14/01/2016 Politics Scotland

A very warm welcome to the Scottish Parliament. MSPs are in law making

more this afternoon, looking at the higher education government's bill,

it has been highly controversial. Looking also at the bill. But it is

time for a bit of banter and exchange for stock questions for it

First Minister. Let's cross to the chamber and they would have going

on. Is provision for that improvement within the budget that

two prominent in December. Question number one. What engagements does

she have planned for the rest of the day? To take forward the

government's programme for Scotland. At the age of just 29, Gordon was

diagnosed with motoneuron disease and after years as a healthy

athletic young man, he is now in a wheelchair and relies on visits from

care workers three times a day. He is dying. I was in the room with the

First Minister when she met with Gordon and promised to look at the

lack of MND nurses in Scotland. I listened very closely last January

when she announced plans to double the number of specialist MND nurses

in Scotland. But we now know that that promise, that pledge, has not

been met. Nicola Sturgeon has not kept the promise that she made

directly to Gordon. And in her own words, for people living with MND,

this is urgent. Time is not on their side. So can the First Minister

please give a precise date for when she will deliver on her promise to

double the number of specialist MND nurses working in our NHS. Firstly,

can I say that my admiration for Gordon Aikman, for the way he has

confronted the dreadful diagnosis that he was faced with, and the way

in which he has conducted his campaign, knows no bounds. As I have

done in past months, I continue to be very determined to work with him

and let others to make sure that we fulfil their obligation to improve

health care and indeed social care for people, not just with MND but

with other devastating illnesses of its type. Secondly, I generally do

not think it is fair of how to say that we are not fulfilling the

commitment that we give to Gordon Aikman. The funding is being

provided and health boards are in the process of recruiting additional

nurse specialists. The delays are to do with difficulties in recruitment,

in getting the right people with the right skills into posts. That is

continuing and making progress and over the next few weeks, I would

expect to see health boards do what they require to do to fulfil that

commitment to double the number of MND nurses. The commitment was to

double them but also to make sure that MND nurses were funded by the

National health services, and these commitments but I remain committed

to. I am sorry, Presiding Officer, but

the First Minister promised that this would be in place by the end of

October and it is now January. Ikea the First Minister talk about

Gordon's courage. In fact, all of the party leaders in this chamber

have stood and had a photo opportunity with Gordon and praised

him for his bravery. But he does not want our admiration. He did not let

the cameras into his life for the sake of celebrity. He did it to

leave this world and to leave a legacy for those who come after him.

Now, there are thousands of people across the country coming to the end

of their lives who need support. And just yesterday, new figures were

published which confirmed that at least 276 people died waiting on a

social care package. It is a scandal that it took a dying man to put an

FOI request into expose the scale of the social care crisis in this

country. So can the First Minister tell me how her ?500 million cuts to

cancel budgets will help solve this social care crisis? -- cancel

budgets. Let me take those two issues in turn and firstly deal with

the issue of MND nurse specialists. Today, this Government has invested

?2.4 million of recurring funding in a new specialist nursing and care

fund and that includes up to ?700,000 to fulfil the commitment

that from the 1st of April 2015 or MND clinical nurse specialist will

be paid for by public funds. That is now in place, fulfilling the first

bite of that commitment I made to Gordon Aikman. As I said in my

earlier and so, we remain committed to ensure that the number of nurses

is doubled and that that happens as swiftly as possible. We are seeing

progress. I outlined the fact that this is not about funding, it is

about making sure that we and the health board recruit the right

people with the right skills into these posts. We have already seen

progress towards meeting the goal. The five health boards that employee

MND nurses have already increased capacity. In NHS Greater Glasgow and

Clyde, two new MND specialist nurses have been appointed and they will

take up their posts later this month. All other NHS boards who

employ MND specialist nurses are in the process of recruiting additional

nurses. That is the commitment that was made and the commitment that

will be delivered in full. Turning to the issue of social care, what

she did not refer to in that question, perhaps not surprisingly,

is that in the draft budget that the Deputy First Minister outlined to

Parliament just before Christmas, we made a commitment to build on our

work, to integrate Health and Social Care Act. The biggest reform of how

we deliver health care that this country has seen since the

establishment of the NHS. We committed to building on that with

an additional ?250 million from the NHS into social care. That is of

course in addition to the extra money we made available to support

the integration of Health and Social Care Act. She talked about the

number of hours of social care and as the population ages, as the needs

of older people become more intensive and acute, we have got to

expand social care, which is exactly the reason for the budget decision

that was taken. But she might be interested to know, if she does not

already, but over the past two years, we have been seeing an

increase in the number of hours of social care that local councils

provide. For example, in 2015, 706,000 hours per week of social

care provided by councils. That was up 4% on the year before and up from

607,000 at the start of this Parliament. We are also seen the

average hours of home care received each week steadily increasing. In

2007, that was 5.6... Sorry, in 2000, that was 5.6 hours, last year

it was 11.5 hours. He intensity of social care is increasing, enabling

more people with Indians needs to stay at home. This Government has

taken the action and will continue to take the action to make sure we

have quality Social Care Trust -- with intense needs. We will protect

individuals but also the NHS as well. Presiding Officer, in that

long and so there was one simple fact, the First Minister has put

?250 million into the budget but taken away ?500 million. It is that

classic sleight of hand of the SNP Government style. And in the last 24

hours, we have seen a massive debate about the future of our council

services open up. From Moray to Dundee, councils are taking tough

choices because this Government has left them with no alternative. One

of the most important services are councils providing full hooker. Last

night on Reporting Scotland, the Health Secretary gives the game away

by admitting there is a social care recruitment problem. -- are councils

provide is social care. Low pay, poor conditions and insecure work.

Paying a Living Wage would fix that. And it would improve the care... And

it would improve the care that people receive. Before Christmas,

the SNP Government voted against Labour's plans for a Living Wage for

care workers. She could reverse that today. She can make a pledge to the

39,000 care workers who would be guaranteed a Living Wage for the

first time. She can make a pledge to the thousands of people waiting for

a social care package and she could make a pledge to the 270 people and

the families who died last year waiting for the support that they

need. While the First Minister guarantee today that she will

introduce a Living Wage for care workers? Firstly, in terms of...

Order! Perhaps a fact that she is either not aware of or is aware of

and chooses to ignore any questioning, this Government is

investing this year ?12.5 million in partnership with local councils, as

part of a ?25 million package to improve wages and conditions in the

social care sector. We are determined to continue to make

progress towards payment of the Living Wage in the social care

sector. If she wants us to go faster on that then she is quite entitled

to bring forward cost of proposals about how we do that in the context

of next year's budget. Do they clearly were that money comes from.

Let me return to the overall question of local government

funding. The reduction of local government budgets proposed for the

next financial year commenced to 2% of the total revenue expenditure.

2%. That is before we take account of the additional ?250 million in

social care. Of course, that ?250 million in social care is on top of

the 500 name brands we are already investing over the years to support

the integration of health and Social Care Trust in terms of the council

tax freeze, it is fully funded. The Scottish Government gives councils

money for not raising the council tax. -- compensate. A recent report

said that it was possibly overfunded, with an estimated... It

is a Spice report! Order! Labour are very keen to host these reports when

it suits them, they might want to listen to this one. With 164.9

million extra going to local government. These are the facts

Presiding Officer. These are challenging times for everyone,

because of the cuts being imposed in the Scottish Government's budget.

There is here a question that Labour has to address. We are in a budget

process right now. If Labour wants local government to get more money

in next year's budget, because that is what we are talking about, then

it has to set out where that money is coming from. If Labour going to

break its own commitment to freeze the council tax or are they going to

take money from other parts of the budget? Which is it and when on

earth are they going to tell us? You can make this brief. The First

Minister also. Let me give her some facts. We brought forward proposals

for a Living Wage for care workers. You voted it down. I hear the First

Minister make commitments on lots of things. She can promise a ?250

million tax break to big airline companies but she cannot promise

care workers a Living Wage?! Order! Order! It says a lot about the

priorities of this SNP Government. The problem of council cuts is not

going away. The social care crisis is not going away. Despite all of

the waffle from the First Minister, people are dying waiting for

support. Is that really the Scotland that the First Minister wants to

live in? Here we have it, any last vestiges of credibility that she and

the Scottish Labour Party had have just disappeared. We are back to the

mythical APD money, and today we have the fourth thing that is going

to be spent on. Firstly it was education. Then it was restoring tax

credit cuts. Last week, in this very chamber, it was for first time

buyers' grants and today it is for a Living Wage in the social care

sector. It is absolutely dire. That lot over there clearly are our not

fit to be in opposition, let alone an alternative government. Let me

see quite clearly together yet ideal -- let me see quite clearly, because

this is where it gets really matter of weeks away from an election, I

know Labour did not think they have got any chance of winning the

election and are still trying to scrabble on to second place over the

Tories, but they do have a duty to put forward detail. I have outlined

what our plans are on social care and stopped I have outlined how we

are going to work towards the Living Wage and social care. If Labour

wants to do it faster, they have to tell us how. I challenge her in the

context of this budget process, over the next couple of weeks, bring

forward costed proposals in this budget of how all of the plans and

she brings forward are to be funded. If she does not do that, she does

not deserve to be taken seriously by anybody.

To ask the First Minister when she will next meet

I have no plans at present. But can I take the opportunity to wish her

all the best. The smaller, we learned that teaching unions are

threatening strike action over the overworked the workload they are

facing. Evidence that the attainment gap in schools is still growing. We

need to act. Last week, we published our plans to support Scottish

schools. In it, we called for the Scottish Government to introduce

teacher first, an innovative scheme which is Britain's largest graduate

recruiter, training the best graduates and putting them in the

most challenging schools. Currently, the only go to schools south of the

border. With teachers threatening strike action, and few graduates

going into teaching, why does the First Minister not consider this? I

disagree with that characterisation of our education system. I am

serious about raising the standards of education in Scotland and closing

the attainment gap. We see some signs of the narrowing in the upper

levels of secondary school. We want to set measurable targets for

closing it in primary and lower secondary school as well. In that

context, I close my mind to nothing that can be proven to work in terms

of raising standards and that remains my position. Last year,

round about this time last year, I've visited a school in London to

look in detail at the expedients of the London challenge. I accept that

there will be different views to the one that I am about to express, but

one of the things that somebody who was close to the implementation of

the London challenge said to me was they would advertise caution over

teacher first, it was not in their expedients the thing that had made

the biggest difference. We will continue to look at the best

evidence of what works. And that is the spirit in which we will move

forward. As ever on the topic of education, we seem to have a lot of

warm words but not much actual leadership. The consequences of the

government's in action are beginning to damage children's attainment.

Last year, 100 Scottish graduates joined the teach first programme.

They could be preparing to work in our schools, but have been recruited

by teach first and will teach disadvantaged children, but in

England. This SNP government would rather export good teachers than

enervate teacher training. We are losing some of our best graduates to

size of the border. Graduates that could be teaching in our most

disadvantaged schools. The First Minister has the power to change

that, why doesn't she? We will do what ever we think works to improve

Scottish education. Angela Constance has made announcements about this

recently. We are increasing the target intakes for student teachers,

for primary and secondary. Part of the focus that we put on raising

attainment is actually on the quality of teacher is going into our

schools, making sure that we are reforming how teachers are trained,

the qualification for headship which we have announced recently, making

sure we have the best graduates coming through, getting the best

training going into schools to provide the best education. The

framework will give us the tools to determine whether it is working or

not. In the context of the election campaign that lies ahead, we will

set out over the next few weeks further thoughts as to how we do

this over the lifetime of the next Parliament. I continue to welcome

views from all parts of the chamber. I'm sure all of our thoughts are

with injured and family and friends of those who lost their lives on the

streets of Jakarta. Can I echo those sentiments. Matters

of importance to Scotland will be discussed at the next meeting of the

parliament. The Conservative Party is proposing an 80% increase from

Moray Council. Surely this shows the enormous pressure that councils

across Scotland are under. The ?500 million his counsel budgets will hit

schools, it is a choice of the SNP government. Will the First Minister

review that decision today? As I have outlined in previous answers to

other leaders, the council tax freeze, as he well knows, is fully

funded. Every year that the council tax has been frozen, the Scottish

Government has compensated councils for the they would have raised in

revenue had the increased the council tax by the rate of

inflation. A recent report produced by spice suggests that the council

tax freeze may have been overfunded in the past few years. As a

pretended of total revenue expenditure, production is 2%. I do

not pretend that is easy for any council, but we live in challenging

Financial Times. In that context, I think it is fair to say that local

government has been treated reasonably and fairly. But none of

that takes account of the additional investment in social care that we

have just been talking about. We put forward our plans for how we take

the country forward, how we invest in things that matter, how we build

up social care, protect our National Health Service, improve education.

It is incumbent on the parties to do likewise. I do so in an honest way,

unlike the Tories are doing just though which is putting out leaflets

opposing tax rises in Scotland on the same day that Moray Council are

threatening to hit ratepayers with an increase of 18%. She has many

choices. Even if Moray Council increased the council tax by just

?1, the First Minister will hit them with a ?1 million penalty. That will

hit schools, nurseries and council services. Will she commit today to

lift the threat of that ?1 million fine? It will be a double hurt.

Where is the fairness in that? That'll be the Tories that Willie

Rennie's party propped up for the last five years in government. That

will be the Tories that, helped by the Liberal Democrats, have imposed

your term cuts to the budget of this Parliament. Willie Rennie's

hypocrisy on this does know no bounds. On the question of council

tax freeze, it is funded, it is fully funded. What Willie Rennie is

wanting us to do is provide money to councils to freeze the council tax,

but also give money to councils if they don't freeze the council tax.

That does not seem fair on the councils that flees the council tax.

We will put forward or proposals for now and for the longer term. Other

parties have a duty to do likewise. If you want us to make different

decisions in the context of our budget for the next financial year,

come forward with costings. If you want more money in next's budget to

go to local government, each of the parties are doing that case how to

speak to John Swinney and see where they want the other cuts to come. It

speaks volumes that none of these other parties seem to understand

that. has had with the UK Government

regarding the future of renewables. We have had numerous recent

discussions with the UK Government on the future of renewable energy.

We have set out our views on the impact of recent UK Government

decisions. They are adversely impacting on potential employment in

Scotland. Thank you. Given the continued in place of renewable

output being reported in Scotland, does the First Minister, share my

concerns that the Tories seem more intent on throttling the industry by

giving it the support that they seem to reserve for the nuclear power

industry? Yes, I do share that concern. I have already mentioned

are concerns in general, particular concerns about the effect on the

Hydro sector and onshore wind. The UK Government has badly damaged

investor confidence in those areas. To add insult to injury, they have

also cut the Peterhead Carbon capture and storage project.

Scotland's huge energy potential is at risk of being switched off by the

Tories, which would be an absolute disgrace and I urge them to think

again on all of these issues. whether the Scottish Government's

target for building affordable homes that she referred to during

First Minister's Questions The Scottish Government is clear in

our commitment to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes of the next

five years, a commitment which has been warmly welcomed by the housing

sector. This commitment will also support around 20,000 jobs per year

and generate an excess of ?10 billion of economic activity. This

will build on our achievements in this Parliament of delivering more

than 30,000 affordable homes, including many for social bed. I

would thank the member for his recent letter to be on Ritchie

announced -- in which he announced Labour's housing policy. I look

forward to hearing how this would be paid for and his commitment on

social heating, something... Could I suggest that car boasts do not

square with her confession last week that she has provided over --

presided over a housing shortage. Just one aspect of that crisis is

the fact that there are more than 1 million Scots living in fuel poverty

in Scotland today, struggling to afford to heat their homes this

winter. Can I ask, given those circumstances, could you explain to

the chamber by her Cabinet Secretary of finance cut the fuel poverty

budget and lost your's budget? Will she join Labour in pledging to

legislate to introduce warm homes act for Scotland? We have maintained

the budget, we have lost ?15 million from UK Government funded because

the end of the project. That is the reality. That contribution on

housing, let me just remind people across the chamber, comes from the

member of our party that the last time they were in government built

the grand total of six total houses. Six council houses was the shining

record of the last Labour administration. By contrast, we have

met or target of 30,000 affordable homes, including 20,000 for social

rent. The next Parliament, if we are the elected, we will build 50,000

affordable homes and that will be a substantial increase. 70% of these

will be for social rent, 75% increase on the number of rented

home we have built in this Parliament. Labour are still

squirming in embarrassment. Passing great housing legislation, but

forgetting to build the houses to implement it.

what criteria the Scottish Government is using to allocate

We use the index that is long for schools in deprived communities.

We use the index that is long established set of indicators

showing levels of deprivation across Scotland. We use that to identify

the southern authorities with the greatest deprivation, living in the

areas of greatest deprivation. We were those authorities -- we work

with those authorities. They have been allocated money through the

attainment fund, again identified by using this index. Does the First

Minister I accept that the evidence produced by experts confirm that the

majority of deprived pupils do not in fact... It only targets selected

schools in selected local authorities of registering a high

deprivation index as a limitation. There is a much better policy to

target the available funds. We are looking to target this money as

effectively as possible. Indeed, it is by listening to evidence, another

57 schools across 14 local authority areas, we have some further

substantial proposals to put forward to extend the approach we are taking

as we get towards the Scottish elections. I could not be more clear

on more serious about the commitment I am making and educational

attainment. If we are the elected, if I am the elected by First

Minister, I take nothing for granted, I will be judged on that

month other things of the life of the next Parliament. It is my

interest as well as interests of young people across our country that

we will do what needs to be done to deliver on this commitment and I am

determined that we do exactly that. Thank you. May I apologise to the

many backbenchers who is supplementary questions I have been

unable to take today. Some of those supplementary questions were very

important from a constituency point of view. But when the leader's

questions and answers take 20 minutes, that is clearly an

acceptable. Can I appeal yet again to the party leaders to cut down on

the amount of time that they are taking for questions and answers.

And there we have it. Tricia Marrick making a point that she has made

before. The frontbenchers are taking up for much -- far too much time.

She was trying to move matters along during the exchanges. Discussions

over cash, services. Time for B to say goodbye and hand you over.

to know. Education at a young age, my generation need education. It is

to know. Education at a young age, getting better, though. Young people

and teenagers and people in their 20s are much more understanding. I

talk at schools and it's fascinating the questions that the pupils ask

you. And they are not frightened to ask? That's the great thing about

it. Thanks very much. We welcome viewers from Scotland. You're now

with the Daily Politics. Just when you thought you had of elections for

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