22/12/2011 Politics Scotland

A warm welcome to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. It is the

last session of questions to the First Minister for this year but

the first opportunity for Joanne Lamont to pose those questions. Let

us see how she gets on. I will say to her as I said

yesterday, that she can be assured that where the opposition bring

forward points of substance, that the Government, not withstanding

our majority, will be prepared to take common cause. That is

symbolised today, where this Parliament will unite substantially

in expressing concern about the direction of travel in the UK

Government's welfare reform, which seems to be instead of increasing

employability, in danger of impoverishing some of the most

impoverished. I thank the First Minister for his answer? Where it

is possible for us to work together, I can assure him that we will. We

will take the responsibility of challenging you, where that is our

responsibility. At Christmas, we are looking forward to spending

time with our children. I have seen less of my own and I might want to.

It belongs to children, this time, but for some children that has not

much to look forward to. Children abandoned and abused by parents,

children like Declan. What has the First Minister done in response to

this tragic case? All cases involving children are examined by

the Government. By the Government keeps things under action, but

perhaps she will want to specify the action she is looking for and I

will be able to say what the Minister has done. I am concerned

that the First Minister has not already indicated what he is

intending to do in response to something that is very serious. We

have to ensure that the rhetoric of this chamber reflects the reality

of Scottish life. When the First Minister was asked about a

tragically similar case, the death of Brandon Muir, he said "We have

the most systematic and strenuous inspection system anywhere in these

islands, and perhaps anywhere in Europe." Does the First Minister

believe that is still the case? And does he agree the reality, but it

was not good enough for Declan Halfpenny or Brandon Muir and it is

not, for scores of children whose names will never appear in the

papers but who are now suffering? remember the case very well. The

point I made on the Brandon Moore case was that -- Brendan your case

was that we have in place a systematic way of trying to

identify children at risk. Are made the point that no system can be

foolproof, but there are going to be individual tragedies regardless

of what system is in place but we reinforce our support to local

authorities to enable this to happen. I would like to reiterate

my point that I stress the fact that often there was a tendency to

blame social work departments and to see that there was some failings.

Where there are failings, they have to be examined and in that case,

they were systematically examined. This chamber has to understand that

we have a substantial system. We also have excellent social workers

in Scotland or subscribe to the higher standards. They are a

professional group of people and have a substantial we make our

system, whatever the sincere efforts of our social workers,

there will always be tragic cases. That is a certainty in society. Our

job as parliamentarians is to give the maximum support to our social

work departments and the professionals, to make sure that

systems of inspection are such, to minimise tragic cases, minimise the

number and the effect on society. want to believe that that system is

in place and that our children are safe, but the fact of the matter is,

we know that is not the case. We cannot simply say that this is an

inevitability. The responsibility of government in this kind of case

is to identify where the challenges were, or where the problems are and

what we can do to address it. It is not about winning the workforce, it

is recognising that for all of us, whatever system is in place, they

are not sufficient. The reality is that across Scotland we have

overburdened social workers, under pressure health visitors and the

inevitability of children abandoned by their parents being abandoned by

a system that is supposed to care. We all know that budget cuts are

only going to get worse. What is the First Minister going to do in

his Budget choices to insure it that the Most Honourable children

in our country are protected? -- most vulnerable. The system of

inspection has been substantially enhanced and improved. That is

validated by the re- inspections that have taken place. There have

been faults and difficulties at in individual local authorities and

there has been huge improvement in the majority on the reinspection

initiative. These things have been brought into place by this

Government to correct the failings of a system that was already in

place. But political parties and parliamentarians have to understand

that however we make and attempts to prove such systems to protect

every single child in Scotland, there will still be tragic cases.

In terms of budget choices for disadvantaged children, perhaps

Joanne Lamont would like to welcome our initiative, that two year-olds

will have access to nursery education. That is the first time

this has been done across these islands and it is a budget choice

that we have made. I'm sure Mr Lamont would like to reflect her

support for it. -- Joanne Lamont. Of course I support that sort of

thing. But this child was not in care and that is part of the

difficulty. The child was in the family home. Other than that, the

danger is we have a culture of despair. That there is not anything

government can do. We know that if we work together, if we are almost

we can get this right. But we cannot afford to have a gap between

what we say we care about and are rhetoric in this chamber, and the

reality in Scotland's homes. There has to be a connection between what

we say at have people live. -- and how people live. I am asking the

Minister to have an inquiry into how our most vulnerable children

are being affected by his budget choices. Surely it is possible,

recognising the scale of the challenge, that our budget choices

are tested by their capacity to protect the most vulnerable in our

communities. And not quite certain that the direction that Joanne

Lamont has taken her questioning reflect her aspirations at the

start of the question session. In terms of budget choices, I would

have thought that the settlement for local government, which has

protected local government against the average cut... It is much

better than the settlements under direct government control. In that

settlement, we indicated our value and worth in other departments. In

terms of the improved system that we have established, compared to

the one that we inherited, I think most people across social work

would say that, regardless of the fact that we will always have

individual tragic cases, nonetheless the system is far

better than it was some years ago and the system of inspection and

reinspection is proving its worth. The reason I indicated the question

of looking after children, was not because it was relevant to the

individual case that Joanne Lamont asked about, but because it was

relevant to a question of how this Government looks upon children in

terms of its budget priorities. I would have thought the huge

emphasis, even in this time of great economic stringency, that we

are given too early intervention with a substantial transfer of

funds in this extraordinarily difficult time, is an indication

that this government is concerned for every child in Scotland and

wants to make the earliest intervention possible so that we

can try and establish the quality of opportunity that will do this

country and parliament proud. just say, I am asking this question

as a mother. There are mothers across the country asking the same

question. These children are hidden to the system. I am asking you,

what can you do? Can you have an independent inquiry into how the

child protection system is working? There will be bits of it that are

fantastic, but clearly there is a huge problem. If we have an

independent inquiry we can work together to challenge this most

awful circumstances, happening in our communities, and make Scotland

a better place for our most vulnerable children. Can I just

point out that the improvements in the inspection team came about as a

result of such an inquiry looking at tragic individual cases and

seeing how that reflected on the system across the country. These

improvements have been made and there is substantial evidence that

the social work departments, as result of inspections, are

performing much better than they were before. If she asking for a

guarantee that there will never be a tragic circumstance? I cannot

give that guarantee. No politician can. If she is asking the question

of what has been done by this Government, then the systematic

improvement in inspection regimes validates what has been done. If

she is asking about budget choices, then a huge input of resources into

early intervention indicates that this Government cares, as all this

Parliament cares, about all of Scotland's children. May I add my a

welcome to Joanne Lamont and her election as the first leader of all

Labour Party in Scotland and my own Christmas wishes to the members of

the chamber. To the First Minister, can I ask when he will next meet

the Prime Minister? No plans in the near future. As the STUC has

revealed this week, eight out of the 10 of the worst areas for

rising long-term unemployment across the UK are here in Scotland.

This comes one week after figures revealed that unemployment in

Scotland is now higher than the UK average. Week after week, all here

is the First Minister claiming that -- claiming the credit when things

look good but shoving the blame anywhere else when they look bad.

One ministerial job for one Scottish Nationalist is not the

same as thousands of jobs for the Scottish nation. Isn't it time that

the First Minister got his eye back on the ball, started doing the job

that he was elected to do, delivering jobs for Scotland?

the report and unlike Ruth Davidson, I listened to what they had to say.

Can I caught Stephen Boyd, the assistant general secretary, from

the radio yesterday morning? Asked what to -- asked what should be

done, this is what he said: "A thing we have to be very clear at

this moment in time. Scotland is part of the UK economy suffering

from a severe deficiency in aggregate demand. That demands a

major counter-cyclical response and that can only be implemented at a

UK level.'s some people might think, given that is what the STUC said,

that Ruth Davidson, even at this pre-Christmas edition, has

something of a brass neck, weeping crocodile tears for the Scottish

unemployed when our Government's policy has a direct responsibility

for the employment conditions in Scotland today. I did listen to the

interview and I listened to the interview with the finance

secretary, wriggling out of the areas that do come under Scottish

government control. Let me say what the UK Government have done to help

employment across the UK. Reducing corporation tax, investment in

renewables, establishing a Youth Contract, a cut in National

Insurance and reduction in the national debt. Let us remind

ourselves of the awful fact that the First Minister is trying to run

away from. 26,000 people facing their second Christmas out of work.

It has happened on the First Minister's watch. He needs to take

responsibility for his actions because he has the powers he needs

to make the difference. The First Minister could be properly funding

colleges instead of repaying �74 million out of them. He could be

cutting the tax burden on businesses, not hitting the biggest

businesses with more. He could be renewing the town centre

regeneration fund instead of scrapping it and he could be

building the 6000 socially rented homes that he promised instead of

cutting is on target by one quarter. The First Minister's policies are

damaging the economy. Will he take responsibility for the consequences

I am doing a quick calculation. I count 250 million of additional

expenditure in that list alone. I shall assume Ruth Davidson is

speaking with the full of oddity of the leader of the Scottish

Conservative party who will tell the Chancellor to put the cheque in

the post. As opposed to cutting our capital budget by 32 % over the

next he is. In terms of the eight out of 10, the percentage increase,

unemployment is a huge difficulty but that includes for example areas

like Aberdeenshire, my there was no one unemployed. The way to a level

is the level of long-term unemployment. Scotland has two area

is out of the UK's top 30. And three in terms of long-term

unemployment. That is not to say it is not a huge problem, of course it

is but when talking about the Scottish economy there are more

people employed in Scotland and across the United Kingdom, there

are more people in economic activity in Scotland and across the

UK. Our recession was shorter and shallower than the rest of the UK

and if we had the rules the S T U C were calling for there would be no

deficiency of demand in the Scottish economy and Bruce Davidson

and her colleagues would be able to celebrate the investment they call

for. -- the Ruth Davidson. If the parliament once this Government,

this parliament to have responsibility for the Scottish

economy on election night they will get the tools to do the job for

Scotland. There are proposals to change the system of charging for

electricity transmission, this benefits the Highlands but not the

islands, will the First Minister raised this question? Yes, this has

been a constant preoccupation of many people in this chamber for

many years, the huge discrepancy and unfairness of the present

charging regime which discriminates against many areas of Scotland, the

islands in particular. The consultative proposals which were

made this week show a move in the right direction and while for some

areas of Scotland the offer fairly substantial change from the current

unacceptable position, there is no indication of any relief whatsoever

for Our Island Communities so they can mobilise the tremendous

resource they have. Just as this chamber has united in the past been

pressing to in this discrimination I think we should Unite again to

make sure the Islands of Scotland are included in these new

settlement. Can I associate myself with what I think was a fairly

accurate analysis of that statement? I know the First

Minister is on record as saying if we are to achieve our targets on

renewables it will require the island to play their part. In

trying to be be a charging regime for the islands and mainland that

is perhaps not achievable, is it now time to establish an approach

which recognises the unique challenges of renewables in and

around Gortney? The Scottish Government has asked for a

conference on January 30th to allow you the island councils renewable

developers a more level playing field for our island communities.

This is a very long-standing issue, one for which we have had

incredible support. It has been indicated by the UK Energy

Secretary that this is an issue with which he has great sympathy.

It is frustrating however that in making the progress, they seem to

have omitted to remember that the islands are part of Scotland. Our

argument is there is at charging regime which does not pick and

unfair discrimination on the islands. I think there should be a

capping regime so that people would have a certainty that the

additional amount was capped at a certain level. In the current

system that is not the case. I hope as we go forward with that

conference we will be able to make an answerable case which we have

already presented. This week the Cabinet Secretary for Health

decided to close award and the Vale of Leven hospital which has caused

considerable distress in my local community. Patients are being

boarded out in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and even as far as

Livingston. Is he aware that enhanced crisis intervention

services are only available in daylight hours in parts of my

constituency? Can he enhance these so that people suffering from acute

mental illness are protected at all times? As she knows, this ward was

D Rees closed by fire, that is the current situation. This situation

is uppermost in the Health Secretary's mind. I would say that

I do not think hospital closures around Scotland are at the Labour

Party's strongest suit. To ask the First Minister what issues will be

discussed and the next meeting of the cabinet. Issues of importance

to the people of Scotland. welcome Ms Lamont to her position.

The First Minister said he was taking seriously be �1 billion

youth contract to help young people into work but yesterday when I

listened to an interview with the finance secretary on the radio, he

did not even mention it. Will the First Minister set out how many

Scottish businesses and how many young people could benefit from the

youth contract? I gave him an answer last week saying we will be

delighted to co-operate with the youth contract. He seemed to

conflate our pointing out that the consequentials amounted to some �6

million per year as an unreasonable thing to do. I pointed out that in

addition to the 80 million over the next three years we have added 12

million to get the additional resources and firepower to help

with the youth employment initiative. But he should

understand and take yes for an answer. I have been following his

tweets on this matter. All right, I am the Orly follower he has got! --

the only follower. But I am fully aware of his concerns. As I said

last week, for the third time, we will co-operate as a Government

with the youth initiative. We would like these powers to be with his

parliament which will propagate an interest in the young people of

Scotland. Will he now take yes for an answer? The First Minister has

to be judged by his actions. I expect he says he will support the

use of contract but will he actively promote it? The youth

contract, the answer to my question is simple, the of contract can

benefit 160,000 young people. The suspicion is that the Scottish

Government will only peddle softly because it wasn't their idea. By

engaging and promoting this, the Scottish Government can do

something positive for young people. They also still have in their

pocket �67 million from the UK Government. He can use that to

reverse the cuts to colleges. He should take the steps that he can

rather than whinge about the ones he cannot. Can we have a question,

Mr Rennie? This is a great year. Can he finish off? Order! Settle

down! Can he finish off a with some good news for other people? Will he

embraced the youth contract and save colleges? In terms of the year

of contract, yes, yes, and yes again. We welcome the colleges in

to the transformation fund. I do confess that I have been a follower

of Liberal Democrat tweeting and not just to Willie Rennie but also

to Andrew Page, the former Liberal candidate. He says that many's

attacks on the SNP leadership have been weak and played directly into

Salmond's hands making our party appear small-minded, tribal and

idiotic. It is not surprising people are not attracted to our

broader message. In the interest of Christmas spirit I will

disassociate myself from those tweets. I think he should focus on

the needs of the unemployed rather than making cheap remarks about

other politicians. Remarks of a Liberal candidate. In terms of

youth unemployment he will know that the guarantee is unrivalled

anywhere in these islands. A training place, full time

employment on an apprenticeship. This is in order to enable us to

look at contracts in the way of what they provide for Scotland's

young unemployed and above all the 25,000 apprenticeships, 60% more

than the level we inherited, which I am delighted to tell this chamber

I have been fully contracted by development Scotland. That is

something for all of this chamber to welcome. What is the Scottish

Government's position on the impact of rural communities? It is an

important issue which has great resonance at this time of year.

Calls for online retailers took us signed up to a pledge and comply

with the law by displaying delivery costs. The will of her delivery via

Royal Mail wherever possible and offer a flat rate cost. People

living in rural villas are entitled to fair treatment, they should not

be discriminated against simply because of where they live. --

rural parts. Can I put to the First Minister that constituents of mine

in Stonehaven are being charged extra despite the fact the

deliveries stations are on the south side of Aberdeen. Is there

anything that can be done to support trading standards officers

to put an end to these unfair delivery charges? Fergus Ewing has

written this week to the UK minister with responsibility to see

what measures can be taken to ensure that online retailers adopt

a much fairer pricing policy across the country. I did not in the

Inverness Courier this week our man in Westminster, Danny Alexander,

the Chief Secretary for the Treasury, was calling on such an

initiative. No doubt he will not just be calling for it but be

having a discussion with his parliamentary colleagues so that

something is done about it. Coming to the close of a session during