Enterprise and Culture Committee, 07 Nov 2006
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Official Report
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St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Bill
Item 3 is consideration of the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Bill. Before we consider the bill formally at stage 2, I welcome Tom McCabe, the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform. We are also expecting Ian Donaldson, head of the international strategy and co-ordination team at the Scottish Executive Financial and Central Services Department, who has just arrived. I welcome him, too, and hand over to the minister.
Thank you, convener. I am glad that we are meeting all your expectations.
I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity today to restate the Scottish Executive's position on the bill. We are in a slightly unusual position this afternoon, in that there are no amendments to be considered at stage 2 of the bill. On 28 September I said that the Scottish Executive subscribes fully to Dennis Canavan's aim for the bill, which is to facilitate the creation of a national holiday to celebrate Scotland and its people. The joint statement by the First Minister and Dennis Canavan addressed our concerns about what the bill can do and made it clear that the bill's purpose is to create a legal framework that will encourage employers and employees to substitute a national St Andrew's day holiday for an existing local holiday. The bill will not create a national holiday, but it is symbolic and signals greater celebration and awareness of St Andrew's day.
The bill represents an important contribution to the on-going celebration of our national day. As part of that, the Scottish Executive is taking other initiatives to highlight and celebrate St Andrew's day. In 2006 we are supporting a range of St Andrew's day events under the banner of one Scotland, many cultures. Those events have a strong emphasis on young people. Today we are announcing details of St Andrew's day events that will be held in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Stirling—in fact, the biggest celebration of St Andrew's day yet. The website scotlandistheplace.com gives details of the events that are being held. Those events will spearhead the national and international celebration of St Andrew's day.
It is imperative that we allow our young people to become involved in the celebration of our national day. To that end, we have sent education packs to schools across Scotland, to encourage them to celebrate St Andrew's day and to share with us what they plan to do on the day. Responses so far have been extremely positive, and I know that a range of events are planned in schools across the country.
Other events will take place across the world. Next week I will attend a St Andrew's day ball in Warsaw, as part of a wider visit to Poland, and we will distribute 86 event packs to Foreign and Commonwealth Office overseas posts, to help them to celebrate the day. Once again, the First Minister will send a message around the world to be used at St Andrew's day events. More than 70 countries will fly the saltire or will host balls, ceilidhs or receptions.
I am sure that the committee will join me in wishing success to all St Andrew's day events in Scotland and around the world. The Scottish Executive is enthusiastic about greater celebration of our national day. We all have a part to play in achieving that. I confirm again that, on the basis that I have outlined, we support the bill at stage 2.
I welcome Dennis Canavan, the sponsor of the bill, to the committee for this item. I invite him to ask the minister some questions or to say a few words.
I thank the minister very much for his helpful statement and warmly welcome the various initiatives and events that he has announced on behalf of the Executive. I am very pleased that the Scottish Executive has been persuaded to support the general principles of the bill.
The convener may recall that at a previous meeting of the committee I described the minister as Thomas the doubter, because of his sceptical attitude to the bill. I now withdraw that description unreservedly. If I may use another biblical expression, I warmly welcome his Pauline conversion. I do not know exactly what happened on the road to Damascus, but it was truly miraculous and very enlightening. I hope that the committee will deal expeditiously with stage 2 consideration of the bill, so that it can proceed to stage 3 and, I hope, receive full parliamentary approval before St Andrew's day at the end of the month.
The provisional date for stage 3 is 29 November. Minister, did you want to respond to Dennis Canavan?
At the risk of breaking up this warm consensus, I quite like Thomas the doubter.
Does any other member want to speak, or to question the minister?
I want to reiterate a question that I have asked at other stages: what measures will be taken to ensure that there is widespread understanding of what the bill will mean? I am conscious that the continuing various commentaries in the press show that there are different appreciations of what has been proposed to Parliament.
We all hope that people listen to the words that we say and take them at face value as much as possible. As I have done previously, I am doing my best this afternoon to explain how we see the bill and the impact that it will have. I have made it clear that we do not think that the bill, in itself, automatically creates an additional holiday for anyone. However, it is important to be clear that, as far as the Scottish Executive can—including with both its own employees and other employees in the public service—we will encourage employers to engage with their employees and ask them to consider how they could better celebrate St Andrew's day and whether they would consider moving an existing holiday to that day. We will do our best on every occasion to explain the practical effect to people.
It is also important for the Executive as a whole to demonstrate our sincerity when we say that we will genuinely encourage people to consider the issue and how they could improve their own celebration of St Andrew's day.
I thank the minister and Ian Donaldson.