This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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On the Record Briefing
04/09/2006
Watch a video of First Minister Jack McConell briefing the media at a special On the Record session at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh today.
Mr McConnell said:
At the first On the Record after the summer recess I want to do three things. First of all make some comment about the fact that we go into these final months before the 2007 election more confident of our record than at anytime in the 5 years that I have been First Minister.
Secondly to comment on the 7 months ahead and the key legislation that will be in front of Parliament in those months and thirdly to say briefly that I think this is an exciting and creative time in politics and Scotland in particular. Not just time for parties and politics - there will be some of that - but the most exciting time in a democracy when we have a real battle of ideas and I am looking forward to that.
Our record is much better than it was in advance of the 2003 elections. All of the fundamental trends are moving in the right direction:
- Our economy is growing; it has been above or around our long term rate since that election in 2003
- In education attainment is up since 1999
- In health we had last Thursday the best waiting times statistics Scotland has ever seen
- We know that crime is coming down, but also we have new Antisocial Behaviour powers now increasingly being used across Scotland, the whole of Scotland
- More generally - we have record number of Police Officers, we have free bus travel for the elderly, we have progress on sectarianism, we have renewed our old friendship with Malawi, we have 150,000 more jobs since 1999, through our Fresh Talent initiative and the attraction of Scotland today we have reversed population decline and had the highest net in migration to Scotland since records began, we have a very effective and successful ban on smoking in public places, we have improvements and investment in further and Higher Education, all these and more
We also have vital legislation still to come before parliament in the months between now and Christmas:
- First of all on planning reform, reforms that are absolutely critical for further growth and development in Scotland. Vital for Scottish Business, long called for by the business community but also by communities that feel excluded by the process as it is today. Reforms that were a long time in the making but reforms that will see the biggest modernisation of planning in Scotland for at least a generation.
- Secondly a bill to protect vulnerable children and other group - s the so called Bichard proposals. We are working on the details, partly the cross border nature of them between ourselves and the Administration of Whitehall but with final details to be agreed and submitted to Parliament this month.
- Thirdly on sentencing. After all the deliberations of the sentencing commission and the hard work by Ministers and others, we have a sentencing bill going to come before parliament that will abolish automatic early release for prisoners in Scotland.
- Fourthly, perhaps appropriately this week, we have the bill that will put our nutritional standards in schools on a statuary footing and guarantee Scottish Youngsters decent health food each day inside there schools.
And finally, on the battle of ideas that is to come, I believe there is a lot we have done and can see that progress across Scotland. But I believe there is still a lot to do. Now is the time for debate, a time for ideas and choices to be posed and to set out what the third term of the Scottish Parliament will be all about.
I would also like to say that I am looking forward to the term ahead, to the potential there is to have debate in the Parliament and outside the Parliament to look ahead to the future of Scotland. We will start that this Wednesday afternoon when the Parliament debates the future of Scotland during the first debate of the new parliamentary session.
A debate that will pose real choices between the parties for the people of Scotland to decide in the year ahead.