09/02/2017: First Minister's Questions Politics Scotland

Hallo and a very warm welcome to the Scottish parliament here at

Holyrood. Topics on the agenda politically, well, there's the

budget here, of course. There's always Brexit and I wouldn't be at

all surprised if there are some questions on the subject of

education, with the second report out overnight, painting a picture of

fairly poor attainment at Scottish schools and a big attainment gap

between those from wealthy and deprived backgrounds. Anyway, only

one way to find out. We crossed to the chamber. We are

just getting underway here. I would like to ask the vet Minister what

engagement she has planned for the rest of the day. Engagement to take

forward the Government's plan for Scotland. There is no specific plan

where able children in Scotland exile. Over the past years, we have

seen a decline in that. Not my words, but that is the verdict from

education experts Sutton trust this morning. Can the First Minister

explain why a 15-year-old south of the border is more likely to be a

high achiever in science than a 15-year-old in Scotland? Well, Ruth

Davidson refers to the Sutton trust's report which has just been

published. It is an important report and helps to aid our understanding

of the challenges we need to address in order to tackle the attainment

gap. It is important to note though that the Sutton trust does not

resent new data. Its analysis of these cause published in December

and those scores are based on a survey carried out two years ago, a

survey that predates the attainment challenge and predates the reforms

to our education system that are now underway. This report certainly

under lines the importance of those reforms. We will study the

recommendations of the report carefully. In terms of the gap

between the richest and poorest high achieving pupils, the gap is

actually more in Scotland and it is in England. I take no comfort from

that because the report says that we must do better and we must do that.

As always, the First Minister has her long list of excuses ready but

the answer to the question that I asked lies at the door of an SMP

which has failed utterly over ten years of Government is set Scottish

education on the right course. The First Minister fails to address some

of the clear recommendations in that report this morning. Recommendations

that could make a difference to a child's education, because the

Sutton trust says that our best performing schools should help

support children in underperforming schools. This could help support

schools and develop leadership in staff. It's an idea we called for

last year. We'll be First Minister act on it? It's one of four key

recommendations that are in the report and indeed, we have already

established what is called the insight system. That allows teachers

in the senior based to see how their schools are performing compared to

others, identify areas of success and identify where improvements

could be made. Thus enabling schools to see where there is best practice

and learn from that best practice is already underway. We are committed

to taking forward clusters of schools to allow different schools

to learn from each other. Then there are other recommendations within the

report which we are taking forward in different ways. One of the key

recommendations is about how we monitor people's and indeed I heard

someone from the Sutton trust make this point this morning, the

importance of monitoring pupils at all levels of ability, and that is

what standardised assessment is all about and school by school day care

that we are now publishing. We have a range of reforms underway to make

sure that we do improve attainment overall but close the attainment gap

and all of that programme of work is backed and underpinned by the

attainment funded just last week, when it was announced ?120 million

will be allocated directly to head so that they are equipped to take

this work forward so that we see the further improvements that we need to

see over the years to come. I have to say, presiding officer, I am

surprised by the First Minister sounding so positive on that because

we know that a project specifically to winning flagship schools with

underperforming schools was recently dumped by this Government and with

education Scotland confirming there was no money to keep it going. The

blunt truth is that this garden trust findings on attainment sires

are particularly shocking. We said that bursaries should be provided to

attract the best scientists into teaching. Yesterday, the Scottish

Government decided instead to launch a poster campaign. Does the First

Minister really think that that's sufficient to get enough teachers

into teaching? Let me take on all of these individual points. In terms of

the programme Ruth Davidson talks about, that approach was in our

attainment programme and was underpinned by the additional

funding in our attainment challenge and the workaround clusters of

schools. That is the right way to develop the work that has been done

over the past few years. In terms of getting teachers into schools. For a

party that south of the board is taking bursaries away from

professional groups, it's a bit rich to talk about bursaries. We will

continue to take the steps that we continue to be appropriate and what

John Sweeney and the General teaching Council have announced over

recent times is a way of different ways in which we attract our best

and brightest into teaching, particularly into areas where there

is identified to be a shortage. Ruth Davidson may mock some of what has

been announced but these are important initiatives to make sure

we get teachers coming into education generally but also into

the same subjects. We continue to look if there is more action we

should be taking. In terms of the attainment gap, I have said

repeatedly and will continue to say that this is a focus for this

Government and we are absolutely focused on making sure that we do

leather further improvements. That is across a range of methods,

whether that is on school exam passes, positive destinations, with

signs in our education system that attainment gap narrowing. I want to

see it narrow further and I want to see a faster which is why we are

taking the action that we are doing. And yet Scotland still has 4000

fewer teachers than when her Government came to power. Presiding

Officer, we now see the consequences of ten wasted years of this SNP

Government and the harm that it has done to the life chances of our

peoples. In science, 15-year-olds in Scotland are two years behind

children in Singapore. In reading, they are behind children in Canada

and Finland by a year. In maths, they are a year behind children in

Estonia. That is the legacy of this Government. It is a generation of

Scottish children who are being left behind in the race for

qualifications and full featured jobs. Scotland used to lead the

world in education. Why under this Government are we always catching --

playing catch up? I actually think Ruth Davidson in the final question

does a disservice to teachers across this country, because I do not, do

not and never will shy away from the challenges that we must address, but

in our education system today, we have got record high exam passes, we

have got a record numbers of young people going into positive

destinations after they leave school and we also do see signs, weather is

exam passes, positive destinations or access to university, signed the

narrowing of that attainment gap, that is their reality. But as I

repeatedly say, that is not good enough. That is why since the data

was gathered for the Sutton trust report, we have embarked upon a

programme of improvements underpinned by substantial funding

going straight into the hands of headteachers. There are headteachers

right across this country who last week got told of a substantial

additional funding that they will have at their direct disposal to

invest in additional teachers or the things that they think will help

raise attainment. This is solid action, action we are continued --

continuing to focus on so that we deliver the improvements that young

people and parents across the country have got the right to see.

What engagements does the First Minister have planned for the rest

of the week? Engagements to take forward the plan for Scotland. A new

report today exposes that S NP's catastrophic failure on education.

They can grow in all they like, presiding officer, but it's true and

they should read it. And in the subjects most important are growing

Scotland's economy in the future, young people are being let down.

Despite the hard work of pupils and Scotland -- and teachers, the SNP's

failure is there for all to see and time and time again I have come here

and argued that the SNP are leaving the poorest children behind. Now

this report shows that they are also holding the brightest children back.

The birds minister said education would be her defining priority, so

why is her Government failing a whole generation of children? -- the

First Minister. At risk of repeating the answers I gave earlier. This is

an important report. I readily accept that. But the data in this

report is based on a survey carried out two years ago. Why that is

significant is that that predates the programme of reforms that we

have underway. It predates the additional resources we have made

available through the attainment challenge and the attainment fund.

These approaches are not just getting additional resources into

the hands of headteachers, they are introducing standardised assessment

so that we track the progress of our young people more reading Lee and

more robustly. They are leading to the publication of more transparent

data and information on an ongoing basis than Scottish education so

that we can track our progress. I think every politician in this

chamber who raises these issues is absolutely right to do so, such is

their importance. But I think they also have an obligation to get

behind the reforms that we are introducing because on some of these

reforms, we have seen members of the Labour benches having initially

backed them, when they come under some pressure on them, decide they

don't back them after all. I would say this Sutton trust report

underlines the importance and the necessity of those reforms to

education and that's why I hope all members across this chamber will

enthusiastically back them. It's clear from that answer that when the

First Minister runs out of excuses, she just repeats them. She dismisses

the reporting today's paper but she can't dismiss every single report

that preceded that and the question is, how many reports that she have

to get about the state of education in Scotland before Steve accepts the

simple truth that the heart of every single one, that there is the simple

truth missed by the SMP and the Tories, that if we want to give

young people the best possible chance in life, we have do invest in

them. That means investing in local schools. What we get from the SNP

though is ?1.5 billion worth of cuts since 2011. In the original report,

the one that wasn't rewritten by the First Minister, the independent

poverty adviser said this, any reduction in the services would be

damaging for low income households. Who should we believe? The first

Ministry or her own poverty adviser. Firstly, in terms of Kezia Dugdale's

first comment that, I didn't dismiss the Sutton trust's report and

anybody watching this at home will have heard me say it is an important

report that aids our understanding of the challenges we face. I simply

pointed out the fact that it is based on data that is already two

years old and predates the work that we are doing. In terms of previous

reports that Kezia Dugdale also wrongly claims that I'm dismissing,

the Sutton trust report published this morning which I have read is

based on the Pisa report which was published in December. It's not new

data. That does not make it an important but it is an important

contextual point to make. In terms of her point on investment in

schools, absolutely, she is right. Which is why we have established the

attainment fund. The attainment fund is putting ?120 million in the

coming financial year into the hands of headteachers in 95% of the -- 95%

of schools across this country. That adds to the ?50 million we were

already investing in the attainment challenge. That is the kind of

investment we need to see in our schools, the kind of investment that

this Government is delivering in our schools. In my last point on

budgets, we have heard a week in and week out in this chamber Kezia

Dugdale stand-up here talking about what she claims our council cuts and

yet this week we started to see Labour councils, Inverclyde

yesterday, deciding that they have enough money available to them

without using the flexibility we have given councils are in council

tax. Labour here repeatedly say that tax rises are necessary to protect

services like education but we have council is now saying the opposite,

proving the point that we are giving resources to local councils to

enable them not just to protect services but in the case of

education to get more money into the hands of those who run our schools.

Resources they need, but she is putting in ?120 million and taking

out ?1.5 billion. You have been in power for ten years, First Minister,

and that is your record. And the Sutton Trust report proves beyond

all doubt that teachers need more support to give young people the

skills they need. But under the SNP thereafter 4000 fewer teachers in

Scotland, and we have lost 826 science and maths teachers since the

SNP took office. It is no wonder John Sweeney had to launch a

recruitment drive for teachers yesterday. Teacher numbers down, the

attainment gap widening, the only thing that is up under the SNP is

cuts to schools. Beaver with records this poor, primary pupils could do

the maths, why can't the First Minister? Maybe she should ask the

leader of Inverclyde Council to do the maths for her. As a result of

the changes announced last Thursday, there are now ?400 million of

additional resources available for local services, that is the reality,

and that includes ?120 million available for headteachers to

deliver improvement in our schools. And for Kezia Dugdale to talk about

cuts in local services the day after the Labour leader of Inverclyde

Council took to social media to boast that he had enough money that

enabled him to become the leader across Scotland that had frozen the

council tax for longest, Labour go on contradicting themselves. As

Labour go on contradicting themselves from the sidelines, we

will get on with delivering the improvements in education that

parents and children have a right to expect.

APPLAUSE Two supplementary constituency

questions. Will the First Minister join with me in welcoming the plan

to make Andy and Angus a world centre for oil and gas

decommissioning? I welcome the ?5 million fund to yesterday, although

agree with Gary Smith of the GMB that considering the scale of the

opportunity, it is a drop in the ocean. Wilshere back the proposal by

guaranteeing at least half of this fund to Dundee to give us the best

chance of securing decommissioning jobs? As this Government has

demonstrated through its actions, we are enthusiast exporters of the city

deals, and have supported already a number of deals and will continue to

work with councils in Tayside to ensure we are doing everything we

can to support development in Dundee and across Tayside. I'm glad she

welcomed the ?5 million decommissioning challenge fund. I'm

sure she has read the material published and will see that this is

an initial fund with future funding expected in future years. Our supply

chain already does very well in terms of winning work in aspects of

the decommissioning process, for example project management,

unplugging Wells, but we need to make sure that where we have got the

infrastructure in place to enable firms to compete successfully for

the work around removal of topsides and rakes onshore. That is why this

fund is important and we will continue to make sure that as we

support the oil and gas industry in terms of production, because it has

a right future ahead of it, we will also make sure that Scottish firms,

where ever they are are to take advantage of the benefits of

decommissioning, and yesterday I met in Aberdeen two firms doing just

that, and I want to see more of them able to compete in that way.

Patients were turned away from the GP out of hours service at our local

hospital last Sunday, it had to close because there were no doctors

to cover the rotor. Yesterday was told of a private report from NHS

Glasgow and Clyde that gives their preferred option of centralising the

veil out of hours service to the royal Alexandra Hospital. Given that

retaining out of hours GP services was a key commitment in the vision

for the Vale, what action will the First Minister take to stop a health

board for breaking her promise? She mentioned often the vision for the

veil, but to remind her that the vision for the veil is what we had

to come up with when I was Health Secretary to come up with the many

health services that had been put under threat by the previous

administration that was in place. In fact, had that Labour administration

stayed in place, I very much doubt if

the Vale would still be providing the excellent services that they

still do. To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. The

Cabinet will next meet on the 21st of February. The aviation industry

claims to have an aim of halving its CO2 emissions by 2050 compared with

2005 levels. The UK climate change committee which is the Scottish

Government's chosen adviser on climate change, has ruled that

aviation emissions should be no higher than 2005 levels by the same

date, and yet the Scottish Government's climate action plan

published last month implies that there will be in mission reductions

in aviation, but does say how much or how they will be achieved. And

the Scottish Government is now setting about redesigning the

aviation tax regime without appearing to have any such target in

mind, and despite knowing that its tax proposal would actually increase

emissions. Does the Scottish Government have any idea of the

actual level of aviation emissions that they consider acceptable? The

climate change plan sets out in detail across a range of different

sectors how we will go about meeting our climate change obligations, and

it will develop over time and on which we would expect input from

this chamber and across a range of different sectors. As we have said

repeatedly before and I will say again today, the environment must be

a consideration in every decision we take, including any decisions around

aviation and any decisions around APD which is what Patrick Harvie is

getting at. We have also said before that if we pursue any policies that

have lead in one area to an increase in emissions, what that means in

order that we meet our targets is we have to work harder in other areas

to ensure that we are driving down emissions overall, so as we develop

we remember that we are meeting our current climate change targets ahead

of schedule, and we are about to go into the process of legislation

where we will toughen the targets, but as we do so, we will continue to

ensure that not just our policy is there but across all of Government

take account of the environmental of obligations that we have. I'm afraid

that the climate action plan doesn't give details on aviation emissions

that the First Minister seems to suggest it does. But I'm glad she

thinks that environmental considerations should be a factor in

setting aviation tax levels, I hope to have the government's support in

writing that into the legislation so that no future government is able to

ignore that important consideration. What I have found most astonishing

in hearing witnesses give evidence in support of the Government's

proposal is that none of them seem capable of producing a shred of

credible evidence about what the impact will be, not on flight

numbers or prices, not on job creation, they all produce different

figures for that, mostly based on out of date research, figures

plucked from the air. They are not able to tell us what the impact will

be on the economy or public finances, even those that claim some

baseless prediction of extra tax being generated in the economy

reduced no robust evidence about how much of it will flow to the Scottish

Government and how much of it will flow to the UK Treasury. Adding to

that the lack of any clear impact of the effect of this policy on the

environment, the one thing that we do know about this policy is that it

will be an effective tax cut to a highly profitable, highly polluting

industry while public transport languishes. Isn't it time to shelve

this whole plan until the Scottish Government has got anything

approaching an evidence base? The tax cuts for the individuals and

families who use air travel, including families who go on holiday

and who may well welcome a reduction in the cost of going on holiday, and

in terms of some of the evidence from those who would support this

policy, they do make very clear statement in terms of the impact of

that in greater routes from Scotland, more flights, and more

jobs in the industry. Of course, as we take forward both the legislation

around the devolution of airport and Judy YouTube it also our budgets for

future years, we take account of differing amounts today. -- the

devolution of air passenger duty. Protecting the Barrett is key, and

that is why the climate change plan backing up the legislation that is

already in place, paving the way for the new legislation that we are

going to bring in is so important. Let's not forget one of the central

issues here. Scotland is already meeting its climate change target,

and is seen as a world leader when it comes to reducing emissions and

tackling climate change, that is something all of us should be proud

of and we should continue to make sure that in everything we do we set

environmental standards that the rest of the world want to emulate.

Supplementary questions. Did the Prime Minister note that last night

the Labour Party signed a blank cheque to the First Minister to ally

without further democratic reference to determine the terms of the EU,

and in particular the White Paper and paragraph 8.16 which said that

there should be a mutually beneficial solution for the

Spaniards in the UK in relation to fishing. Clearly con firm in a

sell-out of an interest by the Tories once again!

APPLAUSE Nobody should be surprised if the

Tory Government are preparing to sell at the Scottish fishing

industry, because they have done it on plenty of occasions before. But

in terms of the wider issue about the vote in the House of Commons

last night, I think it is deeply regrettable that amendment after

amendment was rejected by the Government, and we are talking about

amendments that ask for protection from EU nationals, ask the

Government to commit to not doing things like breaching the Good

Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, all of these amendments

were rejected, not a single concession was won through any of

these amendments, and yet we still have a Labour so-called opposition

that decides to vote for that bill and hand the Conservative government

a blank cheque. I think that is utterly pathetic, and shows the

weakness of the opposition that there is in the UK Parliament in

form of the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn was treated last night that

the real fight begins now, but how utterly pathetic, that is not so

much bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted, it is more

like closing the stable door after the horse is dead and buried. The UK

badly needs vigorous opposition in the House of Commons. The SNP is

providing it every day, it is just a pity that the Labour Party are

failing to do so. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This week the SNP

have confirmed E.ON all doubt that they no longer accept the overall

outcome of the democratic process. -- beyond all doubt. So in that same

spirit, can the First Minister guarantee that my constituents, who

neither voted for her as First Minister north this Scottish

Government, will not be forced to take part in a second independence

referendum against their express will? I think it is clear and

becoming increasingly clear with every week that passes that the

people the Tories in this chamber represent other Tory government in

Westminster. That is who they are here to represent and stand up for.

APPLAUSE Let me remind the member that 62% of

the people of Scotland voted to remain in the European Union, and I

have a duty as First Minister to stand up for the interests of this

country and to do everything I can to make sure that the Tories do not

get away with taking Scotland of a hard Brexit cliff edge with the

implications that have jobs, investment, economy as a whole and

the very society that we live in. On the question of a second

independence referendum, I have been very clear about my determination to

find compromise. It just so happens I am facing a UK Government that

isn't willing to compromise with me. But I have also said that I am

determined to ensure that Scotland will not be dragged out of the EU

and dragged off that hard Brexit cliff edge against its will. My

mandate for that, it was in the manifesto that I was elected on just

under one year ago. APPLAUSE

Politicians to... Both of which are designed to increase flights and

flight paths. As I have said before and as I think most people

recognise, we have to strike the right balance between ensuring our

economy can grow and we are providing the infrastructure and the

travel connections, whether they are road networks, public transport or

aviation connections that support the economic growth of our economy

but also making sure that we have that Baker is on the environment

that I have already spoken about. Scotland is leading the world when

it comes to climate change and that is something we should all be out

of. Stuart McMillan. To ask the First Minister what legislation is

in place to deal with drug trials. -- drug driving. Drug driving can

ruin lives like drink-driving and taking illegal drugs and driving is

completely irresponsible. We have long-standing legislation in place

which makes it illegal to drive was impaired by drugs. This is used by

the police and our courts to ensure that those who take drugs and drive

can be held to account for putting their lives and the lives of others

at risk. Our priority is to help make Scotland's raids say that we

will always consider policies careful -- carefully that can make

them safer. Thank you for that. I would like to refer ministers to my

interest in this. The drug driving limits were introduced in 2015 and

an evaluation of those limits is likely to be published in the next

few months. Can the First Minister tell me whether the Scottish

Government will be looking at the effect these limits have had and

whether she will be looking at further efforts in Scotland if it is

deemed appropriate to do so? Yes, we will, and I think he raises a point

that is important. We prioritise legislation in 2014 to lower the

drink-drive limit as evidence showed that lives would be saved by doing

that. We will study very carefully the valuation of the drug driving

limits introduced in England and Wales to see whether we should

introduce similar, if the evidence shows that that would be beneficial

here. I welcome some of the comments the First Minister has made but as

legislation changed in England and Wales two years ago, we'll ready now

has been a fourfold increase in the number of motorists charged with

drink-driving and conviction rates have moved to 95% from 52%. Is that

not the evidence that we need and why are we so behind the curve

compared with the rest of the UK? I think that some of the evidence we

will want to look at and make sure that we are responding it. It is

important to stress this so that anybody listening to this is it

loudly and clearly, it is already an offence to be in charge of a motor

vehicle while unfit to drive through drink or drugs. It is very clear

that all of us while taking part in what is an important discussion

don't allow that message to be underplayed. When police suspect a

motorist of drug driving, they can already carry out a roadside test

and if the driver failed that test, they can arrest the driver and take

them to the police station where further tests are carried out. So it

is already an offence to drive a car in this country if you are employer

-- impaired due to drugs and nobody, absolutely nobody, should do such a

thing. We will wait for the evaluation of the drug driving

limits in England and Wales to inform our consideration of the best

approach to that in Scotland to see whether that development would help

us make our roads even safer. I'm sure all members would understand

that it is a complex area. I understand there are individual

limits for 70 different drug types in England and Wales. I know the

evaluation is due to be published this year. We expect that to be

helpful and it will build on the evidence the member has already

cited so that we can understand the ball practical implications of drug

driving limits and whether the potential benefits have been

realised in England and Wales. The final point I would make here was

distressing absolutely that one death on our roads is too many, our

roads are generally becoming safer overall but that should also

increase our determination to do anything reasonable to make our

roads safer still. In relation to legislation to open relation to

driving offences, under the Scotland act 2004, the police have authority

to issue a written warning for driving they consider is causing

alarm, distress or annoyance and, if indeed, there is a repeat of that

offence within 12 months, to confiscate the vehicle. Yet there is

no appeal procedure in relation to the written warning. Can I ask if

the Government will revisit this legislation as it seems to me that

is in breach of article six, the right to a fair hearing? I am happy

to look into this matter and I ask the Justice Secretary to reply to

Christine Grahame. Without prejudging the response, I would say

that I think it is important the police have the tools they need to

make our roads as safe as they possibly can be which is why I

stress the law as it currently stands but also say readily that we

must look at evidence elsewhere in the UK to see if there are further

steps we can take. It's police -- it's imported the police have the

steps they need but I will ask the Justice Secretary to look into the

specifics that Christine Grahame races and get back to her as soon as

possible. To ask the First Minister to look at what steps the Scottish

Government has taken to reduce the number of delayed discharges from

hospital. The introduction of health and social care integration is a key

driver in driving discharge. We have seen a deep crease in the number of

bed days last impaired the last year and every month compared to last

that have continued. In 2017 to 2018, the budget plans for almost

half ?1 billion of NHS investment in social care and health. Cabinet

minister promised to abolish a bed blocking two years ago but

statistics show that over 45,000 days were spent in hospital by

people that were fit to leave. Last month, it was revealed that 700

people died in Scotland's hospitals whilst waiting to be discharged and

this week we have that one patient was stuck in hospital for 508 days

awaiting discharge. For the avoidance of any doubt, we all thank

the professional and committed NHS staff. However, does the First

Minister accept that more needs to be done to prevent vulnerable people

being stranded in hospital? I absolutely accept the importance of

us continuing to make progress in reducing and eradicating delayed

discharges from our hospitals. In terms of some of the report with the

about very, very long waits, whilst I won't get into individual cases,

it is important that we take care in talking about these cases. What we

will also find with what appeared to be exceptionally long waits is that

they are very conjugated cases. Often they will be people who are

adults with incapacity and legislation is the reason for them

continuing to be in hospital, outside of the control of our health

and social care system. That would be the first point I would make. The

second point I would make is that whilst we still have work to do, we

are seeing a steady reduction in bed days lost to delayed discharge in

Scotland. That is down to, and I have spoken to professionals who

tell me this, that it is down to the benefits now coming free from the

health and social care integration and into expanding social care

services. It is important that we accelerate and keep focused on that

work. The last point I would make is not in any way to say that we don't

have more work to do here in Scotland or to absolve the Scottish

Government of our responsibilities, but what we are seeing in delayed

discharges, let similarly to what we see in AMD, is a real divergences of

performance comparing Scotland to the rest of the UK. Delayed

discharge is going up in England and I think we have seen the King 's

fund and the Nuffield trust saying that the official figures there do

not even show the true story and they hide a lot of the reality of

the situation. We have got more work to do but let's get behind those in

our Health Service and social care services and the to do that, because

this Government has made the reform in the shape of integration and is

putting in the resources to equipment to do just that so that we

can eventually eradicate delayed discharge from our hospitals. I'd

like to thank Billy Carson for raising the attention of the Liberal

Democrat investigation into that. Further to this, today we publish

additional statistics which show that as of mid-January, patients in

Lothian, Highland, Ayrshire and Arran were waiting as many as 200

days and more to be discharged from hospital after they were deemed fit

to go home. In Glasgow, there is a patient who has waited 370 days

after being deemed fit to go home. A consultant neurosurgeon two weeks

ago came to my constituency to be mowing the biggest crisis in his

career. Every week his colleagues and himself are having to turn away

patients and cancel operations due to bed blocking in that hospital.

Will the First Minister accept his in -- his invitation to his hospital

this afternoon to explain to his patients by their operations have

been cancelled? I have visited the Western General Hospital many, many

times in the years that I've been in Government, particularly when I was

Health Secretary. I am always delighted to visit the Western

general and look forward to doing so in the not too distant future. This

is a very important issue but I would say to the member, as I would

take to the previous member who raised this question, we don't want

to see anyone delayed in hospital any longer than they have to be

that, but when we are dealing with very long waits particularly, more

often than not when I go into this specific cases mentioned in the

chamber, there are very complex situations often involving the

adults with incapacity legislation. What that means is that this is not

a situation where somebody has been delayed because of anything the

health and social care services are not doing, it is the court process

in terms of adults with incapacity. Often there will be other

complexities in these cases. For example, I heard of a case, and I

would go into details, but the reason the person was delayed longer

than they should have been was because the accommodation that had

to be provided for that person was very specialist that it took longer

to that. I simply caution members from citing these particular cases

as evidence of a wider issue. The wider issue in terms of delayed

discharge in Scotland is yes, we have still got work to do, but

unlike other places in the UK, we are seeing delayed discharge coming

down and I would say again that that is not happening accidentally. It is

happening because of social care and health integration and because of

the hard work of those who work in our health and social care systems

right across the country. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish

Government's responses to recent NSPCC figures which show that

thousands of children with serious mental health problems rang

ChildLine last year. More children and young people are coming forward

to ask for help and that shows that in the past there were far too many

children who were not seen and his needs were not met. We do want

people to come forward for help to whatever age and they feel most

comfortable, including ChildLine. It is not the wrong response for a

young person to contact ChildLine and that is why the Government

continues to support ChildLine financially, this year to the tune

of ?310,000. I thank the First Minister for her answer. This week,

the Scottish children services highlighted that the number of

children with identified mental health issues in schools more than

doubled between 2012 and 2016. This is according to the Scottish

Government's and statistics. Over the same period, Scottish Government

statistics confirmed that the number of educational psychologists

employed in Scotland continues to fall and applications for

postgraduate study have been plummeting since 2012, the same year

that the bursary funding for trainee psychologists was removed by the

Scottish Government. Is the best Minister willing to give

consideration to reinstating funding support for trainee psychologists

and what insurances can to get that the mental health Minister and

preparatory -- the Cabinet secretary of education are working urgently to

adjust the mental health crisis in our classrooms

In terms of psychology, CAHMS children and support has increased

by 60%, and psychologists posts are up by 60% as well, and overall, the

CAHMS workforce has increased by 58%, and that reflect the additional

investment we are putting into mental health services, but she is

right to raise this issue, and she raises it regularly and I commend

her for doing so. She talks about the increase of the number of young

people with identified health needs. We know that many young people in

the past did not become identified and didn't get the help they need,

and we now have because of the reduced stigma and other factors

more young people being identified, and therefore able to access the

support they need. We continue to invest in mental health services, to

increase the workforce, to reduce waiting times and to make sure young

people get access to the services they need in a timely fashion. In

terms of the issue about school liaison, I have said before and I

said in the last couple of weeks in this chamber, the health service

cannot deal with this on its own, so the joint working with our education

system between councils and services is important, and the mental health

strategy when that is published will reflect the need for joint working.

On the issue of child line, given that that was the thrust of the

question, we will continue to make sure that we are providing bursary

and financial support where we consider that to be necessary. In

terms of ChildLine, let me not finish before I thank them for their

work that they do. ChildLine is an essential resource for young people,

which is why the Government want to go on supporting it with the

financial help that we do. APPLAUSE

That concludes First Minister's questions.

And there we have it, the close of questions to the First Minister.

Brexit featuring, but a bigger opening section on attainment in

Scotland's schools, the Sutton Trust report based is the First Minister

said repeatedly upon international figures, and based upon data that

was two years old, but nonetheless, I will discuss it now with a couple

of colleagues, it was not a good day at the office the First Minister,

you could see the Education Secretary looking glum. Indeed,

Nicola Sturgeon said she wants to be judged on education, and I think the

opposition party leaders were only too happy to oblige today. She is at

her best with her back against the wall, she comes out fighting, but

that report that came out today was so damning, it gave the party leader

so much ammunition, she got a verbal pummelling, and you could tell that

she was struggling by saying that Ruth Davidson was talking down

teachers. I think the basic problem is she is saying we are starting to

put measures now in 2015 after I became First Minister to try to

improve the situation, and the opposition party leaders are saying,

that is near zero, you have been a senior member of this Government

Ranegie ten years now, on the record is pretty appalling. Rebecca, the

two issues arising, the attainment gap between those from less well-off

families and those families that are doing OK, but there was also the

issue that even those families that are doing OK economically, it would

seem from this analysis that their children are struggling as well by

comparison with elsewhere. That's right, so these are two issues that

the First Minister has been struggling with the sometime now,

and as Simon says, it is no longer possible to fall back on blaming the

previous government, ten years in power. The other difficulty that

they have is that in fairness to the Scottish Government, they don't have

all the levers of control over education. Many of them reside with

local government. We have seen in the budget the Scottish Government

trying to circumvent that problem by giving this ?120 million fund

directly to head teachers to deal with the problems, but no doubt

about it, there are problems. You just have to look at the gloomy

faces, it has to work, giving ?120 million directly to schools, but is

controversial because local councils don't like power being taken away

from them, and this has got to get better politically for the First

Minister. This is a very difficult, intractable, long-standing problem.

Throwing money at it might not work, structural change might not work, it

will be long and difficult and there is no quick fix to this. Nicola

Sturgeon having tied her reputation to this so closely, the stakes are

high for her personally in getting this to work. Ms resonate with her,

given her personal background, seeing children from deprived

backgrounds being able to fulfil their potential, and a report today

says that isn't happening. She was adamant in saying she was not

dismissing the report, she wasn't dismissing other reports, Kezia

Dugdale try to pin that on her, and she said, no, we are facing this.

There was a definite tone of humility coming across from the

First Minister on this, and as you say, higher education Minister

looking very solemn. He is usually Heckerling B opponents, but he was

looking very sombre, serious. And you might have expected talk to be

dominated by the second referendum on Brexit, but this was pursued so

heavily, and it was perhaps not surprising that they went away from

the Brexit issue, but nevertheless, this is not going to go away. We are

going to talk later about the budget process, of course there is a deal

between the Scottish Government and the Greens. It sounded like Patrick

Harvie was trying to get in his bid for the next tax fight over air

passenger duty. He has been accused recently of cosying up to the SNP,

being a patsy was the term one person used. You try to stop the use

of that phrase, said it was unpleasant line which. Some of the

questions have been quite a Molly and, criticising west Mr Rather than

the Scottish Government, -- emollient, criticising Westminster

rather than the Scottish Government. There did seem to be a contradiction

in the First Minister's answer, she was saying that this move will help

drive up the number of routes to and from Scotland, but at the same time,

it won't put up carbon emissions, which seems to be counterintuitive.

She said if there was an impact on carbon emissions, it would just mean

they would have to succeed more strongly in other areas? That is

right, I'm not sure how easy in practice that would be to achieve.

It is interesting seeing Patrick Harvie returning to green territory

with this one, and trying to differentiate himself from the

Scottish Government. And we did get Brexit and the budget. She didn't

seem awfully keen on Jeremy Corbyn. She didn't, that was definitely the

best line of the morning, wasn't it? Yes, giving no quarter to Labour on

this. And once again, using the opportunity to repeat her mandate,

her manifesto commitment, to call a second referendum. And it has felt I

think this week as if we are almost entering a phoney war period even

though the second referendum hasn't yet been called and it may not be.

Where are we on this one? Was it game on, or was there still room for

compromise? I think we are where we have been over the past couple of

weeks, I think it is almost inevitable it is going to be called.

I can't see how she would have managed to macho party back down of

the top of the hill. She said she wanted compromise, the UK Government

would do so and so she had a mandate. And one of the things they

are really looking at here is the labour angle. Before the 2014

referendum, there were a lot of Labour Party supporters who thought

that there might be a Labour government next May under Ed

Miliband, now that is off the table, she says Labour has folded, they are

not there for people and that will play a major part in the campaign

for a second independence referendum. So, game on eventually.

We will come back to you in a minute. The budget is moving this

week. We had stage two, the consideration committee, going

through fairly briskly, but it went few after some sharp exchanges over

the nature of the agreement, the process that led up to the agreement

between the Scottish Government and the Greens. Here are those exchanges

from the committee. It turns out you had down the back of the sofa the

best part of 200 William Hams you were not telling us about. So how

can it have been fair to Parliament and this committee which is trying

to scrutinise your draft budget and trying to carry out detailed and

proper Parliamentary scrutiny of that when you have all this money

squirrelled away that you were not telling us about? I was trying to

make you work for your money, to see if you could find any more resources

that I wasn't able to allocate! That is unlikely to change for a while.

What do you think it says for the transparency of the budget Cabinet

Secretary when effectively you have been sitting on a slush fund which

you had at the time of the publication of the draft budget

several weeks ago, and you hold that back in order for the negotiations

therefore not being completely open with Parliament at the time of the

draft budget? Is to Kelly, that is not an accurate, fair or reasonable

characterisation of the budget process, a process that your party

had also engaged in. I think it is very constructive of government to

listen to Parliament, to listen to the parties in parliament and to do

everything it possibly can to make decisions to try to find consensus

to get a budget through. I don't think it is unreasonable to make

decisions to enable us to do that, and I totally refute any suggestion

that I was sitting on any sort of fund ready to go. It was political

decisions that ensure that I could arrive at a proposition to be able

to allocate ?160 million extra resources on ring fenced to local

Government, and I would have thought that Mr Kelly would have welcomed

it, but he seems bitter about it. Defending the budget process and

having a go at the Tories. We expect the final two votes the week after

next, one on tax, and then a vote on stage three. The tax rate will be a

big moment. Absolutely. I know it is a minor tweak at the edges in terms

of changing the thresholds of the rates, they are not overhauling the

bands, but it is hugely symbolic, that is the first time that Scottish

Parliament has voted on all income tax rates. So those who earn that

much will be paying more than in England. Absolutely, and the only

reason they want we pay more in absolute terms is the Chancellor in

England is putting up a personal allowance, so it is a hugely

symbolic moment, and the Tories will be claiming that tax increase for

all it is worth. And what about the claims that the processes to secret

and behind-the-scenes? You might expect that coming from opposition

MSPs. Especially the ones you want to be involved in the deal! But it

is a bit more serious than that, because it was the group of

independent economist who scrutinised it who has been raising

concerns about the budget process ever since the first budget document

was published, and so it is hard to see how the same kind of approach

can be taken next year. They have been calling for greater

transparency in the budget documents, and certainly if MSPs

next year are going to be looking for what they claim is money down

the back of the sofa. Money down the back of the sofa, probably be

necessary 18th century, since the Marquis was in charge! Thank you

both very much indeed for joining me today. We are coming to the end of

our programme here today, and we will bring you further details on

Brexit of Europe and all that stuff, and Lookout also, the week after

next, those two big votes, probably on the Tuesday, and finalising the

budget probably on the Thursday. Square sausages!

La creme de la creme. The French kiss.

THEY LAUGH When author

Sir Terry Pratchett died, They called on Death to

give Terry back.