We now move to consideration of petitions PE383 and PE401, from the Dundee and Tayside Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Perthshire Chamber of Commerce respectively. I have to declare an interest: I belong to the campaign group that both the petitioners belong to and I have been campaigning for the relocation of civil service jobs to Tayside.Members will recall that we agreed to pass the first petition to the Executive. When the second petition came in, we agreed to wait for the Executive's response and deal with both petitions together. We have since received the Executive's response and it has been included among members' papers. The Executive has taken a number of significant steps—not least of which is the relocation of the Scottish commissioner for the regulation of care and the Scottish Social Services Council to Dundee, bringing lots of jobs to that area. Other areas have benefited as well. The Office of the Public Guardian has been relocated to Falkirk and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency to Galashiels.The Executive seems to be making progress in implementing its relocation policy. It has taken decisions to locate several bodies outside Edinburgh and it is considering seven other bodies for relocation. It is suggested that we copy the Executive's response to the petitioners and take no further action, on the basis that, as the Executive continues its review of possible locations, the Parliament would not want to be seen to be favouring one area of Scotland over another.
Official Report · Committee
Current Petitions
Civil Service Jobs (PE383 and PE401)
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- John McAllion Lab 4
- Rhoda Grant Lab 2
- Dorothy-Grace Elder SNP 1
The record
7 contributionsI know that most of the petitioners do not come from the Highlands and Islands, but I have a concern. The Highlands and Islands, my area, covers possibly half of the geographical area of Scotland, but none of the civil service jobs that have been relocated has gone to that area. I appreciate that we should be fair to the whole of Scotland, but, as I read through the list of places in our papers, I feel that we are not being fair to the whole of Scotland.
We could write back to the Executive and make that point clear.
I would appreciate that.
The Executive response indicates encouraging progress. Nowadays, with information technology and so on, there is no excuse for jobs not being relocated to anywhere in Scotland. However, I object to an expression in our papers that refers to the enterprise and lifelong learning department now being wholly established in Glasgow and to the relocation of 166 jobs. The papers say nothing about new jobs, and it is new jobs that we are desperate for—and, of course, white-collar jobs. We want those jobs to be in the schemes, where there is the least activity on the white-collar job front.
That is a fair point. It is not what the petitioners were concerned with, but it is a fair point. Do members agree with the suggestion that I made a moment ago?Members indicated agreement.
Members have a paper outlining the progress that has been made on six petitions since our previous meeting. If there are no comments on those, we move to the next agenda item.
In this meeting
Everything on 4 Dec 2001 →- Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee Tuesday 4 December 2001 (Morning) Petitions · 2
- New Petitions Petitions · 2
- New Petitions Petitions · 54
- New Petitions Petitions · 1
- New Petitions Petitions · 5
- New Petitions Petitions · 16
- Current Petitions Petitions · 6
- Current Petitions Petitions · 7
- Visit to Berlin Committee business · 11
- Convener's Report Procedure · 6
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