THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT HAS LAUNCHED A HELPLINE FOR AIRLINE PASSENGERS STRANDED BECAUSE OF FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS DUE TO THE ASH FROM THE ICELANDIC VOLCANO.

FROM THE UK CALL 0800 027 0504

FROM OVERSEAS CALL +44 800 027 0504.

There is also a website with regular updates at www.scotland.gov.uk/volcanicash.

Linda Fabiani MSP has welcomed the announcement today by Scottish Government Housing Minister Alex Neil of the commencement of the boiler scrappage scheme for Scotland.

From Monday 24 May, households will be able to apply for a £400 voucher to replace inefficient boilers which convert less than 70% of energy into heat. Around 5,000 households are expected to be able to replace their old boilers with energy-saving models, reducing heating costs by around a quarter.

SNP MSP for Central Scotland Ms Fabiani said:

“This year’s Scottish Government budget made a commitment to introduce a boiler scrappage scheme for Scotland. That commitment is now being fulfilled, with this £2 million investment to help households cut costs and carbon and reduce fuel poverty.

“Being stuck with an old, unreliable, inefficient boiler is a big expense for households, but so is upgrading to a new one. The cashback vouchers that people will be able to apply for through the boiler scrappage scheme will not only help to offset that cost, but also lead to savings of around £190 a year on wasted fuel costs.

“The business that will be created for recession-hit heating and plumbing contractors will be an additional bonus.

“This is another major investment by the SNP government which will simultaneously help to support businesses, cut costs for hard-pressed households, create more energy efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and cut fuel poverty across Scotland.”

The boiler scrappage scheme advice network will issue vouchers from 24 May 2010, available either by calling 0800 512 012 or through the Energy Saving Trust website at http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Scotland

The boiler scrappage scheme in Scotland provides the same level of support on the same criteria as that south of the border.

Householders across South Lanarkshire have once again been spared a hike in their council tax, after MSPs endorsed the Scottish Government’s £70 million funding package to compensate local authorities for freezing the tax.

This is the third year in a row that Finance Secretary John Swinney has secured agreement from all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities to freeze council tax. This year’s freeze means that South Lanarkshire households have saved an average of £237 in council tax payments since the SNP came to power.

Linda Fabiani MSP has welcomed the latest freeze. The SNP MSP for Central Scotland said:

“I am delighted that South Lanarkshire householders will once again have the peace of mind of knowing that they will not be faced with a hike in their council tax bills. Freezing council tax for the third year in a row will ease the stress for household struggling with their finances just now.

“The partnership that the SNP government has forged with Scotland’s local authorities, including South Lanarkshire Council, to keep council tax rates down is helping people in a very real way. The £237 that the average South Lanarkshire household is saving as a result of the council tax freeze is money going back into pockets at a time when it has been badly needed.

“It has the additional benefit of boosting spending power within the South Lanarkshire economy, helping to support jobs and businesses.

“This SNP government is investing to help South Lanarkshire households through this recession and strengthen the economic recovery of communities across Scotland.”

MSP welcomes funding for town’s Development Trust to reduce CO2

Linda Fabiani MSP has congratulated East Kilbride Development Trust on securing £60,000 from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.

The Trust’s share of the £5.5m fund, which is shared between 90m organisations across Scotland, will pay for its Food Initiative Seed Exchange and Organic Vegetable Growing Project, which help local allotment-holders, gardeners and would-be gardeners to grow their own food.

Over the last three years, the Climate Challenge Fund has invested to save an estimated 691,028 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 225,000 cars off Scotland’s roads. The East Kilbride project is expected to lead to a reduction of approximately 38 tonnes of carbon.

Welcoming the news, Central Scotland MSP Ms Fabiani said:

“The Climate Challenge Fund was launched by the SNP Government as a way of empowering communities to lead the way in reducing Scotland’s carbon footprint.

“The East Kilbride Development Trust’s Food Initiative is a great example of the kind of imaginative project that can help all of us to reduce our carbon footprint and that of our communities.

“I know that the quality of applications to the Climate Challenge Fund has been of a very high standard, so it’s a real testament to the East Kilbride Development Trust that they have been successful.

“I’m delighted that this exciting project will give those of us who live in the East Kilbride area the opportunity to cut our local carbon emissions and play our part in helping to meet Scotland’s world-leading climate change targets”

Linda spoke in the Stage 3 debate on 25 March.

“Today’s passing of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill will be a welcome step towards achieving the Government’s commitment to deliver improvements in a public sector landscape that has, over decades, become cluttered and complicated. An overlapping and duplicating network of public sector bodies causes unnecessary difficulties for members of the public and for the voluntary and private sector groups that have to work with those bodies.

“The Finance Committee had interesting discussions on the bill, with contributions from throughout the relevant sectors. There was agreement that it is time for public sector reform. I hope that we can now streamline decision making and improve transparency in the network of Scottish public bodies, as well as reduce bureaucratic complexity for the private and voluntary sectors and individual citizens.

“It is interesting that the Finance Committee is moving on to consider public sector reform more widely. I am pleased that we are doing so in conjunction with Scotland’s Futures Forum, because it is time for radical thinking about the future of the public sector and the services that it provides. I urge all members to watch what happens as that inquiry unfolds under the convenership of Andrew Welsh.

“I will close by quoting again something that I quoted in the stage 1 debate, which is a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth to the Finance Committee. It states:

“Parliament must be able to respond more quickly to changing circumstances and take advantage of opportunities to further streamline the public bodies landscape and improve the delivery of public services”.

“Today, we have established a foundation for that on which we can build.”

Read the full debate here.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0325-02.htm#Col25165

S3M-06018 Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Tribute to Billy Wolfe, Scotland Lives— That the Parliament expresses its sadness at the death of Billy Wolfe, former leader of the SNP and lifelong peace campaigner; considers that he transformed the SNP into a modern and vibrant political party and was pivotal in making it a force in Scottish politics; applauds his dedication to conservation including his work on Eilean Mor MacCormick and his formidable opposition to the presence of nuclear weapons in Scotland; further applauds the universality, love and friendship that he espoused, and offers its sympathy and condolences to his family and many friends.

linda spoke in the debate on 18 March.

“It is interesting to hear how the situation in Malawi affects so many people, especially those who have visited. We have heard quite a lot about the human indignity that poverty and disadvantage impose. That is why I am pleased that the committed funding that the Scottish Government provides to Malawi is in addition to Scotland’s contribution to the DFID funding from the UK Government. It is targeted at issues such as maternal health—we have heard about the situation in the maternity hospital—education, which underpins everything, and economic development, which is about getting a country back on its feet and enabling it to deal fairly with its own people.

“Another important strand is civic governance, both for the Scottish Government, considering its funding for that, and for the Parliament. The interaction between our parliamentarians and parliamentarians in Malawi is hugely important, as is the impact that it has on civic society in Malawi and the ability for people to be heard, to be listened to and to have their say in government. We talk about that a lot for our own Parliament and country, and it is equally important in Malawi.

“In any successful civic society, not only is there access to those with power and true participation—rather than what is often just termed participation—for people who are directly affected by the decisions that those in power take, but there are political parties. Any healthy society has political parties and other groups that people can be open with and part of. They help people to feel that they have a rightful place in that democracy…

“Scotland and Malawi are very good friends. We talk a lot about that special relationship and the fact that we have a true partnership…if we truly are friends and have a special relationship, that relationship will maintain through conversation that involves criticism of one by the other. Friends have the ability to disagree and be open about disagreement but still to be in it for the long haul and to remain friends.

“There are some issues in Malawi just now. I have not been there for a while…However, there are issues and there is a responsibility on Scotland to talk about them with our friends in Malawi.

“Joe FitzPatrick will no doubt later speak about the motion that he has lodged about the fact that homosexuals are being persecuted in Malawi. That is against the constitution—article 20, I understand—and against the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. I am glad that the minister raised that matter when she was there, and it is something that members of the Parliament should not shirk from raising with our counterparts in Malawi.”

Read the full debate here.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0318-02.htm#Col24781

Linda sponsored the Member’s Debate on 4 March.

“Just before the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth came to South Lanarkshire College in East Kilbride for the second time—he had been there to cut the first turf for the great initiative that I am talking about. On that day, Mr Swinney officially opened Scotland’s first affordable low-energy, low-carbon house. The Aurora house has an A-rated energy certificate, a heat recovery system, thermal energy pumps and the capacity to create more electricity than it uses. Great congratulations are due to the college and all the partners who have been involved in the fantastic initiative.

“The Aurora house was a great conception, in particular when we consider that it will be used as a training facility for students and apprentices who aim to work in the construction industry. South Lanarkshire College has a good record in everything that it teaches and is involved in, particularly construction. Not long ago the college successfully hosted the skillbuild 2009 competition, in which two of its students, Douglas Robertson and Stephen Butler, won medals for carpentry and roof slating and tiling respectively.

“The college deserves much praise for its achievements, particularly since it moved into its new campus in the centre of East Kilbride. I praise in particular Ian Macpherson, the chairman, who oversaw the project; Stewart McKillop, the principal; Angus Allan, the depute principal; and their team of staff. Special commendation goes to the construction skills team at the college.

“I will get back to the Aurora house. It is a flagship project that gives Scotland the potential to become a world leader in building a new generation of affordable low-carbon homes, thereby helping to combat climate change and addressing fuel poverty, which is hugely important in this day and age. Scotland is leading the way not only in climate change legislation, but in methods of delivering what is in that legislation.”

Read the full debate here.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0304-02.htm#Col24362

S3M-05951 Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): State of the Union— That the Parliament notes the calls in Westminster for MPs to have an annual Scotland Day debate and considers that there should be a reciprocal arrangement whereby MSPs debate the state of the Union every year, noting that, if such a debate were held now, the Parliament would be debating the deployment of Scottish forces in theatres of war overseas without the full range of proper equipment, the collapse of the UK economy and lack of fiscal stimulus, the potential downgrading of the UK’s debt rating and the scandal of MPs being prosecuted for misuse of their allowances.

Linda Fabiani MSP has welcomed confirmation that every single patient in the NHS Lanarkshire area is now being seen within the maximum waiting time target set by the Scottish Government.

The latest waiting figures, for December 2009, show that 100% of Lanarkshire patients referred by their GP or dentist for either an inpatient or outpatient appointment receive that appointment within a maximum 12 week period. Almost 20,000 local patients were seen during the period.

Central Scotland MSP Ms Fabiani said:

“This is a good result for Lanarkshire patients. NHS Lanarkshire staff also worked hard to keep waiting times in A&E under four hours for over 98 per cent of patients during December, despite the extra pressures caused by the unprecedented cold snap.

“I congratulate all those in NHS Lanarkshire who have contributed to bringing waiting times down to these levels and ensuring that patients get the treatment they need as quickly as possible.

“The NHS in Lanarkshire is clearly on track to meet the Scottish Government’s target of an 18 week ‘whole journey’ referral-to-treatment wait by the end of 2011.

“That’s a tough task, but given their performance in recent months, I’m confident that NHS Lanarkshire is up to the task of delivering the shortest ever waiting times for local patients.”