First Minister’s Question Time
Engagements
1. To ask the First Minister what engagements he has planned for the rest of the day. (S4F-01594)
In addition to meeting the governor of Punjab, I will meet Alistair Neiderer, the chief executive of the French company Teleperformance. When we met the company earlier this year, it hoped to be able to announce 500 additional jobs in Scotland. I can now say that that is not the case; it will announce today 1,000 additional jobs across sites in Scotland in Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Erskine and Airdrie. I am sure that everyone will welcome that as a great boost for employment in Scotland.
Less happily, I should say to the chamber that we have a serious and developing situation on the A83, where landslips have been caused by extreme weather conditions. Transport Scotland engineers are on site at the moment and we will update local members in particular of the serious consequences of that transport interruption on what is a vital road for Argyll.
I, too, welcome Mohammed Sarwar to his new position, in which I am sure he will serve as well and as honourably as he did in his previous position.
Obviously, we welcome jobs coming to Scotland. The challenge will be whether people can access those jobs.
In 2011, the First Minister pledged to reindustrialise Scotland. To do that, we need to equip the people of Scotland with the skills to take up the jobs, and to do that we need to have the colleges to teach people the skills. Can the First Minister tell me whether the number of people in colleges in Scotland has gone up or down since he came to office?
As Johann Lamont knows, we have kept our commitment in terms of full-time courses at colleges in Scotland. That is a substantial investment in the college infrastructure. We have more than kept our commitments in terms of the capital investment programme across colleges in Scotland. I think that Johann Lamont and, indeed, everybody else in the chamber should welcome the fact that we have a record number of full-time higher education students in our colleges and universities.
It is pretty basic in education that when someone is asked a question, they answer it. That answer was a complete failure. Of course, when this Government came to office, a full-time college course was 720 hours a year; then this Government cut that to 640 hours a year. What this Government has done is cut the hours of teaching, cut the definition of a full-time course and graduated with honours in cooking the books. Only the First Minister could describe the cuts to the college sector as massive investment.
The First Minister often talks of full-time equivalents, but it is not full-time equivalents who get jobs, it is people; and it is not full-time equivalents who marry, raise families or build communities, it is people. Can the First Minister tell me whether the number of people going to college in Scotland has gone up or down on his watch?
As Johann Lamont knows from many previous exchanges, this Government has prioritised full-time courses in the colleges of Scotland. The reason why we did so is that we believe that those are the courses that lead people into employment and give them the skills that are required. That is perhaps one reason why the rate of youth unemployment in Scotland, although it is still far too high, is better than that south of the border—there has been a significant improvement in the rate here over the past year.
If one law of education is to answer questions, that is fine; but one law of politics is to listen to the answer before reading out a pre-prepared question. [Interruption.]
Order.
I do not recall a single question that Johann Lamont has not read out from pre-prepared notes. [Interruption.]
Order.
I refer the member to my answer to her first question, in which I said that I thought it a matter of great pride in Scotland that this year we have a record number of students in higher education across Scotland’s university and college sector. For the benefit of Labour members, I should say that yes, higher education is carried out in the college sector in Scotland, where, incidentally, people do not pay tuition fees, thanks to the fact that Labour is not in Government.
I assure the First Minister that my 20 years in education showed me what is and is not an answer to a question, and that not responding to a question that has been asked is displacement activity.
Let me tell the First Minister some of the facts that clearly no one has written down for him in a big book to read out. Since 2007, the number of women going to college has fallen by 77,000 and the number of adults who left school with no qualifications but got a second chance at college has almost halved, with nearly 60,000 being denied that second chance to learn. Despite what the First Minister says, even the number of 16 to 18-year-olds going to college has fallen by 7,000 and the number not in education, employment and training is going up. Can the First Minister give me one of those most accurate answers ever given to any Parliament anywhere and simply tell us whether the number of people going to college has gone up or down since he came to office?
I have the figures for all students, if that will be helpful to Johann Lamont.
Members: All students?
Order.
In the view of the Scottish Government, all students in Scotland are important.
In 2006-07, there were 129,343 full-time equivalents—[Interruption.]
Full-time equivalents?
Order, Mr Macdonald.
I say to the Labour Party that full-time equivalents are kind of important, because that is how we judge teaching and the numbers in Scotland who are receiving that teaching.
In 2006-07, there were 129,343 full-time equivalents and, in 2011-12, there were 133,199. Given the pressures on budgets, which presumably even the Labour Party will acknowledge—at least, it acknowledges them south of the border—that seems to be a substantial improvement and achievement over these financially difficult years. I am also struck by the fact that none of those students is paying tuition fees, which is another substantial achievement that should be welcomed. Perhaps that is why this year we have a record number of students in full-time higher education in Scotland while over the past few years numbers south of the border have been falling like a stone. Thank goodness for the students of Scotland that the Labour Party did not come to power and impose tuition fees, as we know it most certainly would have done.
I hesitate to say this, but it feels as though a Scottish education was rather wasted on the First Minister. If there are pressures on further education budgets, they are at his choice, and the price of his education choices is being paid by women, 25-year-olds and those who need a college education but cannot access it.
Of course, education is a Scottish tradition and a modern necessity if Scotland is going to compete in the modern world. People now do not have just one career or job but several, and we need lifelong learning to support people from unemployment to employment and from uncertain part-time work into full-time work. The idea that it is nothing to do with Government that women with caring responsibilities cannot access a place on a full-time course that meets their needs is an absolute disgrace.
What did John Henderson of Colleges Scotland tell the Parliament this week? He said:
“we seem to have retreated from colleges’ role in lifelong learning. ... We know that people’s lives change and that the economy changes, and yet we no longer seem to have the capacity in the college system to respond to those changes”.—[Official Report, Education and Culture Committee, 1 October 2013; c 2928.]
This First Minister is not reindustrialising Scotland—he is deskilling it. Is it not about time that we had a First Minister who leaves the displacement activity for elsewhere, who does his job, who shows he cares about education and who pays attention? Instead, what do we get? A part-time equivalent.
I am sure that Johann Lamont was an enormous loss to the education sector. The question is: was she an enormous gain to Scottish politics? I do not think so. She ignores the fact—which I have now mentioned several times—that having a record number of full-time students in higher education in Scotland seems to be a very substantial achievement. Every single student among that record number is important to the Government. That is the investment that has been secured.
Johann Lamont talks about the Scottish Government’s choice over the budget. How could the overall budget of Scotland be the choice of the Scottish Government when it is controlled by the Westminster Treasury? With each and every subject that Johann Lamont brings to the chamber, she says that we should spend more on this or that, oblivious to the fact that it is the choice of the Labour Party to leave a Tory Westminster Chancellor of the Exchequer in charge of the overall Scottish budget.
Johann Lamont mentioned and quoted John Henderson, the chief executive of Colleges Scotland. Incidentally, the first-ever summit for lifelong learning was chaired by Michael Russell this very morning—that is something that the Labour Party did not manage to do when it was in office for so long. However, let us consider what John Henderson, the chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said. I quote:
“The Scottish Government made a commitment to maintain colleges’ cash funding earlier this year and we are very pleased that this has been incorporated into the draft Budget for 2014-15.
We also welcome the additional resources that are being allocated to the college sector for 2015-16.”
Those were the words of John Henderson. If John Henderson, as chief executive of Colleges Scotland, can acknowledge that achievement against the most difficult and oppressive budget policy from Westminster, why can others in the chamber, who endorse their faith in Scotland’s budget being handled from London, not acknowledge it as well?
There has been a huge achievement in maintaining that record number of full-time higher education students in Scotland. There has been a huge achievement in stopping Scotland having tuition fees imposed upon it by the Tory party or the Labour Party. What is more, every single one of those valuable young people in Scotland acknowledges and knows the difference between Scottish education, which is free for people of ability, and education elsewhere, which is based on the size of people’s chequebooks.
Prime Minister (Meetings)
2. I warmly welcome today’s Teleperformance announcement. On a personal note, I particularly welcome the 621 full-time posts that will be coming to Glasgow as part of that announcement.
To ask the First Minister when he will next meet the Prime Minister. (S4F-01592)
No plans in the near future.
A year ago, the Scottish Conservatives raised the issue of police station closures, revealing that a fifth of police stations across Scotland had shut since the Scottish National Party came to power. This week, we hear that a further third are to close their doors to the public. Does the First Minister support those front-desk closures?
Ruth Davidson should acknowledge that there is a substantial argument that our police officers and other staff in police stations should not be behind desks seeing a limited number of members of the public but rather should be in the communities of Scotland doing their best to keep this country safe.
The statistics regarding the improvement in crime levels in Scotland are overwhelming. It would be helpful if Ruth Davidson would acknowledge that very substantial improvement. We have record figures not just for the number of police officers across Scotland; there is a 39-year record low, I think, in the level of recorded crime in Scotland. Would Ruth Davidson and her colleagues just occasionally acknowledge that substantial justice achievement? It is not just an achievement of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice; it is the achievement of every single one of the additional 1,000 police officers across the country.
I could not really work out whether the substantial argument there was that the First Minister was supporting cuts that would mean having only one police station in the whole of Aberdeen where someone can walk in off the street and speak to someone.
When the plans include 3,000 civilian police job losses, how many uniformed officers will have to backfill?
Let us consider the practical effects on communities who face local police closures. Most people who visit a police station do so to report a crime, request a police officer, make a complaint or turn themselves in for arrest or for other matters that are now deemed minor or ancillary. I do not know about the First Minister, but I do not think that reporting a crime is a minor matter and I am pretty sure that the victims of crime do not think so, either. However, victims are being told that that needs to happen by email or phone. A freedom of information request revealed that up to 6,000 non-emergency calls to police a month go unanswered.
Fifty-six police stations have already been closed on this First Minister’s watch, another 65 front desks are set to go, there is reduced access to the police for communities and victims of crime across Scotland, and there is no guarantee that someone will even answer a person’s call when they pick up the phone to report a crime. Is that seriously the First Minister’s definition of community policing?
That last suggestion is quite disgraceful in view of the huge achievements in law enforcement in Scotland. It is an insult to the Police Service of Scotland that is totally unwarranted.
Let us deal with the realities. Police Scotland and its serving police officers have an exceptional record on tackling and preventing crime in Scotland and on answering the call of the public. I am not sure whether Ruth Davidson has managed to look at the consultation documents, which of course are an operational matter for Police Scotland, but in relation to the front counters in the stations concerned, they show that at least 31 of the 65 public counters that it is proposed be closed—counters, not police stations—receive fewer than five visits a day from the public for core business. Many receive an average of less than one visit a day, and some recorded just one visit over the entire four-week survey period.
In view of that, is Ruth Davidson seriously suggesting that the initiative in terms of the consultation document will diminish public contact with the police? In contrast, the reality in the modern world is that most people contact the police by phone or online. Police Scotland has arranged the new 101 non-emergency number, which receives 280,000 calls per month, and of course its presence in social media now has 393,000 followers.
I have been looking at the alternative to the progressive policies on policing that are proposed and pursued in Scotland. We need only glance south of the border to see what the alternative is. As we know, in this Parliament we are proud that the Scottish National Party Administration has fulfilled its commitment to have more than 1,000 additional police officers in Scotland—we have 17,496. If we had pursued the same policies as have been pursued south of the border under successive Governments, the figure would be not 17,496 but 14,818.
Let us be quite clear about what is happening where the Tories are in control: fewer police stations, fewer police officers and crime statistics that are not even near the success that has been achieved in Scotland.
There is a constituency question from Liam McArthur.
The First Minister will be aware of news that SSE is reviewing its involvement in marine energy projects in my constituency. The outcome of SSE’s discussions with its project partners is not yet clear, but what is clear is that yesterday’s announcement is causing anxiety in the wave and tidal sector.
To maintain confidence and momentum in what is a vital sector, can the First Minister confirm that urgent efforts are being made, in conjunction with United Kingdom ministers, to identify ways in which greater support and certainty can be provided for those who are seeking to move from single devices to demonstration arrays? In particular, will the First Minister look at options for allowing grid infrastructure to be put in place, possibly underwritten or guaranteed by Government, and will he ensure that his Government is represented at the grid stakeholder meeting that is due to take place in Kirkwall on 15 October?
Fergus Ewing and I have both met SSE in the past few days. The good news is that SSE’s plans now mean that it will stay in and continue investing, certainly in three out of four of its wave and tidal projects, taking them forward to planning consent, we hope, in 2015—and SSE hopes for a good outcome in the fourth project. I hope that the constituency member will acknowledge that, even before he asked the question, the energy minister and I, who understand the importance of tidal and wave projects not just for Orkney but for the whole of Scotland, had been taking appropriate action.
Secondly, however, I think that the member should pay close attention to what Fergus Ewing said just a few minutes ago. The basic difficulty not just for marine energy in Scotland but for offshore energy in general is electricity market reform, which is causing significant uncertainly not just in the tidal and wave sector but in the offshore wind sector.
If the member thinks that he could be of great use, perhaps he could follow the lead that we have made in trying to explain to his party colleague the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change that it is hugely important, if these crucial technologies are to be developed, to reinforce confidence in the sector. That is exactly the opposite of what has happened over the past 18 months. I hope that his question is an indication that he, at least, understands the connection between the process of electricity market reform and some of the investment questions that are prevailing among power companies and other investors in the marine and offshore sector in Scotland.
Cabinet (Meetings)
3. To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet. (S4F-01603)
Matters of great importance to the people of Scotland.
In May last year, I asked the First Minister about the closure of fire and police control rooms. He laughed and said that I was
“spreading gloom, doom and despondency”.—[Official Report, 31 May 2012; c 9635.]
Last week, half the fire control rooms were proposed for closure, and yesterday, as Ruth Davidson has just said, we heard that 65 police stations are to be closed to the public. Instead of laughing, will the First Minister answer this question? There are 10 police emergency control rooms in Scotland. They handle thousands of 999 calls every year and are an essential link in the battle against crime. How many police control rooms does he plan to close?
In terms of gloom and despondency, we just had the perfect example from Willie Rennie. He just said that 65 police stations are to close. What is at issue is the counter service, and I am sure that he heard, as the rest of the members in the chamber did, my explanation to Ruth Davidson of the important statistics—[Interruption.]
Order.
—on the difference between having our police service out in the communities meeting the public, with the additional officers that they have, and having those and other staff caught behind counters with very, very few visits in many cases. That seems to me to be an efficient and proper deployment of resources.
The control rooms for both the fire and police services are operational matters, but the key thing about local policing in Scotland is to have the officers available in the communities, and the key thing for the fire service in Scotland is not to have a service that is so disillusioned that it is already on strike—in the way that the service is striking against the member’s colleagues in London—but to have a service that is valued by this Government and the people of Scotland.
I am used to the First Minister making up the answers, but I am not used to him making up the questions as well. He does not seem to know what his chief constable is up to. His chief constable plans to close at least seven of the 10 police emergency control rooms across Scotland. Police emergency control rooms in Aberdeen, Glenrothes, Inverness, Dumfries and more will shut.
Instead of protecting the fire and police forces, centralisation has led to the asset stripping of local services. Decades of progress have been wiped away with the stroke of a pen. When we had our local democratic police and fire boards, they could put a stop to these damaging closures.
The claim that this is nothing to do with the First Minister is claptrap. He sent his minister Fergus Ewing to cut the ribbon and open the fire emergency control room in Aberdeen. Is he planning to send Fergus Ewing back round to close the control rooms and the police stations, turn off the lights and lock the doors, or will the First Minister step in? Will he put an end to this?
I point out that local policing under the Scottish police service remains the bedrock. There is a designated local commander for each of the 14 divisions that work with communities, councils and other partners to shape and deliver local policing. There will be local policing plans for the 353 council wards in Scotland.
Local policing means having officers available in the community. For a Liberal Democrat, whose party is currently in power with the Conservative Party, seeing what is happening to the fire service south of the border—[Interruption.]
Order.
I know that Willie Rennie does not want to hear this, but there is a level of accountability in terms of what his party is doing, because we see the alternative to local policing and to the relationship with the fire service in Scotland in exactly what is happening south of the border.
I repeat to Willie Rennie what I said to Ruth Davidson, because that is the alternative—remembering that the budgets that we have in Scotland are set by Westminster and based on the Barnett consequentials of the budgets available in Westminster. The UK Government has taken the decision to cut drastically the numbers of police officers across England and Wales. It has drastically cut the number of police stations. We have taken the decision to have extra police officers in Scotland, so instead of having more than 1,000 fewer officers—which we would have had under the plans pursued by the Tories and the Liberals—we have more than 1,000 more police officers than we did when we took office.
That has given us recorded crime down 35 per cent, crime at its lowest level for 39 years, a clear-up rate for all crimes at its highest for more than 35 years, violent crime down by almost half since 2006-07, and crimes of handling offensive weapons down by 60 per cent. Those statistics reflect the things that really matter and they have been achieved by more officers under this Government—as opposed to slashing the fire service and police under the Government at Westminster that Willie Rennie supports.
National Flu Campaign
4. To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on the national flu campaign. (S4F-01607)
The annual seasonal flu vaccination programme is one of the most important preventative health activities that we undertake; it protects individuals, families and public health, and reduces winter pressures on the national health service. The existing programme offers protection to 1 million people in Scotland—people aged 65 and over, and adults and children with health conditions that mean that they need protection—which has led to 400 fewer deaths annually, 2,000 fewer hospitalisations, and 25,000 fewer general practice consultations.
As members will know, this year we started the roll-out of vaccination to the children of Scotland, because we know from the statistics that 5,000 young people in Scotland are currently hospitalised each year because of flu or its complications.
Clearly, those vaccination programmes will go some way towards preventing people—particularly older people—from presenting at accident and emergency departments this winter. Can the First Minister set out what further actions are being taken to get the NHS ready for winter?
Last year saw increased pressures on the national health service, including an early start to the norovirus season, an increase in respiratory illnesses and a rise in the number of people who attended accident and emergency departments.
Through the unscheduled care action plan, more than £9 million has been released this year to national health service boards to support winter planning, which is triple the amount that was given to boards for winter planning last year. Examples that are already in place include the roll-out across Scotland of electronic whiteboards, which work as a digital ward and allow clinicians to see how patients flow through the entire hospital system, enabling them to be discharged home quicker. That, with the flu vaccination programme, gives us substantial confidence that every preparation is being made to keep the people of Scotland safe over the winter.
Bedroom Tax
5. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is on the decision that was taken at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities leaders meeting to back the petition from the no2bedroomtax campaign calling for £50 million to mitigate the impact of the so-called bedroom tax. (S4F-01596)
As Jackie Baillie and COSLA well know, the legal maximum—which is set by statutory instrument under section 70 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000—that can be added to discretionary housing payments is £20.2 million. That is exactly the funding that has been supplied by the Scottish Government to assist in mitigation of the bedroom tax across Scotland, and it has been widely welcomed by people across the country. Unlike Jackie Baillie and her colleagues, the Scottish Government’s position on the bedroom tax has been clear from the start: it is wrong and it should be scrapped.
As ever, I thank the First Minister for his response, but he can do something more. He already has the power to pay local government and housing associations. It is really very simple, and if there is any confusion on his part, he should move over and we will show him exactly how to do it.
The First Minister will be aware that only the Scottish National Party and the Tories have voted against the budget call for £50 million to mitigate the effect of the bedroom tax. Is he aware that COSLA leaders have also agreed to back my proposed member’s bill to protect all social tenants from eviction? Will he join COSLA, the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Poverty Alliance, the no2bedroomtax campaign and many more besides, in backing the bill, or are they all wrong?
What a contrast there is between Jackie Baillie’s attitude to the £20 million—the legal maximum that we can provide under current powers—and the response of people across Scotland. Page 2 of today’s Daily Record lists where the £20 million to help to mitigate the bedroom tax’s impact goes across Scotland. I refer Jackie Baillie to the quotation from Shelter Scotland’s director, Graeme Brown, who said:
“We welcome the speed at which the Scottish Government moved to make available the £20 million.
It means local authorities can now offer a lifeline to thousands more households across Scotland struggling to pay their rent as a direct result of the iniquitous bedroom tax.”
Unlike Jackie Baillie, we have from the start been clear about the need to repeal the bedroom tax. Unlike her, we took effective action when Shelter presented us with a legal way to help to mitigate the bedroom tax’s impact. Unlike her, the SNP and the Government believe in taking powers over social security, so that impositions such as the bedroom tax will never be enforced on the Scottish people again.
Expert Working Group on Welfare and Constitutional Reform
6. To ask the First Minister what progress the expert working group on welfare and constitutional reform is making. (S4F-01606)
The group has issued a call for evidence that seeks views, experience and information from those with an interest in the future of welfare in Scotland. It will submit its independent report to ministers this coming spring.
At Tuesday’s Welfare Reform Committee meeting, the expert working group confirmed that the Scottish Government will be able to abolish the bedroom tax immediately from independence in 2016, despite Labour’s claims to the contrary. Will the First Minister reaffirm that, if it is elected as the first Government of an independent Scotland, the Scottish National Party will scrap the bedroom tax?
As I hear the muttering of Jackie “Move Aside” Baillie, I am reminded of her astonishing interview on “Newsnight Scotland” on 3 September, when she said:
“I am not saying that ... we cannot develop our own welfare system. I am saying we should not develop our own welfare system.”
Instead of wanting such matters to be controlled in this Parliament, she is content for the bedroom tax to be imposed by the Westminster Government. She is content to continue in alliance with the Tories in making such draconian cuts, which affect the most vulnerable people in Scottish society.
Our submission is clear: with independence, we can create a fair welfare system that is based on the needs of the Scottish people. I confirm that if the SNP is elected as the independent Scottish Government, one of our first acts will be to scrap the bedroom tax.