Dundee Liberal Democrats - www.dundeelibdems.scot

Responding to comments from the chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council indicating that the police operation for Donald Trump's visit to the UK is estimated to have cost nearly £18 million, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said:

"I commend the hard work of the officers who were deployed across the country.

The Government's Counter Terrorism Bill has now moved to debate in the House of Lords. The Liberal Democrats opposed the bill in the House of Commons for a simple reason: this bill does little to keep us safe, but a lot to erode the individual freedoms of people in the UK.

In the future we might have a Government who are prepared to ride roughshod over our freedoms as citizens.

In recognition of World Mental Health Day, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable has called upon employers to publish their mental health strategies.

Sending a warning to industries that if they fail to publish their practices, the Government must compel them to do so, Vince Cable said:

"Businesses must become far more transparent about how they help staff deal with mental health issues. Only 11% of our biggest employers disclose any information on mental health in their annual reports, according to Business in the Community, but to ensure that best practice is shared across industry, improving the workplace for all employees, they all must.

"This transparency would also drive standards through competition, and with mental health finally being more openly discussed in society and our schools, it is time workplaces stepped up.

"If big companies won't voluntarily disclose this information or produce a thorough, publicly published plan of action, then the government should take heed of the Stevenson/Farmer review and amend legislation to force employers to do so."

Responding to Nicola Sturgeon's speech to the SNP conference this afternoon, Scottish Liberal Democrat Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP commented:

"The lessons of Brexit are the lessons for independence. Nicola Sturgeon's own Growth Commission, the elephant in the room, admitted independence would plunge us into austerity far deeper than anything we have experienced before, hammering NHS and education budgets.

In a letter to the UK Liberal Democrats the Electoral Commission said in relation to the 2016 Edinburgh West campaign of Alex Cole-Hamilton:

"In our investigation we questioned whether the values of some payments included in the Party's campaign expenditure return, which had been apportioned between it and the candidate return for Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western), were justifiable and if the campaign expenditure return accurately reflected the true expenditure by the Party. In particular, we queried the apportionments in respect of a number of leaflets that had been distributed in the Edinburgh Western constituency.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Tavish Scott MSP has hammered SNP arrogance on P1 testing, after the Education Secretary, John Swinney, branded the conclusive Holyrood vote to end P1 testing "a disgrace" at a fringe meeting at the SNP conference and again failed to indicate that he would listen to the will of Parliament.

Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable has written to Nicola Sturgeon to urge the SNP to fight in Parliament for the people to have the final say on Brexit.

The challenge from the Liberal Democrat leader comes as the SNP meet for their party conference in Glasgow. The SNP leadership, despite opposing Brexit, have so far avoided joining the campaign for a 'People's Vote' on Brexit.

Responding to the news that all of the new class 385 Hitachi trains have been taken off the rails after a technical fault was discovered, Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Mike Rumbles MSP said:

"This is yet another let down for Scotland's rail users. Commuters will be dismayed to see the first trains from the new Hitachi fleet, introduced with great fanfare just weeks ago, taken out of action.