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However, we are much happier with the powers and independence of the Scottish information commissioner compared to those of the UK information commissioner.
Although, as has been said, legislation is welcome and necessary, nothing compares with working on the ground and along the shore with local communities.
Those representations have been desperately important. If you compare the initial consultation paper with the strategy document, you will see that an awful lot of the meat of the strategy document comes directly from the responses to the consultation and from what we got out of our seminar in Dunkeld and other discussions.
For example, the document states that 312,850 people currently claim invalidity benefit or severe disabled allowance, and that in Glasgow the incidence of claims is almost twice as high as in other comparable UK cities. That indicates that the place of the disabled in employment is a major Scottish issue.
That is why I took a lot of interest in the subject when we made our visit to Ireland. I spoke to a number of Irish politicians about the system that operates in Ireland, because of its similarity to the system that we are introducing in Scotland.In evidence that we heard from people, particularly those in Northern Ireland, I discovered that they thought that Northern Ireland was not a good comparator to use in considering the situation in Scotland.
Members should consider the proliferation incentives that have been created for India, Israel, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea and compare the number of proposals for sanctions against or invasion of Iran with those that have been made with respect to North Korea.
The existing powers under section 70 of the 1980 act have been used extremely rarely—I am aware of one comparatively recent case in relation to the City of Edinburgh Council.