11/04/2016 Reporting Scotland

We can reveal that all 17 Edinburgh schools being checked for building

faults need urgent repairs. Thousands of pupils will miss

school again tomorrow as parents are left to sort out

I don't want my child on a tablet or an iPad every are of the day. We

need to finish work and do unit assessments that were meant to

happen this week. Now, they will have to be done later.

at a developing political row-- as the First Minister says there may

be a case for an inquiry into those PFI schools.

A mother and her partner are accused of murdering her two-year-old

son in Glenrothes and ill-treating and

An investigation is underway into the sinking

of a fishing boat in the Western Isles that left two

A drug which could have helped this boy

with Muscular Dystrophy is turned down for use in the NHS.

And Old firm legends Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish

believe Celtic are clear favourites for this weekend's Scottish Cup tie.

A total of 17 schools in Edinburgh remain closed indefinitely this

evening after similar faults have been discovered

The council says that all primary and secondary schools will be back

in school by next week. They were built as part of the controversial

public-private partnership. We will hear how the schools have become an

Alexa Mishu, but first, let's get up-to-date.

At the schools where this started, work is already underway. I'll be

hard at work here, many parents have been forced to stay at home as they

frantically work out childcare. I work full-time and my husband is

self-employed, so if he is not working, years not earning money.

For Julia, the disruption is becoming unacceptable. I don't want

my child on a tablet or an iPad every hour of the day, they need to

be in school to be educated. Elsewhere, this would ordinarily be

a busy morning for this family as the kids head back to high school

after the Easter break. Amy is sitting her Highers. It is

disruptive because we need to finish the course work and do assessments,

but they will have to be done later when they were supposed to be done

this week. They don't have enough time to revise and it is distracting

them. It is probably worrying them as well. The schools affected span

the capital, five of them high schools, ten primaries and two

additional support needs schools. All of them were built or parts

built by a consortium under the PFI deal. The buildings were deemed

unsafe because of wall ties that were missing. This school should be

buzzing, but instead, as you can see, it is extremely quiet. The

council say they will prioritise their inspections on the five high

schools affected while they try to put contingency plans in place. The

company that built them, Miller Construction has been taken over.

This evening, the council confirmed it had found similar faults at all

the buildings it had been inspecting the top I can confirm we have been

fining similar those -- finding similar problems to

those be found on Friday. We are widening the remit of the surveys to

make sure that the ongoing safety of the

children is ensured as they go back into school. We need to take our

time and do it properly. That will into school. We need to take our

take a little while. In the meantime, we are getting good

alternative arrangements in place. It has raised questions over the use

of private finance deals to build schools. I think we

have to learn particular lessons from what went wrong in the

Edinburgh schools and we have to see if there are problems in other

council areas. We have to have a more fundamental look

at the financing of schools. For now, the

schools remain close. Tomorrow will be another holiday for

7000 pupils in the city as further provision is made to make sure these

schools are safe. Let's go to our education

correspondent, Jamie McIvor, who is in Edinburgh. This is a

developing story and we have had a lot of

information from the council, can you tell us

who is going back and when? Indeed, Jackie. Some more information from

the council in the last few minutes. Some secondary schools will be open

to senior students, fourth, fifth Some secondary schools will be open

and sixth year students from Wednesday. Meanwhile, primary

schools and schools for children with additional needs will be open

by next Monday. Structural faults had been found in

all 17 of the schools that had been closed. While some secondary

schools will be reopening this Wednesday to senior students, they

won't all be reopening. Some concerns will remain for those

students due to sit exams in a few weeks will

stop the question is whether this disruption will cause them any

serious lasting problems with exams. We

know that other local authorities are making

checks - is there any way of throwing light on this, inasmuch as,

is this just concerns about schools that were built using PFI? Is it

just schools built using PFI by this particular construction

company? And is it just schools in Edinburgh?

These are big questions, Jackie, and the answer is we cannot give

definitive answers. To explain some of the background, while, of course,

councils run the schools themselves, they don't

always own and operate the buildings. These 17 schools in

Edinburgh were all built by a specially created partnership around

ten years ago. Miller Construction was part of that partnership, so

there is particular interest in other schools that Miller built in

Glasgow, Fife and Inverclyde. The schools in Fife were all open today.

Glasgow and Inverclyde say that schools will return after the

holidays, as planned, next week. As for the rest of the country, other

councils have carried out checks, and nothing untoward has been found

so far. There were always questions about the wisdom of using privately

financed schemes for schools and other public sector buildings, and

others also question the basic wisdom of running school buildings

in this way to begin with. The wisdom of running school buildings

question here is whether these fundamental concerns that some

always expressed are now being vindicated, or whether this is just

about the way that some schools in Edinburgh were built.

There is a developing political row over the use of PFIs since they were

introduced. Nicola Sturgeon says there may be a

case for an enquiry into the construction of Edinburgh schools

once the immediate problems are fixed. Glen Campbell can tell us

more. When you have a big household

expense like buying a new TV, you can usually spread the

cost. Many shops invite you to buy now and

pay later. Typically, in instalments and with

interest. The Private financing of schools and hospitals works in a

interest. The Private financing of similar way, with loan terms of 25

years and longer. The Edinburgh school building

programme was signed off under the last Labour Liberal Democrat

administration at Holyrood. In Irving, the First Minister says our

predecessors may need to account for their decisions in an

enquiry. These are schools that were built more than ten years ago under

a system of PFI that at the time many people,

including the SNP, had real concerns about. If it turns out that we are

now seeing a legacy of these PFI projects, there will be big

questions for those in charge at the time to answer. Do the contracts

that procure the Edinburgh schools measure up? The Lib Dems,

campaigning in the capital, say that is just one of the questions needing

answered. There will be time to look at all the questions, not just about

the initial contract but also about the subsequent arrangements, the

inspection and maintenance regime, the education budget, the cuts to

budgets by the SNP - all of those things will be looked at over time.

With students in Glasgow this afternoon, the Labour leader says

our party was right to prioritise investment in infrastructure. The

Labour Party had to rebuild hundreds of schools across Scotland because

they were left in wreck and ruin by the Tories, so I won't apologise for

rebuilding hundreds of schools across Scotland. There are

questions, of course, around the quality of building that has taken

place, and yes, we should examine those.

The Conservative leader in Dundee said opportunities may have been

missed to spot problems with the Edinburgh schools. You need to

inspection is at the times when they are signed off, but you also need to

keep inspecting the buildings to make sure they stay in phase fit for

purpose. We have been asking the SNP about this and we are sorry

they did not take is up on our proposal.

PFI has not gone away. The current SNP government has the

fight its own model. Private financing has always been

controversial, but the problems with these Edinburgh schools mean that

these contracts of the past will come under fresh scrutiny.

We just had some details in from the council. As I said, this is a

developing story. The update tells us that the council found problems

at all of the schools inspected rather than all of the 17. That was

the wrong information that we received from the council, and we

are trying to get the situation clarified. If and when we do, we

will certainly bring it to you. Now, to a story, the details

of which some viewers and younger children in particular,

may find distressing. A mother and her civil

partner have gone on trial Rachel Fee and Nyomi Fee are also

charged with harming two other young boys,

and with falsely blaming Joanne Macauley reports

from the High Court in Livingston. Leon Fee died from severe injuries

to his head and body. It's alleged they were inflicted by mother,

Rachel Fee, and our partner, Nyomi Fee. It is also alleged that when

they found his body, they tried to defeat the end of justice by blaming

another child for the death. They are accused of forcing that by's

hand into the mouth of the dead toddler before the emergency

services arrived. The first witness today was the father of Leon, Joseph

Johnson. He said he had been in a relationship with Rachel Fee for

several years when she left him for Nyomi Fee and to agree with her. He

recalled the day that Nyomi phones him to say that Liam was dead and

that another boy had killed him. The women are also charged with harming

two other boys. It is alleged they kept one child in a makeshift cage

for prolonged periods, naked or in his underwear, sometimes forcing him

to sleep there. It is also alleged they tied another child to a chair

in a room where rats and snakes were kept and told him the

boa constrictor eights naughty boys. The trial continues. -- constrictor

would eat naughty boys. Still to come on this

evening's Reporting Scotland We speak to a family left devastated

by the NHS decision to turn down a drug that could help sufferers

of muscular dystrophy. We gauge the opinion of a couple

of Old Firm greats ahead And the latest Scot who believes

he's on the right track to fulfil Communities in the Western Isles are

in mourning following the sinking Two bodies were recovered

from the scene near the southern island of Barra while another

crewman is missing. The Louisiana was at anchor off the

uninhabited island of Mingulay, 12 miles south of Barra when she began

to take on water in the early hours of Saturday morning. The four-man

crew were browse from their banks and decided to abandon the 15 metre

crew were browse from their banks crap out. Two of them decided to

swim to shore, which they could see. During that swimming, one of them

drifted away from the other, and he was lost. The survivor was picked up

from the rocks by the Barra lifeboat and flown to hospital, from where he

was released. The communities will be thinking of the families of these

poor people. I know our thoughts and condolences will go out to the

families. The fishing industry here is a small one, and so are the

communities from which the men came. is a small one, and so are the

Everyone knows everyone else, so there is grief and shock at their

loss. It has been a devastating blow to the Western Isles communities. It

has been the worst fishing tragedy in the Western Isles for the last 60

years. Our thoughts, sympathy and condolences are with the families

that have lost loved ones in Harris, Stornoway and Thurso. There are

various theories as to how the vessel could have foundered while at

anchor and why the boat prospect life raft failed to provide shelter

for the crew until help arrived. All of this will be examined in a joint

enquiry already underway, involving of this will be examined in a joint

the police Marine investigation Branch. We will work very closely

with the Marine accident investigation Branch to establish

exactly what has happened. The families will be looking for answers

and we will look to establish that. If that results in prosecution, that

will be further down the line, but we have to try to bring closure to

the families to establish what has happened.

A mother has said she's devastated that a drug, which could have

given her son a better life, has been turned down for use

The drug Translarna could have helped boys with the muscle-wasting

Today the Scottish Medicines Consortium said the drug

Show me that is. Michael is nine years old but probably won't live to

see 30. He has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Many children his age

need a wheelchair but Translarna means they can stay mobile for

longer. Today's decision is heartbreaking for his mum and dad.

We are devastated by the decision of SMC not to support Translarna in

Scotland for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy that desperately

need it. We face a future of worry and despair, I think. Michael is on

a clinical trial of the drug but that could stop at any time. His

parents say he just wants to be like other boys. He just wants to be like

his pals. That is a struggle for us, seeing his friends growing up and

seeing Michael lagging behind, not able to do the same things they are

doing. But it doesn't stop him from trying. Doing as much as he can to

keep involved. A couple of months ago, he met the First Minister to

ask for help with Translarna, but it is not her that makes the final

decision. At ?200,000 per year for one person, the drug is expensive.

We were disappointed not to be able to accept this medicine for routine

use in Scotland for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The committee

considered all the evidence but did not feel the benefits of the

medicine justified its high cost. Campaigners think the Scottish

medicines Consortium have made the wrong decision. There is a cost of

not doing something. Just consider the human cost, those five families.

Those children, if they were getting this drug on a regular basis, their

muscular dystrophy would be slowed down to the point that they would

not cost the NHS is what it would cost otherwise. What tough and is

always a difficult balance for the NHS. Michael's family will appeal

the decision. What to fund. A look at other stories

from across the country. The Falkirk bus builder

Alexander Dennis has been named the main contractor for an order

from Stagecoach worth Of 480 buses and coaches

being ordered by the Perth-based transport operator, more than 400

are to be built by the Falkirk firm. The Woodland Trust Scotland

is launching a public appeal to raise ?500,000 to purchase

and restore an ancient The Loch Arkaig Pine Forest,

near Spean Bridge, is home to some of Scotland's most iconic

wildlife including ospreys, We are also very keen that the

community are involved in this, so the wider community benefits in

terms of job opportunities, taking products from the forest. So it's

not preservation of the forest, it's making it a working forest.

The Livingston-based company Touch Bionics has been sold

to the Icelandic prosthetics firm Ossur for ?27.5 million.

It's led the world in developing electrically powered artificial

hands, with fingers which can be controlled independently.

There will be no change to current staffing levels.

Plans by Glasgow University to transform a former hospital

into a teaching and research site could bring in an estimated

?1 billion of investment over the next decade.

The conversion of the city's former Western Infirmary will form part

During construction, the development will create 2,500 jobs.

The first building will be the new learning and teaching building which

hopefully we can begin work on in 2017 and will be complete by 2019.

By 2025, lots of development on this site, you will see buildings

appearing around 2021. It's going to be over the next 5-10 years, really

big changes will be made. Let's go to sport now

and Eilidh has your round-up. Two of the greatest players ever

to have played for the Old Firm have been speaking about this weekend's

Scottish Cup meeting, and both agree there's

one clear favourite. As players and managers of both

clubs, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish say Celtic should

come out on top in a game they also Here's our senior football

reporter Chris McLaughlin. On the camera again, guys. Two men,

one trophy and plenty of attention ahead of a very big game. One came

to Glasgow with a hard man reputation and lived up to it. Billy

Stark... Incensed by that. But left knowing that Celtic against Rangers

isn't just any old game. Mark Warburton has said, he has kind of

played it down and said it is just another game. Really? It certainly

isn't. It's the biggest derby I have been involved in. Everton-

Liverpool, it is known as the friendly derby. Galatasaray with

Fenerbahce, a big game. It still doesn't come near these games. The

other, a Celtic legend who is well aware of the importance of the

fixture. A beautiful goal by Dalglish! You are born and bred in

Glasgow, you understand how big it is. It's not going to be a normal

game. And so, with less than a week ago, the off feels chat has started

talking of pitches, the media were prevented from filming the pitch

being torn up for the second time in a month. Move along, nothing to see.

Will it be ready in time? Is it just another game? Welcome to old firm

week. The Hibernian head coach Alan Stubbs

says his players definitely had "their pride dented"

in the weekend loss to already-relegated Alloa, but

they're ready to move on. This goal from Michael Duffy -

which did cross the line - meant Hibs fell six points behind

second-placed Falkirk, who they play I'm glad that we've got a big game

that can get us to refocus very quickly. We look to put on a

performance, not to put Saturday right, because there is nothing you

can do about that now. What we can do is make sure we perform tomorrow.

Winning the Le Mans 24-hour race has been a lifetime ambition

He's the brother of the four-time Indy Car Series

He's competing in the World Endurance Championship series

for the first time this year, beginning at Silverstone

This is the car Marino Francitti hopes will bring him success in the

gruelling 24 hours of Le Mans. It is the centrepiece for the World

Endurance Championships, and as part of a Ford team, Francitti has dreams

of becoming the latest Scottish conqueror of one of the sport's most

prestigious events. The last Scotsman who had big success was

Allan McNish, a big friend of mine who was proud of the success. Jim

Clark, Jackie Stewart, Colin McRae. To follow in their footsteps and

where the blue is something special. What they had is success. It would

be really nice to follow that with some race wins, Le Mans is number

one on the list. Francitti comes from a strong racing family, his

brother Dario and cousin Paul di Resta, both names you may have heard

of. Why do Scots make such good drivers? I am asked that a lot. I

don't know if it is our attitude, the roads have a lot to do with it.

Some incredible roads. Night-time in Le Mans is like my favourite road in

Scotland. Francitti managed a ninth finish in his class in Le Mans, in

2010, his best finish in five attempts. But this time he has his

sights set on something bigger. Success would be standing on top of

the podium at four o'clock in Le Mans, having won from on the return.

We have a World Championship to try and win as well, starting at

Silverstone on April 17th. Success is competing at the front and

hopefully winning some races on the way. All the best to Marino. How is

the weather looking? Mixed fortunes. A fairly mixed bag

weather-wise. Some sunshine as well as the cloud, especially across the

North. That sets the scene for the next couple of days. Tonight we will

hold onto the driest weather, with the clearest skies across the

north-west and the Northern Isles. That will allow temperatures here to

fall to around 2-3 Celsius. Elsewhere, a fair amount of cloud. A

fall to around 2-3 Celsius. dispatch of rain working into the

South and eventually reaching the central belt by the end of the

night. With the cloud and rain, it prevents temperatures falling away

too far, 5-6 Celsius. For the western coasts and the Western

Isles, a fairly keen East - north-easterly wind. Tomorrow,

something of a north-south split. Across the north, we will hold onto

the best, driest and brightest weather. For central and southern

areas, a lot of cloud and further outbreaks of rain. Taking a closer

look at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon, the rain will continue

across the south-west. Heavy pulses of rain through the Borders, working

its way up into Perthshire. Try and of rain through the Borders, working

brighter interludes at times across Argyll. The best of the weather

across the North. The best of the sunshine across the likes of Harris,

Lewes, Sutherland and the Northern Isles. Temperatures peaking at

around 13 Celsius. A fairly brisk East to north-easterly wind. In the

evening, the North holds on the best, driest and brightest

evening, the North holds on the conditions. Rather cloudy with

further rain, further south. Wednesday, low pressure continues to

dominate proceedings. Throwing the weather fronts away across the UK.

On Wednesday it self, a lot of cloud and some rain, especially in the

east. Dreyer, the further west you are. Temperatures will reach ten,

still an east to north-easterly wind.

Edinburgh City Council have clarified the information it issued

about schools. Surveys from four schools have revealed they all have

the same building faults. Still waiting for the results of checks on

13 others were buildings. I am back at 10:25pm. Until then, goodbye. --