far into t...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

12 Feb 2003

Economic Growth

Today, there has been a wonderful SNP, Labour and Liberal love-in, which I never thought that I would live to see. I cannot understand why the SNP proposed the debate. It seems to have totally given up on the idea that it is in opposition. Oppositions are about testing what Go...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

27 Mar 2003

Closing the Opportunity Gap for Older People

Does Mr Gibson agree that it would be far better to raise the basic pension level, including the amount of money that people have to apply for through the bureaucratic system of means testing? That would avoid the problem that many pensioners face of having to work their way t...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Chamber

25 May 2006

Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill

I joined the Justice 2 Committee at the beginning of stage 2 and I congratulate the clerks and witnesses on their work on the bill. I also acknowledge the involvement and helpful attitude of the Deputy Minister for Justice and the work of past and current members of the commit...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

17 Jan 2007

Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

I have simply repeated what others have said to me. They made the comments. I did not go out and ask them for them.Quite correctly, Fergus Ewing and others spoke about exit strategies. We have to ask why people stay in the profession—as it is called—and why they are there in t...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

27 Mar 2001

Tourism (Foot-and-mouth Disease)

I welcome the minister's making himself available this afternoon to those of us who are concerned about the impact of foot-and-mouth disease on tourism.In the light of the minister's opening comments, will he assure us that those businesses that do not deliver a direct tourism...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

09 May 2000

Contingent Liability (Scottish Executive)

In a former life, I was heavily involved in the pharmaceutical industry and I looked at parallel products imported from different countries. A lot of borders were crossed and there were a lot of arguments about product liability. Looking at claims that have been made internati...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

16 May 2000

Contingent Liability

Good morning. I have a background in pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry, so I have some understanding of the matter of litigation, particularly in respect of an exported product. Politics get involved, which tends to inflate the lawyers' fees, and the costs get bigger an...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

13 Mar 2001

Proposed Contingent Liabilities

I am sorry, but I was not at the meeting last week. Mr Macmillan Douglas spoke about cost-effectiveness. As far as the health service is concerned, I presume that cost-effectiveness means that a comparable product cannot be sourced at a better price or with a better continuous...

Mr David Davidson: Con Committee

20 Nov 2001

Private Finance Initiative/Public-Private Partnerships Inquiry

Are you saying that PFI or PPP is becoming a cheaper product to develop and therefore a more affordable option?

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

18 Nov 2002

Budget 2003-04

Amazingly, the bridge was not mentioned at workshop 2. The participants were composed of members of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Mallaig and North West Fishermen's Association, the Scottish Crofting Foundation and the local council.Th...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

25 Jun 2003

Subordinate Legislation

You are operating on the same basis as the Medicines Commission operates, but for different product ranges.

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

25 Jun 2003

Subordinate Legislation

I am grateful for that clarification from the minister, which is the sort of comment that I was hoping to hear. It shows that the Government has a mind of its own and is looking at the issue from a UK perspective.We have heard that about 40 per cent of the population use suppl...

Mr Davidson: Con Committee

09 Sep 2003

Hepatitis C

This point goes back to the days when Susan Deacon was Minister for Health and Community Care. Apparently, she made a statement that 20 people who had contracted hepatitis C as a result of NHS blood-product use would be compensated under the terms of the Consumer Protection Ac...

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): Con Committee

20 Sep 2005

Licensing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Forgive me if I am a little hesitant; I managed to leave all my notes at home, although the bases for what my amendments seek to do are in the papers. Amendment 131 is consequential on removal of section 7, which would leave decisions on overprovision to licensing boards, with...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

02 Jul 1999

Fish Processing Industry

I repeat that I appreciate the privilege and honour of having the first piece of members' business in the Parliament since we adopted our full powers. This issue is very dear to me and to the area I represent, North-East Scotland, and I am pleased that there are representative...

Mr Davidson: Con Chamber

02 Jul 1999

Fish Processing Industry

That was a nice speech for the south of Scotland. Earlier, I said that, although this item of members' business was about the north-east, it applied to other areas of Scotland. I welcome the intervention, which highlights the problem that the sector faces. The water authoritie...