:00:07. > :00:13.A financial deal to underpin the new powers coming to Scotland
:00:14. > :00:21.-- and Forth Road Bridge is scheduled to reopen on January four.
:00:22. > :00:24.The target date for completion is weather dependent. Meanwhile the
:00:25. > :00:26.political war of words over the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge
:00:27. > :00:33.continues. Through the morning mist and ongoing
:00:34. > :00:37.political fallout, some things did become clear. It is day 11 and work
:00:38. > :00:41.is finally getting under way to fix the fault that has led to the
:00:42. > :00:45.bread's closure. This footage from the weekend shows how precarious the
:00:46. > :00:52.workers, suspended from the north tower the engineers must have a head
:00:53. > :00:56.for heights. A painstaking job to build a scaffolding platform piece
:00:57. > :01:01.eyepiece. Tonight welders will get to work repairing the trust. The
:01:02. > :01:08.target to get the bridge reopened by the 4th of January. Gusting winds
:01:09. > :01:12.get in excess of 70 80 mph, we monitor that 24/7 so that when
:01:13. > :01:15.gusting winds are prevalent we stand the teams down so they get off the
:01:16. > :01:20.scaffolding itself, which means that when the gusts stop the immobilised
:01:21. > :01:25.within minutes to keep working. As they get on with the job the
:01:26. > :01:29.political sparks begin to fly. Opposition parties want to know who
:01:30. > :01:32.knew what and when. The new Queensbury Crossing is not due for
:01:33. > :01:36.completion until the end of next year, but that is a long way off.
:01:37. > :01:41.How have we come to the point where this bridge is closed? In 2010 a
:01:42. > :01:44.major programme of repairs was cancelled, the following year in
:01:45. > :01:50.2011 the Scottish Government cut the budget. In the following years there
:01:51. > :01:53.were a series of warnings by the bread's chief engineer that the
:01:54. > :01:58.strength of some structures on the bridge and that led most recently in
:01:59. > :02:03.February of 2015 to the banning of abnormal loads of over 150 tonnes.
:02:04. > :02:07.Transport Scotland say funding should has -- should always be there
:02:08. > :02:12.for critical repairs but Labour say that the government must be more
:02:13. > :02:15.transparent. Is absolutely right that people are asking questions
:02:16. > :02:20.about how this came about, couldn't have been avoided, why were works
:02:21. > :02:26.not done in 2010 in the last year? Those are legitimate questions. That
:02:27. > :02:29.will be debated in Parliament later in the week, been while the
:02:30. > :02:33.transport minister defended the government response. The fact
:02:34. > :02:36.remained that the fault that has occurred was not predicted and has
:02:37. > :02:41.only been identified in the last few weeks and of course as soon as it
:02:42. > :02:46.was identified we have embarked on repairing it and getting the bridge
:02:47. > :02:49.reopened as quickly as possible. So tonight the positive side for those
:02:50. > :02:52.putting up with disruption, the first whims of the steel beam being
:02:53. > :03:07.lowered into place as the repair gets under way. Council tax only
:03:08. > :03:10.races about 12p of every owns the local authority spent. Today a
:03:11. > :03:15.cross-party report agreed there must be a change and have some ideas on
:03:16. > :03:21.what might take its place. It helps pay for schools, roads and
:03:22. > :03:26.a whole range of local services, but the council tax is only one small
:03:27. > :03:29.part of every council's budget. It is now responsible for just 1p in
:03:30. > :03:34.every eight, at the technical council spends.
:03:35. > :03:39.This group has spent ten months looking at other ways of raising the
:03:40. > :03:45.cash. They agree on many of the problems, finding an answer is not
:03:46. > :03:50.so easy. The current system is broken, it does not work any more,
:03:51. > :03:56.having had a devaluation since 25 years ago, it is unfair. We need to
:03:57. > :04:00.design a system and it tells you in the report how we can design systems
:04:01. > :04:06.that are much further, much better and give better outcomes. The report
:04:07. > :04:10.still owed the main alternatives, a property tax, a local income tax or
:04:11. > :04:17.a tax based on the Valley of the land the house is built on. Each has
:04:18. > :04:22.pros and cons. The report set out the strengths and weaknesses of each
:04:23. > :04:27.tax but no one tax on its own is capable of satisfying every test to
:04:28. > :04:31.the satisfaction of every observer. But reforming local tax might be a
:04:32. > :04:36.minefield, the shadow of the poll tax still leaves a legacy. The
:04:37. > :04:39.council tax dealt with many of the poll tax's was controversial
:04:40. > :04:45.features, but it still was not directly linked to someone's ability
:04:46. > :04:49.to pay. A big question for voters will be about whether any changes
:04:50. > :04:54.will leave them better or worse off with some gladly pay more if they
:04:55. > :04:58.felt it was Federer. It is only right that we should contribute
:04:59. > :05:03.according to our means. They cannot do income because they are already
:05:04. > :05:08.doing income. The support was never meant to offer a simple way forward,
:05:09. > :05:12.he aims to help political parties come up with policies for the next
:05:13. > :05:18.Scottish election. Now it is over to them.
:05:19. > :05:21.A framework for devolution of more powers on tax and welfare to
:05:22. > :05:24.Scotland should be agreed by federally, that is according to the
:05:25. > :05:28.First Minister after she had talks with David Cameron at Downing Street
:05:29. > :05:31.this evening. Nicola Sturgeon said she was not seeking special
:05:32. > :05:35.treatment for Scotland while the UK Government promised a deal that
:05:36. > :05:40.would stand the test of time. A body has been found in the search
:05:41. > :05:43.for a missing woman in five will stop 43-year-old Maureen Bannister
:05:44. > :05:48.had not been seen since Sunday afternoon. Police Scotland have
:05:49. > :05:54.confirmed that a body was found on a beach this evening. A computer
:05:55. > :05:58.project for the NHS 24 telephone helpline which ran ?40 million over
:05:59. > :06:01.budget has been praised in a government report for being a strong
:06:02. > :06:06.example of good practice. The system for handling patient calls has been
:06:07. > :06:13.beset with problems. Here is our health correspondent.
:06:14. > :06:19.Computers are crucial at the medical help in NHS 24. Or you comment for
:06:20. > :06:23.yourself? : Health problems are entered into them, the system checks
:06:24. > :06:27.for danger signs and details can be sent directly to GPs and hospitals
:06:28. > :06:32.but updating the old system to a new one has proved a very costly. The
:06:33. > :06:39.new system had an original price tag of ?76 million. But it has already
:06:40. > :06:43.cost 117 million, 41 million over budget. It is two years overdue and
:06:44. > :06:51.every month it is not installed the NHS 24 runs up costs of nearly half
:06:52. > :06:51.?1 million. MSP is the Scottish crowd's public audit committee
:06:52. > :06:57.gasped when told that part of the crowd's public audit committee
:06:58. > :07:02.contract were left out of the final version. It was a copying error. In
:07:03. > :07:13.terms of uploading onto anxiety platform. Is there no record
:07:14. > :07:18.checking system? There was no check done. The Scottish Government's top
:07:19. > :07:22.adviser told the committee that NHS 24's boss should have read through
:07:23. > :07:26.it. It is the responsibility of the accountable officer to assure
:07:27. > :07:31.themselves that the document is fit for purpose, correct and appropriate
:07:32. > :07:34.for the contract being sourced. It has emerged that the Scottish
:07:35. > :07:37.governance Centre of expertise in project management describes the
:07:38. > :07:43.project as a particularly strong exempt are of good practice. The
:07:44. > :07:47.Scottish Government said this was a detailed review carried out before
:07:48. > :07:51.significant testing. We were told it was a complex contract that resulted
:07:52. > :07:56.in substantial 600 page documents. It said there was a range of
:07:57. > :08:00.government -- range of governance measures in place. The new computer
:08:01. > :08:04.system is not expected to be tested again until next summer.
:08:05. > :08:13.Let's get the weather. Fairly cloudy, the odd spot of light
:08:14. > :08:19.rain or drizzle, quite chilly at times. And where there is snow on
:08:20. > :08:27.the ground it is sub-zero. The few patches of freely folk, to start the
:08:28. > :08:29.day tomorrow we have the odd spot of light green orders and getting in to
:08:30. > :08:34.watch the central belt by around eight a.m.. Temperatures there at
:08:35. > :08:39.six or seven or 8 degrees, breezy around the coast from an easterly
:08:40. > :08:42.direction. Moderate and strength. Toward parts of picture and
:08:43. > :08:45.Aberdeenshire and further west a chilly start to the day but by the
:08:46. > :08:51.afternoon milder than what we saw today. As we head to the course of
:08:52. > :08:54.the morning, staying cloudy, but that wet weather fizzling away. Some
:08:55. > :08:59.sunshine once again like today across the North and elsewhere.
:09:00. > :09:03.Fairly cloudy and grey. For us in Scotland temperatures up a notch,
:09:04. > :09:07.they come from the south across the UK and the get into double digits.
:09:08. > :09:11.Some rain from Northern Ireland stretching through Wales and the
:09:12. > :09:15.Home Counties into the south-west, into the teens. On Tuesday when
:09:16. > :09:18.working its way north would across the country, extensive health and as
:09:19. > :09:22.we head into Wednesday he will see it stays unsettled but all I weather
:09:23. > :09:27.and air coming from the south saw a real milder injection as we head to
:09:28. > :09:32.the Wednesday and Thursday. Much milder than it should be for the
:09:33. > :09:36.time of year. Still cloudy and down on Wednesday, breezy, the wind is
:09:37. > :09:39.from the south-west but temperatures into the double digits and some
:09:40. > :09:45.brightness, the best of which likely across the north-east. In 238 states
:09:46. > :09:48.cloudy and down, temperatures this time into the teens, 13 or 14
:09:49. > :09:55.degrees and with some sunshine around the Moray Firth perhaps even
:09:56. > :09:57.higher. And that is Reporting Scotland.
:09:58. > :10:01.We're back tomorrow morning. Goodbye.