September 2010 (Alison McInnes)

Alison McInnes <info@alisonmcinnes.co.uk>

September 2010

September 30, 2010 12:00 AM

Government Programme

After what was a busy summer recess in the North East, this week I'm back down to Edinburgh again as we start the new term of Parliament.

Our first piece of chamber business will see the First Minister set out his legislative programme for the government's final session before the next election in May. Perhaps unusually, this time I am more interested in what is not in the programme - the SNP have at last accepted the inevitable and announced they will not be bringing a bill on an independence referendum to parliament. An immense amount of civil service time and money has been spent on this piece of folly - even though the government has known from the outset that there was insufficient support in the chamber for it ever to go through. Perhaps, finally, the government will now focus instead on getting Scotland back on the road to recovery.

Climate Change

One topic that seems to concern a far greater number of you than thoughts of independence is climate change. Statistics out this week show that an overwhelming majority of Scottish people now agree that climate change is a major national and international issue, and that we as a country need to step up and do are bit to tackle the problem.

Some of you will recall that just before parliament broke up for summer it rejected the Government's proposed annual targets for reducing carbon emissions as being too unambitious. Over the summer members from all parties have worked with the Minister to identify ways of meeting tougher targets. It has been time well spent - the latest proposals would allow 14 million tonnes less to be emitted over the next ten years compared with the original targets. That's a difference roughly equivalent to what would be saved if we were to take all the cars in Scotland off the road for two years. I think that alone justifies rejecting the original targets, but we've also agreed to bring forward a number of schemes that will start to address the practicalities of cutting our emission.

The Budget

This year's budget process is also under way, and there is no doubt that it is going to be an immensely difficult period for public finances. I'm very keen to see that the public sector pay bill is rebalanced - the bonus culture for top officials is indefensible sitting as it does alongside the kind of pay restraint that most public sector workers are now being asked to accept. Wouldn't it be fairer if those earning modest salaries in the health service were able to get an inflationary increase while others, better paid, stood still for a little while?

A great example of this is the NHS distinction awards scheme, which costs £28m a year. At the moment consultants - who are already extremely well paid - are able to award themselves bonuses of £30,000 for life. The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly asked the government to call a halt to this, which is completely out of line with any other public sector bonus scheme. When health boards are struggling to keep enough nurses it is unforgivable that this has been allowed to continue.

Councils have for many years been making efficiency savings and finding innovative ways to protect front line services in the face of an increasingly unaffordable council tax freeze. But their efforts still aren't reflected across all of our public bodies. Some of our quangos, for instance, still have a long way to go. Just last weekend I revealed that Transport Scotland officials have managed to take almost a thousand flights in the past year, with over 650 of them within mainland Great Britain! This kind of unrestrained spending needs to stop - the economic, and environmental costs are simply too high.