YESTERDAY (Wednesday 9th August), the Scottish Parliament in partnership with the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Bangladesh held a panel discussion on the ‘Urgency of climate change and justice in vulnerable low-lying countries ahead of COP28.’
The event, chaired by Member of Scottish Parliament and Convener of CPG Bangladesh Foysol Choudhury, is part of the 19th Festival of Politics hosted by the Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh International Festival between 9th – 11th August.
The panel on climate justice featured experts on climate advocacy, including Ben Wilson, Advocacy Manager at the Scottish International Catholic Aid Fund (SCIAF); Jelina Berlow-Rahman, Senior Director of Berlow Rahman Hassan Ltd. Solicitors in Glasgow; Dr Elizabeth Cripps, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change in Bangladesh.
Among the guests were the Consul General of India in Edinburgh; Turkish-Scottish Chamber of Commerce and academics from Scotland and Bangladesh.
The event centred on the theme of the unequal impact of global climate change on low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, Maldives, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Panellists engaged in discussions about climate change as a moral and human rights issue, and how countries can mobilise long-term climate adaptation plans to tackle emerging challenges such as climate migration.
They further deliberated on the loss and damage fund established at COP27 and how the international community can best continue supporting local actors at the frontline of climate disasters ahead of COP28 this year.
Speaking after the event, Foysol Choudhury MSP said: “Today’s discussion reaffirmed that Scotland must reinvigorate its commitments to net zero emissions, as well as its targets to ensure climate justice elsewhere in the world, before COP28.
“Failure to meet climate goals will have, and is having, a devastating impact on low-lying countries, who have contributed the least to the climate change which is devastating them.
“We have already seen an increase in extreme weather in countries vulnerable to climate change, such as the floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“Scotland needs to urgently engage in a multifaceted response comprising of climate mitigation, adaptation, and support, to ensure that climate justice for all countries can be realised on our path to net-zero.
“I hope this discussion offers insight into the urgency of the situation and reinvigorates the drive for change.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer before doing so.”
The panel event can be viewed on the following link:
Monday to Saturday – 10am to 5pm (last entry 4.30pm)
Price – Free
See the world’s best photojournalism for free, at the only venue in the UK to host this exhibition.
This year’s World Press Photo Contest winners, chosen from thousands of entrants, highlight the climate crisis, community, war’s impact on civilians, and the importance of press photography around the world.
There’s no need to book – the exhibition will be free to view in the Main Hall during opening hours.
World Press Photo exists to celebrate and champion photojournalism and documentary photography.
This year the winners were chosen out of over 60,000 photographs and open format entries, by over 3,700 photographers from 127 countries.
The Scottish Parliament has been one of the only UK venues to host this global exhibition since 2006.
Special preview tour with curator (and BSL interpreter) – Friday 4 August, 2pm
Join us for a tour of the exhibition by the World Press Curator Mariana Rettore Baptista, and see the exhibition before anyone else!
Mariana will talk about the background to the stories and themes covered, and why they were chosen to feature in the exhibition.
This is a free tour, open to the public, but spaces are limited. Spaces will also be given to BSL users, as there will be a BSL interpreter present:
UK Government will continue to top-up the Scottish Government’s tax revenues, worth £1.4 billion last year, as a benefit of strength and scale of the UK.
Boost to borrowing powers and backing of Barnett formula will build a better future for Scotland and help to grow the economy.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen hails a fair and responsible deal in line with the Prime Minister’s economic priorities.
The UK and Scottish Governments have today reached an agreement on an updated Fiscal Framework.
Holyrood’s capital borrowing powers will rise in line with inflation, enabling the Scottish Government to invest further in schools, hospitals, roads and other key infrastructure that will help to create better paid jobs and opportunity in Scotland.
The new deal maintains the Barnett formula, through which the Scottish Government receives over £8 billion more funding each year than if it received the levels of UK Government spending per person elsewhere in the UK. It also updates funding arrangements in relation to court revenues and the Crown Estate.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, said:“This is a fair and responsible deal that has been arrived at following a serious and proactive offer from the UK Government.
“We have kept what works and listened to the Scottish Government’s calls for greater certainty and flexibility to deliver for Scotland.
“The Scottish Government can now use this for greater investment in public services to help the people of Scotland prosper. These are the clear benefits of a United Kingdom that is stronger as a union.”
The funding arrangements for tax will be continued, with the Scottish Government continuing to keep every penny of devolved Scottish taxes while also receiving an additional contribution from the rest of the UK.
Under the previous Fiscal Framework, the Scottish Government could borrow £450 million per year within a £3 billion cap, as well as receiving a Barnett-based share of UK Government borrowing. Going forward these amounts will instead rise in line with inflation, which supports additional investment across Scotland and lays the foundations for economic growth.
The UK Government has listened to calls from the Scottish Government for greater certainty and flexibility to help them manage their Budget and agreed a permanent doubling of the resource borrowing annual limit from £300 million to £600 million.
Limits on how much can be withdrawn from the Scotland Reserve to spend in future years will also be removed. This will boost spending through borrowing by £90 million in 2024/25. All future limits will increase in line with inflation.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said:“The renewed Fiscal Framework shows what can be achieved when there is a collaborative focus on delivering economic opportunity and why we are stronger and more prosperous as one United Kingdom.
“The deal – worth billions of pounds to Scotland over the coming years – builds upon work to support economic growth and provide more high skill jobs, investment and future opportunities for local people, such as the establishment of Investment Zones and Freeports in Scotland.
“The UK Government knows that high prices are still a huge worry for families. That’s why we’re sticking to our plan to halve inflation, reduce debt and grow the economy. As well as providing targeted cost of living support, we are directly investing more than £2.4 billion in hundreds of projects across Scotland as we help level up the country.”
As both governments continue to work together to tackle challenges like the cost of living, an updated Fiscal Framework equips the Scottish Government with the instruments for growth while protecting the wider public finances.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said: “This is a finely balanced agreement that gives us some extra flexibility to deal with unexpected shocks, against a background of continuing widespread concern about the sustainability of UK public finances and while it is a narrower review than we would have liked, I am grateful to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury for reaching this deal.
“As I set out in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, we are committed to tackling poverty, building a fair, green and growing economy, and improving our public services to make them fit for the needs of future generations.
“We still face a profoundly challenging situation and will need to make tough choices in the context of a poorly performing UK economy and the constraints of devolution, to ensure finances remain sustainable.”
This morning the UK and Scottish governments have published the long-awaited update to the Fiscal Framework, following the review that has been going on for the last couple of years (writes MAIRI SPOWAGE of the Fraser of Allander Institute).
Since this was due to happen in 2021, we have been waiting for the outcome of this review. For more background, see our blog from late 2021.
For those new to it, the Fiscal Framework sets out the rules for how devolution of tax and social security powers following the Scotland Act 2016 is supposed to work in terms of finances. It sets out the mechanisms by which the Scottish block grant is adjusted to reflect the fact that large amounts of tax and social security powers are now the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.
It also sets out fiscal flexibilities that the Scottish Government can choose to use in managing these new powers, as new tax and social security powers also come with risks that require to be managed.
In this blog, we set out the main headlines and our initial reaction to the updates.
The mechanism for adjusting the Block Grant will remain permanently as the Index Per Capita (IPC) method.
This is one of the most complex areas of the fiscal framework but definitely one of the most significant.
For tax, it sets out the mechanism for working out how much the UK Government has “given up” by devolving a tax to Scotland, given that it is a significant loss in revenue. As, following devolution, there are different policies pursued in rest of UK and Scotland, this is not straightforward. Essentially though, the mechanism agreed in 2016 was to grow the tax at the point of devolution at the rate, per person, that it grows in the rest of the UK. This is known as the Index Per Capita (IPC) method.
So, the idea is that if taxes per head grow quicker in Scotland, the Scottish Budget will be better off – conversely, if taxes per head grow more slowly, the Scottish Budget will be worse off.
In 2016, when the fiscal framework was first agreed, the IPC method was the SG’s preference, whereas the UKG preferred the “Comparable Method” (which would generally be worse than the IPC method for the Scottish Budget). SO they agreed to use IPC for the first 5 years and review it in this review published today.
They have now agreed that the IPC method will remain on a permanent basis.
Interestingly, this means that on a permanent basis, the mechanisms for adjusting the block grants for Wales and Scotland will be different, given Wales’s Fiscal Framework uses the Comparable Method, albeit with additional provisions to keep a funding floor in place.
Borrowing Powers for managing forecast error have been increased significantly
Resource borrowing powers to manage forecast error associated with tax and social security powers have been increased from £300m to £600m. This is required because when budgets are set, the tax, social security and block grant adjustment estimates are set on the basis of forecasts from both the Scottish Fiscal Commission and the Office for Budget Responsibility. When the outturn data is available, if there is a discrepancy (which is very likely) then the Scottish Budget has to reconcile these differences.
This will be good news for the Deputy First Minister looking ahead to delivering her first budget in December, given that it was confirmed recently that there will be a large negative reconciliation to reflect income tax receipts in 2021-22 of £390m. As these changes are coming into effect for the 2024-25 budget year, this means she will have more flexibility to borrow to cover this.
All limits, such as resource and capital borrowing powers, will be uprated in line with inflation
When the Fiscal Framework was first agreed, the limits on borrowing for both resource and capital, and the limits for what could be put into the Scotland reserve, were set in cash terms and have been fixed ever since.
This agreement today sets out that the ones that remain will be uprated by inflation (although the exact inflation measure and timing is still to be confirmed), and that the limits on the additions and drawdowns on the Scotland Reserve will also be abolished.
The VAT Assignment can gets kicked down the road again
One thing that is a little disappointing is that there was no final decision on VAT Assignment. See our blog from 2019 to get the background in this.
VAT Assignment was included as part of the Smith Commission powers. The idea was that half of VAT raised in Scotland would be assigned to the Scottish Budget, which would mean, if the Scottish Economy was performing better than the UK as a whole, the budget would be better off, and conversely, if VAT was growing less quickly in Scotland, the budget would be worse off.
However, after almost 10 years, it has become clear that there is no way to estimate VAT in Scotland that is precise enough for this to have budgetary implications. It is a large amount of money (more than £5 billion) so even small fluctuations in how it is estimated can mean changes of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Today, the Governments have agreed to just keep discussing it. We think it is time that everyone admitted it is just not a sensible idea.
We’ll keep digging through the detail of everything published today and will provide more commentary through our weekly update on Friday.
Cutting waste, increasing recycling and protecting the natural environment. These are some of the suggested benefits of a circular economy, but will a new Bill help make these changes happen?
The Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill will introduce measures the Scottish Government believes will help Scotland to move towards a circular economy. The Scottish Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee wants to know if these proposals will work in practice and whether they are sufficient to achieve that goal.
According to the Scottish Government, a circular economy would not only cut waste and reduce carbon emissions, but it would increase Scotland’s self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on international supply chains.
As well as creating a circular economy strategy, the Bill also contains powers to set additional charges for single use items as well as placing new duties on households and local authorities in terms of disposal of household waste and recycling.
Now the Committee want to hear from people across Scotland about their views of the Bill and whether it really will make a difference in reducing waste in Scotland.
Committee Convener Edward Mountain MSP said:“The Bill before us has ambitions for creating a circular economy which will protect Scotland’s natural environment and help tackle the climate emergency.
“But this Bill is wide ranging and will affect individuals, businesses and communities, so it is important to hear these voices to make sure the measures which are proposed work in practice.
“Covering areas such as household waste, littering and recycling this will affect many aspects of day-to-day life. So, it is vital that as many people as possible get involved in the discussion to help strengthen our scrutiny of the detail in the Bill.”
BOYACK: ‘Delayed discharge is piling pressure on our hospitals’
Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack has warned that delayed discharge in Lothian is “piling pressure on hospitals” as a new report reveals the issue cost NHS Lothian more that £28million in 2022/23.
Delayed discharge figures monitor the number of days patients spend in hospital despite being fit to leave, typically because of a lack of social care services in their area.
Over the course of the year, a total of 97,118 bed days in NHS Lothian were lost to delayed discharge, as rates across Scotland hit a record high.
This includes 70,208 bed days in the City of Edinburgh.
Analysis by Scottish Labour has revealed that the approximate cost of delayed discharge to NHS Lothian in 2022/23 was an eye-watering £28,368,168.
Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said: “Delayed discharge in Edinburgh is piling pressure on our hospitals and threatening patients’ recovery.
“Our NHS is at breaking point and every penny matters, and it is a scandal that NHS Lothian has been forced to foot a £28million bill for SNP incompetence.
“Social care in Edinburgh and the Lothian is crying out for help, but the SNP’s botched National Care Service plans will do nothing but centralise local services.
“It is high time for the Scottish Government to step up and provide unwavering support for our social care services and increase pay for the sector’s dedicated workers, so no-one is left languishing in hospital waiting for a care package.”
Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack has warned that SNP mismanagement has left policing in Edinburgh at breaking point as new figures reveal the majority of housebreakings go unsolved.
Latest recorded crime statistics show that in 2022-23 there were 1449 housebreakings recorded in the City of Edinburgh. In the same year a shocking 80 per cent of housebreakings were not cleared up.
A crime or offence is regarded as “cleared up” where there exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots law to justify consideration of criminal proceedings – meaning the majority of housebreakings in Edinburgh have gone unsolved.
Labour MSP Sarah Boyack has said these figures expose the pressure policing in the City of Edinburgh is under, and warned the SNP-Green government against cuts in the area.
Scottish Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said: “The revelation that 8 out of 10 housebreakings in Edinburgh remain unsolved is nothing short of a disgrace.
“These shocking figures reveal the pressure police in Edinburgh are under, with years of SNP mismanagement pushing services to breaking point.
“Housebreaking can cause its victims both financial loss and serious distress, and it will add insult to injury that so many perpetrators get off scot-free.
“It is high time for our government to prioritise public safety, allocate adequate funding, and ensure that police have the resources they need to tackle crime and keep our city safe.
The first panel included Brian Davey and Emma Swift from the Improvement Service (IS), which provides resources and support to community councillors and Community Council Liaison Officers (CCLOs), alongside Dr Oliver Escobar from the University of Edinburgh and Andrew Paterson from Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC).
Jackie Weaver, who became a household name during the pandemic thanks to her firm handling of a contentious parish council meeting, was also on the panel to provide insight on the significant differences between Community Councils in Scotland and Town and Parish Councils in England, where she works for the Cheshire Association of Local Councils.
Community Councils vs Town and Parish Councils
Committee convener Arianne Burgess MSP got the ball rolling with a question about the strengths of Community Councils and what role they could play in democratic renewal at a local level.
Dr Escobar highlighted the important role that Community Councils can play at the heart of their communities, despite having to work in difficult circumstances, while Emma Swift from the IS mentioned the vital support that many Community Councils provided during the pandemic – and how that resilience work has continued to address other challenges.
The committee was particularly interested in the differences between Community Councils in Scotland and the Town and Parish Council system in England, and Jackie Weaver was able to explain in some detail how the system differs north and south of the border:
“Over my 25-year career, there has been an enormous change in England. Twenty-five years ago, our town and parish councils were very much like your community councils except that they had tax raising powers, although they did not do very much with them.
“We have seen central government funding for our principal authorities in England reduce dramatically and we have seen town and parish councils stepping up and filling the gaps.
“The assumption is that anybody trying to raise money by tax will be attacked: nobody likes paying tax. One of the unique points about a town or parish council, however, is that you can see that every penny that is raised is spent locally.
“The other thing that we are able to do is borrow money. We have a number of councils that take on large infrastructure projects. Clearly, if you are a parish council with perhaps 10,000 electors, you will not be able to raise half a million pounds just through your council tax without it having a serious impact on a household’s budget. We are able to borrow money and we are seeing an increase in the amount of money that our town and parish councils are borrowing to deliver serious infrastructure.
“One of the things that is absolutely essential for us to succeed as a movement is proper support. We have 10,000 parish councils and an army of about 7,500 clerks who manage those. We provide support, advice, guidance, help and so on to about 240 parish councils in Cheshire, and that costs our principal authorities £7,000 a year. We are talking peanuts, but what it delivers on the ground because of the way that we work is something really exceptional.”
Legal status of Community Councils
Ivan McKee MSP raised questions about how Community Councils are perceived, given the differences in how they operate across the country and even within local authority areas.
Dr Escobar spoke about how difficult it can be for Community Councils to operate effectively because they simply do not have the powers to carry out many of the activities which are needed in their local area. This can make it difficult to recruit new community councillors, which means that Community Councils are often not representative of the communities they serve.
There are, however, very clear legal reasons why Community Councils are unable to provide some of the same services as Town and Parish Councils, as Emma Swift explained:
“The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 created community councils as unincorporated bodies, which is why they cannot do community asset transfers. It also excludes them from some funding applications. The conditions of funding applications sometimes say, “You must be an incorporated body”.
“There are things such as local place plans that they can get involved in and use to create ideas about what they want in their local community, with the idea that the local authority can then take some of those ideas forward. However, they are always reliant on other people to take those ideas forward because of the restrictions that have been placed on them right from the start.”
Planning and Community Engagement
Willie Coffey MSP raised the issue of planning, and particularly whether Community Councils have access to the proper expertise and resources to help them navigate the planning system.
Dr Escobar highlighted the survey of community councillors from 2019, in which most respondents identified public and community engagement as the area in which they wanted more support.
Emma Swift spoke about the partnership between the Improvement Service and the Open University, which provides free access to online courses in a range of relevant skills for community councillors, as well as the partnerships we have developed with other organisations such as Sustrans, Scottish Tech Army and Geoxphere to share their existing resources and tools with Community Councils.
Parish and Town Councils also have a role in the planning process, but Jackie Weaver warned against creating “an army of new planners”; community councillors need to be able to navigate and understand the system, but don’t need to become experts in planning to do that.
Mark Griffin MSP asked about community engagement, and how Community Councils ensure that their views are representative and not just that of individual members.
Dr Escobar referred back to his point about Community Councils needing to be representative to give them legitimacy, and went on to speak about the difficult position that Community Councils find themselves in and how this could be resolved:
“We have had Community Councils for 50 years and, although we need to celebrate the achievement, I think that the time has come to either reform or rebuild.
“We could reform Community Councils so that we have one of the most decentralised systems of governance, as we should do if we want to tackle issues locally and nationally. Alternatively, we could rebuild them. We could just start again if people do not want to reform them as they are.
“However, that reform is not just about Community Councils. If you think carefully and place Community Councils on a map and see the connections that they have to community planning partnerships, local government, health and social care integration boards, third sector interfaces and the planning process, you realise that, if you had highly functioning, dynamic, participative and inclusive Community Councils, you could unlock a lot of potential in those systems of local government that do not work well at the moment.
“It is not a silver bullet, but it is not far from it if we bite the bullet and do that reform.”
Community Empowerment Act
Miles Briggs MSP asked about the impact of the Community Empowerment Act, which Emma Swift pointed out is a mixed bag for Community Councils because of their unincorporated status; some parts of the legislation apply to Community Councils, while other sections require the work to be taken forward by development trusts or SCIOs (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations).
The panel then made their concluding remarks, including the importance of involving Community Councils themselves in any local democracy discussions and consultation.
Dr Escobar summed up his thoughts on the way forward for Community Councils: “My main concluding point is to say that surely the time has come – we have got to do this.
“Some people might ask whether we should spend time on such reform and whether people care about it. People care about having better places to live in, having better local services, improving their life condition and addressing things such as the cost of living crisis. All those things require a vibrant combination of local institutions that can make things happen.
“Community councils have to be part of that, and they have been part of that in many places. We need to learn and to go for the reform. The problem is not about knowing what to do but about knowing how to do it.”
The second panel featured community councillors from across Scotland, with representatives from Moray, West Lothian, South Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, Shetland and Aberdeenshire, as well as Debra Duke, Community Councils Liaison Officer in Moray, who has also worked as a parish clerk in England.
Individual Community Councils were represented as well as forums and associations of Community Councils in West Lothian, Moray, Shetland and Edinburgh.
This session provided a unique opportunity for community councillors to speak about the range of work they carry out across Scotland, including innovative projects like the Cambuslang Bank Hub, as well as raising concerns about the difficulties they face and making suggestions for how Community Councils can be improved in the future.
Community Councils and Local Authorities
Community councillors were asked about the relationship with their local authorities and the support provided by the Improvement Service through the Scottish Community Councils website and the Knowledge Hub group, where community councillors can share best practice and ask each other questions.
Bill Pitt, of New Aberdour, Tyrie and Pennan Community Council, highlighted the importance of the relationship between Community Councils and the local council: “As a Community Council, we do not work in a vacuum; we work very closely with Aberdeenshire Council and it is a two-way street.
“We need the council as much as possible and we appreciate and respect its assistance, including from individual departments and so forth.
“Aberdeenshire Council and other local authorities need Community Councils. We are the eyes and the ears for the local authority. It is very important for Community Councils to work with the local authority to identify particular funds that might be available and solutions that we can work together on.
“Working closely with the local authority is the most important thing that we can do, because it has the expertise to point us in certain directions in areas that we might need some guidance on.”
John Bachtler of Cambuslang Community Council spoke about the work South Lanarkshire Council has done to support community councillors to understand the planning system, including the creation of a toolkit to help Community Councils navigate issues around planning.
The Joint Forum of Community Councils in West Lothian, represented at this event by Donald Stavert, enjoys a very positive relationship with West Lothian Council, meeting the chief executive twice a year; though Donald was at pains to point out that this good working relationship doesn’t stop them from criticising West Lothian Council when they need to!
The Joint Forum has also worked closely with the Improvement Service over the last 18 months, including an ultimately unsuccessful joint bid for Scottish Government funding to support the use of the Consul software for community engagement.
In talking about the difficulties faced by Community Councils as a result of their unincorporated status under the 1973 legislation, Steve Kerr of Edinburgh Association of Community Councils was clear that there needs to be a change: “Frankly, I believe that we need to go back to the drawing board.
“We need to go back to the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and free up some of those opportunities and to remove some of the restrictions that were placed on community councils in the act.
“We can be involved locally in agitating for a community asset transfer for a community centre—which we did, representing the community council—but we cannot be physically involved, which, quite honestly, is an inhibitor.
“That would be something that would be appreciated by the community because we could be at the forefront of things. We do play a co-ordinating role but I do not think that it is widely appreciated as it might be.”
CCLO support for Community Councils
Debra Duke, CCLO at Moray Council, was able to bring her unique perspective of both the Scottish and English systems, having previously worked as a parish clerk in England.
As well as many of the same points about clerk support and tax raising powers mentioned by Jackie Weaver, Debra also impressed on the committee the need for Community Councils to be supported by good governance through policies and working practices.
She highlighted that these are often shared between local authorities, as many CCLOs only work part-time or have other roles to perform: “I work 20 hours a week; I have 17 established community councils, but I could have 20. I am just firefighting and I am finding that I cannot put in place the proper support that the councils need.
“The Improvement Service delivered a brilliant session of social media training to the Northern Alliance of community council liaison officers last year; it was a train-the-trainer session, but I have not had the time to pass that training on to the Moray councils.
“Everyone is quite stretched and no one has enough time or resources. If Community Councils had more resources to, say, employ secretaries, that would really strengthen their ability to carry out the work that they need to do.”
Future of Community Councils
On the future of Community Councils, Donald Stavert spoke about a blueprint which had been developed by all the West Lothian Community Councils before the pandemic, and which was going to be the main subject for discussion at a national conference organised by the Joint Forum of Community Councils in West Lothian for 10 June.
The issue of funding for Community Councils was raised by Bill Pitt, who pointed out that Community Councils provide an excellent return on investment:
“Someone on the previous panel said that there are something in the neighbourhood of 1,200 community councils in Scotland; if you look at the budget numbers—that is, at the admin grants received by the Community Councils from the local authority—you will see that, at the high end, they might get £1,000.
“In other words, £1.2 million of public money funds community councils throughout Scotland, and we can see how much Scotland and its communities gain from that little bit of money and that very small investment.
“Clearly, if what we are looking at is Community Councils being given more powers—or whatever the future might hold for them—we can only imagine what return we might get if the councils had serious funding.”
Recruiting young people to Community Councils
All the panellists had something to say about the difficulties of recruiting young people to join Community Councils, as well as the various methods and initiatives that they have used to try and attract a younger demographic.
Alastair Kennedy, from the Joint Community Councils of Moray, highlighted an initiative where they gave a group of local youngsters £50,000 from the Investing in Communities Fund to run their own participatory budgeting exercise, to make sure that the money was being spent on something important to them.
Cambuslang Community Council has reached out to local youth groups and has involved students on the Community Development course at Glasgow University in individual projects, while Shayne McLeod from the Association of Shetland Community Councils spoke about their work with the local Scottish Youth Parliament member and a local project called OPEN, which has seen young people set up and run their own committee.
Barry Cathie, himself a relatively young community councillor from Rutherglen, was clear about the importance of involving young people in the process: “We need a voice of young people in the community.
“At the moment, there is not much for them to get involved in. They cannot really voice their concerns. If they come to meetings on subjects that they are interested in, their voices will be heard and they can bring their experience to us and tell us things that they know that we do not know.
“It will also give them training in how to become involved, and how to become a community councillor when the time comes—I think that people need to be over 18 to get elected. It is good to have that because, as I say, it gives them a voice and improves their image in the community as they become better people.”
The final words of the session came from John Bachtler, who urged the committee to be bold in their actions:“I wanted to personally encourage the committee to go for significant reform, because there is a real democratic deficit. I work on regional local development across Europe.
“We have virtually the poorest community empowerment and representation structures in Europe, given the absence of a community level of influence.
“We have towns of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 people that are without any form of self-government. I encourage the committee to think radically.”
The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill will be the focus of a new public consultation launched today by the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament in May 2023.
If passed, the legislation will give local authorities the ability to add an additional charge to overnight accommodation if they choose to do so. This will be based on a percentage of the cost, with the rate set by individual councils.
The Committee is seeking views from businesses, tourism organisations, community groups, individuals, and other key stakeholders over the summer ahead of its consideration of the general principles of the Bill.
Following the consultation period, the Committee will listen to the views of stakeholders before producing a report setting out its findings. MSPs will then debate the Bill in the Chamber and decide whether it should proceed.
The Committee is launching the call for views ahead of a meeting in Kirkwall later today with Destination Orkney to discuss their views on the Bill.
Commenting on the launch, Committee Convener Ariane Burgess MSP said: “We’ve now launched a call for views on the Scottish Government’s Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill and want to hear from as wide a range of communities, tourism organisations, businesses, and individuals as possible to inform our scrutiny.
“Tourism is one of Scotland’s leading growth industries, contributing more than £4 billion to our economy each year, so ensuring these proposals work for those connected to the industry is essential.
“The Bill provides a framework for local authorities to decide how money raised should be spent within local communities, how flexible they can be with where and when the levy would apply and whether certain exemptions should apply, all of which we want to gather detailed views on from urban, rural and island communities across Scotland.”
The call for views will run from Monday 26th June 2023 to Friday 1 September.
Those wishing to respond can choose to provide a detailed response to the Committee about the Bill or make brief and general comments, joining the conversation about the Bill on the Committee’s engagement website.
The transition to a low carbon economy offers huge opportunities for the town of Grangemouth – but work must be done to ensure that local people and businesses aren’t left behind.
That’s the verdict of a Holyrood committee, which yesterday released the result of its inquiry into a Just Transition for the Grangemouth Area.
The Economy and Fair Work Committee took evidence from local residents, representatives from industry, trade unions and the Scottish and UK Governments as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into how the transition should be managed.
The report makes several key recommendations ahead of the Scottish Government’s own “dedicated and focused Grangemouth just transition plan.” These include a call for the plan to map the transition for the whole area rather than just the industrial site.
Committee Convener Claire Baker MSP said: “Scotland’s just transition to a low-carbon economy presents significant opportunities – not just for the economy, but also for our communities. Nowhere is that clearer than in relation to the Grangemouth Refinery.
“It is clear from the response from the local community that any just transition must maximise opportunities for the town itself, and ensure that the benefits are felt widely.
“The potential for significant regeneration and improvement is on the town’s doorstep, and it is now down to the UK and Scottish Governments, as well as INEOS, to make sure it is fully realised.”
The Committee wants the Government to meaningfully engage with the community and co-design its plans, allowing the community to have a direct impact in the future direction of their town.
The report also stresses the importance of the Acorn Project for carbon capture, which aims to capture and store up to one million tonnes of CO2 by 2027. The Acorn Project is a “critical enabler” for INEOS’ ambitions for the Grangemouth site, according to the report.
Funding for carbon capture lies with the UK Government. Minister Graham Stuart MP told the Committee that while the project was not selected to receive funding in the first round in October 2021, Grangemouth was in “pole position” for future rounds. An update is expected in the summer.
Claire Baker MSP continued: “While the Committee welcomes the sentiment that Grangemouth is well placed to receive funding for carbon capture, these warm words must now be backed up with a commitment. Funding the Acorn Project will truly unlock the potential of the site and must be a priority.”
TODAY – RALLY OUTSIDE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT from 12.30 – 1.30pm
The Abortion Rights Scotland campaign will be joined by Engender and representatives of other organisations to call for decriminalisation of abortion care in Scotland.
MSPs have been invited to come outside to talk with us.
Abortion healthcare has been in the headlines again. In Scotland, although the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 does not apply, our abortion services are framed by the 1967 Abortion Act.
Audrey Brown, retired NHS abortion care consultant said: “Abortion care in Scotland is delivered through the NHS. It is time for abortion care to be regulated by healthcare organisations and providers.
“No-one needing an abortion, or indeed the NHS staff providing abortion healthcare, should be at risk of imprisonment.’
The World Health Organisation, along with all the relevant professional health bodies in the UK, and other organisations such as the STUC, all support decriminalisation.
The removal of criminal sanctions and oversight for abortion will shift abortion care clearly into being managed and regulated within healthcare provisions more generally.
In Scotland the vast majority of these services are provided by the NHS. The WHO recommends that nurses and midwives oversee abortion care.
The 1967 legal requirements for signatures from two doctors for every termination carried out, can cause delay for both staff and patients.
The First Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, indicated during the SNP leadership campaign that he supported decriminalisation and would bring forward proposals on this within a year.
It’s time to decriminalise abortion care in Scotland.
