TRACKER


Salmond insisted was “working effectively”. Gray said 50 staff had already been cut by the regulator, with maybe another 55 to follow in the next year. “These are the people required to maintain inspections,” he added. He called for the cuts to be reversed, and said the cost of local authorities stepping in should be underwritten.


Salmond would not be drawn on specifi cs, and repeated the “continuity of care” promise, which he said would be of reassurance to families with relatives in Southern Cross homes. Conservative leader Annabel Goldie


asked about the investigation into the death of a woman who died because emergency service staff were on a tea break. What had been the outcome? This has happened again recently, when a three-year-old boy died in similar circumstances. She said there must be changes.


Salmond said Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon would be happy to meet Goldie to discuss the cases and the changes that will be made. In constituency questioning, Sandra White (SNP) raised the 90 jobs being cut at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail. She said the Scottish newspaper industry was “under attack”. Salmond said the Scottish Government would be supporting those made redundant. The Record is “a hugely important Scottish institution”, and the whole chamber would want to see both papers continue. Neil Findlay (Lab) asked about Scottish Government plans to devolve (and reduce) corporation tax. He queried why Salmond had been opposed to 25 per cent rates of corporation tax in 1987, in a speech that got him barred from the House of Commons, but wanted the rate even lower in Scotland now.


Salmond said that his protest in the Commons had not been about corporation tax, but income tax – something he could guarantee because “I was there”. He said reporting on the current plan had been “very strange”, and quoted from a newspaper report which described a row between the First Minister and Westminster over a proposed reduction in corporation


66 Holyrood 13 June 2011


A complete round up of all forthcoming parliamentary business


Telephone 0131 272 2114 editor@holyrood.com


tax in Scotland, the twist being the article was several years old and was describing his Labour predecessor Jack McConnell, but could easily have been reporting on the current situation.


In further questioning on corporation tax, Salmond said Northern Ireland expected to create 58,000 new jobs if it was allowed to set (and reduce) its own rate. The debate moved on to help for


carers. In response to a question from Humza Yousaf (SNP), Salmond promised to extend the energy assistance package to support carers who will struggle with rising fuel bills. Labour MSP Michael McMahon then brought up council tax. He said a fi ve-year freeze on the tax was unsustainable. Would Salmond publish information on the mooted replacement, a local income tax? Salmond said it was interesting Labour seemed to be cooling its support for the council tax freeze, as it had already reversed its position on this before. With people facing rising bills across the board, it was “poor judgement” on the part of Labour to be criticising the council tax freeze. Salmond was then asked about the proposed closure of RAF Leuchars and Lossiemouth. Salmond said the Scottish Government was in the process of drafting a fi nal document in support of keeping the bases to the UK Government. It would be submitted this week. When asked whether he agreed with comments made by Defence Secretary Liam Fox that Scotland has, historically, suffered disproportionate defence cuts, Salmond confi rmed that he did. To now close two of the three Scottish RAF bases would be “highly unreasonable”, he said.


First Minister’s Questions


2 June 2011 By Cera Murtagh Labour leader Iain Gray opened


the fi rst session of FMQs of the new Parliament by challenging the FM on standards of care in care homes in Scotland. Following revelations in a


BBC Panorama investigation about the failure of the care regulator in England to prevent abuse at a private hospital, what assurances could the FM give about the new Scottish regulator’s capacity to ensure standards of care north of the border, he asked. First Minister Alex Salmond echoed Gray’s concerns about the programme’s fi ndings, and responded that the new care regulator for Scotland - Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) will review the current position of the three registered services that are run in Scotland to ensure that there are no areas of concern. The Labour leader went on to raise the case of the Elsie Inglis nursing home in Abbeyhill where he said two residents had died in recent weeks, six more had been hospitalised and the remainder evacuated. Meanwhile the new care regulator has had its budget cut by 25 per cent and lost 55 staff with another 50 under threat in the year ahead, he said. Does the experience of Elsie Inglis not show that those cuts should be reversed, he asked. The FM assured Parliament that the


response to Elsie Inglis was effective and appropriate. “Members will agree that


unsatisfactory conditions existed, but it is clear from that timetable that the relevant authorities acted quickly to rectify the situation and, as we must all agree, had the position and wellbeing of the residents as their primary concern,” he said. Gray responded that under the new agency, Scotland will be moving from six-monthly inspections to a risk- assessment model where inspections will be less frequent. The inspectorate is being cut, the social care system in Scotland has been declared not fi t for purpose, and the biggest provider of residential care in Scotland is on the verge of collapse, he said. “This week, the First Minister held


an emergency Cabinet summit on the United Kingdom Supreme Court. Does he not think that a summit on the crisis in care is more urgent than that?” The FM argued that a cautionary


tale arises from the Southern Cross situation, as a private company involved in social care.


“Some people seem to think that


that model should be applied across the health service in England. Indeed, in the past, the Labour Party wanted to introduce private companies into mainstream health services in Scotland. Given the diffi culties that arise when a private company is on the brink of administration and given the position in which that leaves vulnerable people in social care or the health service, the current situation should be a cautionary note for those who seem to think that private intervention is a solution in the health service or in the social care service.” This issue cannot be politicised, Gray


warned. What is the FM going to do to improve the situation, he asked. The FM turned to community health


partnerships (CHPs), acknowledging that the Audit Scotland report had found serious problems with CHPs. The 2004 legislation did not adequately set out the duties of all the different partners involved in these partnerships, he added. However, there have been improvements in the integration of health and social care and he urged Gray to join him in building on the work that has been done in this area. Conservative leader Annabel Goldie


asked the FM if he endorsed the Justice Secretary’s remarks that the majority of Supreme Court judges “do not know Scots law”, except what they may have picked up on a trip to the Edinburgh Festival. The FM confi rmed that he fully


endorsed Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and referred to an assurance Conservative peer John Mackay had received from the House of Lords in 1997 and 1998 that the High Court of Judiciary would not end up being the highest court of appeal for Scots criminal matters. That assurance has not proved to be “anything like copper bottomed”, he added.


Goldie hit back that the FM’s opposition to the Supreme Court is based on the fact that it is in situated in London. Why does he prefer a court in Strasbourg “with a huge backlog of cases and no permanent Scottish judge” to a court in London, she asked. The FM responded that the key difference between the court in Strasbourg and the Supreme Court is


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