13th June 2007
McNeil New Committee Convener
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan
McNeil, is set to become Convener of Holyrood’s new Local Government and
Communities Committee, it has been announced.
Mr
McNeil told the Telegraph that the
Committee will be responsible for scrutinising controversial planks of the new
Executive’s legislative programme, as well as investigating issues vital to
Greenock and Inverclyde:
“I’m
delighted to be taking up the role of Convener of the Local Government and
Communities Committee. It’s a
great responsibility, but one I can’t wait to take on,” he said.
“Issues
like housing, local government funding, local workers’ pay and the new
Executive’s bid to bring in a local income tax will be key over the next four
years. The viability of the new
Executive’s policies in these areas needs to be examined closely and the Local
Government Committee will have an important role to play in providing the
necessary parliamentary scrutiny.”
He
continued:
“There
are also serious, long-standing issues which I hope the Committee will be able
to examine in depth, such as the problem of drugs and the damage they are doing
to communities like ours.”
Previously,
from 2003, Mr McNeil served on the Parliament’s Health Committee, where he
demanded and steered through the major inquiry into NHS workforce planning. Against
the then backdrop of acute health services collapsing due to a supposed shortage
of staff, the inquiry looked at hitherto neglected questions such as how the
pressures of medical staff’s specialisation and the European Working Time
Directive were affecting the workforce and impacting on service delivery.
Mr
McNeil has also stood down as Labour’s representative on the Scottish
Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), on which he has served continuously since
2001. During his time as an SPCB
member, Mr McNeil successfully pushed forward a transparency agenda, publishing,
for example, MSPs’ parliamentary allowance claims in an unprecedented level of
detail. He is replaced on the SPCB
by former Finance Minister, Tom McCabe.
ENDS
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