14/12/2015 Reporting Scotland


14/12/2015

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A financial deal to underpin the new powers coming to Scotland

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-- and Forth Road Bridge is scheduled to reopen on January four.

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The target date for completion is weather dependent. Meanwhile the

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political war of words over the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge

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continues. Through the morning mist and ongoing

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political fallout, some things did become clear. It is day 11 and work

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is finally getting under way to fix the fault that has led to the

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bread's closure. This footage from the weekend shows how precarious the

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workers, suspended from the north tower the engineers must have a head

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for heights. A painstaking job to build a scaffolding platform piece

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eyepiece. Tonight welders will get to work repairing the trust. The

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target to get the bridge reopened by the 4th of January. Gusting winds

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get in excess of 70 80 mph, we monitor that 24/7 so that when

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gusting winds are prevalent we stand the teams down so they get off the

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scaffolding itself, which means that when the gusts stop the immobilised

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within minutes to keep working. As they get on with the job the

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political sparks begin to fly. Opposition parties want to know who

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knew what and when. The new Queensbury Crossing is not due for

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completion until the end of next year, but that is a long way off.

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How have we come to the point where this bridge is closed? In 2010 a

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major programme of repairs was cancelled, the following year in

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2011 the Scottish Government cut the budget. In the following years there

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were a series of warnings by the bread's chief engineer that the

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strength of some structures on the bridge and that led most recently in

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February of 2015 to the banning of abnormal loads of over 150 tonnes.

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Transport Scotland say funding should has -- should always be there

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for critical repairs but Labour say that the government must be more

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transparent. Is absolutely right that people are asking questions

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about how this came about, couldn't have been avoided, why were works

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not done in 2010 in the last year? Those are legitimate questions. That

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will be debated in Parliament later in the week, been while the

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transport minister defended the government response. The fact

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remained that the fault that has occurred was not predicted and has

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only been identified in the last few weeks and of course as soon as it

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was identified we have embarked on repairing it and getting the bridge

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reopened as quickly as possible. So tonight the positive side for those

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putting up with disruption, the first whims of the steel beam being

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lowered into place as the repair gets under way. Council tax only

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races about 12p of every owns the local authority spent. Today a

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cross-party report agreed there must be a change and have some ideas on

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what might take its place. It helps pay for schools, roads and

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a whole range of local services, but the council tax is only one small

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part of every council's budget. It is now responsible for just 1p in

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every eight, at the technical council spends.

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This group has spent ten months looking at other ways of raising the

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cash. They agree on many of the problems, finding an answer is not

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so easy. The current system is broken, it does not work any more,

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having had a devaluation since 25 years ago, it is unfair. We need to

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design a system and it tells you in the report how we can design systems

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that are much further, much better and give better outcomes. The report

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still owed the main alternatives, a property tax, a local income tax or

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a tax based on the Valley of the land the house is built on. Each has

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pros and cons. The report set out the strengths and weaknesses of each

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tax but no one tax on its own is capable of satisfying every test to

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the satisfaction of every observer. But reforming local tax might be a

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minefield, the shadow of the poll tax still leaves a legacy. The

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council tax dealt with many of the poll tax's was controversial

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features, but it still was not directly linked to someone's ability

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to pay. A big question for voters will be about whether any changes

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will leave them better or worse off with some gladly pay more if they

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felt it was Federer. It is only right that we should contribute

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according to our means. They cannot do income because they are already

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doing income. The support was never meant to offer a simple way forward,

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he aims to help political parties come up with policies for the next

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Scottish election. Now it is over to them.

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A framework for devolution of more powers on tax and welfare to

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Scotland should be agreed by federally, that is according to the

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First Minister after she had talks with David Cameron at Downing Street

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this evening. Nicola Sturgeon said she was not seeking special

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treatment for Scotland while the UK Government promised a deal that

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would stand the test of time. A body has been found in the search

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for a missing woman in five will stop 43-year-old Maureen Bannister

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had not been seen since Sunday afternoon. Police Scotland have

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confirmed that a body was found on a beach this evening. A computer

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project for the NHS 24 telephone helpline which ran ?40 million over

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budget has been praised in a government report for being a strong

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example of good practice. The system for handling patient calls has been

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beset with problems. Here is our health correspondent.

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Computers are crucial at the medical help in NHS 24. Or you comment for

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yourself? : Health problems are entered into them, the system checks

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for danger signs and details can be sent directly to GPs and hospitals

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but updating the old system to a new one has proved a very costly. The

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new system had an original price tag of ?76 million. But it has already

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cost 117 million, 41 million over budget. It is two years overdue and

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every month it is not installed the NHS 24 runs up costs of nearly half

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?1 million. MSP is the Scottish crowd's public audit committee

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gasped when told that part of the crowd's public audit committee

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contract were left out of the final version. It was a copying error. In

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terms of uploading onto anxiety platform. Is there no record

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checking system? There was no check done. The Scottish Government's top

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adviser told the committee that NHS 24's boss should have read through

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it. It is the responsibility of the accountable officer to assure

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themselves that the document is fit for purpose, correct and appropriate

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for the contract being sourced. It has emerged that the Scottish

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governance Centre of expertise in project management describes the

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project as a particularly strong exempt are of good practice. The

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Scottish Government said this was a detailed review carried out before

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significant testing. We were told it was a complex contract that resulted

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in substantial 600 page documents. It said there was a range of

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government -- range of governance measures in place. The new computer

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system is not expected to be tested again until next summer.

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Let's get the weather. Fairly cloudy, the odd spot of light

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rain or drizzle, quite chilly at times. And where there is snow on

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the ground it is sub-zero. The few patches of freely folk, to start the

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day tomorrow we have the odd spot of light green orders and getting in to

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watch the central belt by around eight a.m.. Temperatures there at

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six or seven or 8 degrees, breezy around the coast from an easterly

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direction. Moderate and strength. Toward parts of picture and

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Aberdeenshire and further west a chilly start to the day but by the

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afternoon milder than what we saw today. As we head to the course of

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the morning, staying cloudy, but that wet weather fizzling away. Some

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sunshine once again like today across the North and elsewhere.

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Fairly cloudy and grey. For us in Scotland temperatures up a notch,

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they come from the south across the UK and the get into double digits.

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Some rain from Northern Ireland stretching through Wales and the

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Home Counties into the south-west, into the teens. On Tuesday when

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working its way north would across the country, extensive health and as

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we head into Wednesday he will see it stays unsettled but all I weather

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and air coming from the south saw a real milder injection as we head to

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the Wednesday and Thursday. Much milder than it should be for the

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time of year. Still cloudy and down on Wednesday, breezy, the wind is

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from the south-west but temperatures into the double digits and some

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brightness, the best of which likely across the north-east. In 238 states

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cloudy and down, temperatures this time into the teens, 13 or 14

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degrees and with some sunshine around the Moray Firth perhaps even

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higher. And that is Reporting Scotland.

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We're back tomorrow morning. Goodbye.

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