Computer Programming Skills
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage and develop skills in computer programming. (S4O-05284)
We are working with public sector partners and industry representatives to address skills issues in Scotland’s digital sector, with a programme of work built around the recommendations in the 2014 digital skills investment plan. Examples of that collaborative work include the recent opening of CodeClan, an industry-led digital skills academy that is designed to help to meet the immediate digital skills needs that are faced by Scottish businesses. We have also funded the digital world marketing campaign to raise awareness about the careers and opportunities that digital skills and qualifications can create. The campaign is aimed at young people and women in particular.
The cabinet secretary will be aware that it is estimated that 100 million citizens throughout Europe have insufficient digital skills and are excluded from the digital society. What are the Scottish Government and Scotland’s colleges doing to support the development of vital computer skills in the industry?
A great deal of work is going on, some of which I mentioned in my first answer.
The colleges have long acknowledged the importance of responding to the need for science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses, including in computing skills. As a primary provider of those courses, colleges have a significant role to play in ensuring that they are prioritised. In its guidance to the sector, the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council has recommended that colleges use the information from skills investment plans and regional skills assessments and engage with local employers to assess which courses are required to meet regional need.
Just yesterday, my colleague Angela Constance visited Dundee and Angus College’s code academy, which provides a good opportunity to show all the young people and children who are involved with it the huge variety of jobs that are available in our technologies industries. That is just one example of the work that is being done in the colleges.
Commission on Local Tax Reform
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the action that it is taking to take forward the proposals of the commission on local tax reform. (S4O-05285)
The First Minister established the commission on local tax reform, jointly with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, to examine options for the future of local taxation. Before the end of the current parliamentary session, the Scottish Government will introduce plans for the reform of local tax, which will reflect the principles of the commission’s report.
Can the minister at least declare today that this will be the last year of the unfair and regressive council tax?
The Scottish Government is very proud of the effect that the council tax freeze has had in mitigating the unfairness of the council tax. It is noticeable that a commission that included representatives from the Scottish National Party, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens—not a group that easily finds agreement—declared that the council tax is an unfair tax and that it hits those on low incomes the most. I would therefore express some caution to anybody who calls for a rapid end to the council tax freeze or the use of council tax when it has been observed by all those people to be an unfair way of raising revenue.
Health (East Glasgow)
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve health in the east end of Glasgow. (S4O-05286)
Improving the nation’s health is a priority and we are committed to prioritising our health service and making sure that it is fit for purpose. We have already substantially increased funding for all boards, with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s budget increasing by 21.3 per cent since 2007. That will give the board a record budget of £2,078.9 million pounds in 2016-17, which is £96.3 million higher than in 2015-16.
We also need to up the pace on transferring services to the community as we push forward the integration of health and social care. That is why we are investing some £250 million in that area in next year’s budget, of which Glasgow will receive its proportionate share.
The cabinet secretary will be aware of the crucial role that Lightburn hospital plays in improving health in the east end of Glasgow and the concerns of the local community that the hospital has been earmarked for closure by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Can she assure me that Lightburn hospital will have a future beyond the next 10 years?
As I made clear to Paul Martin at health questions last week, none of the suggestions in what is a draft discussion paper has been formally put forward for consideration. The chair of the health board made that clear in his comments.
The member will be aware that, when she was health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon rejected proposals to close Lightburn hospital in 2011. She did so because she had repeatedly heard, not least from local patients and clinicians, that the hospital provided high-quality services that were greatly valued by what is a significantly disadvantaged community. I would have to be convinced by any formal proposals to close the hospital that that position had materially changed and that what would replace the hospital would demonstrably provide a better service. However, as I have made clear, no formal proposal has come to me. What we are discussing today is a draft paper that contains issues that the board has not in any way accepted as concrete proposals.
Plantation Forestry (Water Absorption)
To ask the Scottish Government how much surface water plantation forestry absorbs from surrounding watercourses and rainfall in the Highlands per annum. (S4O-05287)
We know that well-designed forests can play an important role in water management, including, in some circumstances, improving flood mitigation.
The 2011 national forest inventory identified a total of 203,281 hectares of plantation forestry, mainly comprising established conifer forests, in the Highland local authority region. Information that was published by Forest Research shows that each hectare of mature conifer plantation forest in the Highlands has the capacity to absorb approximately 7,000m3 of rainfall. That means that the plantation forests in the Highlands will have an annual absorption rate of approximately 1.4 billion cubic metres of water.
As well as absorbing water, what amount of CO2 is sequestered by plantation forestry in the Highlands per annum, and will that issue lead to a survey of plantable land in our uplands?
The official statistics show that, in 2013, forestry sequestered 10 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in Scotland. Based on the calculations for an average conifer forest, it is estimated that the same area of plantation forestry in the Highlands sequesters approximately 2.13 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year.
Is the minister able to give us an update on agri-forestry and its contribution to flood prevention, and can she also talk about agri-forestry as an appropriate contribution to addressing climate change challenges?
I do not have the detail with me at the moment that would enable me to answer the member’s question, but I am happy to supply that information to her in writing afterwards.
Forestry is becoming an increasingly important industry, especially as a tool in the fight against climate change. What efforts is the Scottish Government taking to encourage forest plantation and replantation for CO2 mitigation purposes, and how will it deal with the hole in forestry production that is predicted to appear in about 20 years’ time?
The Scottish Government funds and supports research into the use of woodland creation to contribute to the mitigation of climate change and the reduction of flooding. That research includes modelling our catchment and economic and mapping studies that are designed to quantify and demonstrate how our forests can contribute to flood risk management. Research is being trialled at a number of locations, and outputs from them will be disseminated to the industry.
As the member says, the Scottish forestry sector is growing. It contributes nearly £1 billion gross value added to the Scottish economy every year, with more than 25,000 full-time-equivalent posts in the sector. In addition, in 2013, forestry was the only sector in which there has been a net emissions sink.
Social Care (City of Edinburgh Council)
To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed social care with the City of Edinburgh Council. (S4O-05288)
Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with the City of Edinburgh Council in relation to social care.
Is the cabinet secretary aware that people are dying while they wait for care, that there is a high turnover of care staff, that an unreliable and poor-quality service is being provided and that there is a lack of training for those care staff who have to provide services for people with a range of conditions from autism to dementia? What share will the council receive of the allocation that she has made of £250 million for extra care services?
I deeply regret anyone having to wait longer than necessary to receive their care package. We will continue to work with all councils, including the City of Edinburgh Council, to improve provision.
I will set out some of the work that has been done with the City of Edinburgh Council. The council has been allocated an additional £8.19 million for 2015-16 from the integrated care fund and over £2.4 million in additional investment this year to help to reduce delayed discharge from hospital. As Sarah Boyack will be aware, the council will receive its share of the £250 million in additional funding that was announced by John Swinney in his draft budget, which will be laid out once agreement has been reached. In addition to all that, we have offered the City of Edinburgh Council additional support of £2 million in return for improvements to social care in Edinburgh.
I am clear that improvements need to be made, and there have been a number of senior personnel changes that will help with the delivery of those improvements. The Government has been supporting the City of Edinburgh Council to make the improvements that it needs to make and has given it additional resources to help it to do that.
Does the cabinet secretary know how much NHS Lothian proposes to contribute to the integration joint board with the City of Edinburgh Council? The same question applies to other health boards across Scotland. If she does not know that, how does she know that Edinburgh’s share of the £250 million will be additional rather than simply netted off what NHS Lothian is planning to give the integration joint board?
Let me be very clear on the first point. All of the £250 million will be routed through national health service boards to the integrated partnerships. The breakdown of that £250 million and what it will deliver are subject to detailed negotiations with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities that are going on at the moment. We want to make sure that as much of that resource as possible delivers on the priorities that we all want to see addressed in terms of additional capacity and the improvements in the sector that we all agree need to be made. I hope that Malcolm Chisholm will support us in those efforts.
Prisoners (Access to Education)
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve prisoners’ access to education. (S4O-05289)
The Scottish Prison Service has established a multi-agency steering group with representation from Education Scotland, Scotland’s Colleges, Creative Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority to inform the core specification for a proposed new-generation learning and skills contract. The core intentions of the new contract are to provide a more creative curriculum and an expansion of higher and distance learning opportunities in order to improve access and stimulate interest in learning. Improved screening processes to detect literacy and numeracy problems and potential learning difficulties are a core feature of our new approach to promoting better access and higher levels of engagement.
Her Majesty’s Prison Greenock has a notable record in the field, and many of the things that the cabinet secretary just mentioned may well be taking place there. Can he assure me that the Government will look at what is being done there, and are there any plans to replicate that success across the rest of the prison service?
HMP Greenock does, indeed, have a good record on improving access to education for prisoners, as do a number of other establishments in the Scottish prison estate. Initiatives based around the visual and expressive arts have proved extremely successful in helping to stimulate engagement with education across the prison estate, with HMP Shotts receiving more accolades than any other prison in the United Kingdom at the recent Koestler Trust awards.
There has been significant international interest in the Scottish Prison Service’s model for the delivery of education in our prisons. The Scottish Prison Service continues to work with all its establishments and our education providers to ensure that best practice is captured and shared right across the prison estate.
Education services are provided currently through a national contract. Would there be some benefit in pausing and considering whether regional contracts would be an improvement and allow a better transition from prison to community through the involvement of local colleges?
Under the current contract, two further education colleges provide education services right across the prison estate. The contract has been extended to next year, in order to develop the new-generation contract for the provision of education in our prison estate, as I set out. That will allow us to look at how we can continue to build on the good progress that is being made and, of course, to look at opportunities to build links between prisons and establishments in their local area, in order for education to continue when people leave prison and go back into the community.
Bellgrove Hotel
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had regarding the homeless hostel, the Bellgrove hotel. (S4O-05290)
Homelessness services are the responsibility of local authorities, and addressing the needs of the residents of the Bellgrove hotel is a matter for Glasgow City Council.
The Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Justice and Pensioners’ Rights and I have both met the leadership of Glasgow City Council to discuss the issue of the Bellgrove hotel, and we have also corresponded with them on it. The cabinet secretary last met the then leader, Councillor Matheson, to discuss the issue in the summer.
Officials have continued to engage with the council on the Scottish Government’s behalf and discussions have focused particularly on strategically reviewing Glasgow’s homelessness services. The best interests of the Bellgrove’s residents can be met only through a wider approach to address issues such as rough sleeping and the provision of homelessness services for those with more complex needs in Glasgow.
I welcome any increased provision for homeless people. Does the minister not consider that we need more regulation in this area? After all, housing associations are regulated and care homes are regulated, but the Bellgrove hotel, whose residents need both housing and care, is not regulated.
I appreciate that John Mason has raised this issue in the chamber on more than one occasion. In the past we looked at whether the Bellgrove hotel should come under the Care Inspectorate’s remit, but the Care Inspectorate took the clear position that it should not.
The Bellgrove hotel is not typical homelessness accommodation. It is the only accommodation of its kind and it involves complex issues that cannot be solved by more regulation. It is licensed as a house in multiple occupation and Glasgow City Council has used the HMO licensing framework to require improvements to the hotel’s condition.
I know that John Mason’s concern is about the wellbeing of the hotel’s residents, and their needs and wishes. Their needs require a focus on prevention and the provision of appropriate services for them. We will continue to work with Glasgow City Council on its review of homelessness services, to improve options and outcomes for those who are using the Bellgrove hotel.
Wildlife Crime Penalties Review Group
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recommendations of the wildlife crime penalties review group. (S4O-05291)
I very much welcome the report from the wildlife crime penalties review group, which was chaired by Professor Mark Poustie. I have been considering the report’s 10 recommendations with colleagues from justice and other relevant areas. I have already written to Professor Poustie to thank him and the group for their diligence in producing such a thoughtful and helpful report and I will write to him again shortly with the Scottish Government’s formal response to the group’s recommendations. I will send a copy of that response to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee and it will be published on the Scottish Government’s web pages.
This week I visited a site where badger setts that are in use have been illegally disturbed by developers. What steps will the minister take to ensure that developers receive appropriate guidance, so that ignorance cannot be used as an excuse in cases of wanton destruction? How will the Government’s response to the wildlife crime penalties review group’s report help to protect badgers, enforce adherence to wildlife-related planning guidance and ensure that appropriate sentences are delivered in such cases?
The Scottish Government will actively consider what work will have to be undertaken before formal steps are taken to implement any of the recommendations in the Poustie report. Should there be a requirement to consult, that will be done. I am more than happy to write to Alison Johnstone on the detailed questions that she asked.
Before we move to the next item of business, members will wish to join me in welcoming to the gallery Mr Asad Qaiser MPA, the speaker of the Pakistani Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. [Applause.]