Plenary, 05 Oct 2006

Meeting date: Thursday, October 5, 2006

Official Report 719KB pdf

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First Minister's Question Time

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Cabinet (Meetings)

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Scottish Executive's Cabinet. (S2F-2476)

Thank you, Presiding Officer. As you know, later this afternoon I will propose a motion to Parliament to nominate a new Lord Advocate for Scotland and a new Solicitor General for Scotland. At this stage, I want to put on record my thanks to Colin Boyd. He has been an outstanding servant of devolution and of Scotland in his time as Solicitor General for Scotland and as Lord Advocate. He has modernised and reformed our criminal justice system in a way that has been of direct benefit to victims and witnesses and to the confidence of the whole of Scotland in it. We wish him all the very best in whatever he chooses to do now. [Applause.]

We will, of course, discuss matters of importance to Scotland.

We will all want to wish Colin Boyd every success in the future.

The murder of a young Polish student last week in Glasgow has shocked the country. Our sympathies are with her family and her friends. Of course, the case cannot be commented on directly as it is subject to a police investigation, but does the First Minister agree that it has raised general issues about the operation of the sex offenders register? These are not party political issues, and they are extremely important. Does the First Minister know how many people on the sex offenders register the police have lost track of in the last year and how many are currently unaccounted for?

I do not have those figures, but I have an absolute commitment—preferably on a cross-party basis, as Nicola Sturgeon suggests—to ensure not only that the operation of the sex offenders register but the way in which we deal with sex offenders and potential sex offenders is as effective as it possibly can be. That is why, for example, this year we brought to this Parliament new provisions in the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, which were agreed here, that will ensure much more effective monitoring and placement of those who are in the community and far more effective monitoring of those who are in custody and who may eventually end up in the community at some stage. I am happy to go into that in some detail, but also to talk about the future.

We fully support the reforms that are being made, but I am slightly surprised, given the events of the last week, that the First Minister has not made inquiries to find out the answer to my questions.

In the past 24 hours, my office has asked both the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland and the Scottish Criminal Record Office for information on the number of people on the sex offenders register who the police have lost track of, but we have been told that they do not hold that information. Does the First Minister agree that in the interests of protecting the public we should know how many sex offenders are off the police radar screen and that the fact that we do not know represents a worrying gap in our knowledge about sex offenders that the public would expect to be filled? Will the First Minister agree to obtain that information as quickly as possible and thereafter maintain it regularly?

It is for precisely that reason that I do not have the figures in front of me today.

I share Nicola Sturgeon's concern: it was the first question the Minister for Justice asked when the information, or potential information—we have to be careful what we say—about this case appeared to come to light.

We have been surprised to find that more detailed information is not available more quickly. We are working with the system to ensure that that information becomes available, but the information of itself is not the complete picture; it is important to ensure that the police and other agencies do the right thing with it and, in particular, that they have available to them more effective powers to monitor the current position of people who are on the register. That is why we introduced new provisions this year that, for example, allow the police greater access to the homes of those who are on the register, to check whether they are there and how they are conducting themselves. It is also why we are considering the key recommendation of the Irvine report, which is that in each and every case there should be a constant assessment of the person on the register and if that person is not making themselves available or they are starting to breach the conditions that apply to their position in the community, the police should have additional powers both to inform people in the community that that is happening and to take action against the individuals.

It is important that we get the information to which Nicola Sturgeon referred and I share her concern about that. The Minister for Justice has made inquiries about that matter this week and we will of course pursue it. However, having the information is only the start of the story; we intend to do something with it and that will be even more important.

I thank the First Minister for his answer. My fundamental concern is not that he does not have the information available today but that, according to my inquiries, no one in Scotland holds that information—I think that that is what is unacceptable. I certainly hope that the First Minister will do something about that.

I will move on to a related concern, which is what happens when a particularly high-risk sex offender goes missing. It seems, from the events of the past week, that no special procedures are in place after a warrant is issued for someone's arrest. Given the particular dangers posed by sex offenders, will the First Minister look at that matter? Will he consider new procedures that ensure that missing sex offenders are tracked with urgency and priority, and that consideration is given, where appropriate, to notifying the public and, for example, issuing photographs?

I am sorry if Ms Sturgeon did not hear all my previous answer clearly enough or if I was not being clear enough. A key recommendation of the report we commissioned from Professor George Irving is precisely to ensure that when someone is breaching conditions at a local level, not making themselves available or in any way hiding from the authorities, in addition to the police being able to take additional action against that individual, there is a system in place, on a case-by-case basis, if someone is considered to be a danger to the public, to provide information not only to a range of organisations, neighbours and those who may come into contact with the individual, but to the local authorities that would need to know.

That recommendation has been made and we have committed to implementing it. Of course, detailed discussion is required to get the provision right—we want to ensure that we know where sex offenders or potential sex offenders are and that they do not go into hiding in a way that makes them unlikely to be detected. It is of course the case that the police across Scotland, when charged with implementing a warrant for someone's arrest, particularly when that person is a danger to the public, take immediate and urgent steps to do so. I do not know whether Ms Sturgeon has any particular examples to suggest of individual police officers or police forces not showing a sense of urgency. If she has, I am sure that we would be happy to pass them on to the chief constables to ensure that action is taken against those who are in dereliction of their duty.

There have been instances in the past week that have given rise to that concern, which is why I think it is important that priority is given to such cases.

Can I say finally that I thank the First Minister for his replies? He will recall that he said in this chamber that it was a priority to

"deliver better public protection through closer supervision of sex offenders in the community".—[Official Report, 25 November 2004; c 12292.]

Just for clarity, will the First Minister say whether he agrees that that is difficult to deliver when we do not know how many sex offenders are evading supervision or how many sex offenders, currently, the police have lost track of? Also for clarity, will the First Minster undertake today to obtain that information and to make it available to this Parliament? How many of the 3,230 people on the sex offenders register do the police currently not know the whereabouts of?

I will reiterate the actions that have been taken, because I know that there will be people watching First Minister's questions who are very concerned about this issue and it is important that they are reassured that this Parliament has taken their concerns very seriously. We passed in the past year an act that came into force on 1 September that requires convicted sex offenders in Scotland to provide the police with more information about themselves, including details of their passports, bank accounts and credit cards, to prevent them from adopting aliases.

We have also required sex offenders to provide a DNA sample to the police when one was not provided at the time of charge or conviction. There were people in this Parliament who voted against that provision and who were not in support of a key element of our ability to detect where people are and what they might be up to.

We have also given the police additional powers to enter and search sex offenders' homes for the purposes of risk assessment, monitoring or checking information that is held on the register. Those provisions are designed to ensure that the police can implement the register more effectively, that they know where people are and that they can take action if someone breaches the conditions that apply.

Although the information that Nicola Sturgeon mentioned and which Cathy Jamieson has inquired about this week does not appear to be held nationally by the police or by other agencies in Scotland, it certainly should be held by police forces at the local level and it should be possible for chief constables to compile it into one set of national data. We will pursue that matter but, more important, we will pursue our policy of putting the right laws and procedure in place to reassure the public. We will do so even when members in the Parliament are prepared to vote against such measures.

One constituency supplementary question fits best here.

As Nicola Sturgeon said, the tragic murder of Angelika Kluk has shocked all people in Scotland and has had a serious impact on the community that I represent. I will meet police officers later this week to discuss that impact.

I have two questions for the First Minister on issues that are in addition to those that have been raised. There has been a lot of media speculation, although I am sure the First Minister will resist the temptation to criticise at this stage, without knowing the facts. First, will the First Minister consider whether the procedures for identifying individuals in any type of inquiry, including missing person inquiries, are the right ones? Secondly, does the First Minister agree that it is vital for us to pass the Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Bill in its amended form, to remove the duty of police officers to deal with means warrants so that they can concentrate their efforts on warrants for serious and violent offenders, particularly sex offenders? The bill, if passed, will make a great difference to the resources that are available to the police.

I thank Pauline McNeill for her question. I have three comments in response. First, of course we are prepared to consider the procedures for identifying individuals. Although those are largely operational matters, it is important for people to have a good look at them and report back to ministers if improvements can be made. Secondly, it is important that the Parliament continues to modernise and reform our justice service from top to bottom. The provisions that Pauline McNeill mentioned are an important part of that modernisation.

Thirdly, as this may be the last question on the subject today, I say to the thousands and thousands of Polish people who have come to live in Scotland in recent years that this is a good and welcoming country where people by and large live safely in their homes and at their work. We all feel real pain about what happened to the young girl and for her family back home and her friends in Scotland. I hope that what has happened will not deter those hard-working decent people from coming to our country and making their contribution.

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Prime Minister (Meetings)

To ask the First Minister when he will next meet the Prime Minister and what issues they will discuss. (S2F-2477)

I have no immediate plans to meet the Prime Minister.

Perhaps the next time the First Minister and the Prime Minister have the mutual pleasure of a meeting, they might nestle round the fire for a little chat about something of interest to both of them: retirement. In the past nine years, many older people in Scotland have been fraught with anxiety and uncertainty about that. Frankly, Labour's annual pensions tax raid and the First Minister's council tax hikes have made the lives of the elderly people of Scotland very challenging. With reference to council tax, will the First Minister say how he plans to lighten the load on pensioners, who are barely getting by because of his council tax hikes?

I do not want to go over old ground too much and disappoint Jamie McGrigor, who was clearly smiling behind Annabel Goldie at the mention of retirement—he is looking forward to it with some glee. In relation to the council tax, we commissioned an independent review into local government finance and taxation, which we expect to report before Christmas, that covers payments by those on a fixed income—primarily pensioners. We should await the outcome of that review before we make any further deliberations.

We have rightly maintained pressure on local authorities over recent years to ensure that council tax increases in Scotland post devolution have been lower than those in every one of the final years of the most recent Conservative Government, and lower than they have been elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The increases in Scotland have not been as low as everyone would have liked, but they have been distinctly better in the years of devolution than they were before it, and they have been distinctly better than those elsewhere. Our policy is clearly having some impact.

No, that is not good enough. If I understand it correctly, the First Minister's mantra is, "Don't blame me; I've given the councils all the money they need." Councils do blame him, because he is ring fencing that money. Does the First Minister not realise that when the council tax bill drops through the letter box, Scotland's senior citizens do not give a hoot who is to blame—they just want it to be smaller? The Scottish Conservatives have a fully costed proposal to reduce council tax—[Interruption.] I can understand the dismay of my opponents, as they have nothing else to offer.

My party has a fully costed proposal to reduce council tax for pensioners of 65 and over by 50 per cent. Scotland's seniors want a 50 per cent cut in their council tax. Is the First Minister with them or against them?

A proposal is not fully costed unless it is properly paid for every year. I will be happy to have a debate on the future of the council tax and specific provisions for pensioners and others in Scotland when the independent report is published before Christmas. I am sure that we will all be happy to debate that issue between now and the election in May, but if the Scottish Conservatives are going to be taken seriously in that debate, I have to point out to them that it is not possible to pay for a discount every year into the future on the basis of a one-off payment from the sale of Scottish Water, as they proposed this week. That is not a fully costed proposal, it is not a serious attempt to enter the debate and they will have to do better.

The First Minister is deliberately distorting the funding mechanism for our proposal, which works on an annual basis, involves the mutualisation of Scottish Water and therefore spares the Executive from an annual outgoing of nearly £190 million.

Let me get this straight: not only is the First Minister not interested in cutting council tax bills, he is not interested in cutting water bills either. That may be very brave, First Minister, but it is not very clever. I shall do what the First Minister does not want me to do: get back to the question at issue, which, as is his custom, he has failed to answer. I shall have a bit of fun by asking the First Minister a simple question that requires a simple yes or no answer. Will the First Minister cut council tax for pensioners by 50 per cent—yes or no?

First Minister's question time is meant to be difficult for me, not for those who are asking the questions. It would be better if supplementary questions were not prepared questions that are read out and do not respond to the answers that have been given.

It is absolutely the policy of this devolved Government to have council tax increases as low as possible and to improve the system of local government finance and taxation. It is our policy to have an independent review into that system, for it to report this year, and then, I am sure, for there to be a healthy debate about its conclusions.

It has also been our policy to ensure that charges for water and council tax are kept to a minimum. That is one of the reasons—along with the hard work of others—why council tax increases in the years of devolution have been less than they were in all the final years of the Conservative Government. Miss Goldie made a brave effort in those days to defend that Government, but it was difficult for her. Water increases are also lower now than they were then, and there has been additional investment in our water supply that is at last making water across Scotland clean and able to be used safely—unlike the situation during all those years of the Conservative Government, when underinvestment made our water supply the laughing stock of Europe.

We have one constituency supplementary question, from John Scott.

The First Minister will be aware that the board of NHS Ayrshire and Arran decided yesterday to close the accident and emergency unit at Ayr hospital. That facility is much used by my constituents. The First Minister knows the geography of Ayrshire, Arran and south-west Scotland; does he agree that lives will be put at risk if only two accident and emergency units remain in south-west Scotland—one at Crosshouse in Kilmarnock and one at Dumfries?

Does the First Minister further agree with the 55,000 petitioners and the 5,000 street protesters that the geography of south-west Scotland demands that the accident and emergency unit at Ayr be kept open to compensate for the huge distances involved in time-dependent emergency situations?

I say to the good people of Ayr and south-west Scotland that they should not be scared by the scaremongering of John Scott and others in this campaign. It is vital that ministers make balanced judgments on the proposals that come from the health board. They will do so. They will treat the information objectively and make a judgment objectively on the outcome.

I also want to state clearly that Ayr hospital will benefit from new investment of more than £40 million as a result of proposals that are coming forward. A new specialist minimal invasive surgical unit will be installed; stroke rehabilitation services, which are needed in that area, will be developed; neurorehabilitation services will be developed; and a new 50-bed unit, medically led and providing subacute care, will be developed, particularly for elderly patients. Furthermore—and this is of particular interest to me, as John Scott knows, given what has happened recently in my family in Ayr and elsewhere in the area—a new cancer unit will be developed in the hospital. That, I think, will be welcomed locally.

I hope that when people see the overall package, and when ministers make an objective decision, people will agree that it is the right decision.

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Chronic Health Conditions

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Executive is taking to help national health service patients with chronic conditions to improve their quality of life and return to work. (S2F-2478)

The chief medical officer is developing a national strategy for the management of people with long-term conditions, working closely with groups who represent those who are affected.

A number of schemes are already in place to assist people to return to work, including programmes to help people tackle barriers to work, pain management programmes and pre-employment training.

I would like the First Minister to consider one particular chronic condition. Is he aware that we urgently need to change the way in which the NHS treats the thousands of people who live with chronic pain and therefore cannot work? There is a cost of millions of days off work, and millions of pounds are paid in benefits and drug bills. Those people also require 20 per cent more general practitioner appointments because they receive inadequate pain control.

It is precisely because of the importance of the issue that the chief medical officer is looking at the long-term plan. I absolutely agree that there are ways in which the health service can assist people—even those in chronic pain—to take up some form of employment. That will require close working among local agencies in addition to the support offered by the health service. I have every confidence that the work that is currently under way through the chief medical officer will lead to good recommendations that we will be able to support.

In October 2004, the World Health Organisation stated that pain relief is a human right. I am sure that the First Minister agrees that it is. I know that we are working very hard to improve things, but is the First Minister aware that if pain is treated inadequately, it may cause suicidal thoughts, depression, helplessness, isolation and family breakdown? Will the First Minister use his power to restore quality of life to thousands of chronic pain sufferers by accelerating the introduction of nationwide chronic pain clinics backed up by adequate funding and resources for the health boards? Please.

That is a serious proposal and I am sure it is the kind of proposal the Chief Medical Officer will look at. Chronic pain is one of those issues, developments and concerns that have become more prominent since this Parliament came into existence. That has been a healthy aspect of having our own Scottish Parliament: many of the conditions that were not perhaps a priority in the past are now receiving more priority attention from politicians throughout the chamber.

I am sure that Jean Turner will agree with me when I say that one of the key reasons for having reorganisation of the health service at a local level is to ensure that we are able to deal with such new developments, that we do not have a health service that is focused only on treating acute conditions, and that it supports people with chronic pain and other problems. That is why the reorganisation of our health service at a local level throughout Scotland is so important.

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Physical Education

To ask the First Minister what steps are being taken to improve the provision of physical education in schools. (S2F-2481)

We are committed to providing a minimum of two hours of good quality PE to every pupil in Scotland. To improve both the quality and quantity of PE in schools, we will provide for 400 additional teachers by 2008 and we have already increased entrants to the postgraduate PE qualification from eight in 2002-03 to 80 today.

I welcome the Executive's commitment to increasing the amount of PE that pupils experience in school. As a parent with three sons who participate in competitive sport, including football, tae kwon do and golf, I agree with the First Minister's comments, which were reported at the weekend, that competitive sport does a lot to stimulate the brain, make young people more alert and give them a sense of achievement. How does the First Minister aim to take forward those aims and ensure that young people have more opportunities to experience competitive sport in schools?

I have no doubt that Bristow Muldoon took part in a lot of competitive sports at school, which is why his interventions in the chamber are so effective.

Given my experience as a school teacher in the 1980s, I believe that the existence of regular, particularly competitive, sports occasions in schools and between schools is healthy for young people and society as a whole. I hope that over the next few years we will see many more schools throughout Scotland taking up such opportunities enthusiastically and giving young people that chance.

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Children's Services (Funding)

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Executive has any plans to conduct a review of how children's services are funded. (S2F-2486)

We will of course look at support for children's services as part of wider discussions on the next spending review. The Executive has made substantial investment available for social work, including an increase of more than 80 per cent in funding over the past seven years, that, with significant investment through other programmes specifically for children, has given local authorities the resources to fund children's services in full and deliver improved services for vulnerable children in particular.

Does the First Minister share my concern at the 15 per cent increase in child protection referrals that is revealed in the figures that were published on Friday? Each and every one of them reflects a damaged childhood. How does that square with the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration's concerns about the crisis in funding there and Professor Midwinter's claim that the structural funding gap and the mismatch between national and local levels—councils spend more than 60 per cent of grant-aided expenditure on those services—are the most worrying he has seen in decades? Does the plight of the most vulnerable children in Scotland not give a practical and urgent reason why the First Minister must publish the budget review group's review now?

To make the right decisions on budgets is precisely why ministers should have a thorough review of existing budgets and make the right decisions. The Parliament should then hold ministers to account for their recommendations on the budget next year and beyond.

Some of the comments Opposition politicians made last week on the announcement of the new figures for child protection referrals were not only immediately damaging to those who work in that field but potentially damaging to children in Scotland in the years to come.

The increased number of young people who are properly referred to child protection measures is far more likely to be an indication of growing confidence in the system, of a feeling that referrals should take place and that fewer social workers, teachers, doctors and others are holding back from making a referral, than of the sort of insinuation Fiona Hyslop and others have made. For that reason, I congratulate those professionals on taking their jobs more seriously and making more referrals. That way, more young children in Scotland will be properly protected. Condemning those professionals for making referrals will lead them to hold back in the future, which would put more young people in danger.

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School Discipline

To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Executive has to support teachers in improving school discipline. (S2F-2489)

Our new joint action plan, published in response to the 2006 discipline survey on behaviour in Scottish schools, sets out how the Executive, working together with these key stakeholders, will support teachers further in improving school discipline.

Does the First Minister agree that that survey of behaviour in schools indicates that the vast majority of pupils are well behaved, that violence against staff is reported as being rare and that most indiscipline happens outwith the classroom? Does he also recognise that the study highlights the fact that it is pupils who seem to be most concerned about indiscipline in schools? Does he agree that working with the majority of pupils who are concerned about discipline to develop effective disciplinary practices in schools is the best way of dealing with the minority who disrupt our schools?

That is a good point. In my visits to primary and secondary schools, it is clear that some of the most effective things that are happening to reduce school discipline problems involve the youngsters.

For example, this week, I visited Central primary school in Inverness, where youngsters in primaries 6 and 7 operate as buddies and mentors to the younger children in the school, helping them to overcome difficulties and protecting them from bullying or any other difficulties that they might face. Further, the youngsters in that school take part in a pupil council, which involves them in the decisions of the school every week. I believe that, although it is important to have tough rules on school discipline and to implement them effectively, it is far more important, in the longer term, to engage young people in their education and to encourage the older ones to take more responsibility for the younger ones. By doing that, we will create a more sustainable pattern of good behaviour in our schools. I congratulate the head teacher, staff and pupils of Central primary school in Inverness on the way in which they have been tackling that problem.

Meeting suspended until 14:15.

On resuming—