Working Group on Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons
Minutes of meeting of April 6, 2009
Present:
Bruce Crawford, Minister for Parliamentary Business
Richard Dixon, WWF Scotland
Isobel Lindsay, Scotland4Peace
Alan MacKinnon, Scottish CND
Osama Saeed, Scottish Islamic Foundation
Rev. Ian Galloway, Church of Scotland
John Deighan, Catholic Church
Ian McMahon, Scottish Enterprise (observer)
Angus Robertson, MP (part of meeting) (guest)
In Attendance
John McFarlane, Special Adviser
Kevin Veitch, Office of the Minister for Parliamentary Business
Tim Barraclough, Scottish Government (part of meeting)
Kirsty Baker, Scottish Government
Graham Fisher, Scottish Government
Elspeth Hough, Scottish Government
Claire Newton, Scottish Government
Apologies
1. Apologies had been received from Scott Blair, Gillian Slider, Dave Moxham, Rebecca Johnson, William Walker and Cllr James Robb.
Agenda Item 1: Introductory Remarks
2. The Minister welcomed participants to the meeting.
Agenda Item 2: Minutes of Meeting of 4 February 2009
3. The Minister said that the minutes of the previous Group meeting had been agreed by email and that these had now been placed on the web.
Agenda Item 3: Update on Theme 4: Consider the adequacy of the current licensing and regulatory framework that exists in relation to HM Naval Base Clyde in relation to environmental, planning and transport issues
4. Richard Dixon said that the sub-group examining theme 4 was now close to finalising its conclusions. Useful discussions had been held with members of the civil service and with a representative of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA): these had allowed emerging conclusions to be tested and discussed. No response had yet been received from the questions put to the Ministry of Defence back in October, however, there had been a good response rate from the questionnaire put to Local Authority Emergency Planning officers.
5. The Group noted that:
(a) Considerable progress had been made;
(b) Further work remained to be done to ensure that all conclusions were robust and that the style of the chapter would match others.
Agenda Item 4: Update on Theme 1 : In the event of a decision to remove nuclear weapons from HM Naval Base Clyde, to examine the economic impact and to identify options for the development of alternative employment opportunities
6. Alan MacKinnon introduced a draft report from the STUC/CND working group, updating the report they had produced in 2007 ("Cancelling Trident"). He said that the update report addressed the criticisms that had been made of the previous report but built upon the identified strengths, using recent Westminster Parliamentary Questions as a source of up-to-date statistics.
7. The Group noted that:
(a) STUC/CND were submitting the draft report to the Group as evidence to support the information-gathering element of theme 1;
(b) It was proposed to publish the draft report following discussion and sign-off at the STUC/CND conference in May; the draft report remained the intellectual property of the STUC/CND;
(c) The UK Government had indicated that the costs of the proposed replacement of Trident would not come from within the MOD's baseline budget but would be met from additional resources;
(d) No response had yet been received from the MOD to the questions lodged in December.;
(e) The PACE initiative supported individuals and businesses following the announcement of redundancies and that there was potential, once immediate pressures on the service had lessened, for PACE to assist with planning for the removal of nuclear weapons from HMS Naval Base Clyde;
(f) Significant work remained to be done to polish the emerging conclusions for theme 1, drawing on the work submitted by the STUC/CND. (Action: Secretariat; lead contacts for sub-group 1).
Agenda Item 5: Update on Themes 2 and 3:
- Explore the various international opinions that exist on the legality of nuclear weapons so far as relevant to matters within the devolved competence of the Scottish Government
- Explore the implications of seeking observer status at the Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and advise the Scottish Government on that process.
8. In the absence of Professor Walker and Dr Johnson who were attending a non-proliferation conference in Washington, the Minister for Parliamentary Business resumed the emerging conclusions to date under these themes and noted that, in view of the close linkages between the two themes, it was now proposed to draw together the conclusions in a single chapter.
9. The Group:
(a) Noted the emerging conclusions and that further work required to be taken forward to refine these;
(b) Agreed that there should be a further discussion of these at the next meeting.
Agenda Item 6: Key Messages
10. The Group considered the balance of the emerging messages to date and discussed the proposed content for the introduction and conclusion of the report. (Action: Secretariat).
Agenda Item 7: Next Steps
11. The Minister for Parliamentary Business said that it was envisaged that would be one further meeting of the Working Group at this point to discuss conclusions and enable the report to be finalised. He highlighted that significant progress had been made in the year since the Group had begun although deadlines were now tight. He said that it was envisaged that the follow-up to the Working Group's report would be managed within the Scottish Government Directorate-General for Justice, linking closely with work to manage civil contingencies.
[Tim Barraclough left the meeting; Angus Robertson MP joined the meeting]
Agenda Item 8: Discussion on Theme 5: Identify good practice elsewhere in the world in developing peace and reconciliation and consider how Scotland might contribute to this work.
12. The Minister welcomed Angus Robertson MP to join the meeting and to speak about his experiences of international reconciliation work. Mr Robertson said that he wished it to be noted that he sat, as a non-remunerated member, on the boards of 2 Non-Governmental Organisations involved in peace and reconciliation: the John Smith Trust and LINKS, the London Information Network on Conflicts and State-Building. Mr Robertson described his experiences at the Craigellochy Peace Talks of 2003 and highlighted the following factors that he considered essential to successful international discussions: suitability of the venue; "safe" environment for discussions; culture of trust between the relevant nations and the facilitating NGO; opportunity for engagement with relevant counterparts in the host country.
13. The Group noted that:
(a) Scotland was a destination of particular interest for many countries; the culture of democracy and establishment of the new Scottish Parliament were significant factors as was the native use of English;
(b) A number of key figures in Scotland from across the political spectrum already engaged in supporting reconciliation work when approached on an ad-hoc basis;
(c) Mr Robertson did not consider it necessary for Scotland to replicate the expertise of NGO's which already shared the trust of international partners but thought that if there were to be a will to engage more proactively in work to support international reconciliation work, it would be more useful to develop a more proactive co-ordinated response within Scotland;
14. The Group agreed to take account of Mr Robertson's thoughts in developing its conclusions on theme 5.
Agenda Item 9: Communique
15. The Group discussed the text of a draft communiqué to be placed on its website.
Agenda Item 10: AOB
16. The Minister for Parliamentary Business reminded the meeting that the United Nations Association (Edinburgh) was organisation a conference on non-proliferation at the Scottish Parliament on 16 April and that this would be co-hosted by the Minister and Malcolm Chisholm MSP.
17. The Minister thanked participants for their contribution to the meeting.
WG Secretariat
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