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I, too, congratulate Elaine Murray on securing this very timely debate.The latest figures that I have for the Scottish Borders show that, as a result of Farepak's collapse, at least 378 people have lost a total of just under £100,000.
That investment will support the provision of nearly 5,000 new homes for low-cost home ownership throughout Scotland by 2008.We have discussed with stakeholders new proposals for supporting low-cost home ownership based on shared equity and we will announce shortly the new mea...
Time for Reflection Welcome to Holyrood. Welcome to the new Scots Parliament. Our first item of business this morning is time for reflection, which is led by one of our new neighbours—the Rev Charles Robertson, minister of the Canongate kirk.
They must be fully involved in designing the working practices to support the new forms of service delivery. I am pleased that staff are increasingly involved in the consultation processes that are taking place in many parts of the country on developing those new services.
I am pleased by the references to the visit by the First Minister to some of the projects that flowed from that and to the meeting of the Commission for Africa that was held in the Scottish Parliament on 16 May.
The committee is working on a report about relationships between the UK and the Nordic Council. A visit to Oslo is planned for December and an attempt is being made to arrange a meeting with the Baltic Council of Ministers.
If the issue is to be taken forward, an investigation would have to be on a similar scale to our investigation into special educational needs and would require substantial support from advisers as well as a substantial amount of committee time for visits and assessments of the provision that is currently out there.
My concern about formalising our arrangements is that, inevitably, the work would expand into that time—we would meet weekly and might not be able to do the kinds of things that we have spoken about, such as meeting organisations and visiting places. If we discover that we are being overcome with work and cannot examine the work of the other committees as w...