Engagements
Not for the first time, the First Minister’s memory lets him down. We voted against the budget for this year because it did not have these apprenticeship places in it. When the Government put the apprenticeship places in, we voted for it. The truth is that if it had not been for us, these apprenticeship places would not have been in the budget.
If I can first correct Iain Gray’s memory, Labour voted against the budget despite the apprenticeship places being on offer—given Mr Swinney’s constructive proposals. Then, when it realised the great mistake that it had made and that it had defeated the budget by accident, it scrambled to try to redo the thing the following week. It was not Mr Gray’s outstanding moment in parliamentary politics.
There is a recovery in Britain, where unemployment is falling, but across all four key employment measures, Scotland is underperforming in comparison with the United Kingdom as a whole. Economic output in Scotland is falling faster than it is in the UK as a whole—that has not happened since world war two. Two thirds of all the jobs that have been lost in the whole of the UK over the past few months have been lost right here in Scotland. Something is going wrong.
Iain Gray claims that Scottish unemployment is higher than elsewhere in Europe. In the ILO figures, Scottish unemployment is 7.6 per cent, the European average is 9 per cent, the UK average is 7.8 per cent and the American figure is 10 per cent. Although 7.6 per cent is far too high, does Iain Gray really not know that there is an international recession—[Interruption.]
Order.
While we are on celebrations, yesterday saw 20,000 new apprenticeship places achieved. Labour fought hard to get those apprenticeship places in the budget and we are delighted to see 20,000 youngsters getting that start in life. However, Michael Levack of the Scottish Building Federation says that the number of apprentices in training is about to drop by half. Will the First Minister promise us that he will not let that happen?
Let us just remember that it is a point of fact that unemployment in Scotland is lower than the UK average, as it has been in every month of this Administration. Iain Gray asks about taking responsibility, but I have been doing a little bit of research. Unemployment is lower in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole, employment is higher in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole and economic activity rates are higher in Scotland than they are in the UK as a whole.
When I was enterprise minister, Scotland had the highest employment rate in Europe. Scotland’s employment rate may still be marginally higher than the UK’s, but the figures for this month and last month show that the UK is catching up on us, and fast.
Let me repeat: in every single year of this Administration, unemployment in Scotland has been lower than the UK average.
I have engagements to take forward the Government’s programme for Scotland. Later today I will announce an extra bank holiday in Scotland on 5 June 2012 to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations. The people of Scotland have a special affection for Her Majesty the Queen and I am sure that the chamber will welcome the opportunity to join in the celebrations being planned to mark Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee.
I am delighted that Iain Gray is jointly celebrating the hugely substantial achievement of 19,991 modern apprenticeships having started in this financial year. That exceeds the target of 18,500 and the year is not over, so I suspect that we will get beyond the 20,000 mark. However, I have to say that I am somewhat puzzled. My memory is that Labour voted against the budget last year and then this year voted against it again, when even more apprenticeship places were proposed. Be that as it may, I am confident about the uptake of the apprenticeship positions. Iain Gray will remember that, to enable us to do even more, in January an additional £4 million was allocated to a new scheme: the apprenticeships grant scheme. That scheme opened on 11 January and was fully subscribed by 4 February, giving 4,000 additional apprenticeship places. That is very recent information, which suggests to me and, I hope, the chamber that these incentives to giving our young people a chance in society are working and will continue to work.
Order.
—that the UK economy led the world into and that the UK economy is now lagging behind the rest of the world in recovery? The reason for that is that in the UK, alone among all the developed economies, the Chancellor of the Exchequer plans no fiscal stimulus for next year. In the same way, he cut the Scottish budget by £500 million.
Prime Minister (Meetings)
Presiding Officer,
As Annabel Goldie should know, I am not responsible for the business of the Parliament. However, the business of Government will continue next week, and I will discharge the business of Government as it is my responsibility to do.
As I said in my first answer, the business of Government will be discharged. That is my responsibility, as it was a week past Tuesday when business was indeed discharged.
To save Mr Park’s blushes, it was Paul Martin who attended the Parliamentary Bureau.
I have no plans to meet the Prime Minister in the near future.
No one disputes that trade union members have the right to engage in lawful strike action. However, MSPs who are elected and paid for by the public have a primary and absolute duty to represent the interests of all their constituents in this Parliament, and from that we must not be diverted. It will be business as usual for my party if the strike proceeds. Will the First Minister confirm that he will instruct his ministers and MSPs—all of them—to cross the picket line and come to work?
Order—and I am sorry if I have caused Paul Martin any blushes.
Cabinet (Meetings)
I gladly apologise to John Park—and to Paul Martin—for highlighting the difficulty that he may or may not have with his fellow MSPs.
On the economy and Scottish jobs, the First Minister probably finds it as ridiculous as I do that Labour can gloat that one part of the United Kingdom is doing better than another, when the whole of the UK is doing worse than the whole of the rest of Europe—except Greece.
I do not say this to mitigate in any way the 7.6 per cent International Labour Organization figure, but in February we had our first reduction in the claimant count in Scotland for two years. We should mention that, as it is an indication that the labour market is turning. It was an incredibly small reduction, however—it is a faltering and very sensitive recovery.
Unlike the rest of us, Mr Salmond will be able to attend the presentation of the budget in Westminster next week, and it will be interesting to see whether he does.
In February, the claimant count went down for the first time in two years—that is a fact. As I have said before, the recovery in Scotland is sensitive—it is not a strong recovery. The economy is on the turn, as we know from the indications, from expectations surveys and from the purchasing managers index. However, that does not necessarily mean that the economy can withstand cuts in public spending next year. That is why Tavish Scott is on extremely loose ground. The Liberal Democrats, by their own admission, were previously suggesting savage cuts in public spending. At their conference last week, we found out that that policy is no longer operational and that the Liberal Democrats are in fact going to expand public spending.
What has this got to do with the question?
The First Minister’s letter to my colleague Vince Cable states:
I was rather pleased with the letter from Vince Cable, because it told me that he was not planning to cut public spending in Scotland next year. However, in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research this week, Nick Clegg reversed that and outlined savage cuts in public spending.
In a speech this week, Nick Clegg talked about reducing public spending by £60 billion, which would mean a £6 billion or so reduction in Scottish public spending.
Youth Commission on Alcohol (Report)
I fully agree with Michael Matheson on the need to recognise that young people have an important role in finding solutions to the problems of alcohol misuse. As such, the Minister for Public Health and Sport asked Young Scot to establish the youth commission on alcohol at the end of 2008.
The youth commission on alcohol’s excellent report was discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the cross-party group on drugs and alcohol, where it emerged that the central theme is that young people want a culture change in relation to drinking in Scotland. Will the First Minister pledge his Government to ensure that at least two young persons are represented on every local licensing forum? Will he also ensure, as requested by the youth commission, that his Cabinet Secretary for Justice has discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland about ensuring full and rigorous enforcement of the current legislation?
The commission’s report makes some 38 recommendations, a number of which focus on providing leisure activities for young people to offer a genuine alternative to drinking. Does the First Minister agree that providing diversionary activities for Scotland’s young people has a vital part to play in challenging our binge-drinking culture? Will he inform the Parliament what action the Scottish Government is taking on that?
I very much agree that diversionary activities have a significant role to play. Since June 2007, as members will know, there has been a £13 million investment in the cashback for communities scheme. Five organisations in the Falkirk area received funding of just under £22,000 in the most recent round of cashback for communities awards that were announced in December last year. Those organisations range from the boys brigade to the youth learning support that is provided by Falkirk Council. Through cashback and other resources, more than £14,000 is being spent by the Scottish Football Association to develop football in the Falkirk area. Those are some examples of how the cashback for communities scheme is providing valuable alternatives in Michael Matheson’s constituency. Those are certainly diversionary activities, but they are also very useful activities in their own right that are being funded by that initiative.
I am perfectly happy to take on board those two aspects. On the second question, I will most certainly do that. On the first question, we will give consideration to that point and to all the points that the young people have made.
Class Sizes (Maths and English)
We support the objective of having smaller classes in S1 and S2 maths and English. However, I think that Des McNulty has had an unexpected outbreak of amnesia on the issue. The introduction of the class size maximum of 20 was a manifesto commitment of the previous Administration; yet, by April 2007, it had been changed to having an average class size of 20 for S1 and S2. The Labour Administration also failed to place that target on a statutory basis. That is why the Scottish Government is holding a full review of all the various class size maxima, to sort out the difficulties that the Labour Administration left behind. As Des McNulty knows, we are also taking action to address class sizes in primary 1 and will tomorrow launch a consultation on legislation to reduce the legal maximum for P1 to 25 from the level of 30 that we inherited from the previous Administration.
It is greatly to be regretted that Des McNulty did not listen to my answer to his first question before he ploughed ahead.
Order.
He has not answered the question.
Order, order.
The previous Administration started out with a target of a maximum class size of 20—
Are you speaking to Lord Foulkes or to me, Presiding Officer?
It is disappointing that despite having had time to research the matter, the First Minister does not know how many local authorities are meeting that important target. Can he confirm that Scottish National Party-controlled Renfrewshire Council and SNP-controlled East Ayrshire Council are two of the local authorities that are not meeting the target? Will he give the chamber an undertaking to find out how many more local authorities are disregarding the solid commitment that was given prior to May 2007? Can he tell us why class size reductions in English and maths at S1 and S2 are being set aside in order to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in class sizes at primary 1?
Answer the question.
Des McNulty should try to remember what target the previous Administration set.
I was asking for order from George Foulkes, First Minister. Please continue.
With Lord Foulkes’s gracious permission, I point out to Des McNulty, who is sitting beside him, that the target started out as a maximum but, in 2007, was changed—admittedly, when he was a back bencher—to an average of 20 in S1 and S2. That is an entirely different target.
Violent Offenders (Assessment)
By your non-point of order, you have already done that.
Further to that non-point of order, Presiding Officer, could you inform me—a member of the Justice Committee—how we can correct the record with regard to Bill Aitken’s statement that SNP members, myself included, were part of the problem and made it impossible to hold a meeting of the Justice Committee a week past Tuesday? At the very least, Mr Aitken, Mr Brown—I believe—and myself were willing and able to attend the meeting and, as far as I understand it, the quorum is three.
Once again—
On a point of order, Presiding Officer.
The Scottish Government is working closely with partners to ensure the consistent assessment and management of violent offenders. The report of the multi-agency inspection of high-risk offenders, which was published last year, raised issues that the Scottish Government is committed to addressing, and we have accepted all 19 recommendations in the report.
As I said to Robert Brown, the multi-agency inspection team, which was made up of SWIA, Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and HM inspectorate of prisons, reviewed in detail the handling of 62 offenders who were released between July 2006 and December 2007. Obviously, the bulk of the cases involved offenders who were released under the previous Administration. However, that does not obviate the fact that the 19 recommendations that were made as part of that detailed assessment should be carried into practice. That is what we have undertaken to do and is what we will do.
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. The First Minister might have inadvertently misled the chamber in answer to a question from Annabel Goldie concerning the cancellation of committee meetings. It is the case that the Justice Committee was cancelled, which was done on the basis that I could not guarantee a quorum for the meeting. To some extent, Scottish National Party members of the committee were responsible for that, as they could not guarantee that they would be present. In the circumstances, will you give the First Minister the opportunity to clarify the situation and to accept that his party was partly responsible?
No, these are not points of order. You have got the points on the record. I suggest that we suspend until 2.15.
The issue relates to about 2,000 people who were released from prison on a statutory order or licence after serving sentences usually of four years or more for serious violent crime. The First Minister might be aware that the recent Social Work Inspection Agency report found that two thirds of the plans for serious violent offenders had no focus on risk management and that some social work departments did not know whether their work with offenders was effective. The report spoke about uneven and sometimes weak practice in assessment of risk. Does the First Minister agree that the report is surprising and highly worrying? In the light of the recommendations or findings, which were published only last week, will he review his Government’s plan of action to ensure that they are dealt with urgently?