SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
General Questions
Careers Scotland
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to make an announcement about the future of Careers Scotland. (S2O-11503)
Following consultation, the Executive remains committed to transferring Careers Scotland out of Scottish Enterprise. In January we will begin a full options appraisal on the future structure of Careers Scotland involving all key stakeholders. In the meantime, we are asking Scottish Enterprise to make Careers Scotland a more distinct entity within its structure.
What are the options, and can the minister guarantee that the Executive will break the habit of a lifetime and announce the outcome to the Parliament instead of the Sunday papers?
We certainly intend to announce the outcome of the options appraisal to Parliament before any other source. I give a personal commitment to keep the member and his committee fully informed in that process.
Does the minister appreciate that a number of places in Scotland have become proportionately more deprived, according to recent statistical evidence? Does he agree that good careers advice for young people in those areas of Scotland is extremely important? Will particular attention be paid to those areas in the options appraisal that is being done?
I take the view that one of Careers Scotland's key functions is to focus its activity on those who need its guidance services most, for example, 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training. There is a need to refocus its activities in our secondary schools, in relation to pupils in secondary 2 to secondary 6. It is important that those who are in most need of careers guidance get it at that stage and that it is properly focused on their future career prospects.
Crime (Town Centres)
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to reduce crime in town centres. (S2O-11562)
The Scottish Executive supports the police, community safety partnerships and antisocial behaviour teams in preventing and tackling crime. We recognise that many town and city centres face additional public order issues at weekends and in the run-up to the festive period. Last week, I announced additional funding of £600,000 for community safety partnerships in four cities and eight towns to help improve safety on our streets.
I understand that, in the course of her duties as an MSP, the minister recently had an opportunity to have a Saturday night out in Kilmarnock. I hope that she had a quiet evening, but Margaret Jamieson suggests otherwise.
I should put on the record the context of the night out that Mr McAveety mentioned. Margaret Jamieson and I were the guests of the police, who invited us to examine the operation of policing activities in the town. I know that Pauline McNeill took part in the same initiative in Glasgow, but I think that she had a bit more staying power and was able to stay out further into the early hours of the morning than Margaret Jamieson and I did.
Is the minister happy that the police have sufficient resources to ensure that there is an adequate police presence at the weekends in our smaller towns?
I remind the member that we have invested record levels of resources in Scotland's police. The figure now stands at more than £1.1 billion per year. Every police force now has additional police officers whom they can deploy and additional support staff.
Does the minister agree that, if resources were targeted at recruiting full-time police officers instead of community wardens, the possibility of increased police numbers and high-visibility policing in town centres could become a permanent reality?
I am sorry to hear Margaret Mitchell once again decry the use of community wardens, which is one of our most popular initiatives. As I travel the length and breadth of Scotland, I am told that areas that have community wardens want to keep them and that areas that do not have them yet want to get them. We should take that seriously.
Accessible Buses
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it encourages transport partnerships and local authorities to specify the provision of vehicles that are fully accessible to passengers whose mobility is impaired, when procuring subsidised bus services. (S2O-11552)
In awarding grants under the rural public passenger transport grant scheme, we ask local authorities to specify vehicle standards. It is a requirement of grants made under the rural community transport initiative that vehicles are fully accessible.
Before the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority was abolished, it managed to procure low-floor, accessible vehicles for 90 per cent of its subsidised bus services. That shows that, if there are contracts of reasonable length, the bus industry in Scotland can respond to the agenda. Vehicle standards are formally reserved to Westminster, but I would like the minister to encourage the new transport partnerships and local authorities—in the context of subsidised social services, school transport and the increased use of buses by senior citizens under the free transport scheme—to take a procurement approach that leads to fully-accessible buses throughout the country.
I recognise the points that Mr Gordon makes, and certainly his point about what has been achieved in the west of Scotland. It is important to recognise and build on that success. He makes a number of pertinent points about the length of contracts and what we can do in relation to school transport contracts and the national concessionary fares scheme. As he knows, we are investing a considerable amount of public money in the delivery of a successful scheme throughout Scotland, and in doing that we can work with the bus operators to deliver more buses of the kind that people have come to expect and wish to see in all parts of the country.
In large parts of Scotland, disabled people cannot access bus services because there is simply none available to them. What plans does the Executive have to ensure that community transport groups are supplied with the correct vehicles to offer a service to those people?
Mr Davidson will be familiar with the national transport strategy and, more important, the bus action plan within that. I stress the use of the word "action" in dealing with gaps that may exist in different parts of the country. Many of these matters are to be built from the ground up. In other words, it is for local authorities and community groups to design the services that they want and to consider the type of bus that best meets their needs.
Festive Recycling
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage recycling over the festive period. (S2O-11571)
We are supporting the Woodland Trust's Christmas card recycling scheme, and a number of local authorities run schemes to recycle Christmas trees. We also support the waste aware Scotland campaign, which, through its website, provides advice to the public on how to recycle wrapping paper, decorations, cards and Christmas trees. More generally, recycling facilities across Scotland for use throughout the year—not just at Christmas—have improved as a result of strategic waste fund investment.
Will the minister join me in commending the work of North Ayrshire Council, whose let's get it sorted this Christmas and Frosty the Snowman web links encourage both young and old to get involved in the recycling of Christmas waste? Does she agree that involving primary-school-age pupils in recycling will pay particular dividends for the environment in future years?
I thank Irene Oldfather for her question. It is helpful at Christmas time to remind ourselves of our responsibilities with regard to waste, and I thank her for her commitment to raising rates of recycling in general. I am delighted to hear that North Ayrshire Council is using a creative, innovative way to get the message across to young people. As we all know, young people then get the message across to their parents. I congratulate North Ayrshire Council. It is perhaps as the result of such innovative schemes involving young people that North Ayrshire's recycling rates are above the Scottish average.
Road Traffic Levels 2021
To ask the Scottish Executive what it expects road traffic levels to be in 2021, in light of the statement in Audit Scotland's overview of the performance of transport in Scotland that "latest forecasts estimate that traffic will grow by a further 27 per cent" by 2021. (S2O-11574)
The latest projections using the transport model for Scotland suggest that traffic volumes will grow by 22 per cent between 2005 and 2022. The national transport strategy is addressing traffic growth on a number of fronts through three strategic outcomes: improving journey times and connections; reducing emissions; and improving the quality, accessibility and affordability of public transport.
The national transport strategy that the minister mentions retains the aspirational target
We will strongly work towards meeting it. Under the national transport strategy—I hope that Mr Ballard might give us some credit for this—we will develop a carbon balance sheet to develop the carbon impact of projects and policies. That measure is very much designed to make progress in this area, in addition to strategic environmental assessments, which I know Mr Ballard's party supports and which will govern the introduction of transport policies and specific projects of a nationally significant scale across the country. Those are important developments in tackling this serious issue.
The minister will accept that one way to tackle rising car use is to promote public transport. Rather than investing in a flawed tram scheme, would it not be better value to promote and support an excellent bus service here in the city of Edinburgh? Is he aware that, for the £700 million that is likely to be the cost of the city of Edinburgh tram scheme, every bus in the whole of the Lothians could be replaced with state-of-the-art, low-boarding, low-emissions vehicles, and the entire service in the city of Edinburgh could be run free for seven years? Would that not be a better investment of public funds?
Mr MacAskill flip-flops from one side of the argument to the other. He is on record as supporting Edinburgh trams, but I heard him on Forth One just the other morning saying that he was against them and that they were a complete waste of money. We disagree with that view, and in the City of Edinburgh Council there will be cross-party disagreement with that view in the coming days when the council supports the scheme. The scheme will be important for our capital city. It represents a vision for our capital; clearly the Scottish National Party has none. We will build on that vision and ensure that the scheme is an important contribution to improving public transport choices around Scotland. That is the decision that this Government has taken.
Oil and Gas Industry Workforce
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that a skilled workforce is available to the oil and gas industry. (S2O-11544)
We are working through PILOT, the joint industry-Government taskforce, on the key issues that are vital for the oil and gas industry's future success. PILOT and the industry, together with Scottish Enterprise, are working together to deliver a range of training programmes that have focused on companies' immediate need for technicians, new starts and riggers. These include the accelerate programme for technicians, which has successfully attracted 646 new recruits, with 96 per cent having completed their studies within the time schedule.
Does the minister agree that addressing skills shortages in the oil and gas sector—an issue identified both by operators and by offshore contractors—is crucial to the sector's future growth? I am sure that he will agree that his announcement that Labour is committed to an oil and gas skills academy in Aberdeen is an important boost to the industry.
I have much pleasure in agreeing with my colleague. He has put his finger on the pulse of the political issues of the day.
Does the minister agree that it would help the oil and gas industry in the recruitment and retention of its workforce if Labour politicians stopped saying that oil was running out? Saying that is a vain attempt to scare Scottish voters into thinking that Scotland is too poor to look after itself. If those politicians said that there was still much oil to come out of the North sea and that the skills and technology learned in the North sea were exportable worldwide, it would be much easier for the industry to retain its workforce.
The Executive does not need to scare the Scottish people; the nationalists do a good enough job themselves—which is why they are continually rejected by the Scottish people. However, that is another story.
Police Numbers (Clydesdale)
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the Faslane 365 demonstrations are having on local police numbers in Clydesdale. (S2O-11550)
One thousand and ninety eight tours of duty were conducted by Strathclyde community police officers at Faslane over the 12 months from the beginning of November 2005. That is the equivalent of about three community police officers per day. The deployment of police officers in Clydesdale is, like that in the rest of Strathclyde, a matter for the chief constable. Strathclyde has benefited, as have all Scottish police forces, from the record levels of resources that we have invested in the police.
I thank the Executive for its investment in the police force. However, the minister must be aware that—in her constituency as in mine—this type of demonstration is beginning to have an impact on local police numbers. Will she meet me to discuss how to make progress on such matters? I accept that the road needs to be kept open, but the impact on local communities is beginning to bite. That should be taken into consideration by the chief constable.
As I indicated in response to similar concerns that were raised by Paul Martin MSP, responsibility for policing is primarily for chief constables. I am sure that members would wish to make representations directly to them, but I am more than happy to discuss with Karen Gillon and, indeed, Paul Martin the particular issues that are relevant to their local constituency areas.
Before First Minister's questions, members will wish to join me in welcoming to Parliament His Excellency René J Mujica Cantelar, the Cuban ambassador to the United Kingdom. [Applause.]
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