05/11/2015 Politics Scotland

A very warm welcome the Scottish parliament here at Holyrood for

questions to the First Minister. I wouldn't be surprised if she faces

questions from Labour on the issue of tax credits, the thing the First

Minister might make the comments on the situation regarding flights from

Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. Women are crossed the chamber and my

colleague, Glen Campbell. Living towards the minute changes of the

week. First Minister 's Question Time. Ministers take questions on a

range of subjects I head the smack head of the question-and-answer

session with Nicholas Turgeon and Wells Labour has been pursuing the

issue of tax credits in recent days, this is the region which the UK

Government published the clauses, the amendments to the Scotland Bill

that will shape new powers for Holyrood and that might be something

the Conservatives want to pick up on. He was Kezia Dugdale. To ask the

First Minister propagation is she has planned for the rest of the

day? This morning I convened a meeting of the Scottish

Government's resilience committee to discuss the ongoing suspension of

flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. My visuals are in close

contact with UK Government officials and continue to be so. We understand

around 20,000 British nationals are Sharm El Sheikh and we estimate that

this stage that at least several hundred are Scots. Transport Skull

and in cars -- are in touch with Thomson holidays to find out what

advice is being come back -- provided. We will continue to liaise

closely to ensure all prepared support is in place. Later today I

will engage in mistake for the Government programme for Scotland.

Across the UK Labour will fight the Tory Government's attempt to cut tax

credits. We want George Osborne does not admit to scrap his panel

together. If he doesn't, this Parliament must act to protect

working families. Despite days of protesting it was not possible,

yesterday the SNP Government finally admitted we will have the power to

restore money lost through tax credits. The social Justice

Secretary said measures would be outlined after the Autumn Statement.

Unlike the ?250 million plan to abolish air passenger duty, we have

no detail on how much the SNP are willing to spend to help working

families. For weeks to get the First Minister said restoring tax credits

was unaffordable. Can the freshman is to confirm: Does she agree with

her finance secretary that spending hundreds of millions of pounds to

make airline tickets cheaper is affordable but restoring tax credits

isn't? First Minister. Let me set out the position of the Scottish

Government. Firstly, over these next three weeks, we intend to keep up

the pressure on George Osborne to drop his plans for tax credit cuts.

Unlike Labour, who initially abstained in the House of Commons on

this issue. The SNP have consistently opposed these cuts. I

think it is all too typical of Scottish Labour, just when the

pressure is building across the UK on George Osborne, the ease up on

the Tories and attack the SNP instead. Presiding Officer, it seems

that old habits and old friendships really do die hard. We will keep up

the pressure on the Tories to drop these cuts altogether. If they don't

completely reversed these cuts, then what we will do as a responsible

Government is bring forward credible, deliverable, and

affordable plans to protect low income households full stop just as

we did in the bedroom tax. Order. Labour say they forced the Scottish

Government into those changes. Firstly on the bedroom tax. Labour

brought forward a plan that would have been illegal and unworkable. It

was this Government that brought forward one that worked. I think

that, frankly, is a far better plan and it is for fear for people who

are affected by these cuts down the back of a fag packet closers from a

party that knows it has little chance of ever being in a position

to implement them. Kezia Dugdale. The First Minister forgets that it

was a Labour Government that introduced tax credits. And we will

do everything we can to protect them, including using the powers of

this Parliament. No matter what George Osborne does at the Autumn

Statement, Scottish Labour is committed to restoring the money

lost through tax credits for working families. Because we have made a

choice. We know it is affordable, were costed it at its most expensive

and we know that any concessions from the Chancellor will only reduce

that cost. We think it is more important than a multi-million pound

plan to just the cost of airline tickets. There are... Order. Order.

Order! There are 6000 families in the First Minister's constituency

who rely on tax credits and David -- and they deserve more than a vague

assurance that the Government will act. Canvas Mr of the those 6000

families and the thousands more across the country, will the

composers ensure that when the new powers are available, every single

family will receive the same entitlement from the Government as

they do now? Yes or no? Let me repeat what I said in my first

answer. We will continue to oppose these cuts at source. Unlike Labour,

who, when it's akin to in the House of Commons, abstained on the issue

of tax credit cuts. We will oppose the cuts, but if the cuts go ahead,

we will bring forward a credible, workable, deliverable, affordable

plan to protect low income households. Can I say to Kezia

Dugdale, the detail of this, the families out there who are affected

it really matters, one of the details that matters most is how

this policy would be paid for. Kezia Dugdale has mentioned here passenger

duty as the source of the funding or a source of the funding for this.

Let's put to one side for the purposes of the day the fact that

the money would not actually be available when she was required to

pay for the tax credits policy, let's put that one side and instead

consider this: B-day before Kezia Dugdale announced the policy on tax

credits come here is what she had to say about a passenger duty. In an

interview in the Holyrood Magazine, the day before she announced her

position on tax credits, she said Labour will scrap the air passenger

duty measure and we will spend that money on education. So in the

space, presenting officer, of 24 hours, Labour managed to spend the

same sum of money twice over. Can I say in all seriousness to Kezia

Dugdale, that is basic incompetence. And the people of Scotland, frankly,

deserve better. We have known for some time that the public things

Labour is unelectable. I think what we have found out this week is that

Labour things Labour is unelectable. Less Karen Hardy, more moral and

Hardy. Mr Padilla, please keep this brief and First Minister trying to

keep the next bit brief as well. All of that from a party that has had

three different positions on tax credits in the last 24 hours.

Because of the last few days have topped anything it's that this

Government needs to be held to account. Yesterday the Prime

Minister told working families they just have to wait and see what

happens next. Today in this chamber the First Minister says exactly the

same thing. I have listened carefully to look a certain and Alex

Dale last night, have said they will enjoy the income of those in receipt

of tax credits will not fall. But that sounds like the Tory argument

that higher wages will automatically meet up -- make up the difference. I

be First Minister, under the Scottish dogma's proposal, will

every single family receive the same entitlement from the Government as

they do now? -- Scottish Government's proposal. I'm not sure

what it is that is difficult to understand that I don't accept these

cuts will take place because there is pressure building on George

Osborne to reverse them. I think right now that is where we should be

united in making sure the pressure stays on the Tories. And if George

Osborne does the wrong thing, then we will come forward with credible

proposals to protect low income families, and people around this

country who are worried about their tax credits deserve more than

slogans. They deserve detail from a Government that they know can

deliver. I referred earlier to Kezia Dugdale's interview in the Holyrood

Magazine. There was something else there that was eliminating for so

she was narrating a conversation with a Welsh minister and asked him,

where are you finding the money from for your big commitment and he said

they would worry about that later and Kezia said, I was quite

impressed by the boldness of that. Citing officer, most people would be

utterly up old by the incompetence of that. I will leave Labour in the

Lala land they increasingly inhabit and get on with the job with

governing this country in the interests of the people we serve.

Briefly, Mr Dale. The truth is that this is the week the SNP's

constitutional gains come unstuck because after years of responding to

every problem with complaints about the constitution, Alex Neil finally

gave the game away. This was the week the SNP had to admit that the

new powers heading our way can transform Scotland and the week the

SNP had to confront the fact that difficult choices will have to be

made. We'll be First Minister now give up the politics of grievance?

Will she looked to the future of what is possible, move on from the

past and get on with delivering a fairer Scotland? There is one place

only in the UK where Labour can be judged on their actions, not their

words. In Wales, that I referred to a moment ago, Labour don't even

mitigate the bedroom tax. That is the reality of Labour in Government.

I will continue to concentrate first on forcing the Tories to abandon

these cuts. You know the reason they want to do likewise? It is because

in the words of their Shadow Chancellor last weekend, and I

quote, the SNP is the real enemy. There is the nub of this matter.

Labour is not motivated by concern for ordinary people. It has not been

for a long time. Labour is motivated by its tribal hatred of the SNP. I

think the enemy of working people in Scotland are the Tories, it is a

shame that Labour seem to have forgotten that. Question two, Ruth

Davidson. Thank you foot up tell us, the First Minister, when she

will next meet the Secretary of State for Southern. No planned in

the near future. Earlier this experts are wrong? I hope Ruth

Davidson, even if she does not agree with my policy, would accept that I

have made their clear how serious I am about improving education in

Scotland and closing the attainment gap. I

Scotland and closing the attainment from these figures we know that the

gap between the richest and poorest students is actually getting wider.

In fact, in four local authorities, not a single pupil from the least

affluent homes attained three a grades. The wealthier people is

seven times more likely to get three a grades. We will publish these

figures this afternoon. The First Minister session wants to be judged

on her record. In education, her record is one of failure and the

experts say that her plans will not fix it. How bad do things have to

get before we see the action we need? As Ruth Davidson knows, we are

taking action and we will continue to take action. I have never stood

here and said there is not more work to do, that is why we have taken the

action around the attainment challenge. What we are seeing in

many respects is evidence of the attainment gap is narrowing. In

2007, 20 3% of pupils from the 20% most deprived areas of at least one

higher, that figure is now 40%. Looking at qualifications at level

five, the gap between the 10% most deprived and least deprived has

fallen from 42.5% to 26%. These are figures that show some progress, but

it is not enough for me and I would not have -- expected to be enough

for anyone. That is why we're putting so much emphasis the

attainment work. Ruth Davison can cite higher results, I can cite

higher results. One of the problems we have is that we can cite that

evidence from earlier on in a child's school progress. At the time

it gets to the higher, if you haven't dealt with the attainment

gap perhaps it is too late to do so. That is why the national

improvement framework so important, so we can start dealing with this in

early years, three primary school, so we see the improvements later on

in school careers. That is the emphasis we are putting on this work

and I hope that with Davison would welcome it. The First Minister will

be aware of the announcement by Stuttgart -based mallet engineering

in command that over a jobs are to be lost by January next year. The

company plans to move this production to other plants in Europe

despite the renowned quality of the bearings are just buy the con

Marnoch staff over many years and the solid performance of the company

worldwide. With the First Minister see what intervention might be

possible with the company in order to try to save these jobs and help

prevent yet another jobs body blow to the town? Can I welcome his

question? I share his concern at the amount of the possible redundancies

and commanded. I'm sure this be a very worrying time for all affected

employees. Scottish enterprise has offered support to the company and

will meet management next week to discuss it. I can confirm that

another team will meet with the company next week to discuss at

tailored programme of support for any employees facing redundancy. We

will take any action that we can. What issues will be discussed at the

next meeting of the Cabinet? Matter of importance to people of Scotland.

This with the Education Secretary had an online question-and-answer

session and not one person agreed with Angela Constance about the

national standardised testing. The international experts at the OECD

warned that the risk of national testing was narrowing the curriculum

and teaching to the test. One of the issues is league tables. The First

Minister told me she was against league tables but she has told

journalists that you will not stop putting primary schools in the

league tables. If she doesn't want them, why is she going ahead and

taking all the steps to allow them to happen less Chamakh it may have

escaped his notice, I don't control the newspapers. Perhaps if they did

things would be very different. There is something for me quite

reassuring here. On the one hand I have got the Davison telling me I am

not going far enough in terms of school reform and on the other hand

I have Willie Rennie telling me I'm going far too far. That tells me we

are probably in the right place in terms of reforming our schools and

how we measure the performance of schools and the attainment gap. I

stand by what they said. I have no interest in crude league table that

offer no meaning to parents, nor to have any interest in the system

would encouraging -- encourage teaching the test. It is incumbent

on me to make sure that children's progress is being assessed in a way

that better informs the judgments teachers make about their

performance, and also that allows all of us to a meaningful and

evidence debate in this chamber and across Scotland about whether we are

or are not making progress in closing the attainment gap. I think

that is the right thing to do. We will continue to discuss the details

of plans. I am determined that we do make real progress on this and I

will push forward with that for that reason. So, league tables are coming

and she is not convinced -- has not convinced one single person that she

is going to stop them. The OECD say of equal importance is consensus

building and various stakeholders involved. But Professor Brian Boyd,

who was a member of the curriculum review group said it was a

retrograde step. Head priest -- Headteacher George Gill trust said

it was a definite step backwards. -- Gilchrist. The parent teacher

Council concluded testing does not raise attainment. Why is the

government's approach to consensus-building just to tell all

of these people they are all wrong? It is not. We are not introducing

high-stakes testing. We are introducing assessment, assessment

that is carried out in most local authorities anyway, in a

standardised way. It is an assessment that will help inform the

judgment of teachers on the performance of children. We will

continue to work with teachers and with others to finalise how we will

make use of that information, how we will publish that information in a

way that does not lead to crude league tables. That is the way we

will continue to get on with this. Twice he has mentioned the OECD.

Soon we will get their latest report on the performance of Scottish

education and I look forward to receiving that. Hopefully that will

be a useful contribution to our work. This is an area that one I

have set as a priority and they will continue to treat it in that way. To

ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is

and how the UK but government's latest amendments to the Scotland

Bill could impact the governance of Scotland? A bill that was said... It

was interesting it was going to need so many amendments. The amendments

improve the bill in some key areas, particularly the late amendment that

was launched yesterday by the UK Government. It still Pharoah --

falls far short in other areas. Whether the bill delivers on

promises made will be for the people to decide. SNP MPs will propose

further amendments next week, including one to give real power

over tax credits. Our priority is to agree a fiscal framework so we can

get on the -- get on with using these powers. The Scotland Bill does

not get anywhere near fulfilling the proposals. Does the First Minister

share the view of third sector organisations that the proposed

devolution of the work programme whilst Westminster retains powers of

sanctions are incoherent and the logical, like so many other

proposals contained in this bill? Yes, I do. Benefit conditionality

and employability go hand-in-hand. They should've been fully devolved

to the Scottish parliament. He is right to point out that many

stakeholders call for that. I think it is symptomatic of the approach

that the UK Government has taken. The employment provisions in the

bill to falls short of the Smith recommendations. There is no

justification for insisting we wait 12 months before stepping in to help

somebody who is unemployed. The Social Security provisions in the

bill are still notwithstanding welcome improvements, are still full

of qualifications and constraints, including most importantly those on

benefit sanctions. The sanctions regime has been shown to push people

into crisis and it is one of the main drivers of food banks, which is

why we have been clear that there is an urgent need for an independent

review of the whole sanctions system. Given the shambles we saw in

this Parliament in yesterday's welfare debate, in reference to the

Scotland Bill, it was said that the amendments tabled today should give

the Scottish Government this power. Does the First Minister agree her

government needs to move on, stop caterwauling at Westminster and

start telling us how her government will actually use these extensive

new powers? Ten out of ten for sheer brass neck! Let me remind the

chamber and more importantly let me remind the whole of Scotland sat in

the House of Lords a couple of weeks ago and voted for tax credit cuts

that will penalise low-income families. Let me say, it will be a

long time before I am prepared to take any lectures in this chamber

from her on this issue of tax credits. The Astor First Minister

whether the Scottish Government will provide assistance to families who

use tax credits as a result of the UK Government's proposals. As I said

earlier, we intend to keep up pressure on the Chancellor to drop

his plans to cut tax credits. If he doesn't do so we will bring forward

credible and deliverable plans to assist low-income families. This is

in line with the approach we have taken to mitigate welfare cuts, an

approach that is backed this year alone by more than ?100 million of

investment. This is not about her, it is not about the SNP, it is not

even about the shambles that we witnessed yesterday. It is about the

250,000 families that are set to lose ?1300 a year due to the Tory

cuts to tax credits. Protecting income is not the same as restoring

tax credits in full. Her careful language tells me that she knows

this. Let's cut through all the words, I only required a 1 syllable

Ansa. Will the First Minister help working families and restore every

penny lost through tax credit cuts, yes or no? Jackie Baillie is right,

about one thing. This is about the families across Scotland who stand

to lose tax credits. That is why they deserve better than

gameplaying. They deserve from their government real detailed credible

deliverable affordable plans and that is what they will get. It

really is a bit rich for Jackie Baillie to stand in this chamber,

almost as rich as Annabel Goldie, to stand on this chamber and talk about

cuts to the incomes of families won just two years ago she pressed her

button and voted to spend hundred and ?67 billion renewing Trident on

the Clyde. What level the Scottish rate of

income tax will be set? We will announce that in the budget, in a

radical new departure. At the weekend, the Scottish Labour Party

of charge -- of Jeremy Corbyn announced its plans to raise taxes

on the Scottish people. The Scottish Conservatives will vigorously oppose

any moves to tax families or businesses in Scotland more highly

than the rest of the United Kingdom. So where does the First

Minister stand on this issue? Will she join with us and today relied

higher taxes on families and businesses in Scotland, yes or no?

You should advise your colleague Alec Johnson when you are

encouraging me to join the queue is not to set leering at me and that

strange way he has just done. It is extremely off-putting. Presiding

officer, if I can recover my composure for just the second, we

will announce our tax plans in the budget is most governments tend to

do, but I have to say, tax really is the last thing the Tories should be

talking about right now. The tax credit cuts that we have been

talking about today would effectively raise the tax rate for

some low-paid workers to 90%. Right now it is the Tories that are at the

party of high tax on low income households. Perhaps Murdo Fraser

would be better advised, rather than is believed he did yesterday

endorsed George Osborne's plans, joined his leader in asking George

Osborne to reverse these cuts, like we do. I think that Mr Johnson is

not in the habit of leering in this chamber. That is First Minister is

Question Time. What an intriguing ending the first

ministers questions! Substantive discussions on various points on the

issue of tax credits and exactly what the Scottish Government might

do. They seemed a bit discomforted yesterday during the debate. They

seemed decidedly clearer from the First Minister today, the argument

being that they would try to fight George Osborne's plans. They

couldn't prevent those plans taken place, the Conservatives saying that

the plans were required, then they would put forward a proposal

thereafter. Time for me to say goodbye and hand you over.