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Page 16 - வாயு ஒன்றுபட்டது கிஂக்டம் News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Who Runs Scotland? The rich and powerful who influence SNP Government decisions

Susan Rice Dame Susan Rice is another veteran financier who combines banking and business interests with roles on public boards interest in the arts. She is chair of Scottish Water and the Scottish Fiscal Commission.  As chief executive, and then chair of Lloyds TSB Scotland, she became the first woman to head a UK clearing bank in 2000. In 2012, she was also the first woman elected as president of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry. She has long been respected by government. In 2009 she chaired the 2020 Group, set up in response to the Climate Change Bill, which aimed to reduce carbon emissions by 42 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. In 2014 the Scottish Government announced it had reached the first target six years early.

Power and influence of energy companies lobbying Scottish Government raises questions

Questions have been raised over the power and influence of energy companies following analysis by The Ferret revealing how key sectors dominate Scottish lobbying.  The Ferret categorised 711 organisations that lobbied Scottish Government ministers since the register was introduced in 2018 to increase transparency.  Only regulated lobbying – which means face-to-face and zoom calls – has to be registered. While entries on the lobbying register dropped dramatically in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions, the energy sector was second only to industry in the number of times it lobbied ministers last year.   With world leaders meeting at UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow later this year, and the Scottish Government committed to a just transition away from fossil fuels, environmental campaign organisations like Greenpeace said the figures showed oil and gas companies were leaning on the government and “betraying people and planet” in the process. 

SNP Government held hundreds of secret lobbying meetings in 2020

Former Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism Fergus Ewing was the key contact for steel billionaire Gupta, holding regular meetings, including an un-minuted, private dinner with the controversial banker at the heart of the Conservative lobbying scandal, Lex Greensill, and Gupta back in 2017.   Ministers engagements for 2020 list three phone meetings with Gupta and Ewing not on the lobbying register. A GFG Alliance spokesperson said: “GFG is a significant employer and investor in the UK and as part of its normal course of doing business we engage with a range of stakeholders, including politicians, on a number of topics that relate to our businesses.  We have strong links with the Scottish and Welsh governments because of the plants and jobs in Scotland and Wales.” 

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