SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
Education and Young People, Tourism, Culture and Sport
Swimming Facilities (Aberdeen)
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council regarding the funding for a 50-metre swimming pool for the city of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. (S2O-10075)
The Executive has had no discussions with Aberdeen City Council yet, but my officials, with representatives of sportscotland, have arranged to meet Aberdeen City Council on 14 June to discuss its plans to build a 50m pool in Aberdeen.
Is the minister aware that sportscotland specifically told the council not to include funding for a 50m swimming pool in bidding for enhanced sports facilities for Aberdeen? That seems directly to contradict the support that the minister and the First Minister have recently given to such a facility in Aberdeen. Is not that the latest example of the minister being unaware of the stance that has been taken by a quango that is supposedly under her responsibility, albeit at arm's length—whether it is at the Gyle or in Glasgow?
I am not sure about the references that Ms Watt makes to other non-departmental public bodies.
Commonwealth Games 2014
To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth games will have for Eastwood. (S2O-10043)
A successful bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow will present an excellent opportunity for the people of Eastwood and throughout the rest of Scotland. As part of the preparations for the bid, the all-Scotland sub-group has been established, on which representatives from councils throughout Scotland, including Councillor Allan Steele from East Renfrewshire Council, have been invited to sit. The sub-group's aim is to ensure that plans for the 2014 Commonwealth games consider every opportunity to spread the games' benefits throughout Scotland.
I am delighted to hear about the role of Councillor Steele.
I certainly agree with Mr Macintosh. I welcomed the opportunity to make a presentation to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities some time ago with Councillor Purcell of Glasgow City Council and Louise Martin of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland, at which every council pledged its support for Glasgow's bid. Mr Macintosh will see confirmation on the Glasgow 2014 website that all 32 local authorities have signed up to and support the bid. I encourage everybody inside and outwith the chamber to do likewise.
I call Margo MacDonald, who should remember that the question is about Eastwood.
I am absolutely delighted that Eastwood should want to maximise the potential that the Commonwealth games offer, and am sure that there are many athletes of the calibre of Lee McConnell in Eastwood. However, there are also many promising athletes, some of whom are divers, in Edinburgh. Without hard cash being invested in facilities, it is possible that athletes—whether in Eastwood or Edinburgh—will not fulfil their potential.
Obviously, as Ms MacDonald will know, the ultimate responsibility for providing local facilities rests with local authorities. Ms MacDonald and I have previously discussed the case of Edinburgh. The City of Edinburgh Council has made a submission for funding under our national and regional facilities programme, which will ultimately help the council to maintain and refurbish pools, particularly the Royal Commonwealth pool. I look forward to seeing that come to a successful conclusion.
Sports Councils
To ask the Scottish Executive what support and funding is available for local sports councils. (S2O-10037)
The Executive, through sportscotland, provides financial and other support to the Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils. It is for local authorities to determine the level of support provided to local sports councils.
I thank the minister for her answer. I take this opportunity to inform her about work in my constituency. I am organising a meeting next month of local sports groups and interested parties with a view to re-establishing a Kirkcaldy area local sports council. Will the minister agree to meet the new sports council and me to discuss how we can drive sport forward in our local community?
Sports councils are a valuable way of taking forward local agendas in sport, so I would warmly welcome the establishment of a Kirkcaldy local sports council. Diary permitting, I would be delighted to meet the new sports council and the member.
I accept the minister's answer that this is all to do with the local authority, which is a standard ministerial answer to almost everything, but if the Executive is keen to promote sport—I believe that it is—it must recognise that local sports clubs are key partners that are not properly supported. Local sports councils are one way of channelling support to sports clubs, so will the minister consider direct funding of local sports councils, in addition to what they get from local authorities, which could then feed funding on to local sports clubs?
Local sports clubs can receive funding in a number of ways. One of the most important ways—it is probably the best—for local sports clubs to get funding is through the governing bodies of individual sports. Obviously, that would mean working with organisations that understand the specific needs of the clubs, their sports and their athletes. I would encourage local sports clubs to make that kind of connection, but I would be surprised if many of them have not done so already.
Tourist Information (Wick)
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it can take to ensure that a staffed tourist information centre is opened in Wick to replace the staffed centre that was closed in 2004. (S2O-10065)
VisitScotland has provided a tourist information service in Wick since 2004 under a partnership working arrangement with a local business. The partnership opportunity was re-advertised in the spring of this year, and the two proposals that were received are being evaluated. VisitScotland is confident that a suitable partnership agreement will be reached, and staff at the partner business will be provided with training in order to provide visitors with a good service.
The point that I want to make to the minister is that it was not VisitScotland but the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board that shut the Wick office in 2004. What we have felt in the east side of Caithness is the lack of a human voice—a real person who can answer questions. There is anecdotal evidence that people in Wick have rung up an answering service or suchlike in the central belt and been told, for example, "I don't know where the Castle of Mey is." We want a human face behind a desk in Wick. If the minister can help me to ensure that that happens with VisitScotland, whichever way we do it, I would be grateful.
I understand Mr Stone's point, but it does not tie in with what I understand the current situation to be. There is a staffed opportunity in Wick for people who want access to the kind of information that he mentioned. That is the opportunity to which I referred, which VisitScotland has been operating and which will continue. As I said, the staff of any business that takes the opportunity to be part of that partnership will be fully trained by VisitScotland staff to ensure that they have the expertise to which Mr Stone rightly referred.
Humanitarian Health Fund
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reopen the humanitarian health fund to new applications. (S2O-10030)
I have previously announced that the scheme will run annually. The current round of awards was announced last week, and eight applicants successfully received grants in relation to on-going work in Malawi. I am currently considering when to reopen the scheme for next year.
I am sure that the minister learned during her visit last week just how important the fund is to Malawi and to those who work there. I therefore encourage her to consider, as quickly as possible, when the fund can be reopened to applications. I also encourage her to use her influence with the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform and the First Minister to try to secure additional funds to offer much needed support to Malawi.
I am grateful to Ms Gillon for her support for our on-going project, and for her interest in the work that is going on in Malawi. I was pleased to be in Malawi last week to see for myself much of the work that is being undertaken by people with a connection to Scotland.
Jamie McGrigor.
Oh. Has the minister, like me, encountered a degree of scepticism about the performance of visitscotland.com? Does she agree—
No—I think that you are ahead of the chamber, Mr McGrigor. Your turn will come.
visitscotland.com
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the performance of the official VisitScotland website, visitscotland.com. (S2O-10009)
Visitscotland.com is performing well and is generating significant business for the tourism industry in Scotland. Since its inception, it has generated more than £46 million of business for tourism establishments across the whole of Scotland. Visitscotland.com acts as a very effective shop window for Scottish tourism and is a highly popular source of information for our visitors.
I take it that that is the same answer that the minister has lined up for question 9 as well.
I will say first that Mr Fergusson perhaps calls into question my creativity—which I hope to display when we get to question 9.
Right, Mr McGrigor. This is question 6 on visitscotland.com and it is your turn.
My question is question 9, Presiding Officer, but I thank the minister for her reply. Does she agree that if visitscotland.com is to be of value, it must make a substantial difference to the small establishments that are the backbone of the industry? Does she believe that the fact that only 15 per cent of inquiries to visitscotland.com last year actually generated bookings represents good value for money?
Presiding Officer, I presume that Mr McGrigor is actually asking a supplementary to Mr Fergusson's question, and not asking his own question, which will come later?
That is right.
Mr McGrigor confirms that, minister.
I say to Mr McGrigor, in response to his supplementary question, that visitscotland.com is a shop window for tourism in Scotland. Many people will access that website to find out preliminary information about what is available in our country. That does not mean to say that they are tied to making their bookings through visitscotland.com, and I do not think that any of us would want that to be the case. Tourists who come to our country and people who want to use our accommodation must have the opportunity to make their own calls, if that is what they choose to do, or to contact premises directly through the website. Much of the activity on visitscotland.com takes place in such a scenario.
Sure Start
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to assess the success of the sure start programme. (S2O-10051)
A robust mapping exercise, which was published in December 2005, provided a detailed picture of the expansion of sure start Scotland services and their positive impact on children and families. The Scottish Executive is seeking to learn transferable lessons from the evaluation of sure start in England prior to any formal assessment of sure start Scotland. The Executive expects local authorities to evaluate local programmes.
The minister will probably be aware of the concerns that have been raised about the English sure start project, which has been formally assessed. There is anecdotal evidence that it has been successful, but although parents of children who are from moderately disadvantaged backgrounds seem to have gained some advantages from it, parents of children who are from the most deprived sections of society do not seem to have benefited from it. It also seems that children have not derived any particular benefits and that parents have benefited to a greater extent than children have done. Will the minister examine the results from the English sure start programme to check that we are not obtaining similar results in Scotland?
The English sure start programme has not been fully evaluated yet. A £16 million evaluation process will take place over a number of years. However, there have been some early results for particular sections of society, such as ethnic minority groups and certain family groups.
Does the minister agree that the effect of the targeting of more funding at early years education has to some degree been mitigated by the absence of a co-ordinated funding strategy? Will he assure the Parliament that he will endeavour to streamline and simplify early years funding and to provide a co-ordinated strategy for under-fives?
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton raises a valid point, because although early years operations have expanded significantly over recent years and achievements have been made in nursery school provision, progress has been somewhat ad hoc. As the deputy convener of the Education Committee, he will know that, like the committee, the Executive has been examining that issue. It is certainly one of the Executive's targets to streamline and reduce the number of funding streams, not just in early years learning, but across the board, to make them more effective.
Finance and Public Services and Communities
Local Income Tax
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake an assessment of the efficacy and fairness of a local income tax system. (S2O-10033)
The examination of local income tax, along with other models of local taxation, is within the remit of the independent local government finance review committee, which is chaired by Sir Peter Burt. The committee has said that it expects to report by the end of October this year.
Will the minister take the opportunity to distance the Executive from the position of certain opportunistic minority parties? There can be no doubt that the council tax system needs to be reformed and that there is no such thing as a popular tax, but will he face up to the fact that a local income tax would be shot full of anomalies, depending on income patterns in particular areas, would give Scotland the highest income tax in the United Kingdom and would mean that ordinary, hard-working families in Scotland would have to pay more tax? Alternatively, does he agree with the Lib Dem candidate in Livingston who said that a fireman and a nurse are
As the member will be aware—I have stated this many times during debates on the matter—there is a difference of view on those matters within the coalition. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have submitted their views on the appropriate way forward in ensuring the future of local government taxation in Scotland. Until the independent local government finance review committee reports, I am not in a position to second-guess the outcome.
I offer the minister reassuring support from the SNP benches. In resisting the ill-judged, ill-considered and hostile remarks in his coalition partner's question on local income tax, I assure him that there is strong support on this side of the chamber for the values and policies that he supports on the idea of a local income tax. In coming to his judgment about the efficacy and fairness of a local income tax, will he reflect on the fact that one of the principal fig leaves of the council tax is the fact that its fairness is delivered by an effective council tax rebate system? Does he share my concern that 44 per cent of pensioners in Scotland who are eligible for council tax benefit currently do not claim that? If that is something of which Mr Home Robertson is proud, perhaps the minister should look for other friends in the future.
I am unsure which way to turn, given some of the comments that are being made; however, I take some succour from Mr Swinney's comments on the matter.
Does the minister recognise that one of the impacts of a local income tax would be that people in some of the poorer parts of cities such as Glasgow and Dundee would be likely to have to pay higher levels of income tax than people in the affluent suburbs? Can the minister advise the chamber whether he believes that that would be fair?
As I have stated, all the issues will be examined by the local government finance review committee. I am confident that the committee will take account of all the submissions that have been made to it by all the parties in the Parliament and that it will come to a conclusion that will provide an appropriate way forward on the matter.
Homelessness (Temporary Accommodation)
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take action under the terms of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2004 to prevent homeless persons from being placed in temporary accommodation outwith relevant local authority areas, with inadequate support and without the agreement of the local authorities for the areas in which the temporary accommodation is located. (S2O-10032)
The order already prevents households with children or pregnant women from being placed outwith the relevant local authority areas unless an exceptional circumstance applies. In addition, we have given guidance on the issue in the code of guidance. We know, however, that the practice causes problems. It is primarily an issue for the few local authorities that are involved to resolve through working together. We are considering amending the order to prevent the routine out-of-area placement of other groups of vulnerable people unless an exceptional circumstance applies, as defined in the order. We intend to consult all local authorities before making any changes to the order.
In welcoming the minister's answer, I ask whether she is aware that dozens of homeless people from local authority areas outside Glasgow are being placed—if not dumped—in one particular establishment in my constituency without adequate support and that, consequently, Strathclyde police attribute most of the local crime to those people? Surely, that is not best practice; surely, it is unacceptable practice.
The member obviously has specific concerns about how the actions of one local authority, in carrying out its duties and responsibilities regarding homeless persons, are impacting on his constituency. He must first—as I am sure that he will have done—contact Glasgow City Council about the matter. I am in regular contact with the council about how that practice is affecting it. We recognise the needs of homeless people, who themselves require fit support: they ought not to be dumped and we ought not to make assumptions about how they behave when they are living in certain places. However, it is critical that homeless people are housed where they can be supported. Glasgow City Council and neighbouring authorities have a protocol in place to ensure communication; however, we are happy to consult local authorities further to see how we can prevent the practice from being abused.
Draft Budget 2006-07
To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that its departments and the broader public sector contribute to meeting the objectives and targets set out in the draft budget 2006-07. (S2O-10008)
Departments are responsible for the monitoring and delivery of the spending review 2004 targets, as published in the draft budget 2006-07. All targets have associated technical notes, which set out the key milestones and monitoring mechanisms, and those have been published on the Scottish Executive website.
Does the minister agree that one way of assisting the Executive in meeting its targets would be to make absolutely sure that every public sector employee was contributing to achieving them? In that context, and in the context of the Executive's number 1 priority, could he tell us how many public sector employees in Scotland are currently assessed, as part of their performance appraisal process, on their contribution to meeting the target for growing the Scottish economy?
We hope that all public services contribute to the targets set by the Executive. I would be happy to respond in writing to Derek Brownlee's detailed question, setting out the information that he seeks.
Given the economic growth priority that Derek Brownlee mentioned, will the minister undertake to ensure that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency moves quickly to revise its current prohibition on the use of septic tanks in many rural areas? That prohibition, which I am sure he knows about from his own area, is seriously hindering development and is deleterious to the economy.
I will certainly undertake to pass that request across to my colleague Ross Finnie, the Minister for Environment and Rural Development. I am aware of concern about that issue throughout Scotland, and I am also aware that SEPA carried out a consultation on the matter and that a great many responses were received from Argyll and Bute. I suspect that the same is true of other parts of rural Scotland that are confronted by the same problem.
“Planning for Micro Renewables”
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to measure the effectiveness of its new planning advice note, "Planning for Micro Renewables", in promoting the adoption of micro-renewables across Scotland. (S2O-10069)
We will monitor the effectiveness of the advice through regular contact with key stakeholders, including planning authorities and the renewables industry.
Given the current problems that exist for people who are looking to install micro-renewable technology—I cite the example of one Glasgow-based micro-wind entrepreneur who has been told not even to bother submitting a planning application to install a wind turbine on his own home, because the local authority fully intends to turn it down—will the Executive give some indication of how much increased uptake it expects will be seen as a result of its planning advice note initiative, and when we can expect to see that increase?
There is no cap to our ambitions on micro-renewables, or indeed on renewable energy more generally. I would be deeply concerned if the advice that Mr Harvie quotes is being given frequently, because we are very keen indeed to promote micro-renewables. That was the whole purpose of the planning advice note, which gives advice on the various micro-renewable technologies and provides good practice guidance in relation to developing them. A whole range of policies in planning, and in energy policy more generally, are geared towards promoting as vigorously as we can all renewables, and, in the context of Mr Harvie's question, micro-renewables as part of that drive.
Holistic Community Regeneration
To ask the Scottish Executive how the holistic approach to community regeneration developed in Raploch, with the establishment of an urban regeneration company, will be rolled out to other areas of the Stirling constituency, such as Cultenhove and Cornton, and to other parts of Scotland. (S2O-10035)
Part of the Executive's approach to supporting Raploch URC is to put in place arrangements to monitor and evaluate the way that the initiative is taken forward and to learn lessons and consider whether the approach could be taken in other areas. Stirling Council has received an allocation of £1.242 million from the community regeneration fund, a significant proportion of which will be used to support the renewal of Cornton and Cultenhove. In addition, a funding allocation of £15 million from the community ownership early action programme should further support the holistic approach to the renewal of those communities.
What monitoring arrangements will the Scottish Executive put in place to ensure that measures will be taken by the other public agencies involved in regeneration projects to provide adequate social infrastructure to complement new housing developments?
I will address the two aspects identified in Sylvia Jackson's initial question. First, urban regeneration companies must produce regeneration outcomes as part of their business plan. Those are strategically linked to the community planning partnerships' regeneration outcome agreements. That is all monitored by Communities Scotland.
Green Spaces
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the findings of the "Minimum Standards for Open Space" research report on the progress of local authorities in auditing their public green spaces or whether it intends to update this research. (S2O-10073)
The information contained in the independent research report was a snapshot from 2004. The research has been used to inform discussions, including those on any requirements for monitoring, on the review of national planning policy on open space. Any proposals for the monitoring of open space will be contained in the draft Scottish planning policy 11, which will be published soon for consultation.
I look forward to something serious being done in that planning policy, because there is currently a bit of a guddle. There is no consistency in the approach taken by councils. Would it be possible for the Executive at least to require councils to achieve some consistency of approach in developing their open space audits?
Our proposals in the Planning etc (Scotland) Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, offer a huge opportunity for consistency through a plan-led system and a rigorous and thorough debate about what we want our local communities and the open space within them to be like. I hope that, on that basis, the Greens will welcome the proposals in the planning policy.
Land Ownership (Supermarkets)
To ask the Scottish Executive how much land not currently built on, or for which planning applications have been submitted, is owned by supermarkets. (S2O-10071)
The information requested is not held by the Scottish Executive.
I thank the minister for that answer, which I kind of expected.
The Executive position on the OFT paper is that our planning policy looks to enhance the viability and vitality of town centres and makes a clear commitment to their enhancement and protection. We also recognise that it is not for the planning system to restrict competition, preserve existing commercial rights or prevent innovation. We are currently considering responses to the consultation draft of SPP 8, on town centres. We recognise the importance of our town centres. We also recognise the discussion around the way in which retail development should be permitted. We will take account of those considerations as we take forward these matters.
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