Dundee Liberal Democrats - www.dundeelibdems.scot

Commenting on the revelation that law officers were not asked about releasing legal advice pertaining to the Alex Salmond case until yesterday, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

"For weeks ministers tried to suggest that it was the law officers who were preventing this advice from being published. I feel for the Scottish Government lawyers who have been used as human shields as a result of this deception.

A new analysis carried out by the Scottish Liberal Democrats shows that almost 170,000 scheduled operations have been lost to the pandemic between March and January 2021.

Figures published by Public Health Scotland show that 309,650 operations were conducted between March 2019 and January 2020. However, between March 2020 and January 2021, this figure was just 141,441, a decrease of 168,209.

On Friday 5^th March, the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference will debate plans for land reform aimed at boosting rural communities neglected by the SNP's "Government for the Central Belt".

The conference will consider proposals from the Highland Liberal Democrats that would:

• Replace property-based council tax with a locally administered land value tax, encouraging a more proportional system of taxation and fairer use of land.
• Expand the Scottish Land Fund to facilitate further community ownership across Scotland.
• Institute a First Time Builders Fund to support population growth in rural areas that lack housing stock.
• Require public bodies to consult with rural and remote communities to make sure Scottish legislation is "rural proof"

At a time when millions of small businesses are struggling to survive, to offer them just £5 billion would be an insult.

We need to see a budget with a bold and ambitious compensation package

From beauticians to builders, florists to café owners - the small businesses in our communities are on the brink and the Chancellor must do more.

Commenting on the prospect of a vote of no confidence in the Deputy First Minister and indications from all four opposition parties that they will back such a vote, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Nicola Sturgeon has no choice but to order John Swinney to publish the advice in public and in full. If she does not she will lose her Deputy First Minister who is an important pillar of her government. It's a straight choice: John Swinney or the legal advice in full and in public.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today committed to banning the practice of conversion therapy for LGBT+ people.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have campaigned to ban conversion therapy since 2014 and are the first party to commit to supporting the End Conversion Therapy campaign's calls for legislation to ban:

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today released a new report entitled Federalism: Still the best future for Scotland, outlining a series of radical proposals for reforming the United Kingdom.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie tasked former leader Ming Campbell with re-examining and refreshing the party's approach to reform of the United Kingdom to address the failures of the status quo and give Scotland and the nations and regions of the UK a bigger say on the future of our joint endeavour to recover from the pandemic.

Commenting on the prospect of a no confidence vote in Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Liberal Democrats will support a motion of no confidence if John Swinney continues to flout the will of parliament.

"There is a simple way for John Swinney to avoid another no confidence vote and that is to release the legal advice as parliament has twice made very clear it expects him to do.