Alex Cole-Hamilton
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Western
Before Parliament, Alex worked in the childrens voluntary sector, including being Director of Together (Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights) and worked on the campaign to raise the age of leaving care in Scotland to 21.
Since being elected Alex led the successful campaign to save HIV Scotland from planned funding cuts, forced the Government to abandon their plans to abolish jury trials during the Covid pandemic and has spoken up for bus services, dentist and GP provision, and protecting greenbelt land in west Edinburgh.
He has prioritised campaigning on children's mental health, first aid awareness, long covid and supporting Ukrainian refugees. He was sanctioned by the Kremlin in August 2022 following his public criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and for his efforts to highlight Russian influence in Scotland.
Alex was first elected in 2016, and was re-elected in 2021.
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Solutions offered in Bottle Return Scheme Mess
Local MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton recently challenged the First Minister to listen to the avalanche of concern coming from drinks producers around the introduction of a deposit return scheme that would see money given to consumers as they return drinks containers.
The Scheme had seen less than 20% of producers sign up by the deadline, which will (if nothing changes) drastically reduce the range of drinks available to shoppers. He had pointed to a solution where small companies with an output of fewer than 25k units could be exempted from the scheme as happens in other countries.
Alex said, “A deposit return scheme could massively reduce waste in our communities and climate emissions, but only if it works. The Government have ignored the warnings of business and sought to introduce a scheme that will simply lead producers to stop selling their products in Scotland.
"In large part, I’m concerned that this was done so that we would have a different scheme than England, just for the sake of it. I’m calling for the government to pause the roll out and adopt exemptions for smaller suppliers to protect the range of products that shoppers enjoy.”