Chamber and committees

What we must do is listen carefully to the views and contributions of educators and families to ensure that children’s needs are being met. That is exactly what the education secretary has done and it is exactly why the Government’s draft budget has set out an additional £29 million of investment for additional support needs, along with increased resources to support teacher employment within our schools. If my memory serves me right, there is an additional £40 million of expenditure to support teacher numbers and make sure that resources are in place. That comes on top of a real-terms increase in the core grant for local authorities to ensure that they are able to invest more in education, should they choose to do so.

What the Government has done in the budget will provide local authorities with the tools to address the very issues that Mr Sarwar puts to me and I look forward to the Labour party supporting the Government’s budget when the time comes.

All that I can say to Mr Sarwar is this: if the one thing that he has got to do in a day is turn up and vote the right way—and, most important, vote against an odious motion from the Tories—he should at least be competent enough to do it on that occasion.

I believe that I represent those values every day in all my actions as First Minister of Scotland.

I agree with Lorna Slater that this week marked a worrying departure from the prevailing approach that has taken place in the Scottish Parliament. When Their Majesties the King and Queen came to the Parliament in September, I quoted Winnie Ewing—a political figure for whom I could not have more respect—who, in the first words that were put in the Official Report of this Parliament, encouraged us all, regardless of where we had come from, to live compatibly and happily together with tolerance in Scotland. I said that, for 25 years, that view had been upheld and expressed by every single member of the Parliament, without exception.

I am afraid that this week represented a turning point in that respect, and I profoundly regret that. What was said on Wednesday by some members of the Conservative Party departs from that approach, and I deeply regret that.

On Tuesday evening, under the leadership of the Presiding Officer, there were public service awards in this Parliament. One of the awards was given to the Linda Norgrove Foundation, which is a wonderful organisation that succeeded in bringing 19 female medical students from Afghanistan to Scotland. That was enabled by wonderful co-operation between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government. I have met those 19 women, as have the education secretary and Kirsty McNeill, the Scotland Office minister. We welcome all of that.

That is what we should be doing, as a mature and tolerant country—we should be recognising that people who seek asylum in our country are people who are in desperation. We should not demonise them but embrace them. We should be living up to the values that founded this Parliament, and we should turn our back on the populist rubbish that has consumed the Conservative Party this week.

Of all the things that I have ever thought about Anas Sarwar, I have never had him down as a rebel, but every day is a day of difference.

Members will perhaps hear that I am gently encouraging the Labour Party to get behind our budget, because it will do very good things for Scotland. Given that it now looks pretty obvious that the Conservatives are implacably opposed to the sensible investments in strengthening local authority services and the health service, I encourage the Labour Party to get in behind us.

Non-fatal strangulation is an abhorrent act, and I fully recognise the significant physical and psychological impact that that type of criminality has on victims and their families. I have met Fiona Drouet, who explained the basis of the petition that she has presented to the Parliament to make non-fatal strangulation a stand-alone criminal offence.

Conduct amounting to non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence under the common law of assault, and carries maximum penalties of up to life imprisonment. However, we constantly keep the law under review. For a stand-alone offence to be put in place, we would need to be confident that there is a gap in the law. We will give the proposal serious consideration.

The work that Claire Baker has set out is part of the approach that the Government takes on gender-based violence. As I have said, important messages have to be communicated to change behaviour and to make people aware of the risks of that practice. It is important that that is informed by the Government’s activities, and I will ensure that a detailed response on the actions that the Government has taken is given to Claire Baker as a consequence of our exchanges today.

Libraries are at the heart of Scotland’s communities and, although library policy is devolved to local authorities, which have a statutory duty to ensure the adequate provision of library services for their residents, they are a hugely important community and cultural resource that is valued by us all.

As Liz Smith knows, I am really quite familiar with Perth and Kinross, since I have had the privilege of representing the county for 27 years, and I intend to carry on representing it for many more years to come. I tell Liz Smith that what would enrage the people of Perth and Kinross would be a £1 billion unfunded tax cut. This is where the Conservative Party is really in a mess in Parliament just now.

Liz Smith is a member of Parliament for whom I have the greatest respect, and I understand the seriousness of the question that she puts to me about libraries, but how is that situation going to be helped if we have a tax cut of £1 billion, which takes £1 billion out of public expenditure? That is going to make the situation much worse.

The Government is giving local authorities a real-terms increase in their core revenue grant. We have increased the money that is available to local authorities as a whole by £1 billion. I hope that, out of that, local authorities will be able to make measured decisions about the level of the council tax and about the funding of public services.

Liz Smith said that Perth and Kinross Council has implemented a 10 per cent council tax increase. That is not the case. The council has considered indicative council tax increases, but it has not yet had the financial settlement specific to Perth and Kinross, which will be set out later today, when the local government circular is issued. Perth and Kinross Council is planning on a flat-cash settlement, but it has a real-terms increase, and I hope that, when it sees that circular, it will see that it has more money than it expected. I am sure that the people of Perth and Kinross will be reassured by my answer and will not be hoodwinked by the false promises of the Conservatives.

There is a way to address the two-child limit issue that Jackie Dunbar has put to me, and that is by passing the Scottish Government’s budget, which will take measures to lift the two-child limit and, as a consequence, will lift more children out of poverty. That is the first thing that the Parliament can do. That could be added to the measures that we are taking in the budget to provide the Scottish child payment, which is helping to keep 100,000 children out of poverty. We can strengthen the outcomes for young people by supporting the Government’s budget, which invests more in education to support additional support needs and deliver more teachers. That is some of the action that the Parliament can take when it supports the Government’s budget.

That is not happening. The Government has provided financial support to Youth Enterprise Scotland. We value the work that it is doing and will continue to support it.