Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, December 9, 2010

Official Report 1127KB pdf

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Scottish Executive Question Time

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General Questions

The next item of business is general questions. I advise members that, due to travel difficulties, half of today’s questions have been withdrawn, so for once I am happy to encourage regular supplementaries.

Question 1 has been withdrawn.

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Teacher Numbers (Reduction)

2. To ask the Scottish Executive what the reduction in full-time equivalent teachers in schools has been in the last year. (S3O-12273)

The school census published on 1 December 2010 shows that full-time equivalent teacher numbers declined by 796 between September 2009 and September 2010. The drop in teacher numbers reported in the 2010 census is less than last year and provides strong evidence that the teacher workforce is stabilising.

I know that it is hard to believe, but 26 years ago I started off as a qualified secondary school teacher. I was on a supply list, desperately seeking a full-time placement. I thought that since devolution we had made progress on the issue of teacher numbers. Why are we now moving backwards, under the cabinet secretary’s Administration?

There are a number of reasons, one of which is an oversupply undertaken by the previous Administration—I have drawn attention to that many times previously.

There is good news, though. By taking some tough decisions—decisions that, as the member knows, have to be taken in government—we have reduced the number of people coming through teacher training, which has meant that the situation is coming back into balance. I hope that every council will sign up to the commitment that I have made as a result of an agreement with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. Regrettably, Labour councils, and particularly Labour-led Glasgow City Council, seem the most reluctant to help young teachers in that regard. Although it pretends that it is not, Glasgow is one of the councils with the greatest reduction in teacher numbers. If those councils sign up, there will be a positive effect on teacher employment and we will get the numbers back into balance.

We then need to keep the numbers in balance to match the needs of Scotland, and not to undertake the type of exercise undertaken by the previous Administration, which misled the people of Scotland and caused much of the present misery.

The minister is all smoke and mirrors.

Will the cabinet secretary tell us exactly when, prior to coming to power, the Scottish National Party argued that there was an oversupply of teachers?

I pay tribute to the member. He did an extremely effective smoke-and-mirrors job. I would have described it differently had I not heard Jackie Baillie use the phrase a moment ago. [Laughter.]

I pay tribute to Mr Peacock, who worked very hard. I regret that his colleagues are laughing at him. I have a lot of admiration for Peter Peacock. He inherited a situation from his predecessor, who went on to another job and is now a member of the House of Lords. On this occasion, though, Mr Peacock got it wrong. He let a lot of people down. I am glad that Fiona Hyslop and I have worked hard to turn that situation round. It is slowly coming into balance.

Perhaps the minister could explain why, on coming into power, his predecessor actually increased the number of students going into teacher training.

I will ask the minister a different question: what does he have to say to teachers on long-term supply contracts who face the prospect of being placed at point 1 on the teacher pay scale? How can that be good for children, who will be in classrooms with supply teachers who want to do the work rather than simply be treated as minders?

Nobody on point 1 of the salary scale is being treated as a minder—that is a complete misrepresentation of the teacher salary scale. Indeed, it demeans and diminishes the young people who go into teaching by implying that anybody who is on point 1 is a minder, which is a complete nonsense.

The discussions in the pay negotiations that are now going on through the Scottish negotiating committee for teachers have a series of starting points. They were tabled by COSLA, as the member knows, and the issue in question is one of them. The matter will require careful discussion and negotiation over the next couple of months, but it is based on a request from COSLA. In those circumstances, as COSLA is one part of the tripartite teacher negotiations, such a request requires to be treated seriously. All requests require to be tested against evidence, which is what will happen.

The member represents the situation as if there is no financial problem at all. He should remember that the wrecking of the economy was done by his own party—but we all have to face up to the consequences.

Question 3 has been withdrawn.

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Angus Council (Meetings)

4. To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met representatives of Angus Council and what issues were discussed. (S3O-12244)

Scottish Government officials regularly meet representatives of local authorities, including Angus Council, to discuss a range of issues.

Events have conspired so that John Swinney will answer this question; that is probably appropriate.

Everyone was delighted when Brechin secured a £1.8 million grant from the town centre regeneration fund, but it seems that events have overtaken the spending of the money. It is my understanding that a second proposal brought forward by Angus Council economic development department has now fallen through, putting the whole grant at risk. I am grateful for the Government’s forbearance to date, but the matter is now extremely serious. Will the cabinet secretary therefore instruct his civil servants to work with Angus Council officers in a bid to have the money spent for the benefit of the people of Brechin?

Mr Johnstone cannot be keeping pace with events if he is asking me to direct my civil servants to try to resolve the difficulty. Civil servants have been working effectively for some considerable time to ensure that the grant award that was made to the city of Brechin can be spent in the appropriate fashion. There is no need for ministerial direction to civil servants to do that, as my officials—actually, Mr Neil’s officials—have been undertaking that activity and working closely with Angus Council.

I should make the point that, as Angus Council is the organisation responsible for the development of the project, it is not for the Government to dictate its contents. I hope that Angus Council is able to formulate proposals that will enable the project to proceed and that the people of Brechin—whom I have had the privilege to represent in a Parliament for the past 13 years, including the past 11 years in this Parliament—can benefit from a significant financial contribution from the Scottish Government.

I am grateful to Alex Johnstone for getting us to Brechin, which is where I would like to stay. Given the current weather, I am conscious that there is a lot of snow that will eventually melt. The people of Brechin know a good deal about flooding. Has the cabinet secretary had any conversations with Angus Council about dealing with the flooding projects that Brechin so desperately needs?

I should be careful about the context in which I give this answer, as I have had conversations with Angus Council on flooding issues, but in my capacity as member of the Scottish Parliament for the city and not in my capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.

There are significant issues of flooding caused by the River South Esk at River Street in Brechin, and there is on-going discussion, in which the council is involved, about putting in place the most effective flood prevention measures. That is a matter for Angus Council to take forward.

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Schools (International Links)

5. To ask the Scottish Government what support or encouragement it offers to schools or individual school classes to develop links with schools in other countries. (S3O-12309)

We actively encourage schools in Scotland to build links around the world through the British Council’s twinning programmes, which currently have a total of 853 Scottish schools involved in active partnerships. We support international links through Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish centre for information on language teaching and research. We are investing significantly in technology such as the glow intranet system to make it easier for schools to develop links with one another and with schools around the world. We are also encouraging schools to be international in outlook through the curriculum for excellence and the Scottish education award for global citizenship.

I draw the cabinet secretary’s attention to the British Council’s connecting classrooms in east Asia project, which I observed in action during a recent visit to the region. I gather that the Scottish Executive Education Department, unlike the education departments of other United Kingdom countries, was unable to send a representative to the launch meeting in 2007, when the curriculum was decided. Subsequently, there has been little response from Scottish local authorities, with only one Scottish school currently taking part. Now that a second phase of recruitment is taking place, will the cabinet secretary encourage local authorities throughout Scotland to embrace this successful initiative relating to a part of the world that will be of increasing significance in years to come?

The member should distinguish between work that is being carried out through the Confucius hubs and other intensive work that I was happy to see both in Scotland and in China on my recent visit and some of the other work that is being done. Priorities must be set, and schools are best placed to set those priorities. However, we are encouraging Scottish schools to build links with schools in east Asia and a cluster of schools in West Lothian, led by Deans community high school, in Livingston, is involved in the connecting classrooms east Asia-UK project. In addition, three schools in Edinburgh and East Lothian have recently built links with schools on the Thailand-Burma border. Two of those schools have already paid visits to Scotland and representatives from the third school are due to visit in March.

Question 6 was withdrawn.

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A76 (Action Plan)

7. To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it will give to the A76 five-point action plan that was launched in November 2010. (S3O-12282)

In the past three years, we have invested more than £11 million in managing and maintaining and improving safety on the A76 trunk road. That included spending £5 million on the major upgrading of the section at Glenarlie, which was completed in December 2008. Transport Scotland will work with the A76 corridor partnership on the proposals that are identified in the action plan, which are consistent with the Government’s aims for the A76. Those aims were set out in the strategic transport projects review, which was published in November 2008.

The minister is referring to the former action plan. If there are significant changes in capital spend and projects are not going ahead, there is now an opportunity to review. Upgrades to the A76 are necessary to improve the safety of that trunk road and for the development of the local economy. Campaigners were very disappointed when the minister cancelled the improvement to the Ellisland stretch, on which many accidents have already happened. Will the minister meet representatives of Dumfries and Galloway Council and East Ayrshire Council who have worked hard on the project over many years—possibly on site so that he can see the problems on the road—to discuss how the new action plan can be progressed?

I always believe that working with local interests is far and away the best way in which to make progress on such issues. A review of the costs and benefits of the Ellisland scheme showed that it would not provide value for money. We now propose to investigate alternative improvement options for that section of the A76 that will deliver value for money.

I commend the plan to the minister. It is not just an unrealistic wish list, which is often what is produced in such cases; it is a modest and well-thought-out plan as to how the key problems on that important route should be addressed. I urge the minister to give it full consideration when capital becomes available.

We have worked up a range of plans across Scotland that await capital allocation. In response to Dr Murray, I said that I would be happy to meet local interests. If we can work up something that is affordable and which addresses the issues at Ellisland, we will be happy to see whether capital can be made available.

As the minister is aware, the delivery of vital safety works on the A77 at Bogend toll in my constituency—the A77, of course, intersects with the A76 at Kilmarnock—has been delayed for many years and the works are now scheduled to be completed during 2011-12. Can the minister provide an update on that project and give an assurance that every step possible is being taken to meet that completion date? If possible, will he give an estimate of when construction work will begin?

That is about as tenuous as it gets.

Following the innovative approach to parliamentary questioning that has been taken by our friend, Mr Scott, I am happy to respond that I am pleased that we have those works in our programme. I will write to him with further information on that subject, which will come to hand shortly.

Clearly, this is A76 day.

A recent study demonstrated that signalling alone will not solve the congestion on the Bellfield interchange, which links the A76 with the A77 and the A71, which is a major access road for Kilmarnock. Will the minister ensure that Transport Scotland works with East Ayrshire Council to address that issue, which is a real constraint on local development and on the economy of Kilmarnock and Loudon?

A traffic simulation study has been undertaken in consultation with East Ayrshire Council and Strathclyde Police, and Transport Scotland has determined that there is no potential for directly increasing the capacity of the Bellfield interchange, within the existing infrastructure. Given the constraints of the existing footprint at Bellfield, a significant infrastructure upgrade will be required.

In September, we wrote to East Ayrshire Council recommending that the impact of future developments to be determined offered an opportunity to seek from developers a contribution towards upgrading the infrastructure. We will continue to work with East Ayrshire Council to bring improvements to the interchange.

As a regular visitor to Ayrshire, I ask when the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change expects the New Cumnock bypass to be given the go-ahead. Also, will he confirm whether the officials who are advising him on the matter are the same ones who advised him on Sunday evening?

I prefer to rely on my roads officials rather than, perhaps, the difficult situations that we had on Sunday.

I am sure that it is always a pleasure for the member to visit Ayrshire, just as it is for us to have him there rather than here. We are, of course, keeping the situation at Cumnock under review.

Questions 8 and 9 were not lodged.

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A977 (Safety)

10. To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made to improve road safety on the A977. (S3O-12243)

I note that the A977 does not intersect with the roads that have previously been mentioned.

The A977 is primarily a local road and is, therefore, the responsibility of those local authorities through whose area the route runs.

The minister will be aware that the A977 has experienced a significant increase in traffic—particularly in heavy goods vehicles—since the opening of the new Clackmannanshire bridge. What mitigation measures are being put in place to deal with the increase in volume of that heavy traffic and to limit its speed, so that there is improved road safety for the smaller communities on that route?

The previous transport minister, Tavish Scott, offered a contribution of £250,000 towards a package of works comprising a series of improvements to public transport, pedestrian and cycle facilities and signalised crossings, which were, at that time, expected to cost £1 million. It was made clear that that was the maximum contribution that the then Executive would make. It was noted that the council was being provided with substantially increased road funding and that funds were also then being provided to the regional transport partnerships.