Meeting of the Parliament 23 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Elaine Murray No. I have given way once already.
I appreciate that the UK Government is imposing a tight timescale, but that must not exclude the pressing need to ensure that we get this complex process right. It is those public and third sector organisations that work most closely with people who are ...
Meeting of the Parliament 23 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Elaine Murray I am a bit surprised that Mr Stewart does not think that Mr Swinney would have been well able to do that had he attended the conference.
We need to pass the bill to enable work to be carried out on introducing the legislation that will cover the areas of devolved competence, principally w...
Meeting of the Parliament 23 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) Last year, the Parliament took the unprecedented step of deciding that it was not prepared to let the UK Government legislate for us on the devolved issues covered in its welfare reforms. For that reason, I regret that the First Minister has not attended today’s meeting of the joint ministerial comm...
Finance Committee 16 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) I was struck by the comment in the STUC submission that
“‘Employability’ is not just a supply side problem”.
Are there interventions that work on the employer side to assist employers in understanding why a young person is perhaps not the ideal employee when they come through t...
Meeting of the Parliament 16 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) I congratulate Alex Fergusson on securing the debate, which highlights an important piece of research that was conducted by nine volunteers working on behalf of the Dumfries and Galloway third sector forum. The topic spans transport and health, and the Labour Party has spokespeople from both teams p...
Meeting of the Parliament 10 May 2012 : Thursday, May 10, 2012
Elaine Murray The Scottish Civil Justice Council and Criminal Legal Assistance Bill was introduced the day after my question was lodged. I understand that one of its purposes is to ensure parity in the payment of charges in criminal, civil and children’s legal aid cases. Constituents of mine who have been involve...
Meeting of the Parliament 10 May 2012 : Thursday, May 10, 2012
Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) 6. To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to reform the legal aid system. (S4O-00984)
Finance Committee 09 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Elaine Murray At present, many local authorities have excess property that they are not able to use and are trying to dispose of. However, in the current economic climate it can be quite difficult for them to sell the buildings and put the services in with a day centre or whatever. The transitional costs may ther...
Finance Committee 09 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Elaine Murray My point is that if a slightly smaller number of people are using the centres and perhaps using the personalisation moneys to buy into services in such centres, but other people are choosing to go elsewhere, local authorities will not be able to make savings from the day centres that one might assum...
Finance Committee 09 May 2012 : Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Elaine Murray Jean Maclellan mentioned that Dumfries and Galloway was one of the pilot sites, and that John Alexander, the director of social work, gave evidence to the Health and Sport Committee yesterday.
With regard to the bridging costs, the public reaction to what was happening in Dumfries and Gal...