Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, June 9, 2011

Official Report 1079KB pdf

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Scottish Executive Question Time

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General Questions

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Urban Regeneration

1. To ask the Scottish Government whether the newly created cities strategy responsibility will have a specific focus on urban regeneration and, if so, what this will be. (S4O-00011)

The purpose of my new role is to deliver strategic leadership and to work with our cities collectively and individually to agree details of our strategy and priorities for action. Alex Neil, who is now the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, published a discussion paper on regeneration earlier this year. That was designed as a starting point for a wider debate about the key challenges and opportunities for regeneration in the future. Following completion of the discussion phase, we will develop our regeneration strategy, which provides an early opportunity for strategic co-ordination and alignment.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that helpful answer. Is she aware of the almost derelict state of Drumchapel town centre, which is a cause of great concern to many of my constituents, who are without even a local supermarket? Might her strategic role see new hope of drawing together the local authority and developers, with a view to regenerating that much-needed facility?

I congratulate Bill Kidd on his return to Parliament as the MSP for Glasgow Anniesland and on providing the most exciting result of the night at the exhibition centre in Glasgow.

My last job before entering Parliament was at Drumchapel Law and Money Advice Centre, which is based in Drumchapel town centre, so I well know and understand the challenges that the town centre faces. I also know from my constituency experience in Govan the benefits of town centre regeneration. I know that there was no application from Drumchapel to the town centre regeneration fund, although it has benefited from some wider role funding. Bill Kidd’s suggestion of a co-ordinated approach is sensible. I am happy to give him a commitment to discuss with him in the context of our developing regeneration strategy how we can address the issues to which he refers.

What contact has the cabinet secretary had with Dundee City Council and stakeholders in Dundee about the strategy for Dundee city? Will there be support from the Government for the regeneration of the waterfront, which includes plans for the Victoria and Albert museum?

The short answer to the question is yes. In the past couple of weeks, I have had telephone conversations with all the leaders of our city councils, including the leader of Dundee City Council. I will meet all of them individually and collectively over the coming period, because I see a key part of my role as being to encourage and promote the collective activities of our cities and to ensure that we get the best out of that collaboration. I am sure that it will not surprise Jenny Marra to know that on the Scottish National Party benches there are strong advocates for the city of Dundee in the shape of both Shona Robison and Joe FitzPatrick. We remain committed to ensuring that that city, like all our cities, fulfils its potential.

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Public-private Partnership/Private Finance Initiative Schools (North Ayrshire Council)

2. To ask the Scottish Government how much North Ayrshire Council will pay for schools built under PPP/PFI from 2007-08 to 2037-38. (S4O-00012)

The latest available figure published on Her Majesty’s Treasury website for North Ayrshire Council’s total estimated unitary charge for its schools built under PFI is around £400 million. The schools are St Matthew’s academy, Greenwood academy, Arran high school and Stanley primary school.

I warmly welcome the minister to his new post. He will be aware that, in 2007-08, North Ayrshire Council made payments of £3.8 million on its school estate. This year, those PFI payments will be £11 million, rising year on year to £16.6 million 25 years from now. Does the minister agree that such profligacy with public money is a major reason why Labour-controlled North Ayrshire Council is reduced to cutting 72.7 full-time equivalent classroom assistants this year, causing outrage among parents and inevitably leading to much less spending on teaching and support staff than there should be for many years to come?

It is for North Ayrshire Council to manage its budget and to determine its spending plans from the resources that are available to it. However, the sums of money that the council has committed are not trivial, particularly given that the estimated capital value of the projects is £83 million.

The Government shares the member’s concerns about the practical impact of PFI—being the scale of repayments over the long term and the potential for windfall profits to the private sector. We prefer the non-profit-distributing model, whereby returns to the private sector are capped and surpluses from projects can be directed to the public sector.

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Regeneration (Airdrie and Shotts)

3. To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has in place for regeneration projects in Airdrie and Shotts over the next five years. (S4O-00013)

Primary responsibility for regeneration projects in Airdrie and Shotts rests with North Lanarkshire Council. Over the period from 2008 to 2011, £400,000 was allocated from the Scottish Government’s town centre regeneration fund award of £2 million to the council to support improvements in Airdrie town centre. In addition, a total of £1.3 million of vacant and derelict land fund money was allocated towards projects in Airdrie and Shotts.

Earlier this year, we published a regeneration discussion paper. The paper is the starting point for a wider debate with stakeholders about the key challenges and opportunities for regeneration in the future. Following completion of the discussion phase on 10 June, we will be developing our regeneration strategy. We welcome input to that debate from the communities of Airdrie and Shotts and from North Lanarkshire Council.

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s commitment to the regeneration of the local area. Does he envisage significant improvements to the infrastructure of Airdrie and Shotts over the next few years? In particular, I would be interested to know whether the Government plans to revisit the proposal to build a new station at Plains as part of the Airdrie to Bathgate rail link, a proposal that the then Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, rejected in 2007.

I am delighted to be answering the question both as the new Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment and as the new member for Airdrie, Shotts and the surrounding villages.

I have always made it clear that, in my view, we should do everything that we possibly can to establish a new railway station at Plains. A new railway station was provided in West Lothian, which was initially partly funded by the council there. The role of—if I may say so—Labour-controlled North Lanarkshire Council is absolutely essential, and so far, it has refused to put up any money towards funding any new railway station at Plains.

Question 4 was not lodged.

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Schools (Capital Investment)

5. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to make further capital investment in the school estate. (S4O-00015)

As the Parliament will be aware, we are already taking forward 37 school projects, funded by a mixture of capital and revenue finance, as part of our £1.25 billion Scottish schools for the future programme. The forthcoming spending review process will inform the timing of the announcement of the next tranche of projects.

As the cabinet secretary will be aware, plans continue to be developed by South Ayrshire Council, in consultation with the local community, for the refurbishment and extension of Marr college in Troon, a school with which I know the cabinet secretary is very familiar. Can the cabinet secretary assure me that, when future capital allocations are made to assist councils in improving their school estates, favourable consideration will be given to the planned refurbishment of Marr college to help to ensure that the excellent educational experience that it provides to local pupils can be maintained and further improved in the future?

I hope that I am a living testament to the favourable educational experience that is provided there—although there may be different views on that across the chamber. The member, and perhaps the Conservative education spokesperson, would be the first people to criticise me were I to give a too favourable response to the question.

I am aware of the concerns of the community in Troon; I am aware of the consultation that took place, which was organised by South Ayrshire Council; and I am aware of the very strong view in the community that a refurbishment of the historic and significant building—the college being the first truly comprehensive school in Scotland—should be undertaken, rather than eating into the sports ground. That decision will be for the community, with the council. Were a proposal to come forward within the next tranche of projects, it would of course be considered with an informed eye.

May I make a plea on behalf of East Renfrewshire communities, parents and pupils, and indeed East Renfrewshire Council? There are severe difficulties to do with pressure for some schools, such as Our Lady of the Missions primary school, which is packed to the gunwales, and a number of non-denominational schools, some of which are older than Scotland Street school museum.

I ask, first, whether further funding rounds for capital for school building programmes will be considered, particularly given the difficulties in East Renfrewshire. Secondly, will the possibility of additional capital borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament make a difference and allow local authorities to move forward and replace some of their older schools?

We made it clear during the election that our next target on school buildings in Scotland would be to continue to reduce the number of young people who are being taught in unacceptable buildings. In the secondary sector, we have eliminated all buildings in category D, but there are still a number of primary schools in that category, which need to be taken out of it. The Government managed to halve the number of pupils in unacceptable schools in our first four years. I want to do that again in the current session. That is our ambition.

There are also, of course, issues of demographics and changing populations. East Renfrewshire, where there is stress on existing capacity, is a case in point. We will take that into consideration, but I cannot make commitments at this stage about specifically where and how we will do so.

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Disabled People (Support)

6. To ask the Scottish Government, given the pressure on public sector budgets, what steps have been taken to ensure that quality of support for disabled people is safeguarded. (S4O-00016)

We have increased the national health service budget this year by £280 million in revenue terms, giving a record health budget of £11.4 billion. We have also taken steps to ensure that local government’s share of the Scottish Government budget is maintained.

In addition, care and treatment services are regulated and standards are enforced by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland, to ensure that people who use those services receive good-quality care.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that reassurance.

I am taken aback. I thank the member for thanking me for that reassurance.

Does the cabinet secretary agree with Pam Duncan, of Inclusion Scotland, that the cost of the council tax freeze in 2009-10 was £310 million but the new charges for care services for some of the most vulnerable people brought in £350 million? Does the cabinet secretary think that that is fair to our older and disabled people?

There is a serious point here, but before I address it I must say that I am not sure whether we are hearing yet another Labour position on the council tax freeze, after Labour went from opposing it to supporting it but offering only an additional £10 million over the Government funding. I am not quite sure whether this is an early leadership stake by Jackie Baillie, to say that Labour is actually against the council tax freeze.

Jackie Baillie knows that the Government has fully funded the council tax freeze. That ensures that council tax payers do not face the burden of higher bills, which is extremely important in these tight financial times, and that councils are not robbed of the resources that enable them to continue to provide services for the people who rely on them. In these tight financial times, we will continue to ensure that the NHS and local government budgets get the attention that they deserve, and we encourage all our statutory agencies to ensure, in the interests of fairness and equality, that people with disabilities are treated fairly.

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Higher Education (Governance)

7. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reform governance structures in higher education institutions. (S4O-00017)

Proposals for the reform of governance in the higher education sector will be brought forward in due course. Those will be based on the wide-ranging consultation up to and after the publication of the higher education green paper and will be informed by comments and concerns on the matter that have been expressed widely in Scotland in recent years.

In light of the consultation on the cuts that are being made at the University of Strathclyde, which has lasted a month and is taking place during an exam period, will the cabinet secretary consider the call by University and College Union Scotland for a governance inquiry?

I would be interested to know whether the cabinet secretary agrees with Noam Chomsky that Strathclyde’s plans are “very odd”, or with the First Minister, who said that Strathclyde is seizing opportunities and taking “a fantastic route”?

I certainly agree with the First Minister, but it would be foolish to disagree with Noam Chomsky on matters of academic import, although I am not sure how well informed he was about the detail of the proposals.

I cannot and will not take a position on the detail of any set of consultations, but I will take a position on whether consultations are run in a way that ensures the involvement of the full community of the higher education institution and the community that it serves. That is the position that the First Minister and I have taken on all these proposals, and we will continue to do so.

I know that the member has a particular interest in, and is well informed on, these issues. I am very supportive, as I know he is, of the idea from across Scotland of taking a close look at the issues of governance in higher and further education. I will bring forward proposals in that regard.

The cabinet secretary will be aware of some of the governance changes that are already under way in some institutions and which some of my constituents have raised with me. Without prejudging the consultation for any individual institution, will the cabinet secretary say how he is inclined on the issue of graduate and alumnus involvement in on-going institutional governance?

Universities and further education institutions must have open and transparent systems of governance and must ensure that they are accountable both to the community of the institution—the academic or educational community—and to the wider communities that they serve. Some institutions in Scotland do that very well, but some do not do it as well as they should. The issue requires examination, and I committed myself to that in the green paper. I renew the commitment here today that we will go forward in consultation with all interested parties, including those involved in the present governance, so that we can get a solution for the long term.

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Care Homes (Inspections)

8. To ask the Scottish Executive for how long a care home will be able to operate without being subject to inspection under the recently revised inspection procedures. (S4O-00018)

Care homes with low risk assessment and minimum grades of “good” will be inspected by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland every second year at a minimum. Care homes with grades below “good” or with a high risk assessment will be subject to at least two unannounced or short-notice inspections every year. SCSWIS also undertakes random sampling of good-performing care homes as part of its annual inspection plan.

I listened carefully during the debate that we have just had to Malcolm Chisholm’s considered comments about the inspection process, and I assure him that I will reflect carefully on them.

Is the cabinet secretary concerned that, if relatives had not complained, the next inspection of the Elsie Inglis nursing home might have been in October 2012, two years after the previous routine inspection? Will she look again at the maximum interval between inspections as well as at other aspects of the inspection system that I and others raised in the debate earlier this morning?

I have already said to Malcolm Chisholm—although I have no hesitation in repeating it—that I will look carefully at the points that he made. I think that we have a shared interest in ensuring the highest possible standards of care in our care homes.

The changes were made—this was subject to discussion in Parliament before the election in the context of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill—to ensure that we have a more risk-based system in place. I think that most members of the Parliament agreed with that. However, in doing that we need to ensure that there is adequate scrutiny. In particular, we need to ensure that where a care home quickly deteriorates, systems are in place to identify that and deal with it as appropriate.

I am more than happy to have further discussions with Malcolm Chisholm and, indeed, other members around the issue, because it is in all our interests that our confidence in the inspection regime is very high.

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Bus Services (Rural and Out-of-town Areas)

9. To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve bus services in rural and out-of-town areas. (S4O-00019)

The Scottish Government is committed to bus services in Scotland and we are working with local government partners and bus operators to improve them. The Scottish Government is providing funding to the bus industry of more than £240 million in the current financial year.

Lack of services, particularly buses, concerns people not only in my constituency but across the country. Large operators still cherry pick profitable routes, isolating communities and forcing out small operators. If the Government wants to do more to move towards a greener economy, we need an integrated transport system, which would have the knock-on effect of benefiting the tourist industry.

The present system isolates—

Can we have your question please, Ms Fee?

The present system isolates elderly people. Given the debate that we have had this morning, I would like assurances that something will be done to protect the elderly.

Can we have a brief response please, minister?

Our protection for bus services for the elderly is exemplified by the fact that we give several hundreds of millions of pounds towards a concessionary travel scheme, which allows older people to get around the country.

It is also true that, if they choose to do so, local authorities can support local services that bus operators might not otherwise provide through the bus route development grant. So such services are taken care of and the bus service operators have to decide on the services to provide. We will try to work with them to ensure that we have an integrated service wherever possible.