Minister blasts Queen's Speech as 'a plan for pain and misery'

Proposals in the Queen's Speech will make life better for families across Scotland, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore has insisted.

He spoke out after the UK Government's legislative proposals for the coming year were unveiled.

However, the Scottish Government branded it a "missed opportunity" by the Westminster coalition, saying ministers there should have adopted a new approach focused on boosting infrastructure spending.

Meanwhile, Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran claimed it was a "plan for more unemployment, more pain and more misery at a time when we need a plan for jobs and growth".

But Mr Moore defended the measures, describing them as "a further step towards rebalancing our economy and setting it back on the path to growth".

He added that the Queen's Speech contained legislation "designed to make life easier for Scotland's consumers and households in these testing times".

Proposals include banking reforms, with banks forced to ring-fence their retail arms from riskier investment banking divisions, along with legislation to reform the House of Lords and a Green Investment Bank to be based in Edinburgh.

Another controversial bill will make it easier for police to monitor private emails and telephone records.

Meanwhile, the Energy Bill aims to lower prices by reforming the energy market while the Children and Families Bill, which applies in part to Scotland, will aim to give parents more choice in parental leave and flexible working.

The legislative programme also includes a Law Commission Bill on Unincorporated Associations and Partnerships, which seeks to reform the criminal liability of partnerships in Scots law.

This was put forward after the case against the owners of the Rosepark nursing home - where 14 elderly people were killed in a fire in 2004 - failed because of a loophole in the law preventing the prosecution of a partnership once it has been dissolved.

'Greater security'

Mr Moore said: "These proposals aim to help Scottish families and individuals who want clean energy at affordable prices and a fair deal for themselves and our farmers when they buy food from the supermarket shelves.

"Our proposals will also provide greater security for households by shielding savings as we reform the banking system."

He insisted the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government was "tackling the major issues across the country".

The Scottish Secretary added: "We are clearing up the economic mess we inherited as a government and taking steps to prevent the chance of that ever happening again.

"But we are also taking fair and affordable measures to make life better for households across Scotland too. That commitment lies at the heart of this speech."

However, Scottish Government minister Bruce Crawford said the Queen's Speech showed that "the path of the UK Government is diverging ever further from that of Scotland".

Mr Crawford, Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy, stated: "Our focus is rightly on boosting growth and employment, and this was a missed opportunity by the UK Government to signal a new approach by increasing infrastructure spending and supporting the Scottish Government's 'shovel-ready' capital projects across Scotland."

He said there were some measures which SNP ministers welcomed, including the establishment of the Green Investment Bank.

But he claimed the Public Service Pensions Bill - which will bring in a range of pensions reforms - was an example of the "UK Government's misguided approach".

Mr Crawford said: "The UK Government appears to be applying legislative constraints on any flexibility that could be exercised by the Scottish Government.

"This completely undermines our ability, and that of local government, to put in place a pensions agreement that meets the needs of public-sector employees in Scotland."

Ms Curran said that now the UK was back in recession the Government needed to produce "an urgent response to stimulate the economy, secure growth and get people back to work".

She added: "We should have seen a jobs plan for Scotland, action on energy bills, a fairer deal on tax and a fair deal for consumers.

"If this was a Labour Queen's Speech, there would have been an agenda for Scotland."

Instead, Ms Curran said: "A plan for jobs is missing. A plan for growth is missing. A plan for fairness is missing."

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