25/02/2016 Politics Scotland

A warm welcome to the Scottish parliament here at Holyrood. It has

been quite a week. The fiscal framework deal on Thursday, the

budget carried yesterday, all of that controversy over taxes banning

powers. Now it is the chance for Parliament to put questions to the

First Minister. A burst of applause for the Israeli delegation. There

were some MSPs who chose not to clap. We are underweight. -- under

way. -- does the First Minister agree

with her deputy? On the issue of claims, and I am glad we are,

because... Can I say first of all that any job losses in any sector

are a matter of regret. Our government has a policy of no

compulsory redundancies. John Swinney did get something wrong in

the chain yesterday. -- -- chamber. He said that the figures had gone

down by 500. That was a misreading of the statistic, and it has Atsu

gone up by 500. But the reason I think it is important to treat these

issues seriously, and not be irresponsible in exaggerating, is

illustrated by something that Kezia Dugdale said in this chain

yesterday. Manager council was going to reduce the number of jobs by 350.

That is puzzling claim, because Lanarkshire Council's budget was

actually set the day before yesterday, and the actual number is

less a third than the one that Kezia Dugdale cited in this chamber. So

these are... Important matters, presiding officer. This is not an

easy time for councils or the public sector, but I don't think that any

of this is helped by wild scaremongering on the part of

labour. It is more about their own desperate fight for survival than it

is about anything else. She calls it wild scaremongering. Here is when

McGonagle from Unite. We have lost 40,000 government jobs in 2010, and

over the next year, we will likely lose another 15,000. He goes on to

say, "To suggest that the budget cuts will have a minimal impact on

jobs and services will be frankly astounding. " it is the words of the

leading Trade Minister in the country. The casual disregard that

John Swinney dismissed those that lost their jobs, that many workers

sick to their stomachs. To hear the First Minister back him up is even

worse. Despite the pretence, the reality is that cuts are happening

across the country because of choice that the SNP made. The SNP made

plans to cut the number of staff in their schools. Now the First

Minister 's agrees with the trade unions and the workers. Can the Daly

she'd tell us how many jobs will be lost as a result of the SNP budget?

She exaggerated the impact among council by a factor of three, the

figure she has just quoted are simply not borne out by the reality

of council budgets. Let us quote the Aberdeenshire Council where labour

is part of the administration. There will be a minimal impact on jobs.

Argyll and Bute Council, we are doing everything possible to keep

the impacts on jobs to a minimum. Aberdeen City Council, where labour

is in administration, we are not looking at job cuts. Kezia Dugdale

has been caught red-handed exaggerating the position. But this

is important, because these are serious issues, and they deserve to

be treated seriously. At the last session of first minces -- First

Minister's Questions, Kezia Dugdale said that Perth Kinross Council

was going to cut childcare, additional support needs, early

years teachers and cut maths and English teachers. They set the

budget later that same day, and they agreed budget for 2016-17 has no

reduction in childcare, it maintains teacher numbers, and actually, the

budget does not cut additional support needs, it increases

additional support needs budget by 6%. So there is a gulf here, between

what Labour say in this chamber and the reality of what is happening

across the country. So before we go any further, with any more claims

from Labour, I wondered if Kezia Dugdale will take the opportunity to

retract what she said yesterday about Clackmannanshire, and what she

said two weeks ago about Perth Kinross. Both were flatly wrong. She

is trying to deny that there are cuts in education, and we have seen

4000 fewer teachers in this country since she came to office. She cannot

profile that away. She did not like hearing the truth from Unite. What

about the GMP? -- G M B. " Government ministers need to take

their heads out of the sand over the devastating impact their cuts are

making right across Scotland. " That is the reality. Nicola Sturgeon is

the first to line up to... She is nowhere to be seen. This

afternoon, the SNP -controlled Dundee City Council will vote on

cutting the budget for supply teachers, to cut the high school, to

cut the budget the classroom materials for a decade. The First

Minister has told us that more powers would mean fewer cuts. Yet,

when she had the chance to use the powers of this Parliament to stop

cuts to schools, and save Joyce jobs, she bottled it. How many jobs

need to be lost, and how many cuts need to be made before this First

Minister will finally use the power she has? I think given that I have

already demonstrated that what Kezia Dugdale said about Perth Kinross

was wrong, what she said about Clackmannanshire was wrong, I think

what she is saying today with a pinch of salt. Kezia Dugdale stand

here and complains about the reductions in a number of teachers.

But yesterday, in this chamber, she joined forces with the Conservatives

to vote against the budget that expressly maintained the number of

teachers. That is the blatant hypocrisy of labour in this chamber.

APPLAUSE Kezia Dugdale likes to quote people. Let me quote a couple

of her own colleagues. How about the Labour leader of East Lothian

Council? He should be familiar to Iain Gray. This is what he said

earlier. " But it will allow us to invest in the future through

increased provision of education and promoting the economy." And West

Lothian Council. "We Have a budget that focuses on the need of local

people, and the most vulnerable." Or Aberdeen. The Labour leader in

Aberdeen has today joined forces with the Conservatives to issue an

letter to every council taxpayer in Aberdeen. That letter says that John

Swinney's budget is so dreadful that it has enabled Aberdeen City

Council, and I'm quoting from the letter, to protect services and jobs

for the people of Aberdeen, and progress an ambitious and contented

plan that supports education, new infrastructure, roads, culture and

prevention against flooded. Terrible John Swinney, enabling the council

to do all of that! The First Minister might like to

remember that the Green party, most notable right-wingers at the back of

the chamber, also voted against her budget. I will tell you what I voted

against. I voted against cuts to jobs, and cuts to local services. No

politician can be taken seriously about wanting to tackle poverty and

inequality unless they are prepared to challenge the current Westminster

monist model of austerity. Those are the words of Nikolic sturgeon. --

Nicola Sturgeon. We have a choice between using the powers of this

Parliament. When she knows that thousands of jobs will be lost, and

she knows the impact this will have on generations of young people why

on earth did you choose more cuts? Not only does Kezia Dugdale's claims

not bear any resemblance to reality, I have debunked most of the claims

she has made through references to the reality in Perth Kinross,

Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen City Council. But let me just outlined to

Kezia Dugdale exactly what she did join with the Conservatives. She,

and her colleagues, shoulder to shoulder with the Tories, voted

against record funding for the National Health Service, she voted

against the doubling of the attainment fund, they voted against

the increasing funds for social care services. They voted against the

protection for apprenticeships, and perhaps most galling of all, given

everything that Labour has had to say over this issue, labour MSPs,

they joined with the Conservatives to vote against a living wage for

care workers. There has been a lot of quotes

thrown about this chamber today, and let me just end with this one. It is

from Kezia Dugdale herself. When asked this week, will you come

second in the Scottish parliament elections, Kezia Dugdale says yes. I

think we have just seen why. Question two. Ruth Davidson. And I

think even that might be in doubt. Conservatives are hoping to leapfrog

labour. No plans at present. I would like to return to the ring crisis

infecting our rural economy caused by this SNP government. I received

an e-mail from Jim Walker, and in it, he said that he may have

supported independence, but, and I quote, he could never support a

party, a minister or a government that had been quite so incompetent

and frankly naive. He is writing an article to be published tomorrow,

where he says that the National farmers union should call for the

resignation of the Cabinet Secretary and the corresponding person in the

civil service. Conley is starved of ?500 million worth of funding

because the government could not arrange payment system in time. It

has run ?75 million over budget and still does not work. What is it

going to take for this First Minister to get a grip? It mate be

worth pointing out that in the most recent cap negotiations, the

Conservative Party actually argued for the scrapping of the direct

support for Scottish and UK farmers that we are talking about. That is

perhaps a contextual point that is worth bearing in mind. But this is

obviously an important and serious issue. We are continuing to do

everything possible to get instalment out to as many farmers as

we can buy the end of March, and the imbalance of payment as soon as

possible after that. The number of payments is now approaching 50%, we

are reporting process weekly to the committee, and to industry. We are

in Fort letter that a fortnightly discussions with banks to discuss

the situation. Richard Lochhead, when he spoke to the NFU, announced

a 20 minute pounds hardship scheme, so that any farmer that has not had

the payment and is not getting support from the bank can apply for

hardship payments from the Scottish Government. It is interesting to

reflect on what the chief executive of the Scottish crofting federation

said. It is heartening to see this artist government dealing with the

challenging circumstances in such a creative way, and the idea of the

government being a lender 's shows that they are doing everything they

can to address a difficult situation. We are doing everything

we can, and will continue to do so. It is nearly March rment on the SNP

could take that sort of a failure and try and claim it is some kind of

success. I heard what the First Minister said there, but the truth

is, if this was affecting urban Scotland or the central belt, the

SNP would be all over it. But because it affects rural Scotland

and the borders it has slipped off her radar.

Let us be clear about this, this is a complete failure of Government, it

is damaging people's livelihoods, it has cost the taxpayer half of what

it cost to build this Parliament building and it is still not fixed.

Jim walker speaks for thousands of farmers who are looking for some

action. It is clear the Cabinet secretary's part of the problem not

the solution, so isn't it time the First Minister stepped in, and took

personal charge of ensuring is our rural economy is led out of this

crisis. As I said to Ruth Davidson, the cap

net has been discussing this matter on a weekly basis but Ruth Davidson

has just said something in her question there that is fact chultly

inaccurate. The EU payment window for the payments is 1 December 2015

to the end of June 2016. The deadline is actually the 30th June,

2016. That is the reality. She talks a load of nonsense about the costs

of the IT system, and says it costs half of what this Parliament cost.

That is an IT system to cover the entire seven year programme of the

cap, and efforts are being made to ensure it is supporting these

payments. So, we will continue to take the responsible action of

making sure we get payments to farmers as quickly as possible. But

also making sure we have the arrangements in place, through the

hardship fund I have spoken about, to ensure any farmer who doesn't

have the payment, or who cannot get support from their bank can come to

the Government for that support. I think that is the right way to deal

with what is a difficult situation and we will continue to do so.

To ask the First Minister what progress there has been on the

fiscal framework negotiations. Good progress.

As I reported to Parliament on Tuesday there is now an agreement in

principle, that I think we can recommend to Parliament, draft heads

of agreement will be published by the end of this week, the agreement

we have reached on the block grant, ensures there is no detriment for

the next sick years and no default by the UK Government to a funding

model that would deliver detriment. It will not allow a single pound or

penny to be taken from our budget. It protects the Barnett Formula and

allows new powers to be delivered. She is aware when we served in the

Smith Commission we achieved agreement that the Scottish and UK

Government were equal partner, can the First Minister confirm that this

parity of esteem was respected during the fiscal framework

negotiations and will be maintained. Does the First Minister agree that

equal partnership in entering any negotiation is absolutely crucial to

protect Scott's future interests? I believe it is vital. It was a that

parity of esteem and equal partnership that meant we were able

to resist an attempt by the Treasury to cut our budget by 7 billion. If

we hadn't had that the Treasury would have been able to impose that,

so the equal partnership when that John Swinney's negotiating skilled

could come to the fore. She raises a serious point about the future, not

only did that allow us to protect Scotland's budget, making sure that

that equal partnership and requirement for joint agreement is

built-in to the arrangements for the review, after the first FIA years

will be essential to making sure then we can protect Scotland's

budget and that is what we will intend to do.

It was welcomed on all sides, one part of the agreement was getting

the fiscal commission to do the official tax forecast, this is a

vital step forward. Will the First Minister work with me, to convince

her backbencherers this is the way to go? The very thought of working

with Gavin brown is make bringing me out no a cold sweat. I will try to

get over that. On a serious matter I said on Tuesday that we have had to

give-and-take in these negotiations and I think that should be welcomed

as part and parcel so a mature negotiation, one of the areas where

John Swinney has made a concession and agreed to the a arrangement for

the fiscal commission, I know John Swinney has given detail of that and

more will be in the heads of agreement when they are published

before the end of the week. This is a good deal and a deal I think

everybody across the Parliament should welcome.

Congratulations to the Deputy First Minister and to herself on this, but

if in her statement on Tuesday, she said the block grant adjustment.

Would be based on an annual adjustment to a Treasury methodology

which appears to be tax capacity adjusted levels deduction, is she

absolutely certain an annual population adjust to that will

produce the same result as per capita index Asian. Well, yes, and

that is critical to the agreementment when the heads of

terms are published they will see what we have agreed to is a method

of making the block grant adjustment that is required over that

transitional period to deliver the same outcome as per capita index

deduction, that is crucial. Can I take the opportunity to thank

Malcolm for his help, he was steadfast in aing that the Scottish

Government's position was correct in that and the support of the STUC for

example and many others, was really helpful in getting to the agreement

that we struck on Tuesday, so I would accord Malcolm economies. My

thanks for that. To ask the First Minister what progress the Scottish

Government is making in reducing A waiting times A performance across

Scotland was the highest level we have seen in any December since 2009

and is the best performing country across the UK. A waiting time

performance in December was 95.4 in Scotland. However there is still

more to do to ensure continued progress in A performance in

Scotland. That is why we launched the six essential actions approach

in May last year, that is a proyear programme that aims to minimise long

waits in A by improving patient flow and back into the community, we

have provided additional 10.7 million winter funding to support

boards through winter pressures. Thank you. I am sure they would like

to thank A staff for their hard work.

The Scottish A performance are the best in the UK, comparing favourably

with Labour run Wales. Does the First Minister agree with

me, that taking a partnership approach as opposed to conflict with

health professionals is key to billing that success, would the

First Minister also welcome health professionals from elsewhere in the

UK if they would wish to bring their skills to the Scottish NHS? I would

welcome health professionals from anywhere who want to come and work

in Scotland. What he raises, is they will be points that are important to

patients a I cross the country, we have work to do in A, I wouldn't

say it was job done, but there are two things I think should give us

encouragement, firstly A waiting time, I think almost week for week

at the moment are better than in the same period last year, but relative

to the other nations of the UK, our A departments are performing much

more strongly, so that is good and positive news but we will not be

complacent all and and we will continue to work with professionals

to make sure we improve further. Last week, saw the worst A

performance in Scotland since weekly stats began. One in ten not treated

within four hour, only four health boards met their targets. Can the

First Minister explain why and can she promise to support our local and

hard-working NHS staff? Well, figures will fluctuate week on week,

there will be will be a variety of reasons why that is the case,

everybody will understand that, but he talking about the most recent

weekly performance which saw nine out of ten patients treated within

four hours, but that weekly performance, although it was lower

than we wanted it to be, is 3 percentage points better than in the

same week last year, so that underlines the point I am making, we

are seeing consistent improvement, compared in each week compare oed to

the previous year, that is that is good. Our A units are performing

better than any other nation in the UK. I am standing here giving that

information, but that is entirely down to the hard work and dedication

of those who work in our A units. It is a appropriate moment for me to

thank them for the work we do. We thank the staff for their hard

work. There are 30 units now, 15 different name, no common protocol,

no reporting, and target unlike A range from the four hour target to

none, and Glasgow reported that erent name, no common protocol, no

reporting, and target unlike A range from the four hour target to

none, and Glasgow reported that patients could expect to wait "12

hours" there have been 115 deaths in these units. This is the alternative

door way to A getting in. The states only mean something if we

combine the two. What progress is she and the Cabinet secretary making

in ensuring there are proper protocols so we can see transparent

figure, in relation to admissions. Well, firstly, the immediate

assessment units, many of which were established under the last Labour

administration, which is a good thing, are different from A unit,

and that is why they are treated differently. Patients often ven

receive treatment in the units not just monitoring, but guidance to

boards, it is that patients on trolleys waiting addition are

monitored against the four hour A target until they are admitted to a

bed or a dedicated area, and we are working with the Royal College of

Physicians to share best practise across the different units including

sharing information on monitoring. And we will be considering with the

Royal College whether assessment units should be subject to further

common standards, Richard Simpson raised the issue of deaths in

hospital, and I don't seek to underplay that point at all, but I

think again for context, it is worth pointing out that hospital mortality

rates are now a their lowest level in Scotland since records began.

They have dropped 16.5% since 2007, another example of the excellent

work that our health professionals do round the country.

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scotland Government

has made of theism pact of the Local Authority budget settlement on

nursery education. Within the we are funding the additional cost of

earning learning under the children and young people of Scotland act.

This includes the expansion to 600 hours and extension to over a

quarter of two-year-old, so far we have provided 229 million to fund

this and committed another 170 million in the budget that covers

the first three year of the expansion from August 2014 and we

have committed to continue increasing revenue funding year on

year until 2019/20 to enable more choice and flex bill. I will be

meeting local Government leaders and key partners this afternoon at the

early learning and childcare summit to see how we continue to work

together. Can I thank the firm for that information. She will know that

earlier this month, the EIS revealed since the nine years SNP Government

the number of teachers in Scotland's nurseries has fall bane quarter.

Many of us were intrigued and encouraged by her pledge to increase

the number of nursery teacher, I am intrigue trued because when she was

first elected in 2007 nursery teacher, I am intrigue trued because

when she was first elected in 2007 she said in her manifesto "We are

concerned at the removal of nursery teachers from nurseries, and she

pledged to maintain teacher numbers. Can I ask her, what has changed? Did

she not mean her promise then but means it now or does he have some or

explanation. The registered child daycare work force has increased by

7%. The announcement that Ken Macintosh refers to, I made that

announcement back in October last year, where as part of our efforts

to make sure that we are tackling the attainment gap, I have given a

commitment that all nurseries in deprived areas will have an

additional teacher or graduate with childcare expertise working with

young children, and that is an important commitment as we try to

make sure that we use not just the expansion in in quantity of

childcare, but also improve the quality of childcare, to make sure

that we Griffing every young person the best start in life. To ask the

First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had about

the relationship between press wist airport and the Trump organisation.

The Scottish Government has had no discussion on the relationship

between Prestwick Airport and the Trump organisation. The management

are responsible for operating business opportunity and we expect

them to explore all avenues. I was pleased to hear Ryanair will

introduce three new routes and increase passenger numbers. It has

been clear for many years for anyone who cared to take an interest that

Donald Trump was an arrogant and racist bully. I had thought that

when Nicola Sturgeon took the decision to kick him out of the

global Scot network the Scottish Government had come to regret having

courted his business. It appears that Prestwick Airport owned by the

Scottish Government is pursuing an official partnership, a strategic

alliance with the Trump organisation. Doesn't the First

Minister agree that any owner of any business but most particularly a

government that exists to serve the public interest must ensure that the

business it owns cuts ties with such a dangerous extremist, will the

First Minister agree with that? While I would probably use more

diplomatic language, I suspect my views and Patrick Shah Harvey's

views and Donald Trump are is not that materially different. It is

important to be clear, there is no contract eventual relation ship

between the airport and Donald Trump or any of his organisation, but in

terms of the operation of Glasgow Prestwick Airport, European Union

state aid rules require that airport to be operated on a wholly

commercial basis at arms-length from the Scottish Government. We are not

permitted to intervene in the commercial discussions of the

airport. Now we brought that airport into state ownership, to save it

from closure, it is it making progress, the management there as I

have said in relation to the Ryanair announcement are making progress in

getting that on to a better footing. I think we should get behind them

has the they continue to make those efforts.

Thank you that ends First Minister ice questions. There we have it, the

conclusion of questions to the First Minister. The opening half really is

particularly the questions from Kezia Dugdale but something of a

reprice the the development earlier in the week, the budget and the

fiscal framework. There was a hint of a smile when the question about

the outcome. So a bit of a reprice, a run through the events of the

week. Time for me to say goodbye.