Margaret Jamieson

Margaret Jamieson MSP defending her participation in the Scottish Parliament Business Exchange, Newsnight Scotland 24 June 2002

This article is part of the Scotland: Portal project of SpinWatch.

Margaret Jamieson (born 1953, Kilmarnock) is a Scottish Labour politician, and was Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency from 1999 to 2007. In 2007 she lost her constituency to Willie Coffey of the SNP. Prior to 1999 she had worked as a UNISON official.

Activities

Drug company confidentiality agreement

Jamieson came to public attention when it emerged that she had signed a ten year confidentiality agreement with the Drug company Pfizer as part of a series of meetings set up by the Scottish Parliament Business Exchange. According to the BBC:

A confidentiality agreement between an MSP and a drugs company has sparked calls for the rules on lobbying at Holyrood to be tightened. Deputy convener of the health committee Margaret Jamieson will visit American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer during a fact-finding trip to the United States and Belgium this summer. As part of her trip she has signed a 10-year confidentiality agreement with the company.

Opposition parties said MSPs must avoid even the appearance of impropriety in the face of powerful vested interests. The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats said there must be more clarity about such trips. The visit to Pfizer by the Kilmarnock and Loudon MSP will not appear on the register of members interests, because it has been paid for by an educational charity. The Scottish Parliament Business Exchange was launched last autumn to introduce MSPs to industry. Mrs Jamieson said she was not concerned about the confidentiality agreement.

She said: "I think that my constituents will understand that I have a great interest in the health service and if by undertaking the business exchange that makes it better for them, then they'll accept that." "But at the end of the five-week process I have got to provide a report that will be available to anyone in Scotland." She said that the visit was not intended to influence MSPs. "I think they do it to share the knowledge because there is a great deal of inequality in health in Scotland," she said.

Resources, Notes

Resources

• BBC News Scotland Secrecy deal sparks lobby fears Tuesday, 25 June, 2002, 10:21 GMT 11:21 UK
• They Work for You Margaret Jamieson