General Questions
Pyrolysis
It is not for the Scottish Government to support any individual technology. Any technology that is used to treat waste materials must comply with standards that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency sets, to protect human health and the environment.
I thank the minister for her not unexpected response. Is she aware that thousands of people in my constituency oppose plans to build a new pyrolysis incinerator in Coatbridge because they believe that the technology is untested and that any new pyrolysis plant would have an adverse effect on people’s health and the environment? Will the Government make a statement to the Parliament on the recently published zero waste plan, which would allow members to ask questions about issues such as local environmental justice? Does the minister agree that the new environmental targets would be best achieved by Government provision of waste facilities rather than by allowing private companies to profit to the detriment, sometimes, of our communities?
Elaine Smith knows that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment has spoken about zero waste in the chamber and will no doubt continue to do so. She will have every opportunity to continue to ask her questions.
Question 2 was withdrawn.
Council Tax Freeze
The council tax freeze has been fully funded by the Scottish Government since its introduction in 2008-09. To meet the commitment, we have provided councils with extra income that is equivalent to an annual increase of more than 3 per cent.
I alert the cabinet secretary to my concern about my constituents’ experiences. The less well-off must bear the brunt of the cuts that stretched councils must make, whereas those who are better off benefit from council tax savings. I am particularly concerned about council house tenants in Edinburgh whose rents have increased by almost 20 per cent since 2007—from £57.98 a week to £69.55 a week. Is it right that council house tenants, many of whom have minimum-wage jobs, are being asked to pay an extra £11.57 a week, while better-off people benefit disproportionately from the council tax freeze?
Local authority rents are entirely a matter for individual authorities. As for the effect of the council tax freeze on the tenants to whom Sarah Boyack referred, if they are eligible to pay the council tax, they will pay it at a reduced level from that which it would have reached if we had allowed it to increase in the fashion that the Labour Party would have preferred.
From its introduction, the council tax increased by 100 per cent under the Conservative and Labour parties. Throughout that period, double-digit increases were not uncommon. I put aside those particularly high increases, but how much more would the average family in Dundee have been expected to pay if council tax had increased by a comparatively modest 3 per cent each year since 2007?
Mr FitzPatrick is correct to point out that council tax increased by a very significant amount under the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Governments. This Government has frozen the council tax at the level at which it was when we came into office in 2007-08. If the council tax had increased by 3 per cent each year since 2007, a band D householder in the city of Dundee would have paid a cumulative total of £212 more in council tax payments.
Air Conditioning Systems (Inspection and Maintenance)
Article 9 of the European Union directive on the energy performance of buildings was introduced in Scotland in January 2009. The directive requires inspection, but not maintenance, of air conditioning systems. Prior to its implementation, officials held several informal meetings with local authority building standards managers. In addition, the Scottish Government engaged with professional bodies that considered that their members could undertake air conditioning inspection work. Currently, we have a protocol with five such bodies for inspection work.
The minister will be aware of the fact that commercial properties are responsible for 20 per cent of the United Kingdom’s energy consumption and carbon emissions. The EU directive requires inspection prior to 4 January 2011. Air conditioning specialists in my constituency tell me that the rate of inspections is currently less than 5 per cent, due to underfunded and overloaded trading standards officers. Full compliance with the directive would achieve an estimated 930,000 metric tonnes of carbon savings over the next 10 years. Does the minister agree that we need to up our rates of inspection and maintenance? Will he undertake to discuss with trading standards officials the ways in which we can increase the number of inspections of air conditioning units or to explore whether other bodies could also be used to carry out inspections?
The member should be aware that the directive applies to systems with an output of in excess of 250,000kWh. There are 50 such installations throughout Scotland. I have no reason to believe that inspection of those installations will not be completed by 4 January 2011.
Question 5 was not lodged.
Council Tax Freeze
The council tax freeze has provided welcome relief to hard-pressed households across Scotland. We intend to continue to provide that relief in 2011-12. We will discuss the issue with our local government partners as part of the spending review.
When the con act was set up a few years ago, the calculation was that £70 million per year would suffice to address the council tax increases that might otherwise have occurred. In the interim, there was a recession, which caused a reduction in incomes for local authorities that was never addressed or readdressed by the con act. This year, the trade union Unison has calculated that the recession had the impact of reducing local authority budgets by £300 million, causing 3,000 job losses. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that he intends to redress that?
It is important to separate two issues. The first is the level of support that the Government puts in place to enable the freezing of the council tax. It is impossible to take any view other than that the Government has fully funded the freeze in council tax. In some years, we have provided resources additional to the gross domestic product deflator that was set by Her Majesty’s Treasury in relation to expected levels of council tax increase.
Care Leavers
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that care leavers have the support to access the same opportunities that those in their communities who have not been looked after have. We are ensuring that our major change programmes, especially 16-plus learning choices, prioritise the needs of looked-after young people and care leavers.
The statistics make clear that too many care leavers suffer from educational underattainment and lack employability skills. We fall far short of best practice in the Scandinavian countries, for example. Can anything be done to improve joined-up thinking between the different agencies that deal with those young people? Will the minister consider giving care leavers who leave local authority care at the age of 16 or 17 to try out living on their own and an independent life the right to return to local authority care if that does not work out for them? Some children are getting lost after 16 as a result of trying to do things themselves.
We are well aware of the vulnerability of care leavers, especially at a time of economic fragility. As the member indicated, the latest stats show a fall in the number of care leavers in positive destinations. The Scottish Government has taken a number of steps on the back of that. I have written to all local authority chief executives to remind them of their responsibilities to care leavers. On 31 August, I will host a summit, along with the Association of Directors of Social Work, to discuss roles and responsibilities with all heads of children’s services. On 17 June, my colleague Keith Brown, the Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning, announced a specific set of measures to assist care leavers, as part of a summer leavers task force. Those measures include an incentive of £1,000 for up to 2,000 employers to offer a modern apprenticeship to young people who face specific barriers.
St Ninian’s High School (Catchment)
The catchment area for St Ninian’s high school and any proposed changes to it are matters for East Renfrewshire Council. It would be inappropriate for the Scottish Government to intervene. However, I understand that East Renfrewshire Council has established a working group to consider the issue. I will be interested to learn the outcomes of its deliberations in due course.
The cabinet secretary will be aware that the phenomenal success of St Ninian’s in its 25 years has created a demand for places that it is difficult, if not impossible, for the local authority to manage. Does he agree that that is an unfair situation for parents and that it creates unnecessary and unwanted anxiety in local families? Is he aware of an application to build 200 new houses not in East Renfrewshire, but in Glasgow? Does he agree that building such houses without putting in place a solution would be irresponsible? Can he assure me that the Scottish Executive will reject the application until a solution is found?
I will at no stage regret the fact that any school in Scotland is excellent. However, the member raises an important issue. From time to time, there is pressure on all schools. Building in the environment and catchment area of a school can increase that pressure. Negotiation and collaboration are required between all the agencies involved. I will keep a careful eye on the situation.
Language Skills (Five-year-olds)
We want all children and young people to be able to gain as much as possible from the opportunities that the curriculum for excellence can provide. The Scottish Government is satisfied that an appropriate framework is in place to ensure that every child gets the support that they need to develop their language skills.
Is the minister aware that the I CAN organisation estimated some time ago that 53 per cent of five-year-olds starting school in Scotland do not have good enough language skills to access the primary 1 curriculum? Is he concerned that speech and language therapy services are overstretched? More particularly, is he aware of the systematic approach that the communication, help and awareness team in NHS Forth Valley takes to the issue in nursery schools? Has he evaluated that, and is he in a position to consider Government support for such projects throughout the country?
I am aware of a range of good practice. I find the figure that the member quoted somewhat questionable. Language skills are, of course, the underpinning skills that children need to move on. I am addressing the issue of literacy and numeracy, including the assessment of language skills, baseline assessment, and the way in which we address learning difficulties, particularly reading difficulties. All of those are rolled into two things—the approach that we take to the curriculum for excellence and, of course, the priority that we give to literacy and numeracy. I pay tribute to the work of the literacy commission in that regard, because literacy is a lifelong issue. If we can tackle in the earliest years issues of literacy and possible difficulties with acquiring language and reading skills, that will pay huge dividends in future years.
I refer the cabinet secretary to the Health and Sport Committee’s 2009 report on child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, and in particular to the evidence from speech therapists on the impact of communication skills on the socialisation skills of our very young children. Will he look at our recommendations, particularly on training to help nursery staff to identify any communication difficulties in their charges as early as possible?
I certainly believe that early intervention is the key to a great deal of what we are trying to achieve collectively as a Parliament and as a nation. We had a successful event yesterday called the children’s summit in which we brought together those who are involved in early intervention and early years provision to ensure that we keep our focus on those areas so that we can continue to improve the life chances of every child in Scotland. The good point that the member makes will be borne in mind during that process.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi
There has been only routine contact between Scottish Government officials and Libyan Government officials relating to the supervision of Mr al-Megrahi’s licence under section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993.
Does the cabinet secretary accept that it is now more than 10 months since he agreed to release Mr al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds on the basis that he had less than three months to live? How long will it be before the cabinet secretary admits that he made a mistake?
Mr al-Megrahi is terminally ill. I hope that, when he dies, it offers some closure to victims, families and those concerned with the Lockerbie tragedy, wherever they reside. Doubtless it may even offer some satisfaction to some, perhaps even including Lord Foulkes.
On closure, will the cabinet secretary continue to press the United Kingdom coalition to hold a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing so that the concerns about the safety of Mr Megrahi’s conviction that were identified by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission can at last be publicly tested?
The Government has always made it clear that we will be more than happy to co-operate with any authority and jurisdiction that is capable of carrying out some investigation. There are clearly matters that cause concern to many, whether within Scotland or elsewhere. The Government remains open to providing whatever information we can and co-operating with whoever, whether it is the UK or indeed the United Nations.
Does the Cabinet Secretary for Justice agree that Lord Foulkes cannot be accused of hyperbole on this occasion in that the original prognosis in respect of Mr Megrahi was made in July last year, which is rapidly coming up to one year ago? Surely the cabinet secretary must accept that that is a clear indication that the original decision was wrong and that it remains wrong to this day. Will he not admit that, in this episode, over which there has been so much trouble, his judgment has been shown to be sadly lacking?
Please respond as briefly as possible, cabinet secretary.
As I said at the time, I stand by the decision that was made.
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