Pauline McNeill MSP is the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture and the Constitution.

EUROPE AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

Scottish Labour is support of the UK's membership of the European Union, knowing the strength that comes from being part of one of the largest members.

One of the important areas of work is strengthening and changing devolution. The SNP's single-track approach to separating Scotland from the rest of the UK is a distraction from the serious work of the Calman Commission. It reviewed 10 years of devolution and proposed a series of widely-respected changes which are now being taken forward through the Scottish and UK Parliaments.

CULTURE

Ms McNeill is committed to the preservation of Scottish culture and is currently campaigning along side her team on the following issues:

The future of Scotland’s National Centre for Architecture and Design

Pauline McNeill has called on the Minister for culture to safeguard the future the future of The Lighthouse after it went into administration. Ms McNeill said:

"It seems to me that Mike Russell is happy to shrug his shoulders and leave the matter in the hands of the administrators.

"The Minister needs to fully outline if Scotland's Centre for Architecture and Design will continue to exist, and if so where will it be located?"

The cost of tracing family history for Scots

Labour have asked the Culture Minister to explain why the cost of tracing family history costs more for people in Scotland than it does for people in England.

The cost of looking up census records in Scotland is £1.20 minimum, compared with 35p in England.

The number of people tracing their family history in Scotland has increased dramatically, whether it is out of curiosity or for medical reasons, and it is simply not fair that it costs more in Scotland.

It is vastly more expensive to look up the equivalent online Scottish database than the one in England, despite the fact that the websites are run by the same company.