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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.

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Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee
24 Jun 2008
Transposition of European Union Directives Inquiry
Members will be aware that the European and External Relations Committee undertook an inquiry into the transposition of European directives that stemmed from concerns about the effectiveness of the Scottish Government's procedures for such transposition.The European and Extern...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
We must maintain that as part of our inquiry. It is not good having procedures available if they are not taken up by people in rural or deprived areas. We should find out why that is.
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber
22 May 2008
National Association of Youth Orchestras
I am grateful for this opportunity to bring two matters to members' attention—the value of the National Association of Youth Orchestras to the culture of Scotland, and the location of its headquarters. I thank all those who added their support for the motion.Children who are g...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
12 Dec 2007
Balance of Health Care Inquiry
My question is similar to Ross Finnie's, but I shall put it differently. My background is as a general practitioner. It will be easier if I make some observations and ask the panel to comment on them. First, I am interested in what happens in Midlothian in respect of mental he...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
19 Dec 2007
Balance of Health Care Inquiry
I wonder whether you are being a little underambitious in your statements about services that are presently provided in acute care and which could be provided in secondary care. No one doubts that there are lurid examples of illnesses that could not be treated in primary care,...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
19 Dec 2007
Balance of Health Care Inquiry
Yes.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
19 Dec 2007
Balance of Health Care Inquiry
I have a supplementary point to raise. Dr Swainson might remember that we had a successful telemedicine scheme in the Sighthill and Wester Hailes health centres for maternity services between 25 and 30 years ago. There were reasons why it failed, which I will not go into, but ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
19 Dec 2007
Balance of Health Care Inquiry
This should not take you too long to answer. I am interested in your views on the health and fitness of community health partnerships. We have heard a lot about how they can play an important part in the shift from secondary care to primary care. We heard in earlier evidence t...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
27 Feb 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I want to follow up on the point that, apart from the grand bonspiel on the Lake of Menteith, which takes place about every 15 years, curling is an indoor sport that needs a rink. Will you tell me a bit more about the number of rinks in Scotland that are accessible to ordinary...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
27 Feb 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
In the rinks that are not dedicated to curling, what proportion of time is allocated to curling? Has that changed over the past few years?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
27 Feb 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Has the proportion of time that is devoted to curling at an average public ice rink changed?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
27 Feb 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
So, since your success in the Olympics, the number of young people coming into curling has diminished, the number of rinks available in Scotland has diminished and the amount of ice time has not increased. What does that say about the benefit of elite sport in encouraging spor...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
12 Mar 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Historically, a large proportion of a GP's income came from a constant source, whereas income is now much more reliant on the number of patients seen, services provided and targets met. Such matters are more difficult to manage in an area of deprivation, so GPs tend to go to n...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
12 Mar 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Professor Watt has shown with brutal clarity the working of the inverse care law in Scotland today and of a flat-lining of the distribution of GPs but a rise in need according to deprivation. I suspect that the distribution of nurses, health visitors and midwives flat-lines a ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
12 Mar 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I want to follow up that point because I am not certain about it. I accept that we cannot solve the deprivation problem overnight, but it does not seem rocket science to say—although it might be one of those conclusions that one jumps to, but which is not right—that if an area...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
26 Mar 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Thank you, Liz—your account was very impressive. I was struck by the number of things that happened just by chance: you happened to meet someone, you happened to have a teacher at school who started you off and a friend of your husband's happened to say that a certain person c...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
26 Mar 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I take on board what you are saying. You said that when your talent was discovered you joined the Dundee Hawkhill Harriers. How many people were in the club? Does it still exist? How many people are in it now? Has it grown?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
26 Mar 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
What is the difference now? How many people were in the club when you joined in the 1970s?
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Can I ask two questions, convener?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Thank you.I want to be a little more specific about the pathways into football for youngsters. What effect does the presence of the old firm in Scotland have? Having two clubs that are fairly consistently successful or on the verge of success at European level is a good advert...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I totally agree, but I am asking how often that attitude is successful. Are we losing young players from the game because they are hoovered up by the old firm clubs and then discarded? Are a significant number lost to football altogether, or do such people end up playing for o...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I accept that, but I am thinking about youngsters who are on the threshold of a career, before they have played for a first team anywhere. Is it usual for juniors with Celtic or Rangers who are discarded to go on to other clubs, or do a substantial proportion not stay on in fo...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Would you like to comment on the influence of what seems to have been quite a large number of foreign players in the league in recent years? Is their involvement good, because it exposes young Scots players to people who have been trained in different environments, or does buy...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I accept that, but you are saying that the comparative shortage of money in the Scottish game is encouraging clubs to take on home-grown talent rather than import talent.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
So the best way to encourage youngsters into Scottish football teams is to keep Scottish football short of money.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
The convener asked an interesting question about the age at which young people become involved with football clubs. As I understand it, you said that it is not in the interests of very young children—seven and eight-year-olds—to be tied up in the football set-up when they shou...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
23 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
One of the committee's functions is to come up with recommendations and advice. I do not want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds as if you are saying that that rule should be changed. Surely making youngsters of seven and eight travel long distances for a short game alt...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I congratulate you on your modest presentation. As you were going through it I thought, "Oh gosh, I could do that. Maybe I will give it a go."
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Then reality set in. There are several different things for which one looks in gaining Olympic medals. There is obviously a tremendous personal achievement, for which we all applaud you. There is also the benefit that the country feels good when people know that Scotland has w...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I do not know whether you are still a member of the club of which you were initially a member. Are there more or fewer members than when you joined?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Why do you think that that is?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Is it a fair summary to say that your success does not seem to have attracted more people into the sport, although it has increased the ambition of those who are already in it? You are saying that there are fewer people in the clubs but that they are stimulated to go on to hig...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
30 Apr 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
In your introductory remarks, you said that you came last in a competition, yet you were spotted as having talent. I found that quite strange. Now, with your knowledge of sailing and your success, how would you choose someone like that? Putting modesty to one side for the mome...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
25 Jun 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
Peter Wright talked about his background in Lasswade Rugby Football Club, where he started at the age of six, which seems pretty young. The committee is considering whether people who have succeeded in their sport help others into the sport by setting an example. Do you have a...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
25 Jun 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
This is a health committee as well as a sport committee. When parents are encouraging their children to take up sport, one of the factors that influences them is the long-term future. The injuries that you describe are caused by freak accidents, or they are injuries that stop ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
25 Jun 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
If you had a reunion of the Scottish rugby team of the 1970s and 1980s, would the citizens that you saw at that reunion be a lot fitter and more physically mobile than the average citizen of that age from elsewhere?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
25 Jun 2008
Pathways into Sport Inquiry
I will follow up on Ross Finnie's first question and be a little bit of a devil's advocate. I understand that the way in which the sport is organised brings people to their peak for international rugby and representative sport. However, Peter Wright told us in evidence that, o...
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I am a member of the Health and Sport Committee.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I have two questions, one for Patricia Fitzsimons and one for all the witnesses. I worked for many years in a practice area that sounds similar to yours, so I understand exactly what you are talking about. You say that you have open access, so you can give opportunistic advice...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
The committee should note that point. There is a great deal of pressure on you, with suggestions that you are a bit old fashioned or out of date if you have open access. In certain areas, open access is probably the best option, as you have emphasised. We know that when a rela...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I have been pondering the convener's question about how the situation could be improved. Perhaps there could be a better link-up between out-patient departments and hospital transport services. I know of cases in which there seems to be no such link-up. When a patient is offer...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
You mentioned the two threads of the discussion, convener. As far as health inequalities are concerned, is there not also evidence of inadequate take-up of treatment? I refer to the number of cardiovascular bypass operations, for instance. Is that not also a factor in inequali...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I totally understand the problems in rural areas, although I am not certain how to deal with them. It is strange to consider a community in an urban area with a higher-than-average incidence of cardiovascular disease, where people are getting fewer angioplasties, stents and by...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Not just expectation, but the ability to use the system better, would you not say?
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
10 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Expectation is one thing, but some patients, albeit with a certain expectation, might not know how to use the system. Might that be a factor, too?
Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Thank you. I will ask one question on rural areas and one on urban areas. With regard to rural areas, the NHS Highland submission mentions access to services. Dr Baijal talked about telemedicine being in its infancy, but I was involved in a telehealth project more than 30 year...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
On the issue of getting patients to hospital, I think that ensuring that there is liaison between the hospital and the hospital's car service would be a simple matter that would be much more useful than requiring the patient to contact the car service.Moving on to my urban que...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Do you have evidence that you are making progress in the field? I am thinking of services for people who have physical signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disorder taking up the interventions that are available. Do you have evidence that more interventions are now being taken...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
Do you mean that you are seeing more people with signs and symptoms of physical illness or more people who have raised cholesterol levels, raised blood pressure and so on? Are you doing more cardiovascular procedures such as heart bypass and angioplasty? I am talking about the...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I was asking about treatment of people who have a disease.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
We did not get an answer to the question about measuring interventions.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
It would be inappropriate for me to give evidence on telemedicine, although I am tempted to do so.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
You have done very well.I am continually frustrated by the lack of progress with telemedicine. To put things politely, a central impetus is needed to persuade people to take it on board, because people on either side of the telemedicine link need to co-operate, as Rhoda Grant ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
NHS Health Scotland states in its submission that implementing recommendation 46 of "Equally Well"—the Government commitment to health checks for all at the age of 40—"will require extremely sensitive targeting of resources to ensure that those 40 year olds at highest risk of ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
As far as I can gather, Dr Julian Tudor Hart was successful because of his comprehensive knowledge of his practice area. He knew which doors to knock on and which cases to follow up. It is extremely difficult to do that on a more comprehensive basis. Even the keep well project...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
17 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
He went to them, in many cases.
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
24 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I would like to follow up on some of Michael Matheson's points. As is the case with other conditions, the health inequalities in cardiovascular disease have their origins in many different aspects of society—such as upbringing, housing, poverty and health service provision. He...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
24 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
No one can fault such aspirations, but from my experience, those aspirations have existed over the years. People who have spoken about past set-ups have said exactly the same thing. I would love to be wrong, but I think that we will say in a few years' time that the local auth...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
24 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I want to narrow the focus from generalities to something more specific. We are concentrating on health inequalities in cardiovascular disease. As the minister will know, much of the work in primary care to ameliorate the burden of cardiovascular disease involves taking blood ...
Ian McKee: SNP Committee
24 Sep 2008
Health Inequalities Inquiry
I have two points. First, are the terms and conditions of service not a devolved function?
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Committee

Subordinate Legislation Committee, 24 Jun 2008

24 Jun 2008 · S3 · Subordinate Legislation Committee
Item of business
Transposition of European Union Directives Inquiry
McKee, Ian SNP Lothians Watch on SPTV
Members will be aware that the European and External Relations Committee undertook an inquiry into the transposition of European directives that stemmed from concerns about the effectiveness of the Scottish Government's procedures for such transposition.The European and External Relations Committee wrote to us at the conclusion of its inquiry to seek our views on three issues, which are set out in its letter, a copy of which members have in front of them.Members also have, for their consideration, a copy of a draft response to the European and External Relations Committee. If members have no comments on the draft letter, are they content with its contents?Members indicated agreement.

In the same item of business

The Temporary Convener: SNP
Members will be aware that the European and External Relations Committee undertook an inquiry into the transposition of European directives that stemmed from...
The Temporary Convener: SNP
That concludes today's business. The committee's next meeting will be held on Tuesday 2 September at 2.15. I thank members for their attendance and wish memb...
Meeting closed at 14:30.