With Two MSPs We Achieved So Much - Think Of What We Could Do With More
- Made energy efficiency a national priority. Our budget negotiations helped deliver £77 million more for fuel poverty programmes, and reducing energy use is now marked as an investment priority.
Green MSPs in the next parliament will make sure investment to tackle fuel poverty and boost energy efficiency is delivered.
- Secured a moratorium on fracking. Green MSPs called for a ban on all unconventional oil and gas extraction in 2012. Communities, activists and parliamentary pressure together delivered a temporary moratorium in 2015.
Green MSPs in the next Parliament will campaign for a complete ban and focus investment in Scotland’s clean energy.
- Put walking, cycling and football fans to the fore. Our budget negotiations helped deliver £64 million more for walking and cycling, and our Fans’ First campaign has made it possible for the Scottish Government to give fans a legal right to buy their football clubs.
Green MSPs in the next Parliament will put sport back into communities by funding active travel and making sure fans’ rights are strengthened.
- Laid foundations for a constitutional ban on nuclear weapons. In the final month before the independence referendum Green MSPs secured a parliamentary majority for a constitutional ban on nuclear weapons in an independent Scotland.
Green MSPs in the next Parliament will continue to work across party lines for a nuclear weapon free Scotland.
- Improved transparency for public pensions. John Finnie MSP exposed £3.2 million of MSP pension investments in weapons, tobacco and fossil fuels. Alison Johnstone MSP secured agreement from the Scottish Government to publish information on public pension investments in fossil fuel.
Greens MSPs will continue to support divestment campaigns on university campuses, as well as in councils and local communities.
- Won a better deal for private tenants. Patrick Harvie’s Rent Rights campaign championed rent controls and has helped make renting a better option for people.
Green MSPs will campaign for a system of rent controls which set starting rents to reflect the quality of the property, and which cap rent rises to an affordability index across Scotland.
- Campaigned for safe communities without guns. John Finnie successfully campaigned against deploying armed police to routine incidents work for which he was awarded “Community Politician of the Year 2014”
In the next Parliament, the Scottish Greens will continue to call for an accountable policing and a fair, modern justice system focused on preventing crime and reoffending.
- Protected Scotland’s land. Alison Johnstone saw off Government plans to make maximising growth the core purpose of the planning system, retaining the duty to promote ‘sustainable development’ instead. From the Allan Park community to Knocknagael Farm in Inverness, Green MSPs have been successfully defending community space against private developers.
The Scottish Greens will continue to work for planning that fits communities’ needs.
- Pushed the Scottish Government to be more principled. Greens are the only MSPs calling for TTIP to be stopped. We have pressed the Scottish Government on their position with questions, motions and letters to the First Minister.
We will continue to push the SNP to be bolder, and ensure that the interests of the Scottish people, not the interests of big business, are driving decisions in Scotland.
- Spoken for the Gaelic community. After a four-year campaign, John Finnie MSP won an assurance on bi-lingual signage on upgraded A9. John also secured amendments to legislation, which ensure that new Police and Fire and Rescue Service official names are in statute in Gaelic.
Green MSPs will continue to campaign for diversity in all its forms.
- Secured peoples’ democratic rights. John Wilson MSP has championed hundreds of caused though his role on the Scottish Parliament’s public petitions committee. When it was revealed that the majority of petitions never made it to the committee John’s made sure the process was made more accessible to more petitioners.
In the next Scottish Parliament, Green MSPs will continue to speak for an open, democratic Holyrood that reaches out to communities and doesn’t shy away from debate.
- Supported fair treatment to students with caring responsibilities. John Finnie MSP secured a government promise to support young carers through education. Caring responsibilities mean young carers cannot always achieve the attendance levels required to receive the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), John secured a promise that requirements would be flexible when applied to young carers.
Green MSPs will continue to work for an inclusive, high-quality education system and equal access to further and higher education.
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Others
- Empowered communities. Deputy Convenor of the Local Government and Regeneration Committee John Wilson’s work on the Community Empowerment legislation saw the inclusion of the recognition of Communities of interest in the passage of the bill.
- Increased corporate transparency. We successfully campaigned to extend Freedom of Information laws to include council-owned arms’ length bodies. We secured a pledge from John Swinney to put the fight against tax avoidance at the heart of Revenue Scotland, and we pushed the Scottish Government to reduce the secrecy of land ownership in Scotland with a target date for completion of Land Register and a register of beneficial ownership.
- Brought justice for opencast communities. Patrick Harvie reported the failure to restore opencast coal mines to the Auditor General. The Auditor General agreed to investigate the situation further, and Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission work with local authorities is ongoing.
- Scrutinised service delivery. Green MSPs investigations have exposed how little local authorities spend on school meals and revealed extent of imported frozen chicken they use. We revealed the extent of allotment waiting lists, how much local authorities are spending sending waste to landfill and revealed the scale of the threat to the forestry economy from diseases such as needle blight. We also secured a reprimand for Trump for misleading propaganda.