Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Official Report 803KB pdf

---

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

The next item of business is consideration of two Parliamentary Bureau motions. I ask Bruce Crawford to move motions S4M-03103 and S4M-03104, on approval of Scottish statutory instruments. I ask any member who wishes to speak against the motions to press their request-to-speak button now.

Motions moved,

That the Parliament agrees that the Property Factors (Code of Conduct) (Scotland) Order 2012 [draft] be approved.

That the Parliament agrees that the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Dalgety Bay) (Scotland) Order 2012 be approved.—[Bruce Crawford.]

I call Helen Eadie, who has up to three minutes to speak on motion S4M-03104.

16:55

Thank you for allowing me to say a few words on behalf of my constituents who live or work in Dalgety Bay and the surrounding area and are affected by the SSI.

I believe that it is very important to question the Scottish Government on what more it can do. I have written to the First Minister, but he did not honour me with a response. Instead, he asked Richard Lochhead to respond to me on his behalf. I have also raised the issue in the chamber, and the First Minister said that, perhaps, in due course, the Government can do a little bit more. It is simply not good enough for the First Minister to leave it for a while longer; the problem requires him to do something much more urgently.

I asked in my correspondence whether the First Minister would raise the matter with the Ministry of Defence directly. There are grave concerns about the safety, welfare and health—both mental and physical—of people in our community with regard to this issue.

I have rarely asked you, First Minister, and I really would appreciate less of a smile on your face—

Ms Eadie, I would be grateful if you would address the SSI, which is about shellfish in Dalgety Bay.

I understand, and I am asking whether the First Minister will ensure that more progress is made. Some progress is being made, and I will not adamantly oppose the SSI tonight. My ground for speaking in opposition to the motion is that the Government is not doing enough, and must do much more.

Although it is good that the Government is working with the Food Standards Agency to ensure that the public are not affected by ingesting any of the radiation contamination on the beaches, it is very important that the First Minister addresses the heart of the issue, which is the removal and the remediation of all contamination on the beaches at Dalgety Bay. It is not enough for the Government to say this evening that it will make it a criminal offence for people to gather bait from the beaches and put others at risk of contamination.

We want the Government to make certain that every ounce of contamination is removed from the beaches at Dalgety Bay. The very least that the First Minister can do is not only to ensure, through working with the Food Standards Agency and the Health Protection Agency, that any possibility of contamination is removed but to give his urgent attention to the matter and speak with—

Your time is up, Ms Eadie.

16:59

A number of Helen Eadie’s comments do not refer to the emergency order that the Parliament has considered and on which members will have an opportunity to vote tonight.

It is clear that the contamination has come about as a result of the actions of the Ministry of Defence. There is no fault on the part of this Government, which has been pursuing the MOD to take up its responsibility to clean up the contamination that it has caused at Dalgety Bay. On several occasions, cabinet ministers have written to the MOD to ask it to face up to its responsibility. We are making an emergency order to protect public health as a result of the contamination that has been caused by the MOD. In the coming months, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will work with the MOD to identify the full extent of the contamination that has been caused by the MOD.

I hope that Helen Eadie and her colleagues will support us in future in ensuring that, once we recognise the full extent of the contamination that has been caused by the MOD, the MOD owns up to that and pays for the clean-up of Dalgety Bay.

The questions on the motions will be put at decision time.