Sarah Boyack

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**Sarah Boyack**

Constituency	Edinburgh Central
Re-Elected	3 May 2007
Majority	1,193 Votes
Date of Birth	16 May 1961
Political Party	Labour Party

Sarah Boyack MSP (born 16 May 1961 in Glasgow) is the Labour MSP for Edinburgh Central in the Scottish Parliament. She was brought up in Edinburgh, where her father was an important figure in the Labour Party and campaign for Scottish devolution.

Educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, she became a student at the University of Glasgow in 1979. She became active in the Labour Club, 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 in 1985-86. During her time at Glasgow University, she was involved in supporting the twinning with Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, which involved serious clashes between supporters and opponents of Zionism.

She was elected to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999, and she was Minister for the Environment, Planning and Transport in the Scottish Executive 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 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. [1]

In November 2004 Sarah received the RSPB Goldcrest Award [2] 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.

[edit] Political Offices

Scottish Parliament
Preceded by Constituency Created	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central 1999 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Rhona Brankin	Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development 2007	Succeeded by Michael Russell as Minister for Environment
Preceded by New Creation	Minister for Transport and Planning 2000–2001	Succeeded by Wendy Alexander as Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning
Preceded by New Creation	Minister for Transport and the Environment 1999–2000	Succeeded by Abolished
Preceded by Alex Johnstone	Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Development Committee 2003–2007	Succeeded by Maureen MacMillan