Plenary, 29 Nov 2001

Meeting date: Thursday, November 29, 2001

Official Report 773KB pdf

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First Minister's Question Time

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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)

To ask the First Minister when he last met the Secretary of State for Scotland and what issues they discussed. (S1F-1433)

I last met the Secretary of State for Scotland on Monday and we discussed transport, health and the promotion of Scotland overseas.

What an interesting agenda.

There was a bit of confusion last week about what the First Minister meant when he said that he would "cut the crap" from his Administration, but the situation is a great deal clearer now. Are we to assume that the crap to which he referred was the five Labour Cabinet ministers whom he sacked on Tuesday?

I strongly advise the leader of the Scottish National Party not to believe everything he reads in the News of the World. Many of us have for a long time tried to follow that policy; it is appropriate for us to do so. We now have in the Scottish Parliament a team of people—elected by the Parliament yesterday as well as nominated by me—in the right place at the right time for Scotland. It will be a united team, which will deliver improved public services for Scotland.

I saw a comment in another newspaper by one of the First Minister's former colleagues. The comment was interesting, because it relates to what the First Minister has just said. The person said:

"Is it about delivering on services … ? It does not look that way. It looks more like the slash and burn approach of Lanarkshire politics where once you have made someone your enemy you kill them."

The person concerned is apparently someone to whom the First Minister gave a pay-off. Imagine what that person would have said if they had not got a pay-off. Is it not the case that this is not a Government for a' Jock Tamson's bairns but a Government for a' Jack McConnell's mates?

I tell Mr Swinney what this is: it is a Government that will deliver improved public services in Scotland. I said this morning in Stirling that the people of Scotland are fed up to the back teeth with the squabbling that goes on between politicians about personalities. What they want in Scotland today is the delivery of improved public services. They want the Parliament, the chamber and the politicians to focus on education, health, transport, crime and jobs. When we do that, we will earn their respect.

The First Minister will have to get focused on those problems because waiting times and waiting lists have gone up, there are fewer nurses, child poverty levels are higher than when Michael Forsyth was in power and manufacturing is going down. All those problems will certainly need the First Minister's attention. Is not the serious issue in all this whether we can take the First Minister's word seriously? He promised an end to factionalism, a Cabinet of all the talents and no night of the long knives. We actually got from the First Minister the diametric opposite of that. If Jack McConnell's Cabinet colleagues cannot take him at his word, how can the Scottish people?

The truth, as ever, is somewhat different. It was announced this morning that waiting lists are coming down. Not only that, but the crime rate is down. Not only that, but the number of young people in Scotland leaving school without qualifications is down. Not only that, but the level of unemployment in Scotland is down. Those are the real facts in Scotland today. The reason that the SNP wants to moan and squabble about personalities is that it does not want to discuss the real issues. Well, we will discuss them, we will act on them and we will deliver for Scotland.

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Cabinet (Meetings)

I begin by welcoming the new First Minister to his first question time.

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Executive's Cabinet will next meet and what issues will be discussed. (S1F-1424)

I thank Mr McLetchie for his warm words. I hope that our weekly exchanges in the chamber do not destroy the most effective team that has represented the Parliament against the journalists in the annual golf tournament. I look forward to playing with Mr McLetchie again next year.

The Cabinet will next meet on 4 December. It will discuss the delivery of improved public services and the creation of new opportunities for children and young people in Scotland.

I thank the First Minister for his frankness. I think that this is the first occasion in two and half years on which that question has been answered honestly. I hope that that trend will continue.

On public service issues, will the First Minister explain why he believes that more ministers, greater centralisation and pouring more money into a failing system will produce better results in the health service than the shameful record of the past two and a half years? When we compare like with like over that period, we find increased waiting times, longer waiting lists and fewer patients being treated. How is more of the same going to sort that out?

One of the ways of sorting it out is to have a serious and mature debate in this chamber. One of the reasons why I was at Stirling royal infirmary this morning discussing the accident and emergency service with the people who work there was to get to the bottom of the situation in the health service and to find solutions. We can play around with numbers in this chamber all we like. It does not matter to an individual on the waiting list whether there are 79,000 people on the list, 80,000, 81,000 or 82,000. What matters is the experience of that individual.

This morning at Stirling royal infirmary I met a team of professionals—doctors, nurses and administrative staff—who are breaking down professional barriers and working together in the interests of patients. They have reversed the increases in the time that people wait in accident and emergency. It is the job of everyone in the Parliament, not just the team of ministers, to get out there and sell that best practice and to ensure that it is happening everywhere.

Those are fine words and, in many respects, welcome ones. However, I suggest that some of the First Minister's actions belie the words that he has just uttered. In Andy Kerr, Cathy Jamieson and Malcolm Chisholm, who are supposed to lead the reform of public services and health, he has appointed to his Cabinet a trio of people who have historically been unremittingly hostile to reform and to partnership with the independent sector and thoroughly wedded to higher taxes and trade union vested interests. Is not that just a version of the same old Labour party that will always put self-interest before the public interest?

I have absolutely no intention of standing here week after week taking lessons in higher taxes and vested interests from a party that was recognised as having destroyed the credibility of public service in Scotland by exactly that kind of attitude and by its broken promises. What is needed in the health service is a focus on improved delivery of service. We have record levels of resources, but there is not yet a perception among those who use the health service of a record quality of treatment. Our job and our task is to address that. The fact that there are two Deputy Ministers for Health and Community Care shows the absolute priority that we give to the health service. People such as David McLetchie who express concerns week in, week out should welcome that rather than trying to score political points.

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Scottish Executive Priorities

To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Executive has to review its spending priorities in light of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's pre-budget statement. (S1F-1423)

Members will not be surprised to hear that our priorities are jobs, transport, health, education and tackling crime. All the additional £86 million for Scotland announced by the chancellor this week will be used to deliver improved public services. We will announce the allocation of that money soon.

I thank the First Minister for his first reply to me. They can only get better.

I press him further on plans for transport. An exchange earlier between Lewis Macdonald and Karen Whitefield resulted in Lewis Macdonald saying that the Executive wished to promote partnership among public authorities. I ask the First Minister to do more than that. Will he take into account the situation in Edinburgh and Midlothian, where population growth means that a 30 per cent increase in peak traffic flow is expected over the next 10 years? We cannot have the sort of growth that I know he wants—based on cities, as all modern economic planning advises—if we do not now have a commitment to public spending on light rail systems, for example, and on the link between Midlothian and Edinburgh. Will the First Minister give the councils in Edinburgh and Midlothian guarantees of cash now, regardless of the black hole in the chancellor's finances in the near future?

I hope that Ms MacDonald will have a word with the SNP's transport spokesperson, who in the past 24 hours has opposed the close link between transport, enterprise and business in the Executive's work. The Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning and her deputy will address those issues in the weeks and months ahead.

It is interesting that, in Margo MacDonald's response to my first reply, she clearly did not share the Executive's top priorities of jobs, transport, health, education and tackling crime. Those are Scotland's real priorities and they are the priorities on which money will be spent.

In any review of the Executive's spending priorities, will the First Minister take into account Stena Sealink's recent decision to drop one ferry from its Stranraer to Belfast route, with a loss of 92 badly needed jobs? Should that company consider relocating outside Stranraer? Will the First Minister ask the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning to announce a significant upgrading of the A75 and the A77 to ensure that company's future at the Loch Ryan ferry port—if she can find the time?

The member will not be surprised to hear that I do not intend to make new announcements on the hoof every Thursday afternoon. I made no new announcements when I visited the hospital this morning to listen to front-line staff.

It is important that we listen to what communities throughout Scotland say about the problems that they face. I am sure that the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning will do so, without making any commitments at this stage on where money might be allocated.

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Commission for Integrated Transport

I welcome the First Minister to his first First Minister's question time and wish him every success.

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Executive intends to take following the report by the Commission for Integrated Transport. (S1F-1420)

I thank the member for his kind words. The Commission for Integrated Transport reported that UK transport has suffered two generations of neglect. That will not surprise members. I am therefore pleased that we are increasing investment in public transport through programmes such as the rural transport fund and the integrated transport fund.

I am delighted that the First Minister recognises that over the past quarter of a century there has been serious neglect of much basic road maintenance. Work must be undertaken with urgency. There cannot be an effective, integrated transport system without an adequate roads infrastructure. It is estimated that around £150 million must be spent in the Highland Council area alone to maintain and improve roads and bridges to an acceptable standard. I suggest that it is the duty of every generation to improve and protect the built environment for the benefit—

Order. You cannot suggest anything. You must ask a question.

Will the First Minister give an undertaking that the Scottish Executive will investigate how that challenge can be speedily and effectively addressed?

Members know that in last year's spending review the Executive substantially increased the amount of money in local authority budgets for local roads and maintenance. I was involved in the decision. Since then, Sarah Boyack has acted on that decision well.

It is important that the decision is built on and that we not only allocate extra resources to local government but ensure that work on local roads and maintenance takes place. It is perhaps more important that any roads that are built or redeveloped are properly maintained in the years to come.

Improved capital investment and improved maintenance of public services in Scotland are not simply about ensuring that the amount of money that we spend each year goes up. When we build new buildings and roads and develop new projects, we must ensure that we maintain them properly. We must ensure that we plan increased capital investment in Scotland's public services in a way that we can proud of, rather than ashamed of, 25 years from now.

Given the outcome of the commission's report and given that the First Minister has replaced a Cabinet minister whose responsibilities were listed as transport and planning with one whose responsibilities are listed as the economy, business and industry, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, trade and inward investment, energy, further and higher education, lifeline services, lifelong learning and training, science and transport, what signal is being given about the Executive's priority for transport? Is not the First Minister putting internal Labour party faction fighting and cronyism before the future of Scotland's economy and transport?

I must say that that is a bit rich coming from a political party that briefed extensively that the member was being demoted when he was moved from having economic responsibilities to having transport responsibilities in the shadow Cabinet.

It is absolutely critical that transport and our economic activity work hand in hand. Every business organisation in Scotland regards transport as a top priority for the creation of jobs and the promotion of enterprise in Scotland. Only those who are concerned about environmental issues could have been concerned about the decision to which the member refers. To make sure that environmental issues are a top priority in the Administration and that they run across every department, I will personally chair the committee on sustainable development. We will ensure that we take environmental issues fully into consideration at all times, not just with transport, but with other areas of Executive activity.

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Post-school Education

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Executive's plans for post-school education will contribute towards economic prosperity. (S1F-1429)

Post-school learning is crucial to our vision of an inclusive and prosperous Scotland. Our policies and programmes for lifelong learning aim to ensure that the people of Scotland have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are needed for Scotland to be successful in a challenging global economy.

I extend to the First Minister the good wishes of the people of my constituency—where, of course, he was born—on his appointment.

The First Minister will be aware of the improvements in access to higher education in my area. Will he assure the young people of that area—where unemployment levels are well above the national average—that skills development will be followed by real jobs and real opportunities?

I thank the member for those good wishes. Partly because of my connection with the area, one of the things that I know about north Ayrshire is how difficult young people who live there have found it—for many years—to access college courses. A great change in the west of Scotland in recent years has been the development of James Watt College of Further and Higher Education down into Ayrshire. That has increased at an incredible rate the number of young people on the west coast of Scotland who can access further education courses and training. The development was funded through a public-private partnership. If a certain party had been in control, that development would never have happened. I hope that the people of Ayrshire appreciate that.

I am sure that the First Minister will acknowledge the importance of individual learning accounts in post-school education. Why were payments under the ILA scheme suspended at the weekend? Was it because of the level of fraud? When will we hear a ministerial statement on the matter and when will the payments be restored?

It would be wrong of me to make a commitment on when that temporary suspension will be ended. It is right and proper that the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning considers the issue carefully and cautiously. It was right last weekend to ensure that the payments were temporarily suspended because of the suggestion that the fraud that seems to have been taking place in England—although it has not been proven—could have crept across the border. That action was right in the circumstances. I very much regret the fact that, because of a technical delay in the circulation of a news release, it was publicised during the night. I will be taking steps to ensure that that does not happen again. I am sure that the minister will explain the next steps in due course.

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St Andrew's Day

To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Executive has to celebrate St Andrew's day. (S1F-1434)

I am sure that Mr Canavan will be delighted to know that I will be making a webcast setting out the priorities for public services in Scotland and speaking directly to Scots throughout the world in doing so.

Given that a recent poll indicated that only 22 per cent of Scots know that tomorrow is St Andrew's day, will the Scottish Executive make an effort to give Scotland a higher profile internationally as well as nationally by declaring St Andrew's day a national holiday?

I thought that that question might be asked today. When I went back to Wishaw last night, I thought that I would test out the suggestion on the local population. There seemed to be a general feeling that public holidays in Scotland at this time of year are not necessarily the best idea, particularly for golfers such as Mr McLetchie and others who would, presumably, prefer better weather. The debate is interesting and I am sure that it will go on, but I think that we have a job to do in using St Andrew's day to raise Scotland's profile internationally. We also have a job to do in raising the profile of St Andrew's day within Scotland. I hope that that answer has been long enough to take up the 55 seconds that I had. The answer to the first part of Dennis Canavan's question, which was whether we should raise awareness, is yes.

Bad luck, Jack: I am in.

I remind the First Minister that, when asked whether he was new Labour or old Labour, he said that he was Scottish Labour. I suggest that he enhance his Scottish credentials by announcing tomorrow that the saltire, the flag of St Andrew, will fly at all times from all Scottish public buildings, beginning with Edinburgh Castle.

I notice that the fact that I had saltire cuff links on last Thursday achieved almost as much publicity as anything that I said. Although I consider the flag of Scotland and the fact that tomorrow is St Andrew's day to be important, I also consider it important that the Executive and the Parliament get to work on education, health, jobs, transport and crime. That is what we will do.

That concludes question time.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. [Interruption.]

Order. Let me hear the point of order.

Is it in order for you to allow two men to preface their questions with a welcome but to cut me off when I tried to welcome a women's group, which was particularly relevant during the 16 days of protest against violence against women?

I assure you that there is no sex bias in the rulings that I give. [Interruption.] Order. The issue is important. Members must read out the question that is on the order paper. They cannot embroider it.

I will give the member advice. She could have slipped her welcome into a supplementary question, but it is not in order to precede the written question with other comments. I noticed that one or two other members slipped in good wishes to the First Minister, but that is rather exceptional. If I had been really strict, I would have stopped that as well.