Deacon was not asked for opinion

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 19:32

THE article "'Pats on head' for women at Holyrood" (News, 28 February) stated that I was one of the former women ministers from the Labour-led coalition who were interviewed for the recent report by the Active Learning Centre on the impact of women ministers in post-devolution Scotland 1999-2007.

I wish to make clear that I was not one of those interviewed nor was I asked to be interviewed and therefore any views contained in the press article or in the full report are not mine. Indeed, there are a number of opinions expressed in the report, both by unnamed former ministers and by the report's authors, Susan Dalgety and Danny Phillips, with which I disagree and would wish to disassociate myself from.

As one of the three women ministers to serve in the first devolved Cabinet – and the only woman to hold the position of health minister during the period in question – I would certainly agree that the experience and impact of women in post-devolution Scottish politics is a subject worthy of further examination. I would commend the work of Professor Alice Brown and Dr Fiona Mackay of Edinburgh University as a source of robust research and analysis on this important subject.

Susan Deacon, Prestonpans