Plenary, 12 Jan 2006

Meeting date: Thursday, January 12, 2006

Official Report 755KB pdf

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Question Time

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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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General Questions

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Human Rights (Advice)

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that individual citizens can access specialist advice regarding their human rights. (S2O-8653)

Parliament is currently considering legislation that was introduced by the Executive to create a Scottish commissioner for human rights. Although the commissioner will not be empowered to investigate individual cases under the proposals, he or she will be able to provide independent advice and guidance on human rights to any person or organisation. The commissioner will also have the power to investigate and report on generic or sectoral human rights issues.

I commend the Executive for its proposals to create a commissioner for human rights. However, given that the commissioner will not—as the deputy minister made clear—be able to undertake individual casework, and that the Scottish Human Rights Centre, which provided at least a limited service in that area, has had to close, will the Executive undertake to examine other options for funding organisations that take on the important work of human rights advice?

I am more than happy to talk to Patrick Harvie about the details of the issue in his capacity as convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on human rights. I very much regret the closure of the Scottish Human Rights Centre; it did extremely valuable work over several years. Unfortunately it was, for financial reasons, unable to continue its work.

However, the Executive gives support in a variety of directions to individual cases; for instance, it gives advice and support on immigration, and its legal aid role supports existing legal services. There are also a number of experiments in in-house court pilot projects to support people.

The Executive is involved in a range of human rights advice activities and is more than happy to consider what can be done to supplement those activities, although the Executive's support would be for the broader legal service rather than for individual cases.

Can the minister reassure Parliament that the legal advice that is available on human rights will be available in all parts of Scotland and not just, as is the case at present, substantially in law centres in the central belt? Some of my constituents have had difficulty in accessing human rights advice.

Solicitors across Scotland provide legal advice, so there should not be too much difficulty generally in getting advice from them. I accept that there are issues concerning the human rights specialism that is available in some parts of the country. Nevertheless, it should be possible to plug into legal firms, and the bar has expertise in that area.

There is potential for looking more broadly at those matters, and the debate on the forthcoming legal assistance and legal profession bill, which is to be introduced in February and which my colleague Cathy Jamieson can talk about more substantially, will look at how reform can make publicly funded legal assistance more accessible across the country. The justice committees will have an opportunity to consider those matters in the context of the proposed bill.

In relation to question 2, I remind members that they should not ask questions that impact on issues that are currently before the courts.

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Fingerprint Procedures

I thank the Presiding Officer for that warning; I shall, of course, heed it.

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make a statement on the introduction of new fingerprint procedures, as reported in The Herald on 4 January 2006. (S2O-8616)

The Scottish fingerprint service and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland are planning for the introduction of a non-numeric standard for fingerprint evidence. No decision has yet been made on timing.

Why has there been such a delay in introducing the new fingerprinting service and identification system? Is it because of the shambles in the fingerprinting bureau of the Scottish Criminal Record Office? Will the minister, with the introduction of the new procedures, overhaul that bureau and end the shambles that has existed there for five or six years?

I do not accept that nothing has been done to deal with some of the problems that have been evident in the fingerprint bureau. It is not helpful consistently to call the bureau a "shambles", as Mr Neil does. It is not helpful to the staff who do their best to provide information that allows the administration of justice in our courts.

However, it is important that the Lord Advocate be satisfied that the fingerprint evidence that will be presented using the new standard will be appropriate before he approves the continuation of such procedures. It is also the case that staff in the fingerprint service need to be fully trained. There is no undue delay; it is simply a case of ensuring that the correct procedures are in place.

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Civic Scotland

To ask the Scottish Executive what proposals it has to enable the organisations previously helped by the Scottish Civic Forum to continue to take an active part in the work of civic Scotland and the Parliament. (S2O-8683)

The Executive is fully committed to encouraging individuals, organisations and interest groups to take an active interest in civic Scotland and the work of Parliament. We are currently considering how we might generate greater interest in civic participation. I will make proposals shortly.

Many large voluntary and charitable organisations and commercial organisations are skilled at lobbying Parliament and they are staffed and geared up to do that. Whatever reasons the Executive had for disliking the Scottish Civic Forum in the past, it was an important vehicle for enabling smaller community-based organisations and other organisations to contact Parliament or the Executive, and its removal leaves a gap. What, in addition to what the minister has just said, will the Executive do to help to fill that gap?

I reassure Donald Gorrie that we have paid some attention to that matter and that we are considering detailed work on it. I make it clear at the outset that I am responsible for the Executive's work on civic participation. Parliament itself has a role in participation, and it is the Presiding Officer's responsibility to ensure that Parliament opens itself up to participation as much as possible. I want to ensure that the Executive does that, too.

I accept Donald Gorrie's point that many large organisations have sophisticated approaches to gaining access to people of influence—I assume that that includes Parliament and the Executive—but we need to ensure that we reach beyond those and the other usual suspects who are well versed in participating in Parliament's work. I am very keen to do that, which is why we are spending time ensuring that we get right our participation strategies. I am particularly keen to ensure that we reach out to young people, to people who do not traditionally participate and to people from different ethnic minorities. It is vital that we do that.

I am happy to talk to Donald Gorrie about that work and to keep him briefed on the work that we are about to announce shortly.

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Class-size Reductions (Resources)

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the resources being made available for class-size reductions are being top-sliced and, if so, why. (S2O-8645)

Funding for new teachers is not being top sliced. The sums are fully additional to the spending review figures that were announced for local authorities in autumn 2004 and are being distributed through the national priorities action fund in addition to current allocations.

I am pleased to hear the minister's answer and I hope that he will ensure that local authorities are fully aware that resources for extra teachers will be allocated according to the need that is generated by increasing numbers of pupils. However, will the minister go further and agree that additional resources for the few authorities that have increasing pupil populations must be made available timeously if those local authorities and their schools are to hit the class-size reduction targets?

Mary Mulligan and I have discussed before in Parliament the fact that an area's school pupil roll is growing means that its grant will grow in due course, but there is a short time lag between the growth in population and the grant's arrival. However, we are making extra money available to local authorities for extra teachers now; it is being distributed on the basis of grant-aided expenditure with an extra element for deprivation and a small element for sparsity of population to help to ensure that we have the right distribution of cash. That cash is available now and it will help in West Lothian, for example, to recruit more than 40 extra teachers in the near future. That is very good news for the young people of that area.

If the resources are not being top sliced and are available now, will the minister explain why since 2003—when the Government came belatedly to the class-size reduction agenda—vacancies for English teachers have tripled and those for maths teachers have doubled? How on earth can he achieve his class-size reduction targets for 2007?

It might be a new year, but it appears that we have the same old moaning Scottish National Party. We ought to be celebrating what is happening in Scottish education and the increased number of teachers. There have been dramatic increases in the recruitment of maths teachers and English teachers, and teachers from other parts of the world and other parts of the United Kingdom are applying to come and teach in Scotland because of the reforms that we are making and because of our commitment to education. We are absolutely confident that we will achieve the class-size reduction targets that we have set ourselves. One of the means by which we will do that is the extra cash that we are putting into the system over the coming two years to allow the extra teachers whom we are training and recruiting to be employed by the local authorities.

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Special Educational Needs (Young Adults)

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to support young adults with special educational needs when they leave school. (S2O-8626)

Young adults with additional support needs should, as far as is possible, when they leave school have the same opportunities as other young people to access training, further education and employment. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 puts duties on education authorities and others to achieve that. In addition, we have consulted recently on options for improving the opportunities that are available in further education to such young people. We will shortly publish our response to that consultation.

There is growing concern among families such as the Russell family in my constituency that young adults who have extremely complex special needs are not getting the provision that they should be getting and that they do not have equality of access to educational provision with their able-bodied counterparts because of financial constraints on local authorities. Will the minister meet me to discuss how we can begin to improve equality of distribution for such young adults, so that we can ensure that they get the most appropriate placements for their needs, and not just the placements that best reflect the local authority's financial needs?

I would be pleased to meet Karen Gillon to discuss in detail her constituent's situation and the general issues that it raises. The document "supporting children's learning: code of practice" states:

"the transition process may be helped by the involvement of a key worker. This might be a teacher, careers adviser, social worker, community education worker or someone from another agency,"

There are clearly resource implications for a number of public agencies in ensuring that such children have appropriate support.

That document also states:

"The key worker can then assist the child or young person to make a smooth transition to employment, training, further or higher education",

which is the outcome that Karen Gillon's constituent and, indeed, all members, wish for.

I welcome the minister's reply to Karen Gillon, but I ask him to say what action the Executive will take to rectify the situation that Skill Scotland identifies in the consultation document "Finding Practical Solutions to Complex Needs: Consultation on Arrangements for Supported Further Education Places and Funding for Students with Complex Needs", namely:

"Skill Scotland has regular contact from learners with additional needs who cannot access further education in Scotland, and yet they cannot get funding to access appropriate further education elsewhere."

Does the minister agree that it would be a matter of grave concern if such people were unfairly excluded from further education because of their needs and will he consider the matter sympathetically?

We received 48 responses to the consultation, including one from Dr and Mrs Russell. Those responses are being analysed and the findings summarised, so I do not wish to pre-empt the outcome of that exercise. There are complex issues to be addressed around areas such as provision of financial support to meet needs—which Karen Gillon mentioned—provision of services, particularly those that are provided elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and improving services in Scotland. I have said that our guiding principle, which I am sure Lord James will support, is that we will, at the conclusion of the exercise, offer all our young people equality of opportunity as far as is sensible and practical, irrespective of their individual needs.

There is a genuine problem with the transition from school to post-school life. Local education authorities know that young adults with special needs are entering that transition, but they often leave it until the very last minute to do something. Would the minister consider issuing guidance to local authorities, so that they address such issues six or even 12 months before such young people are due to leave school?

I agree fundamentally. That is, in part, why we launched the consultation on practical solutions to what I am sure the member agrees are complex needs. We wanted to learn more about the practices of local authorities, to which Mr Rumbles referred, and to understand more about the support needs in question. We are now, having accumulated that information, analysing and summarising it, and we hope to come up with proposals—which may or may not include advice such as Mr Rumbles seeks—to address needs better and to provide the equality of opportunity that I referred to.

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Class-size Targets

To ask the Scottish Executive how many secondary 1 and S2 English and mathematics classes are (a) over and (b) under the maximum class-size targets set by the Executive for 2007. (S2O-8608)

Individual class-size data are not routinely collected. However, in order to estimate the number of teachers that will be required to meet our commitments, data were collected in 2003 and will be collected again in 2007 to confirm that our targets have been met. The 2003 data showed that 16 per cent of maths and English classes were already below our planned target. Since then, the Executive has supported the recruitment of many additional maths and English teachers and we are well on the way to meeting in full our targets for 2007.

If the minister still honestly believes that those classes will be reduced to a maximum of 20 pupils by next year, why is he afraid to provide more up-to-date statistics than those for 2003, which would enable us all to see what progress is being made? Is the minister aware of local authorities' concern that the Executive's commitment to reducing class sizes has not been fully funded? Is not it a fact that the minister has failed to provide up-to-date statistics because such statistics would reveal the embarrassing truth that he has not a snowball's chance in hell of reaching the targets by next year?

Well—where to start?

Tell us.

If members wait, they will get what they want.

The funding is fully in place to fund all the extra teachers. Indeed, in Dennis Canavan's local authority area of Falkirk an extra £1.6 million has been allocated, which will allow Falkirk Council to employ an extra 37 teachers.

If Dennis Canavan is looking for statistics, I will give him statistics. The maths intake into our teacher training colleges was up by 85 per cent in 2004 over the 2003 figure. In 2005, the figure was 75 per cent up on the 2003 figure. There were 500 extra maths teachers in training in 2004-05. In English, intake was up 52 per cent in 2004 and up 100 per cent in 2005 on the figure in 2003. There were 647 extra English teachers in training in 2004-05. External recruitment into secondary teaching was also up 82 per cent in Scotland. Maths external recruitment was up 100 per cent and English external recruitment was up 118 per cent.

If Mr Canavan wants statistics, I can give him oodles of them, all of which show that we are going to meet our targets.

As a member of the Educational Institute of Scotland, I have a keen interest in the subject. Will the minister confirm that the money that the Executive is investing, and will invest in the future, will ensure an increase in numbers to reach the targets for maths and English teachers and, more widely, the target of having 53,000 teachers by 2007? Will the Executive ensure that the targets are also met in areas where there is a growing population, such as my and Mary Mulligan's constituencies?

Just before Christmas, we announced an extra £18 million for the coming financial year and a further £44 million for the year thereafter on top of the normal settlement for local government, in terms of past teaching numbers. We also exempted teaching costs from the efficiency savings in the spending review specifically because we are trying to grow the extra teacher numbers to improve the quality of education throughout Scotland. I confirm that all that extra cash and the measures that we are taking will allow all our targets—including our target of 53,000 teachers and our specific class-size commitments at primary 1 and at secondary 1 and 2 for maths and English—to be met in full by 2007.