Sarah Boyack
Encyclopedia
Sarah Boyack MSP is a Scottish Labour
Scottish Labour Party
The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....

 MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...

 for the Lothian region and formerly constituency MSP for Edinburgh Central
Edinburgh Central (Scottish Parliament constituency)
Edinburgh Central is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

 in the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

.

Boyack is co-chairing the review of the Labour Party in Scotland
Review of the Labour Party in Scotland
The Murphy and Boyack review is a report being compiled by Jim Murphy and Sarah Boyack on the future structure of the Labour Party in Scotland, in response to the landslide victory by the Scottish National Party in the Scottish general election of 2011...

, commissioned by Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...

 in May 2011, and due to report in the autumn of 2011.

Background

Educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Royal High School (Edinburgh)
The Royal High School of Edinburgh is a co-educational state school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland, and has, throughout its history, been high achieving, consistently attaining well above average exam results...

, she became a student at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

 in 1979. She became active in the Labour Club
Glasgow University Labour Club
Glasgow University Labour Club was formed in 1946, and has served as a training ground for a number of prominent Labour politicians of the twentieth century. Membership is open to all matriculated students of the University....

, where she was a protege of Margaret Curran. She became chair of the Labour Club in 1981-82, and chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students
Labour Students
Labour Students is a student organisation affiliated to the British Labour Party.Membership comprises affiliated college and university clubs . Membership of Labour Students is through membership of a university or college Labour Club. Affiliation is open to any Labour Club generally supportive of...

 in 1985-86. During her time at Glasgow University, she was involved in supporting the twinning with Bir Zeit University in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

.

Boyack's father was an important figure in the Labour Party and the campaign for Scottish devolution.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

She was elected to the new Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

 in 1999, and she was Minister for the Environment, Planning and Transport in the Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive
The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...

 from 1999-2000. Then Minister for Transport 2000-2001 during which time she introduced one of Scottish Labour's flagship policies of free bus travel
Free travel pass
A free travel pass is the privilege of a certain class of passengers to use a public transport service without paying a fare or presenting a ticket...

 for people over 60. She was elected Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Development Committee in June 2003 and stood down in January 2007 when she returned to the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development.

In November 2004 Sarah received the RSPB Goldcrest Award for the most outstanding contribution to the development of environmental policy in Scotland since devolution and in December 2005 was named the Scottish Renewables Best Politician.

She lost her seat in the 2011 Scottish Parliament general election to Marco Biagi
Marco Biagi
Marco Biagi was an Italian jurist. A native of Bologna, he was professor of labour law and industrial relations at the University of Modena....

 of the SNP but was elected on the Lothian Regional List.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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