Chamber and committees

I have made it clear that unacceptable behaviour in our schools must be tackled in our schools. We have provided the approaches that are necessary to do that, and schools should feel empowered to do that.

However, we will not be able to increase teacher numbers if we follow Mr Findlay’s plans. This is the third week in which I have reminded Parliament of the folly that Mr Findlay has put in front of us. He has argued for a tax cut of £1 billion in public expenditure, which would reduce public spending by £1 billion. The savings that he has identified total £54 million. There is a £950 million gaping hole—[Interruption.]

Mr Choudhury has raised a very significant issue, and I have naturally been very close to the issues that have been raised in that regard in the past couple of days.

First, I make it clear that the greatest importance is attached to ensuring the safety of all services in the national health service, and that must be especially the case for maternity services. We have taken forward the Scottish patient safety programme perinatal programme, which has received a great deal of international commendation because of its focus on improving patient safety. We have also taken steps to increase the number of qualified midwives, and there has been an increase in that number over the past 10 years, especially in the past year.

However, all that said, the issues that have been raised publicly about the climate in NHS Lothian maternity services are not acceptable, and they must be addressed. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is insisting that NHS Lothian addresses those issues, because mothers must feel safe going into maternity services.

I consider, on the best advice that is available to me, that those services are safe, and I reiterate that point to Mr Choudhury today. However, I do not want in any way to suggest anything other than that there must be improvements in the relationships in NHS Lothian maternity services to ensure that the fundamental concerns that whistleblowers have raised are properly and fully resolved, because that will be in the interests of mothers and babies in those maternity services.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made a statement to the Parliament setting out the Government’s long-term strategy for Scottish education. In addition to that, data was set out to the Parliament, as I have rehearsed, on the narrowing of the attainment gap and improvements in attainment in our education system.

The Government takes forward its education priorities in consultation with all stakeholders in the education system. That is why the Government will take forward an education assurance board with local authorities, which have the statutory and legal obligation to deliver education in our communities the length and breadth of the country.

The Government will support that endeavour. We have put more resources into additional support needs, which were proposed in the budget and argued for by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. We have allocated more resources to boost local government funding, so that local authorities have more choice for investment. We have taken forward a behaviour in schools action plan, and we have taken forward steps to ensure that the attainment gap is narrowed.

Pam Duncan-Glancy will have to start making some choices. She has to decide whether she will support the Government’s budget in February. I am getting a bit more encouraged that the Labour Party might actually see sense and might see that an investment has to be made in public services. That will happen only if the Government’s budget passes in the Parliament. It is time for the Labour Party to get off the fence and support the Government’s budget.

I hope that I have given Parliament enough reassurance about the seriousness with which I take the issue. However, I have to say that non-fatal strangulation is treated as a very serious criminal matter. I understand the rationale and the argument for a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the practice, which I deplore, does not, under common law, carry a very serious criminal penalty of up to life imprisonment. It is a very serious offence. We will consider whether it should be a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the penalties for that type of behaviour are anything other than very serious.

There is a gaping hole of £950 million of public spending cuts in Mr Findlay’s plans. When I watched him being interviewed on television on Sunday, he could not provide one specific answer to any of the questions about where those cuts would come. It was an embarrassing interview, which the Conservative Party should be embarrassed about.

There are school pupils watching this exchange from the gallery and I say that if the behaviour of the members of the Conservative Party in this chamber was prevalent in our country’s schools it would need to be confronted and that the Conservatives are a disgrace to this Parliament.

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.