Engagements
Last week, the First Minister asked:
Order. Mr Kerr, I will not have accusations of that type made in this chamber. I hope that you will withdraw that remark.
There we have it again: he is a grievance, not a Government. He will not take responsibility for his own decision—a correct one—to accelerate capital. He will not take responsibility for his Scottish Futures Trust fiasco killing jobs. He will not take responsibility for the more than 2,000 teachers who are on the dole. He will not take responsibility for the cuts in our enterprise and university budgets. He shouts, he screams and he stamps his feet to hide the fact that he has no idea what to do with the money that he has.
Just as I think it is wrong for somebody to call another member “a numptie”, I do not think that the word “sap” is advisable, First Minister.
I willingly apologise to Iain Gray. I withdraw “sap” and insert “placeperson”. We can compare the funds that will be available through the green bank with the $25 billion that the United States is investing in a similar initiative. [Interruption.]
Order.
You’re a numptie.
I apologise, and I withdraw the remark.
In one weekend last year, the Labour Party, at its conference, made annual spending commitments of £89.6 million. In the course of the year, it has made further spending commitments of £345 million. As a matter of arithmetic, that is four and a half times the budget consequentials that were announced by the chancellor yesterday. That comes on top of the fact that, as we have already established, next year’s budget in Scotland will, thanks to Westminster, fall in real terms for the first time in a generation, as the price that Scotland must pay for Labour’s economic failure.
Members say “Fantasy.” What was Alex Salmond’s contribution to the renewables industry this week? It was to delay his £10 million saltire fund by a further two years to 2017. Alistair Darling created and protected 150,000 green jobs, 5,000 jobs from the future jobs fund, and 10,000 jobs in the games industry through tax breaks. That was yesterday. Today, a further 4,000 jobs have been secured on the Clyde. How many jobs did Alex Salmond create yesterday?
I advise Iain Gray strongly not to take the Secretary of State for Scotland’s press statements too literally. Let us look at the claimed 150,000 jobs from the green investment bank. The assumption is that it will take £200,000 million—that is £200 billion—to develop the offshore green energy resource. In that light, a green investment bank of £2 billion represents 1 per cent of the cash and funds that it will take to generate the offshore renewables revolution. The best estimate, because of the co-operation on acceleration of the Scottish Government’s plans for the licensing of offshore renewables in wind, wave and tidal energy, is that that will generate 25,000 jobs in Scotland by the end of the decade. The idea that there will be 150,000 jobs is total fantasy. It was made up by the Secretary of State for Scotland on a whim and it has now been repeated by his sap in this Parliament, Iain Gray. It is incredible. [Interruption.]
Will Iain Gray try to get things in perspective? Yes, we have an enormous renewable energy resource off the shores of Scotland and this Government is hugely in advance in exploiting that compared with anything that is happening south of the border, but the real opportunity for Scotland is to control that resource and our other energy resources in order to get the sort of prosperity and long-term growth that we are so clearly being denied by the dead hand of Westminster. [Applause.]
Order.
Later today, we will publish our full analysis of the United Kingdom Government’s budget. That will be made available in the Scottish Parliament information centre, so it will be available to all members. It shows that, after taking account of all consequentials, the Scottish budget—the departmental expenditure limit—will be 1.3 per cent lower in real terms next year than this year. That is a cut of some £400 million, at a cost of 4,000 Scottish jobs.
It is a great misfortune for Iain Gray that he did not anticipate being told what the actual figures are before he asked his question. The analysis, which will be available in SPICe for everyone this afternoon, shows beyond any peradventure, and including the £76 million of consequentials, that the DEL budget will be 1.3 per cent lower in real terms next year. For the first time in donkey’s years, the Scottish budget will be lower in real terms.
Here are the actual figures that are in SPICe. There is, taking account of the funding from next year that Alex Salmond asked permission to bring forward and spend, an increase of 0.9 per cent. That is the actual figure. He talked about accelerated capital. Yesterday’s budget provided a £2 billion capital fund for renewables, of which we can expect £1 billion of capital investment to come right here, right now, to Scotland.
Iain Gray gave the game away when he said “taking account of” the capital acceleration. That capital acceleration has been spent this year and, therefore, cannot be spent next year.
There is certainly no offence taken, although I have to say that hearing Andy Kerr using that unparliamentary description takes the biscuit.
I asked about £82 million of resources, and the First Minister has not the faintest idea what he is going to do with them.
Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)
The Scottish Government is spending just over £10 million on advertising in the current financial year. Will the First Minister tell the Parliament how much of that money he is spending this month, in the run-up to the general election?
I will certainly write to Annabel Goldie with the figures, but I can compliment her on her foresight in relation to the budget. Whatever the Conservative party has done wrong, it supported the 50 per cent cut in expenditure on promotion and public relations that formed a part of Mr Swinney’s proposals. It was necessary to make that cut given the straitened economic circumstances, and I welcome the support of all members who saw it and voted for the budget. I hope that Annabel Goldie will at least accept that the Administration is dealing with extraneous costs as we get on with the job of protecting front-line services.
Order.
Despite this Government’s valuable insight into paying invoices timeously, Annabel Goldie will have to accept that that is within the first three-month financial period. Despite John Swinney’s foresight on a range of issues, I do not think that he anticipated the severity of the winter that we have experienced and which Government-provided information had to address. In stark contrast to what is done with the inflated budgets at Westminster, the Government information that comes forward in Scotland is vital public information about the services of the Scottish Government, which Annabel Goldie and her colleagues are trying to do their best to cut savagely in the next financial year, although there is something uncertain about the Tory plans in that direction.
I have no plans to meet the Secretary of State for Scotland in the near future.
I can understand why the First Minister has no desire to answer the question that I asked. Let me give him the facts, which were obtained through a freedom of information request. The annual spend is indeed £10 million. In the first 11 months, he spent only £6 million. In March, he is spending the balance, with expenditure of more than £4 million in this month alone. Forty per cent of his annual advertising budget is being blown in one month, at a rate of £1 million a week, as we approach a general election. Something does not smell right. The spending reeks of taxpayer-funded Scottish National Party propaganda rather than the provision of essential public information.
I think that I am right in saying that the major funding obligation at present has been the response to the big freeze, in terms of giving people valuable advice about how to keep safe in their homes, how to heat their homes, and on travel. [Interruption.]
Cabinet (Meetings)
I am aware of the situation, which is serious because Highland Airways operates lifeline services on behalf of the Government and other local and national bodies. A range of actions were taken to support Highland Airways to continue in business, including co-operation and some financial incentive. However, that has not been possible and, this morning, it was announced that the company had gone into receivership. The partnership action for continuing employment—PACE—team and Skills Development Scotland are on the case and they will go into operation to try to redeploy as many of the 100 staff as possible.
Issues of importance to the people of Scotland will be discussed.
As Tavish Scott well knows, Mr Swinney has introduced a range of measures to restrict pay, particularly among higher-paid officials in the Scottish Government; indeed, ministerial pay has been frozen for the past two years, thereby setting an example for the public sector.
The problem with the Liberal Democrat amendments this afternoon is that they would place in jeopardy the entire bill. They are legally questionable, they would be discriminatory, and they would give rise to a host of legal problems and, quite possibly, to court challenges. The difficulty is that with their amendments, the Liberal Democrats are attempting to renegotiate packages that they negotiated when they were in government. If I remember correctly, Tavish Scott is a distinguished advocate. I would have thought that with his background as a lawyer—
I apologise profusely for claiming an overqualification for the Liberal Democrat leader. Certainly, he knows something about legal processes. I am sure that, in the difficult situation that we face, he would not want to lead the Parliament into highly expensive compensation and legal bills by acting in a discriminatory manner.
Yesterday’s Labour budget demonstrates that we have an economy that is excessively dependent on the City of London, property, the service industries and debt, rather than on Scottish manufacturing, exports and fairness. The budget was bad news for the 2.25 million basic-rate taxpayers in Scotland. Thanks to Labour, people have had their tax allowances frozen, which will put their tax bills up. Although people will be able to do something about that on polling day, every part of Government needs to ensure that it is acting fairly. What is the First Minister’s pay policy?
On pay policy, which is the First Minister’s responsibility, when there is only a little money to go round, is it not even more important that it goes round fairly? The Scottish National Party pay policy imposes a limit of 1 per cent and means less than £150 a year to people on the lowest pay, while it means £600 a year to senior managers. Meanwhile, we know that Scottish quango chiefs are still pocketing tens of thousands of pounds in bonuses. In the interests of fairness, will the First Minister support the Liberal Democrat amendments this afternoon to change the law to stop those quango bonuses and reform the Scottish quango culture? Is that not a good way to find the money to give a fairer deal to everyone?
I will take a supplementary question from Alasdair Allan.
The First Minister will be aware of the announcement this morning that Highland Airways Ltd has gone into administration. Will he give an undertaking that the Scottish Government will work urgently to ensure that lifeline services to Scotland’s island communities are continued? Will the Government engage with the Highland Airways workforce, who have obvious concerns about the future?
Mephedrone
The Minister for Community Safety has written twice to the Home Office, on 4 February and 17 March, urging it to take swift action on the matter. That said, we are not waiting for legislation to address the issue. We have commissioned the drug service Crew 2000 to develop a training resource that will be made available nationally to all alcohol and drug partnerships and organisations in the youth sector. The training materials will be funded by the Government and will focus on raising awareness about the harms of using so-called legal highs, and will support individuals to make positive lifestyle choices.
Because of a range of examples, particularly south of the border recently, there has been a great deal of publicity about mephedrone, although I point out that the Minister for Community Safety wrote to his UK counterpart in advance of the latest tragic incident in England. There have been incidents in Scotland, too. Therefore, as well as commissioning the training resource that I referred to, we have commissioned Young Scot to develop the capacity of substance misuse educators throughout Scotland, because we must recognise that young people have a fundamental role in addressing the issue. Overall in 2010-11, we will allocate £28.6 million to health boards for front-line drugs services, which represents an increase of more than 20 per cent since 2006-07. Members will accept that, in a hugely difficult environment for public expenditure, that shows a sense of priority and urgency.
Given the tragic death in my constituency last week of Jordan Kiltie, which has been linked to the use of mephedrone, I welcome the strong message from the Parliament and the expectation that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will next week recommend the banning of the substance. However, does the First Minister agree that it is vital that mephedrone be withdrawn from sale at once and that consideration of advice from the advisory council, which might lead to a permanent ban, must not mean any delay in taking the substance off the shelves of Scottish shops?
Will the First Minister join me in welcoming the comments that chief drugs adviser Professor Les Iversen made earlier this week, in which he highlighted the likelihood of outlawing mephedrone and said that such a ban is likely to be generic in scope? Will he also join me in urging police forces to follow the interim action that has been taken by forces such as Tayside Police by prosecuting for reckless conduct people who distribute such substances?
I welcome such initiatives. However, the legislative framework has to be clear and has to send unmistakeable messages. I hope and believe that there will now be a sense of urgency.
Given recent reports of deaths having been attributed to mephedrone and the court case in Aberdeen in which a young man was convicted of causing an accident while under the influence of the drug, what further steps will the Scottish Government take to protect young people from the effects of mephedrone?
In the Minister for Community Safety’s letter to the Home Office, he made the point that action is needed immediately and there should be no delay. Whatever the reason for not taking action previously, given the number of clearly established instances north and south of the border, I hope and believe that there will be urgency in the response to the Minister for Community Safety and the concerns that are being expressed in the Parliament by members whose constituents have been tragically affected.
Child Protection
Will the First Minister clarify how the protecting vulnerable groups scheme, which is being developed, will dovetail with the various other protection measures that he mentioned?
It has been reported that at least 1,500 sex offences against children were reported last year. So that we can know the full scale of the problem, will the First Minister back the call from Anne Houston of Children 1st for police officers to ensure that there are accurate data on these offences, given that it is not always stated whether the complainant is a child? As one way of dealing with the problem, can he give us any further information on when he expects that the pilot sex offender notification scheme in Tayside will be operational in every police force area?
I will consider the first part of Richard Baker’s question closely to see whether I can give him a favourable response and more detailed information. Good progress is being made on the roll-out of the pilot. As Richard Baker is well aware, the pilot has not come to the end of its examination period. However, we have enough substantive evidence on its success thus far to ensure that we can roll it out throughout Scotland. Announcements will be forthcoming shortly on the timing and nature of the roll-out.
The Scottish Government is committed to continually seeking ways to further protect children from abuse and has already taken action to ensure that youngsters are better protected than ever. Our getting it right for every child approach to children’s services, and the recently announced national roll-out of the Tayside disclosure pilot, are two examples of the extensive work that is being undertaken.
The protecting vulnerable groups scheme is very much part of the process and it will be dovetailed with all initiatives in this area.
United Kingdom Budget
Many people had low expectations of yesterday’s budget, which were met head on.
I had a meeting with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce yesterday at which that point was made. Gavin Brown will, of course, accept and appreciate that the website for accessing public contracts has greatly benefited the small company sector in Scotland, particularly because that service is free, whereas companies must pay for such services in the rest of the United Kingdom.
Yesterday’s budget was a grave disappointment and a missed opportunity by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It failed to deliver the vital targeted stimulus that is required to safeguard economic recovery. The decision not to deliver further capital acceleration comes at a severe cost—not to people in this Parliament and not to the Labour Party—of 4,000 Scottish jobs.