Engagements
In this last First Minister’s question time of the year, I wish everyone—and I mean everyone—a happy Christmas and a very peaceful new year.
To ask the First Minister what engagements he has planned for the rest of the day. (S4F-01781)
I reciprocate Johann Lamont’s Christmas greetings to everyone in the chamber.
The Government will take forward the programme for Scotland.
Earlier this year, we were shocked to find out that proportionately more patients were dying in Lanarkshire than anywhere else in Scotland. This week, we found out why. According to staff, NHS Lanarkshire is in
“a state of perpetual crisis”.
That raises serious questions about the running of our health service. Alex Neil is blaming everyone—bar himself. When will the Scottish Government take responsibility for the problems in our national health service?
In the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing’s statement on Tuesday, which I attended the chamber to listen to, he showed exactly the action that the Government is taking. Among the most important points that Alex Neil made on Tuesday was, of course, that without the introduction of the patient safety programme in the national health service, there would have been no means of identifying the problems that have been identified in Lanarkshire. He also made the point that although there is, of course, a serious situation, which has been responded to in a serious way, it should be remembered that there has been improvement in the patient mortality rates, even in Monklands hospital. The alarm bells rang because that improvement was not as great as it was across Scotland. The health secretary also went through the significant increases in staff, nurses and consultants in NHS Lanarkshire over the past few years.
All that information was imparted in the chamber last Tuesday. I thought that it was done in a serious and excellent way as a response to a serious situation. That is how we should treat the situation and that is how the Government will treat it, in the interests of the health service in Scotland.
It is precisely because the problem is serious that the matter has been raised. The difficulty for the Scottish Government is that it appears to be responding to bad headlines rather than addressing problems of which we have been aware for years. On rare diseases, cancer drugs or trolley waits, it seems that a headline in the Daily Record is what is needed for the cabinet secretary to respond, rather than there being an understanding that these are huge problems that have to be addressed over time.
The high number of deaths may have been unique to Lanarkshire, but the problems that caused them are endemic in Scotland: overworked nurses, overstretched doctors, not enough beds, and gaps in out-of-hours and weekend provision are all problems that have been growing for a number of years. Can the First Minister tell us why his health secretary is only now addressing the problem in his own constituency, although alarm bells have been ringing across Scotland for some time?
Again, that point was dealt with in the statement on Tuesday.
I return to the indicators that were responded to. The hospital standardised mortality ratio indicators that have been introduced in the health service as part of the patient safety programme showed a fall—that is, an improvement—of 4.3 per cent at Monklands since 2007, a fall of 7 per cent at Hairmyres, and a fall of almost 18 per cent in Wishaw. The alarm bells were rung because the improvements at Monklands—in particular—and Hairmyres were less than the Scottish average of 12.4 per cent. That was in response not to headlines, but to the patient safety programme that has been introduced in hospitals around Scotland.
Without those indicators and that information, the health secretary would not have been able to set up the review that reported on the matter. He then reported the information to Parliament on Tuesday; the facts are well understood. Perhaps Johann Lamont will acknowledge the seriousness with which the investigation was undertaken, and the action that has been rolled out to address the situation. That is surely the way to respond to the situation in Lanarkshire, and the way to treat the health service.
That situation is not happening just in Lanarkshire, it is not just happening now and it is not happening simply because a measure was introduced to identify the problem. Had the First Minister listened to staff over the years, he would have known that there is a problem.
We are now in a position in which only a third of nurses and midwives say that they can meet the conflicting demands during their time at work, and just a quarter think that there are enough staff to allow them to do their job properly. That is not something that we should be complacent about, nor has it happened just over the past couple of weeks.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland uncovered weekend staffing levels as being a key problem in NHS Lanarkshire. Through freedom of information requests, we have a snapshot of staffing levels elsewhere. NHS Lothian has reported that its medical staff drops from more than 1,000 a day to just 25 at weekends, NHS Forth Valley has at the weekend half the nursing staff that it has on a week day, and in NHS Fife consultant numbers fall from 210 to 7 at the weekend. All over Scotland, hospitals are operating with minimal resources against increasing pressures, just as NHS Lanarkshire is.
We need a question, Ms Lamont.
What will it take for the First Minister to acknowledge that we have a serious problem in delivering the health service that we want for Scotland?
That is why we guaranteed the real-terms increase in the health resource budget and delivered it. Let us remember that staffing levels in the national health service are up 5.6 per cent—an increase of more than 7,000 staff since Labour was in power. Qualified nurses and midwives are up by more than 1,000, paramedics are up 11 per cent, medical consultants—who play a key part in processing people through hospitals—are up by 28 per cent, general practitioners are up by 5 per cent and dentists are up by 33 per cent. Those are all comparisons with the staffing levels when the Labour Party was in power. Those increases were possible because we guaranteed the real-terms increase in revenue funding.
In both the 2007 election and in the run-up to the 2011 election, the Labour Party refused to guarantee that real-terms resource funding, but we know what it would have done because we can look to Wales, where health funding is falling in real terms. At what stage will Johann Lamont recognise that although there are challenges in the health service that are being responded to in a serious way, this Government has backed the health service with real resources and money, which the Labour Party did not promise to do in those two previous elections?
The First Minister has returned to his comfort zone; he wants this to be a fight between politicians about numbers and manifestos. Let us not worry that staff are saying that they cannot do the job or that NHS Lanarkshire “is in ... perpetual crisis” because he can show that his numbers are betters than ours. That is nonsense.
The First Minister does not need to listen to me. Let him listen to Theresa Fyffe, the Royal College of Nursing Scotland’s director—[Interruption.]
Continue, Ms Lamont.
I suspect that Theresa Fyffe knows a great deal more about the matter than any of us in the chamber. Less than an hour ago she said:
“The Scottish Government cannot simply continue to say that the number of nurses working in the NHS is higher now than it was a couple of years ago—this misses the point entirely. We need enough appropriately skilled nurses—and other staff—working in the right places to both meet growing demand and deliver good quality care.”
That is the challenge to which the First Minister needs to rise.
A question, Ms Lamont?
I have a question. Audit Scotland says that the pressures will increase, the British Medical Association says that the situation is unsustainable and the Royal College of Nursing is calling for a full review. Those calls are backed by The Herald newspaper, which is leading calls for an honest debate. Is the First Minister prepared to get beyond crisis management and agree to a full-scale review of NHS staffing and resources, and to confront with honesty the scale of the challenge that has been identified by health service staff and patients?
The health service does not need a review—it needs the resources to meet the rising demand for health services. That is why this Government has guaranteed the real-terms increase in health funding, which Labour would not do.
On what people say, let us remember that 85 per cent of Scottish in-patients say that their care was good or excellent, 87 per cent of people are satisfied with the care in the national health service, and 89 per cent of patients believe that the care that their GP surgery provided was good or excellent. The point about patient satisfaction is important, because those are the people who are treated by the health service.
On the specifics about NHS Lanarkshire, it would have been instructive for her if Johann Lamont had bothered to attend the statement on Tuesday to hear the health secretary address those matters in a serious fashion. The point is that alarm bells were rung because Lanarkshire’s improvements in patient safety were smaller than those that were taking place across Scotland.
The patient safety programme has been lauded by the very person who was brought in to address the serious difficulties in the health service south of the border. Let us remember that Don Berwick said:
“The Scottish Patient Safety Programme is without doubt one of the most ambitious patient safety initiatives in the world—national in scale, bold in aims, and disciplined in science ... aligned toward a common vision, making Scotland the safest nation on earth from the viewpoint of health care.”
Yes, we have specific problems in Lanarkshire. They are being addressed. Yes, of course the health service is under pressure. However, politicians respond to the health service by backing the nurses, backing the doctors and backing the real resources that need to go into the health service.
Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)
I add my best wishes to all for a very happy and peaceful Christmas and new year period.
To ask the First Minister when he will next meet the Secretary of State for Scotland. (S4F-01777)
I have no plans in the near future, but I understand that a DVD of the secretary of state’s appearance in committee last week is being circulated, either as part of a civil service training programme or as propaganda for the yes campaign.
It is good to see that the objection to narrow political points that the First Minister’s Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning made a few moments ago did not last into the First Minister’s remarks.
This week it was announced that anyone who is convicted of housebreaking over the festive period will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, instead of the one year that is currently the maximum. Does the First Minister agree that the policy should be extended beyond 6 January, so that people who are convicted of housebreaking in future will always face a higher sentence?
The sentence is for the determination and judgment of the court, but I would have thought that most people would welcome the initiative from Police Scotland and the Crown Office to address a problem that has been identified.
Let us remember that this is happening in the context of the drop in recorded crime in Scotland to its lowest for more than 30 years. That is a substantial achievement of this Government coming into office. Let us also remember something really important, which is that the public’s fear of crime, which is pernicious throughout society, is much, much lower in Scotland than it is in the rest of the United Kingdom.
At some point, will Ruth Davidson acknowledge that the efforts of our police service and our Crown Office are bearing results in society’s battle against the criminal?
I welcome Police Scotland’s initiative and I am glad that the First Minister recognises its value. However, it somewhat misses the point: a crime in June is every bit as wrong as a crime in December, and the penalty for breaking into someone’s home should be just as serious every day of the year.
Few people will disagree with the initiative, but most people also think that what is needed is a firm commitment to a permanent change. Last year, nearly 1,400 people were convicted of housebreaking, but only half got any form of custodial sentence at all. Those who violate the homes of others should know that they face the full force of the law, no matter in which month they commit their crime.
Will the First Minister take action, so that housebreakers can face higher sentences all year round?
Sentencing is a matter for the courts and for the Crown Office, and action by the police is an operational matter for Police Scotland, guided of course by this Government. Police Scotland is able to conduct the campaign because it has the staff and people power available to pursue it. That is because 1,000 extra police officers are working in the communities of Scotland.
I know that Ruth Davidson wants to be gathered into the Christmas cheer, so I will not make the full point about the dramatic decline in police numbers south of the border and the total lack of confidence that the Police Federation has in the Home Secretary, but there is not a single police officer in Scotland that would not rather be fighting crime here in Scotland, and many of their English colleagues would like to come and join them.
Cabinet (Meetings)
To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet. (S4F-01778)
The Cabinet will discuss issues of importance to the people of Scotland.
Yesterday’s unemployment figures show that 1.3 million more people are in work, including 110,000 In Scotland. The First Minister said that the coalition’s economic strategy would not work. There is more to be done, of course, but does not the First Minister now accept that he got it wrong?
I congratulate Willie Rennie on raising the subject of unemployment. Johann Lamont has not done it once this entire year, presumably because the Labour Party does not like to see the successes that we are having in Scotland. [Interruption.]
Order.
If the fact that employment is higher in Scotland than in the rest of the United Kingdom, that unemployment is now lower, that youth unemployment is lower and that there has been a dramatic increase in female employment in Scotland has nothing to do with the policies of Mr Swinney and the Scottish Government, why have Mr Rennie’s colleagues not replicated that success to its full extent south of the border?
We should also remember that although the figures have improved throughout the year and some impressive gains have been made in employment, we are coming out of the greatest recession since the 1930s, which was induced by the Westminster parties, and our recovery has been delayed by Mr Rennie and his Tory colleagues in London.
The First Minister said that the coalition plan would not work; now he claims the credit for that plan. There is a lot more to do, but it is the coalition plan that is building the stronger economy. Taxes on jobs are down. Fuel duty has been frozen. Investment in science and broadband is up. Growth is up. The millions who are working in Scotland have had their income tax cut by £700 each. The First Minister does not support all those measures but will he, for once, recognise the achievement?
It is Christmas so I will be as gentle as possible, for I would never say that London is draining the life out of the rest of the country as Vince Cable said this morning on the radio.
I will give the full quote for the Tory members’ benefit. Business secretary Mr Cable, who is a coalition minister and a member of the Liberal Democrats, said that London
“is becoming a giant suction machine draining the life out of the rest of the country”.
I think that he was alluding to the fact that development is uneven across the UK.
The fact that Scotland is doing relatively well in terms of employment and unemployment, particularly with the growth of female employment, might have something to do with the discretion in policies that has enabled Mr Swinney, for example, to mitigate some of the effects of the dramatic cuts in capital spending that were enforced by the Westminster Government.
As it is Christmas, I will give the Liberal Democrats a present. Among the dramatic successes indicated in yesterday’s employment figures was the fact that there are now 61,000 more women in work in Scotland than there were last year. That is a great thing. That is 3 per cent more women working in Scotland. If 3 per cent can be achieved in one year, does Mr Rennie not think that 6 per cent could be achieved in five years, given the transformational childcare proposals for an independent Scotland?
Lockerbie Commemoration
To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will commemorate the passing of 25 years since the Lockerbie disaster. (S4F-01794)
The local community in Lockerbie will be commemorating the tragic events of a quarter of a century ago. On Saturday, I will be attending a wreath-laying ceremony in memory of all those who were lost in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. There will be ministerial attendance at the evening service at the church, the commemorative service at Westminster abbey in London and the memorial service at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington.
One of the themes of the memorial event in Washington is to look forward. That will involve students from Lockerbie and Syracuse University, which of course lost 35 students in the tragedy. The exchange scheme has allowed the communities in Scotland and America to come closer together and look to the future with hope and expectation. I can confirm that the Scottish Government will make a contribution of £60,000 towards the fund that allows Lockerbie students to study at the university in the United States.
I am sure that members from across the chamber will join me in confirming that our thoughts, and the thoughts of people across Scotland, are with those who were affected by the terrible events of 21 December 1988 that befell the town of Lockerbie and all those on board Pan Am flight 103. That comes poignantly as we approach the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.
I thank the First Minister for his reply and endorse his comments with regard to our thoughts for the victims’ families and indeed the victims themselves.
I should declare that I am a signatory to the justice for Megrahi campaign and, like many others, am concerned that the wrong man—and possibly the wrong nation—was in the dock.
Will the First Minister now write to the Prime Minister requesting a joint inquiry, under section 32 of the Inquiries Act 2005 and the concordat between both Governments, into all aspects of that atrocity? If the Prime Minister does not agree, will the First Minister’s Government take the lead and instigate an inquiry here into the devolved issues, such as the policing and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service actions, which might at last kick-start a full United Kingdom inquiry, which, I respectfully suggest, is what the victims’ families really require?
I think the focus of events on Saturday should and will be on remembering those who were lost 25 years ago and on supporting the aim of the community in Lockerbie, including young people, to look forward.
The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 was a terrible crime. As the Lord Advocate made clear this week, there are live investigations into that crime, to see whether others can be brought to account.
The Scottish Government has not written to the UK Government asking for a joint inquiry. Mr al-Megrahi was convicted in a court of law and that conviction was upheld by the appeal court. We have made it clear that our view is that the only place in which Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction could be upheld or overturned is a court of law.
There are established procedures in place, as part of the checks and balances in our justice system, that allow the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to consider referring a case back to court. It is important to note that the processes can be used even though Mr al-Megrahi is deceased.
Scottish Welfare Fund
To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government will publish the next set of statistics for the Scottish welfare fund. (S4F-01785)
The chief statistician will be publishing statistics on the Scottish welfare fund at 9.30 am on Tuesday 11 February. Those statistics will cover the period from 1 April to 30 September 2013.
In this season of goodwill, let me thank the First Minister for his response and wish him a merry Christmas. I am sure that he will be aware, however, that for some families it will not be a very merry Christmas, due to their experience of poverty.
Is it not the case that the First Minister promised publication of the statistics on the Scottish welfare fund in November? The date then slipped to December and now it is to be the middle of February next year. Is it not the case that his Government has failed to spend the money that is intended for the poorest, most destitute people in our communities? Is it not the case that publication is being delayed solely to hide the fact that in some areas as little as 11 per cent of the available money has been distributed?
If that is Jackie Baillie at Christmas, I would hate to think how she is for the rest of the year.
As Jackie Baillie knows, the head of the communities analytical services division wrote to the Welfare Reform Committee on 29 November to inform it of concern over the quality of data received from councils and said that the figures would now be published on 11 February.
There were 16 changes to the guidance.
Jackie Baillie should have put that in her question, but I will address it, because it is Christmas.
It was pointed out that the chief statistician has the sole responsibility for deciding on the content and timing of statistical releases.
Jackie Baillie mentioned 16 changes to guidance. There has been only one change to guidance, in October, which was planned to take account of universal credit and to widen out eligibility to allow greater flexibility.
We might have thought that Jackie Baillie’s concern over the matter would allow her to welcome the fact that this Government acted to increase flexibility so that the welfare fund and the top-up funding that we established could help more people facing the crisis of Westminster welfare—well, they call it reform, but it is actually the dismantling of the welfare state.
It is Jackie Baillie who, faced with a crisis of welfare induced by Westminster, said—even under those circumstances—not that Scotland could not have its own welfare system, but that it should not have its own welfare system. That is why, even at Christmas, Jackie Baillie is the one with explaining to do.
Wind Turbine Development (Tiree)
To ask the First Minister what the impact will be on the Scottish Government’s energy policy of Scottish Power’s decision not to go ahead with its proposed wind turbine development off Tiree. (S4F-01780)
There will be no impact, in the sense that that was always regarded as a longer-range project.
Although I will not accuse Liz Smith of having a planted question, this gives me the opportunity to point out that this very morning, the latest statistics on Scottish renewables and renewables generation figures have been published. They show that Scottish renewable electricity enjoyed another record year. Renewable resources delivered 40.3 per cent of gross electricity consumption in 2012, up from 36 per cent in 2011 and putting us well on the way to the interim target of 50 per cent by 2015.
Although the question was not prearranged, I know that Liz Smith will join me and the whole chamber in welcoming that demonstration of the success of the renewables strategy in Scotland.
In the spirit of Christmas, I note that I am not given to asking planted questions.
Shale oil and gas are revolutionising the United States energy markets by substantially reducing costs, customer bills and carbon emissions. That is why, earlier this week, the United Kingdom Government produced a regulatory road map for shale oil and gas. Will the Scottish Government now produce a road map for Scotland?
We are a country that produces seven times the hydrocarbons that we consume. We should therefore proceed cautiously on the undoubted opportunities that there are for shale gas in Scotland, not just onshore but offshore. That would be my position and the Government’s position on the matter.
What interests me is that the Conservative Party has been objecting to energy projects the length and breadth of the country. I do not think that it carries its support in that matter, because its support shows consistent support for wind energy. I do not think that it even carries its members on the matter, as at least three of them have wind projects on their own landholdings.
A balanced policy for renewables is the right way forward. I hope that the Westminster Government can start to reconcile the differences between the two elements of the coalition because that difference and uncertainty are the sole things that are damaging opportunities for further energy initiatives in Scotland.
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