Stewart Maxwell

Stewart Maxwell MSP
Convener of the Scottish Parliament Education and Culture Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 June 2011
Preceded by	Karen Whitefield
Minister for Communities and Sport
In office 17 May 2007 – 10 February 2009
First Minister	Alex Salmond
Preceded by	Rhona Brankin
Succeeded by	Alex Neil as Minister for Housing and Communities and Shona Robison as Minister for Public Health and Sport
Member of the Scottish Parliament for West of Scotland
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 2003
Personal details
Born	(1963-12-24) 24 December 1963 Glasgow, Scotland
Political party	Scottish National Party
Alma mater	Glasgow College of Technology

Stewart Maxwell (born December 24, 1963 in Glasgow, Scotland) was the Minister for Communities and Sport from 2007–2009 and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the West of Scotland, being elected as a Scottish National Party (SNP), Additional Members System member at the 2003 election. Maxwell attended King's Park Secondary School before graduating from Glasgow College of Technology with a BA Honours Social Sciences. He worked for Strathclyde Fire Brigade between 1993 and 2003 before being elected.

After his election in 2003 Stewart Maxwell became the Deputy Convener of the Parliament's Justice 1 Committee and a member of the Subordinate Legislation Committee. He transferred from Justice 1 to Justice 2 Committee in 2004 and was also appointed to the post of SNP spokesperson on Public Health and the Shadow Deputy Minister for Health. In 2006 he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet when he became the Shadow Minister for Sport, Culture & Media. At the end of 2006 he moved from the Justice 2 Committee to the Parliament's Enterprise and Culture Committee and remained on the Subordinate Legislation Committee. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, he became the Minister for Communities and Sport. However, he returned to the backbenches in the SNP Ministerial reshuffle on 10 February 2009. After leaving Ministerial office he became one of two representatives from the Scottish Parliament on the European Committee of the Regions and became a member of the Parliament's Justice Committee. After the 2011 election he was appointed to the post of Convener of the Education and Culture Committee and as one of the SNP members of the Scotland bill Committee.

Stewart Maxwell is best known for being the architect of the ban on smoking in enclosed places in Scotland. He laid a motion in the Scottish Parliament stating that he intended to bring forward a bill to ban smoking in public places in July 2003 and went on to introduce the Bill to ban tobacco smoking in enclosed public places in February 2004, as perhaps befits a former employee of Strathclyde Fire Brigade. The Scottish Executive at first opposed this proposal, but were eventually forced to accept the idea after it received widespread support. They eventually published their own bill which was passed on June 30, 2005 and the ban came into effect on March 26, 2006.

For the last few years he has also been campaigning on knife crime and has made various proposals to tackle this issue in Scotland, including the mandatory reporting of knife attacks by hospitals to the police and the use of hand-held metal detectors at the doors of some pubs and clubs. He successfully moved an amendment to the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice Bill which doubled the maximum sentence for carrying a knife in public.

He was a member of the SNPs National Executive Committee as well as serving as the Vice Convenor in charge of Publicity during 2003-2004. During the 2003-2007 session of Parliament he was a member of six Parliamentary cross party groups; Tobacco Control, Sport, Contemporary Scottish Music Industry, Culture and Media, Cancer and Food. He is currently a member of the following CPGs: Tobacco Control, Veterans, Golf and Universities and Colleges.

The SNP hold a 'One Member One Vote' ballot of all Party members to determine the order of their candidates on the regional lists for the Scottish Parliament elections. Stewart Maxwell, who was third on the SNP list for the West of Scotland in 2003, was elected to first place on the SNP list for 2007 and topped the list again in 2011.

In November 2006 he was made Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland for his work on the introduction of the ban on smoking in public places.

He is married with one daughter.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stewart Maxwell.

• Scottish Parliament official website - Stewart Maxwell MSP
• Personal website of Stewart Maxwell, MSP
• Scottish National Party
• Scotsman - MSP Proposes Smoking Ban
• Sunday Times - MSP advocates Mandatory Reporting