Scottish Executive's Programme
The next item of business is a statement by the First Minister, Mr Jack McConnell, on the programme of the Scottish Executive. As the First Minister will take questions at the end of his statement, there should be no interventions. Copies of the statement will be available at the rear of the press conference room at the top of the black-and-white corridor when the First Minister has finished his delivery.
We have been reminded in recent days of the importance of democracy as a system for resolving disputes and settling arguments. As events unfolded in Russia, we watched with horror as young children died or lived through a terror that will haunt their days. The mass murder of innocents in Beslan was barbaric and will impact on the local people there for generations to come.
On behalf of Scotland and, I hope, of everyone in the chamber, I have conveyed our condolences to the people of Russia through their Government. Here in Scotland, we have felt the pain and shock of mass murder in a school, so, as we offer the people of Beslan our prayers and sympathy, we have also offered any advice or experience that might help them at this terrible time. As we do that, we must respect the enormous privilege granted to us here. We should treasure our democratic traditions and remember that democracy is a force for good.
This stunning building has been built, I know, with controversy and argument, but it has also been built to capture the promise of devolution and the challenge to us all to meet that promise. It is a credit to all those who have worked hard and long over many months to design and build it; I pay tribute to their skills and expertise and thank them for their hard work.
The building is also the realisation of a vision shared by two people: Donald Dewar and Enric Miralles. Their families will rightly be very proud of the legacy that they have left Scotland. However, for the people of Scotland, what really matters is not this building, but what we do in this building. We are here to help people to realise their ambitions, their hopes and their dreams. We are here because they have placed their trust in us. People want a Parliament of vibrant debate and passionate argument. They want a mature Parliament, in which we argue hard for our own beliefs but respect others' views and ideals. They want a Parliament in which we work together to build a Scotland of which we can be proud, a Scotland of ambition and enterprise, of fairness, tolerance and respect. They want a Parliament that inspires people across Scotland and wins their respect by the quality of the work that we do and by the intensity of our commitment to work for others, not ourselves, to change lives for the better and to reach out with confidence to the wider world.
Today is a big day, so our business should be fitting. I want to mark that start by laying out the programme that the coalition Government will take forward in the coming year. The programme will tackle the next set of challenges that we face. It will modernise Scotland's laws and make modern laws for a modern Scotland. It will introduce legislation to protect children and family life, to strengthen communities and to support enterprise.
First, five bills introduced before the summer will complete their passage through the Parliament in the weeks ahead. The Fire (Scotland) Bill will improve fire safety and provide a modern framework for our fire services. Tenements legislation will put in place the final piece of our radical programme of property law reform, which, in November this year, will see the end of feudal tenure in Scotland. Other legislation will ensure high standards throughout our school education service. The Water Services etc (Scotland) Bill will establish a modern regulatory framework for water and sewerage services. New laws will protect our critical emergency service workers while they save the lives of others. Each of those bills will make a difference to the lives of people throughout Scotland.
In a few weeks, our Scottish budget will be outlined to Parliament before the introduction of the annual budget bill this winter. The budget statement will outline our investment in services for 2005 to 2008 and the improvements that we expect to see. In health and local government, in the justice system and elsewhere, investment will be linked directly to reform, modernisation and improvement. Investing in our public services is essential if we are to offer the opportunity and the safety net that we need from them. However, we also need our public services to focus directly on the needs of those who use them; we need them to move the money that they spend away from the back room and into the front line, to step up to the challenge of proving their worth in 21st century Scotland.
Our Scottish budget will be boosted by efficiency savings that will improve front-line services and deliver value for taxpayers' money—not aspirations, but decisions that will serve Scotland well. I am convinced that our public services and, more important, those who work in them are more than able to meet that challenge. We see examples every day of their innovation and expertise, their compassion and commitment. The challenge that we put to the private sector to improve innovation and productivity is the same challenge that we are ready to accept for ourselves. However, today is not the day to detail budgets and public service improvements. In the first weeks of being in this new building, ministers will lay out their plans.
Devolution is working for Scotland's children and families: child poverty has been dramatically reduced; standards in our schools are up year on year; and healthy eating initiatives are changing diets and the habits that harmed the health of previous generations. My vision is for future generations of young Scots to have ambitions for themselves and the confidence to make their way in the world. Children might not have votes or the loudest voices, but our obligation to them is all the greater because of that.
For most young Scots, more and more opportunities are opening up before them, built on the prosperity that our country is enjoying. More jobs and fewer unemployed are the fruits of a stable economy. However, for still too many Scots, a cycle of deprivation and poverty starts when they are children. If we do not change that life cycle to one of prosperity and ambition, it will stay with those children and their children through generations to come—history, cold statistics and our own eyes tell us that. That is why we are determined to end child poverty. We made a start by lifting more than 210,000 children in Scotland from poverty. We are on track to halve child poverty by 2010 and to end it in a generation.
The powers of devolution mean that we can create laws to meet other challenges that our young people face in this modern world. Two generations ago, it was unthinkable that global communication would be only a click away. Those advances have delivered new opportunities in business, leisure and learning, but they have also allowed individuals around the world to exploit the imagination and curiosity of children for their own perverse ends. Today, our children are at risk from those who would use the internet to groom them for abuse and exploitation. Scotland needs new laws to tackle that threat and we need them urgently. Within weeks, we will introduce a bill further to protect Scotland's children from sexual harm. We will outlaw internet grooming. The bill will tackle the means that sexual predators use to entice and prepare children for abuse. Legislation will close loopholes and make it an offence to contact, meet or travel to meet a child with the intention of committing a sexual assault. It will give new powers to the police and impose additional restrictions on the movement of those who prey on our children, banning them from loitering near children's playground areas, schools or centres.
There will be further legislation to protect and support Scotland's children. Everyone in Scotland has a right to live free from abuse, intimidation and fear—young and old, male or female, of all cultures and religions. That right is there even if someone is sent abroad so that those who would abuse them can escape our law. Female genital mutilation is a grotesque crime that is illegal in Scotland, but there are those who send young girls out of Scotland to avoid prosecution here. The bill that we will introduce will make that act a crime, too. It will increase the penalty on prosecution from a maximum of five years' imprisonment to a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment.
I do not believe in Government intervention for its own sake, but I believe that Government has a responsibility to act to protect its citizens and its most vulnerable citizens most of all.
Strong families provide the security, stability and support that children need to become confident in themselves and ambitious for their future and every child deserves the best start in life that strong families provide. We will continue to give the highest priority to supporting and protecting children and, when it is appropriate, we will help parents to meet their responsibilities to their children. Our starting point in framing the legislation on family law that we will bring before the Parliament later in this session is about safeguarding the best interests of the child, not arbitrating in adult disputes but offering practical support and recognition to allow those disputes to be worked through by the adults concerned with the minimum possible damage to the child. The legislation will recognise the diverse reality of family life in Scotland today and we will publish our final plans shortly. In this year, we will also enact European regulations to protect children across borders, continue our reforms of child protection and make progress in securing the future of children's hearings.
It is because of our belief in the vital importance of the early years in a child's life that we have been building the foundations to support children and family life. We will legislate this year to protect Scotland's children, but we will also build on previous legislation to help young Scots to succeed. We have made one of the biggest advances in a century of education by providing universal pre-school and nursery education for Scotland's three and four-year-olds. We have brought primary class sizes to an all-time low and we plan to go even further. We have invested in teachers and equipment and set new standards for our schools. We are making the biggest investment to modernise our school buildings in more than a century and we are seeing the results, with rising attainment year on year. Devolution has already made a difference for Scotland's children, but there is more to do.
Scotland has a proud tradition in education—on the world stage we outperform most other nations—but my ambition is that we can, we should and we will do even better, particularly in the early years of secondary, where we still see too many young people lose their motivation and begin to disengage from learning. During the coming weeks, we will unveil the most comprehensive modernisation programme of our secondary schools for a generation. We will have the rich, diverse and colourful comprehensives that Scotland deserves. We will explicitly raise expectations of the standards that we expect. We will give pupils more choice and schools more freedom.
We will ensure a regime of tough accountabilities. Our schools can and must do more. For those doing well, we need to spur them to aim even higher, for more improvement and higher attainment. All that will be recognised by a new inspection standard—the excellence standard—to reflect the scale of ambition for our schools. We want schools with the best of leadership, the highest of ambition and the widest choices for pupils; we want schools in which the good work today will be bettered tomorrow.
We have seen the best schools at work—we have many of those in Scotland—and we are impatient for all to reach that standard. I am determined that we will narrow the gap between the highest-performing schools and those that need to transform to perform. We will do that by bringing those at the bottom to the top. We will not hold back those that are already there or that are on their way up.
There are those who say that excellence is achieved only if others fail and that to select only a few to succeed should be our choice. To them I say that devolution was not devised to take Scotland back. Scotland will not succeed if only a few prosper. We need to have ambitions for all and opportunities for the many, not just for the few.
There will be centres of excellence, but I make it clear that there will be no elitist selection of pupils and that choice and diversity for different talents and ambitions will be available to all. I reject the calls to return to the divisive failures of the past, when children in Scotland were rejected at an early age. The future of Scotland—the only successful future for our country—is to spread know-how, to build aspirations and to help even more people to realise their goals.
Some schools are already there, many are on the way, but too many are not close enough. We will deliver a programme to bring about the transformation that some need and back the ambition of those that are aiming higher. By 2007, we will have 20 of our secondary schools most in need of transformation on our schools for ambition programme. Schools will not be able to opt out of improvement or escape our attention. With our local authorities, we will expect them to reach high standards of leadership, achievement, discipline and attendance, with standards met and exceeded throughout the school year on year. In return, we will commit the support and resources—enhanced by the private sector—that they need and we will ensure that they have the freedoms that they need to take decisions and chart the direction necessary to become schools of excellence.
Our vision is of communities where our children can learn and grow in safety, our elderly live in peace and our families see the rewards of their efforts. We will act on crime, health, housing, the environment and reforming Scotland's charity law. In too many of our communities, violent crime and regular antisocial behaviour are hurting ordinary, hard-working people and eating away at our confidence and our way of life. Devolution has seen a reduction in crime, more crimes solved and more police officers in Scotland and, last year, we acted swiftly in this Parliament to crack down on antisocial behaviour. Now, one year on, we have the new laws that allow us to say to the law-abiding, hard-working majority, "The law has changed. This time it's on your side."
In the coming year, we will take that forward with further action on antisocial behaviour, action on violent crime and action to cut reoffending, not only by introducing the laws to curb antisocial behaviour, but now by bringing forward a licensing bill to overhaul Scotland's licensing laws. The bill will crack down on the irresponsible promotions that encourage binge drinking, end the saturation of off-licences, pubs and clubs from which too many of our communities suffer and give local people more say in what goes where. This is legislation to bring Scotland's behaviour on alcohol and the use of alcohol into the 21st century.
We have put in place new provision and new investment to protect vulnerable witnesses and we continue to invest in our police forces to tackle serious and violent crime. In the coming year, we will consult on a new Scottish police bill, increasing the powers that police officers have to deal with knife and violent crime, building on the success of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, reforming the complaints system and putting common police services on a statutory footing.
Since devolution five years ago, we have invested heavily in the courts and prosecution services, to reform the efficiency and effectiveness of those vital public justice services. We have led from the front with radical legislation to reform our High Court, to tackle the culture of delay and to increase the focus of justice for the victim as well as the accused. We are encouraging co-operation across borders, speeding up the process of prosecution and trial, and supporting witnesses. However, if we do all that and we ignore the challenge to reduce reoffending, we will not succeed.
Scotland's reoffending rates remain appalling. On current figures, 60 per cent of prisoners will reoffend within two years of release. Whether from prison or from community sentence, too many offenders leave only to reappear in the police cells and courts and then back in prison. That cycle is wasteful of time, of money and of lives. It is especially wasteful to each new victim's life. Tackling the scale of reoffending and having a clear objective to reduce it is not easy. Perhaps that is why successive Governments have ignored it for so long. The job is not for Government alone, however. It will take the hard work and the effort of people working in our prisons, in our local services and in our voluntary organisations, but this Government will not duck the challenge. We will reform sentencing, reform our prisons and reform the organisations responsible. We need tougher action against the most dangerous offenders and more serious rehabilitation for the vast majority of other offenders. In the autumn, we will publish our proposals to reduce reoffending and we will ensure that any necessary legislation is introduced as early as possible in 2005.
In the coming year, we will introduce legislation, in the health bill, to tackle some of the other areas that have caused distress and anxiety to many in Scotland. The legislation will improve the legal framework for organ and tissue donation and transplants, ensuring that families are treated with respect and dignity. It will allow us to transfer resources on a continuing basis for payments to support those who have contracted hepatitis C from blood transfusions or blood products. We will also begin the process of legislating further to protect vulnerable adults.
In health, we tackled first the issues for those most at risk. We focused our resources and have reduced deaths for those under 75 with coronary heart disease by 23 per cent, deaths from cancer by 6 per cent and deaths from stroke by 14 per cent. That was the right thing to do and we have made a difference to the lives of ordinary men and women up and down the country. We have increased the numbers of hospital doctors and consultants and the numbers of nurses and midwives and we have set clear targets to go further.
In our health service, there is very much more for us to do. In the coming weeks, the Minister for Health and Community Care will outline the action that he will take further to reduce treatment waiting times and to drive up standards in hospital cleanliness.
Our vision is for healthier Scots who live longer and who live a life free from unnecessary ill health. We continue to be held back by a health record that for generations has been poor. We know that, really to improve our national health, we need to improve diets and exercise levels and to reduce alcohol consumption and smoking. In the next month, we will conclude our consultation on smoking in enclosed public places. In this Parliament, we will take action to reduce the terrible toll that smoking takes on our people.
Good-quality housing is central to our success and to the regeneration of communities throughout Scotland. Families need housing—of the right size, in the right area and with decent services. The economy needs skilled people who are able to live in the right areas and to move where the jobs are. It needs young people who are able to take up work on the first step of the employment ladder. That is why affordable housing is so important. It supports our hard-working families and removes a barrier to a growing economy. Houses are more than walls and roofs, however; they are homes, too. Having one's own home gives people security and confidence—a place to live and to be who they are, in a neighbourhood where people look out for one another and take pride in the home that they live in and the street that they walk down.
We have done a lot to improve housing since 1999. Our investment has been substantial, whether through stock transfer or through our support for low-cost home ownership. We are tackling homelessness and introducing new rights for housing tenants. We have introduced new funding, through the prudential borrowing regime, for local social housing. Taken together, our strategy, our investment and our insistence on quality add up to a housing renaissance for Scotland. In the coming weeks, we will announce our plans to go further, with increased investment and more homes for rent and low-cost ownership.
We are determined to help those in private property and in private tenancies, too. Our modernisation of housing will build on that strong foundation with the introduction of the next housing bill to modernise the buying and selling of homes throughout Scotland, to raise standards in Scotland's private housing stock, to strengthen the rights of private sector tenants and to help local authorities to deal with areas of disrepair and decline.
We have seen too many communities suffer from poor decisions whose environmental impact was ignored. That is why we will introduce legislation in the current parliamentary year to put new environmental responsibilities on the public sector in Scotland. The new legislation will introduce a strategic environmental assessment, requiring all the public sector to take account of the environmental impact of all new strategies, plans and programmes and giving the public a new right to comment on what is proposed and to have their views taken into account.
The charity law bill will increase public confidence in charitable giving. Scotland has a large charitable sector and a strong tradition of volunteering, which we have to nurture. Charities build community infrastructure, create opportunities, deliver vital public services—often to our most vulnerable people—intervene when the market fails and make a significant contribution to growing our economy.
The strength of charities and volunteers is not just that they work for the benefit of others or that they give up their time for free; their strength lies in the ethos and the values that they enshrine. Volunteers tend to take action where others have given up. They seek solutions and common ground and they want to get things done. They persevere to build, to organise and to change things where many of us gave up years ago and they believe that one person can make a big difference.
More than one in four people in Scotland volunteer and we stand among the best in Europe. With project Scotland, we will build on that, giving every young person the opportunity to make a real contribution in our communities—in doing so, they will reap a real benefit in their own lives.
Our goal—a Scotland where we encourage ambition, reward success and open up opportunities for all—means that we must reignite Scotland's enterprising spirit. The Scottish Government has growing the economy as our first priority, but not growth at any cost—it should be growth that encourages people to make the most of their talents and that respects our wider environment. However, a bigger private sector creates the wealth that our country needs to build strong communities, to tackle crime, to pay for excellent schools and to improve the care of those who are sick.
Most of all, economic growth opens up the opportunity of employment for all. Having a job means that people can pay their way, look after themselves and the ones whom they love, plan a future and realise dreams. It brings independence, self-respect and the pride of a good day's work rewarded fairly. Unemployment in Scotland is at its lowest for a generation and youth unemployment—the waste of so many young lives in the 1980s and 1990s—has been virtually eliminated. Full employment is finally within our grasp, but the closer we are to it, the harder it is to reach. Therefore, our task now is to reach out to those who are still unemployed and offer them the chance to gain the skills, the experience and the confidence to take up the jobs that are there, to see a way out of the dead-end days on the dole and to use the opportunities that we offer to take responsibility for themselves and their families. To do that, we must help to create the conditions in which our companies can grow.
Last week, Jim Wallace and I launched the updated version of "The Framework for Economic Development in Scotland". It sets the priorities for higher growth and challenges us to go further than ever before. We must address Scotland's key challenge: productivity. Business and public services in Scotland need to become more and more productive, getting greater value from the resources that they invest in their products and services. We will do that by innovating and investing in skills and knowledge. Quality modern apprenticeships, more vocational education and opportunities to learn while earning will enhance the level and the relevance of skills throughout the economy. To reignite Scotland's enterprising spirit, every school pupil in the country is getting the chance of enterprise education, to learn about calculated risks, to learn from mistakes and, ultimately, to build the confidence to have a go.
Scotland's universities are world class. They punch well above their weight in quantity and quality of research—their research is increasingly relevant, too. This year, there has been a 20 per cent increase in applications from overseas. Our universities are our national strength. Their reputation and the national prestige that they bring enhance Scotland's mark on the world. Now is the time to strengthen their position in the United Kingdom, in Europe and in the world. So, too, is it time to recognise the contribution that Scotland's colleges make to our economy and to local communities and, most of all, in embedding the notion of lifelong learning throughout Scotland. In this Parliament, we will introduce a further and higher education bill to ensure the strategic development of those two critical education sectors for the economic, social and cultural benefit of Scotland.
To make the best of all those skills and that spirit of enterprise, we need better planning and transport systems. We will publish our detailed plans for legislation to modernise and improve Scotland's planning services. Good transport links are vital for connecting our communities and supporting business, linking people to jobs and Scottish jobs to the world. We need a high-quality integrated transport system that is accessible, reliable, safe and efficient, so we are investing heavily in infrastructure—roads, railways, sea and air routes, and broadband—but now is the time to take the next step.
In this Parliament, we will introduce a transport bill to continue our modernisation programme for Scotland's transport system, to align our transport infrastructure better with the needs of a modern Scotland and to meet the demands of business and communities. The bill will take a strategic approach and will introduce regional and national partnerships to bring real improvements to the planning and delivery of transport services. In particular, it will bring an end to poorly co-ordinated roadworks—which can cause traffic congestion, cost business money and cause needless delays for all road users—and, yes, it will provide the mechanism to deliver on our commitment to introduce a Scotland-wide concessionary travel scheme for pensioners and others. Devolution moves on, too, and in this year we expect to fulfil our agreement with the UK Government to improve Scotland's railways. The UK Government will devolve new powers to this Parliament to make our rail track and infrastructure work for Scotland.
Devolution brings the flexibility for Government to meet the needs of Scotland in other ways. Five years ago, the decline in Scotland's population was considered inevitable—Governments were planning for it, not reversing it—but now, in a world where some think that movements of people are a threat, Scotland is bold enough to say that it is in our national interests, in every way, to welcome fresh talent, alongside the development of home-grown talent. Fresh talent is about more than just growing our population; it is about our national ambitions, which are that Scotland will be the best place in Europe to live and work and the most welcoming place. We will welcome all those who want to make their lives in Scotland. We value their contribution. We welcome students from overseas, seasonal workers, professionals and those who are fleeing persecution in unstable states. Our groundbreaking relocation advisory service, which will be open by the end of next month, will demonstrate our welcome in practical and constructive ways.
This Parliament has helped to renew Scotland's profile internationally. We have always had a big voice for such a small country and the new Parliament building will create greater interest. The devolved Government will grasp the opportunity that presents itself. We will stand up and promote our country, businesses, universities, artists, musicians and sportspeople, to talk up our successes and increase confidence at home and abroad.
We will value the arts and culture, support excellence and improve access for all. Presiding Officer, as a Gaelic learner, you, among many, know the specific value of Gaelic in our national life. The Gaelic language is a unique part of our culture and heritage. Throughout Scotland, there are strong and clear links between our geography, natural heritage, people and values. For many Scots, Gaelic is our first tongue. It is about much more than our past or our place names. For some, Gaelic is a barely living echo of the past. However, it is a living language today and a gateway to a rich culture, both ancient and modern. The language has helped to shape many aspects of Scottish life and society and continues to do so today, but it is a language that faces the challenge of survival. It is vital that we do all that we can to ensure that our Gaelic not only survives, but thrives. As Sorley MacLean said:
"If Gaelic dies, Scotland will lose something of inexpressible worth".
My ambition is to see Gaelic grow once more in its everyday usage throughout Scotland and to be something that more Scots can feel part of and proud of. A year ago, on the 100th anniversary of the Mòd, we launched our consultation on a draft bill to secure the status of the language in Scotland. One year on, in this legislative programme, we will introduce and pass into law a Gaelic language bill, to build on the work that we already support in broadcasting, the arts and education.
This is a programme for the year ahead in government: making good laws, setting budgets and acting to improve the opportunities for young Scots. However, the greatest thing that devolution has created for Scotland is a sense of national ambition. There are truths here for every one of us in the chamber: we cannot create a law that instils aspiration in the hearts and minds of Scotland's teenagers and we cannot create a fund to pay them to have ambitions, but every one of us can help to create the conditions for confidence and ambitions. We can celebrate the success of Scots, champion achievement and promote this wonderful nation. We can lift our heads when we walk into this phenomenal chamber and collectively raise our game to set out a vision for Scotland, to debate and to work together for a Scotland of enterprise and ambition and of tolerance, fairness and respect, where future generations are proud of their Parliament, but also proud of themselves and their country because it is the best small country in the world.
The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement before we move on to the formal debate. I intend to allow around 35 minutes for questions, after which we will have a short suspension.
I share the sentiments that were expressed by the First Minister in relation to the horrific tragedy that unfolded in Beslan on Friday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured, the bereaved families and, indeed, all the people of Russia at this terrible time. Such a mindless act of barbarism disgusts and appals peace-loving people the world over and serves to remind us all of the fragility of democracy and life itself.
I want to take this opportunity to thank MSPs on all sides of the chamber for their good wishes on my election as deputy leader of the Scottish National Party and, indeed, leader of the nationalist group in the Scottish Parliament. If press reports are to be believed—and, on occasion, that is a big if—some Labour back benchers have spent hours in recent days dreaming up playground taunts and infantile insults to hurl at me across the chamber. I am just glad that, after five years, we have at last found something for them to do. I am looking forward to hearing the fruits of all of that brain activity and, of course, anything that Duncan McNeil might have to add.
This is an important and momentous day for Scotland. Would the First Minister agree that this building, which has been mired in controversy, now stands as our best hope of restoring confidence in Scottish self-government but that that will happen only if all of us start to live up to the grandeur of our new surroundings and start delivering real change for the people of Scotland? Does he agree that, as we stand at the start of the 21st century, Scotland faces immense challenges? We have low economic growth, a population that is in rapid decline, persistent inequalities of health and income and public services that are not delivering the quality of service that people in this country have a right to expect. Does he understand that the disappointment that many will feel about the programme that he announced today is that, although many of the proposed bills are worthy of support, the programme does not add up to more than the sum of its parts? It fails to lay out a clear and coherent strategy for meeting the challenges that we face as a nation.
Despite the length and flowery rhetoric of the First Minister's statement, it was a vision vacuum. For example, while I welcome the proposals to reform family law and protect children from the evils of internet grooming, I ask the First Minister to tell us exactly what his Executive intends to do to lift children out of poverty and meet the targets that he has set. While I endorse the extension of free bus travel to pensioners, I ask him why he will not demand—as the Liberal Democrats have done this morning—an end to the indignity of means testing and the payment to our older folk of a decent citizens pension, as a right. That is something that could be delivered each year for less than half the cost of this new Parliament building. Further, although I think that the Gaelic language bill will help to preserve an important part of our national heritage, I ask the First Minister what he is going to do to attract to Scotland the 10,000 new people that we need each year if we are to stop our population falling below 5 million.
Finally, will the First Minister consider that perhaps the best way of marking the opening of this fabulous new Parliament building and ensuring that it represents the fresh start that each and every one of us wants is to demand for it the powers that will match its price tag?
I congratulate Nicola Sturgeon on her election, which I warmly welcome, and wish her all the best in her new position. She is in an unusual situation for a politician; she is probably the only person in the chamber who is already looking forward to the election of her successor, when Mr Salmond may, at some point in the future, join us again. We look forward to his return.
We in the chamber have many responsibilities, and I believe strongly that although we will continue to adapt and develop the devolution settlement—we will do so during the coming months, with the devolution of further powers over rail infrastructure and track from the United Kingdom Government to this Parliament here in Scotland—we also have an absolute responsibility to use the powers that we have to make a difference every day, not to navel gaze or argue about those powers constantly but to take the responsibility that we accepted when we were elected and to use our powers to meet the very objectives that Nicola Sturgeon outlines. I am grateful for her support for the key objectives that I laid out in my statement: to deliver higher economic growth, because that will help to lift Scotland's children out of poverty; to reverse population decline, because that is not just a signal of our ambitions but the way to secure prosperity decades from now; and to tackle inequalities in housing, health, education and many other areas in which there are still inequalities in 21st century Scotland. The policies that I have outlined today will make a difference in those areas and they will also improve our public services and modernise our laws.
I hope that, in the months ahead, we will have a passionate debate in this chamber about the future of Scotland. I am sure that both Nicola Sturgeon and I will contribute to that debate, but I also hope that when we agree on objectives, and when steps can be taken to work together, we will find time to share those objectives and to work together for a better Scotland.
I associate my party with the comments of the First Minister and Nicola Sturgeon on the appalling atrocities that we have witnessed in Beslan. We convey our deepest sympathies from this side of the chamber to the families of the victims and to the people of Russia as a whole.
As the First Minister rightly said, today is a new beginning for the Parliament. As a patriotic Scot, it upsets me that our Parliament has become a source of shame when it should be a source of pride. Does the First Minister agree that we have spent the past five years building offices for the Parliament and that we must spend the next five years building respect for the Scottish Parliament? That is what people in Scotland expect of us.
There are aspects of the legislative programme that we on the Conservative side certainly welcome. In particular, I thank the First Minister for taking forward the work that my colleague Margaret Mitchell has done on the subject of internet grooming, and for bringing forward child protection measures in Scotland that are commensurate with and comparable to those that apply down south. I fear that much of the rest of the programme is a question of too much hype and not enough substance. For instance, when will the Scottish Executive do something about the waiting lists and waiting times for hospital treatment in Scotland, which have actually increased since 1999, notwithstanding the billions that have been poured into the service? Is the truth of the matter not that the Scottish Executive is so ashamed of its record on the national health service in Scotland that it has given up on it? That is summed up in the fact that only 10 paragraphs of the copy of the First Minister's statement are devoted to the health service, compared with the 11 paragraphs that are devoted to the Gaelic language. In relation to the Gaelic language, there is nothing about promoting Gaelic-medium education, which is one of the best ways of sustaining the language.
The First Minister referred to the budget measures that will be announced shortly. Is there any prospect of putting in place measures to enable our councils to reduce substantially the burden of council tax for all council tax payers in Scotland and to reduce significantly the level of business rates suffered by our businesses, to remove the competitive disadvantage that they labour under at present? Does the First Minister agree that it is about time that our council tax payers and business rate payers in Scotland get the breaks and reductions that they deserve?
I welcome Mr McLetchie back to our jousts. I suspect that he and I may find it harder to agree than Ms Sturgeon and I will do in the months and years ahead. I welcome that prospect.
Although I suspect that it may have been a nuance, I do not agree that we need to build respect for the Parliament. We need to earn respect for the Parliament and we will not do that by counting paragraphs in speeches and trivialising the issues that are in front of us.
Of course there is more to government than the legislative programme each year, but this legislative programme will modernise Scotland's laws to reflect modern Scotland. It will do that to help to protect our children, to promote enterprise, to provide the infrastructure that we need and to support stronger communities, in particular those that have faced so many difficulties over the past two decades. I say to Mr McLetchie that, yes, we will act—not just on council tax or business rates but in other ways to support families and businesses.
We will act—as we are acting—to improve our national health service, but what is needed is action right across our programme to ensure better public services and improved legislation. We must also ensure that, in the actions that we take at home and abroad, we make this Parliament building not a national embarrassment but a national icon in which the level of our debate reflects the aspirations of those who sent us here and allows us not only to enjoy the intensity of the debate but to make the right decisions and the maximum difference for the maximum number of young Scottish children.
I support the comments that have been made about the grievous wound that has been inflicted on the community of Beslan and the Russian people. On behalf of my group, I extend our heartfelt sympathies to everybody in Beslan and to the people of Russia.
I must also express a sense of awe about how privileged I feel to stand in the chamber and make one of the first speeches in this building, which is incontestably a work of architectural genius. I am quite sure that it is a building of which the people of Scotland will become immensely proud.
In previous speeches, the First Minister made commitments to environmental justice, sustainability and tackling climate change and yet, significantly, all those subjects were absent from his presentation this morning. I welcome much of the programme that he outlined, particularly, of course, the commitment to the protection of Scotland's children.
I also welcome the introduction of strategic environmental assessment, but I have to ask the First Minister the following questions. First, were the principles of strategic environmental assessment applied to the legislative programme in any way? Secondly, will the proposals for strategic environmental assessment be monitored independently; in other words, will that work be carried out by an independent body? Lastly, the First Minister made a considerable commitment to growth in the Scottish economy. Can he give a commitment that that growth will not be at the expense of the environment and climate change?
I welcome Robin Harper back to the chamber and thank him for his contribution. What is important about this devolved Government's approach to the environment and to sustainable development is that we see that approach as something that runs through every department, every piece of legislation and every action that we take, not as an add-on that requires to be listed or described on every occasion. We will pursue our housing and transport policies in a way that is more sustainable than has been the case in the past. That will be at the core of our plans for strategic environmental assessment. We will expect those who are making the decisions in every Government department and agency to assess the impact of those decisions on the environment.
I do not accept the historical separation that has existed for far too long in Scottish and British politics between economic growth and job creation on the one hand and environmental sustainability and sustainable development on the other. I believe that we in Scotland can marry the two, partly because of our natural resources and our skills, expertise and innovation. We can have economic growth and job creation as well as sustainable development and environmental protection.
A positive approach and commitment to sustainable development and environmental protection can enhance the opportunities in Scotland for economic growth and job creation in the modern world. The best example of that is in renewable energy. If the pilot project in the Moray firth that I announced in Aberdeen two weeks ago is successful, Scotland will have the world's first and largest deepwater offshore wind farm, more than 12 miles from the shore—it will be out of sight but will provide enough electricity to assist households and businesses in one fifth of Scotland. That shows huge commitment and massive potential, on the back of successful private companies in Scotland, successful research and innovation and the Government's commitment to economic growth and the environment.
I associate the socialist group with the First Minister's comments about Beslan. I hope that our deepest condolences can be passed to Russia and to the communities that were worst affected.
I have two questions about the First Minister's statement. First, there was a distinct lack of reference to pensioners—particularly the 43 per cent of Scotland's pensioners who try to survive on an income of less than £10,000 per annum—and to low-paid workers. Does the First Minister agree that one of the priorities for the next 12 months has to be for the Parliament to find a fairer, progressive and income-based alternative to the acutely unfair council tax and water rates, which continue to hammer the poorest sections of our communities, particularly our pensioners and low-paid workers?
Secondly, will the First Minister reflect on his comment that Scotland should welcome all those who are fleeing persecution? Does he agree with the majority of people in Scotland who believe that it is wrong to continue to imprison asylum seekers and their children who are fleeing persecution? Will he join us in calling for the closure of Dungavel?
Mr Sheridan makes points that he has made consistently in the Parliament. I have two things to say in response. First, Mr Sheridan does not make it clear that his plans to abolish—as he would put it—the council tax would involve increased taxation for average working families in Scotland. That would then lead to those families finding themselves with a worse quality of life, lower family income and fewer opportunities for their children. If we are going to have a debate about the future of taxation in Scotland, we should have an honest debate, set out our plans clearly and be honest about their implications for every section of Scottish society. Yes, we should help our pensioners, but not at the expense of the hard-working families that Mr Sheridan seeks to penalise.
Secondly, Mr Sheridan also distorts the picture in relation to asylum seekers. Scots have been welcomed all over the world for centuries. We have made our homes elsewhere and have contributed to growth of countries throughout the world. In the same way, Scotland should be a welcoming country for those who want to come to our shores. However, we should do that through a proper process and a legal immigration system that is fair to all and accurate in its deliberations, not based purely on emotion.
I believe that it is important that we have a fair system for determining which of the asylum seekers who come to Scotland are genuine refugees. When they are designated as genuine refugees, they should be welcomed and integrated into our communities and they should be given the opportunities to prosper that Scotland can offer them. However, it is also important that the system ensures that those who, for whatever reason, need to go back to their previous country do so. Whatever they have done—in some cases, they have been involved in very serious acts—those people must be part of the system too. They cannot opt out of it and simply enjoy a life in Scotland.
We need a fair immigration system. It must be based on principles and be welcoming to those who can come and genuinely make a contribution here in Scotland, but it must also deal properly with those who try to abuse it.
I ask members for shorter questions and answers, please.
If we are to deliver the improvements in public services, jobs growth and the enhancements in productivity across the public and private sectors that are required for the ambitious programme that the First Minister has outlined, we will need a strong partnership with employees and their representative organisations, which are the trade unions. Does the First Minister agree that the trade union movement must play an important part in a modern devolved Scotland? Will he and his colleagues continue the dialogue with the trade unions and other partners to ensure that the progress we make is, as far as possible, consensual and inclusive?
It is important that we build on the partnerships that have been developed during the first five years. We must ensure that we work not just with the business organisations, individual businesses, the voluntary sector and local community organisations but with trade unions and representatives of those who work in Scotland. We need to do that in a positive environment, but we should do so with the clear objective of improving our public services and securing the efficiencies that are required to transfer resources from the back office to the front line, where those who need our public services can benefit from them most.
I draw the First Minister's attention to his promise to expand the business sector in Scotland. How does he reconcile that with this morning's figures from the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers that show a further 7 per cent reduction in the number of new businesses being created in Scotland? What specific measures will the First Minister take in the next year to boost the creation of new businesses in Scotland?
We can take, and we are taking, a number of measures, but we should be clear about an important philosophical point. I do not believe that Governments, whether local or national, create private businesses. The way to grow Scotland's private business sector is to encourage and enhance its opportunities to grow. We need to support it by providing the infrastructure and by ensuring that the grants schemes that we operate are designed to support growth and opportunities and, in particular, research and innovation.
If Scotland's private sector is to grow further, we need not only more business start-ups but more research and innovation and higher levels of productivity in the private sector as well as in the public sector. That means that we need to provide the skills, knowledge and lifelong learning by supporting universities, by developing partnerships and by providing the business growth fund and all the other schemes that we have to help businesses that are ambitious, but it also means that private companies themselves must unlock their own potential. They need to secure growth by tapping into those measures and by taking up the challenge of securing the research, innovation and improvements in productivity that can make a difference for them.
I beg the Presiding Officer's indulgence to associate the Scottish Liberal Democrats with the sympathy that has been extended to the shocked and bereft people of Beslan.
We also concur with the First Minister's appreciation of this magnificent building and those who built it. We all share his aspirations for the work that will go on inside it.
The consultation on smoking in enclosed public places will be concluded next month. Does the First Minister agree that recent evidence that ventilation does not mitigate the effects of passive smoking should count as a factor that weighs heavily? Will he assure us that the Scottish Executive will move swiftly to analyse the results of the consultation and swiftly thereafter to take action in the light of that analysis of the comments that have been made?
Smoking-related diseases kill approximately 13,000 people in Scotland every year. Every one of those deaths affects family, friends and many people in the wider community. More than a million Scots smoke and 70 per cent of them say that they would like to give up smoking but find that very difficult indeed. I believe, and the Executive believes, that further moves to prevent smoking in enclosed public places provide one opportunity to reduce the number of smokers in Scotland, to reduce deaths and illness from passive smoking and to help people to give up the habit that can cost them their lives. We shall make a decision on how far we go with a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces at the end of the consultation, but action there must be and action there will be.
The First Minister has highlighted the problem of declining population and has stated, quite rightly, that one of the ways round that is to attract people to work and settle in Scotland. Does he agree, however, that a greater priority should perhaps be to take steps to persuade the thousands of young graduates who have left Scotland in recent years—to escape the high-tax, low-public-service environment that the Executive has created—to return?
If that were true, those people would be making a big mistake; they would be leaving the best small country in the world to go elsewhere, where in the main taxes are higher and public services are significantly worse. This is a country with huge potential but also with a great quality of life today. We have some of the most vibrant smaller cities in the whole of Europe. We have a landscape and countryside that are outstanding. We have business sectors in Scotland—in bioscience and financial services, and still in some sectors of manufacturing and in many other areas—that are challenging for young people, provide good jobs for them and can be among the best in the world.
It is because people such as Mr Aitken run down this country and describe it in the way that he does that people get scunnered with it. If we all walked out of this chamber more often and talked up this country and its benefits and the fantastic quality of life that we have—while realising that there are challenges and that there is more to be done—and told the world what a great place Scotland is, Scotland would be more successful as a result.
Does the First Minister agree that an important aspect of the huge investment that the Government has made in school buildings is what the associated community facilities can contribute, not only to lifelong learning but, through sports facilities, to the health of the community?
Of course I agree with that, and I believe that schools should be at the centre of their communities, providing facilities and resources that can be used by all, not just by those who study in them between 9 and 4.
Tomorrow evening I will have the pleasure of hosting a reception for Scotland's Olympians, including the four medal winners, so I would also like to take this opportunity—if it is not too opportunist of me, Presiding Officer—to congratulate those athletes on their success. I believe that each of those outstanding individuals can be a role model for successful young Scots in the years to come. Each of them makes a contribution back into their own sport and to other sports in a way that I think is very important. Each of them has performed admirably and done themselves, their families and their country proud. I look forward to taking to them tomorrow evening the congratulations of the whole Parliament.
I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 11 o'clock.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—