Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 36, 25^th September 2000

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

Wednesday 27th September

• Ministerial Statement: Subject TBC
• Executive Debate: The Creative Economy
• Member’s Business: Highland Clearances (Jamie Stone)

Thursday 28th September 2000

• Conservative Debate: Tourism
• Conservative Debate: Long Term Care
• Question Time
• Ministerial Statement: Subject TBC
• Stage 3 Debate: Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Amendment (Scotland) Bill
• Members' Business: Body Piercing (Sylvia Jackson)

Please see section 3 for briefing notes on the main debates.

COMMITTEE BUSINESS

• Education Committee Will begin taking evidence for their school exams inquiry from the Scottish Executive education department, Ron Tuck, former Chief Executive SQA, David Elliot, former Director of Awards, SQA and Jack Greig, former Director of Operations, SQA.
• Enterprise Committee Is conducting a separate inquiry into the governance of the SQA and will continue taking evidence from members of the SQA board, Ron Tuck and department officials.
• Equal Opportunities Return to the issue of single-sex schools, and consider its view on the Executive’s proposals for the forthcoming Housing Bill.
• Local Government Will meet in private to consider their proposals for an inquiry into local government finance.
• Rural Affairs Will consider the Executive’s response to its report on Budget 2001/2002, and a programme for the proposed Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill.

For a more in depth report of the work of the Committees, please see tomorrow’s Committee Brief.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

Given the level of coverage last Wednesday’s spending announcement by Finance Minister, Jack McConnell, attracted in the press, it is perhaps unnecessary to reiterate the main points. However, anyone wishing a more detailed breakdown of the spending plans, can click here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/news/2000/09/se2514.asp

Individual departments have begun to announce how they will spend their share of the funds. Details of these announcements will be available from the Scottish Executive website.

ENTERPRISE MINISTER TO UNVEIL SPENDING PLANS

Enterprise Minister, Henry McLeish, will today outline how his department will spend its £2.17 billion budget over the next three years.

The department, which was given a 7.1% budget increase by Finance Minister Jack McConnell last week, funds universities and colleges and helps support businesses.

Mr McLeish is due to give details of how the cash will be spent, with tourism likely to be one of the areas on the receiving end of a boost.

Last week, the Executive unveiled a spending plan to boost health, transport and education and provide record levels of public spending.

An extra £400 million will be spent each year on health; with £170 million more spent on transport over three years; and, by the end of the period, spending on education in Scotland will reach £5 billion.

ENVIRONMENT TO BENEFIT FROM £190 MILLION IN ADDITIONAL FUNDING: BOYACK

Sarah Boyack announced on Friday a major boost of almost £190 million extra for Scotland's environment over the next three years.

The environment programme excluding water will see an increase from £61 million to £76 million - an overall percentage increase of 25 per cent in real terms compared to 2000-01.

The package includes:

• £22.7 million extra grant-in-aid to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to enable it to take forward its work on access to the countryside, on management of wildlife sites of European importance on biodiversity, rural development, urban greenspace and sustainability.
• £16.5 million extra in grant-in-aid for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to help it implement EC Directives. These include the the Landfill Directive, which will mean stricter controls on landfill sites and the Water Framework Directive, which will safeguard and improve Scotland's rivers, lochs and coastal waters.
• £10.6 million to ensure that visitor facilities and ranger services are put in place in Scotland's new National Parks.
• Almost £50 million extra to enable local authorities to increase expenditure on flood prevention, coastal protection, access to the countryside and air quality, and on dealing with waste and contaminated land.

DEACON ANNOUNCES INTRODUCTION OF FAIRER FUNDING FOR THE NHS IN SCOTLAND

Last Thursday, Health Minister Susan Deacon announced plans for the introduction of a new funding formula for the NHS in Scotland. She also announced details of spending allocations to Scotland's Health Boards for next year.

On average, Health Boards will receive a 6.5% cash increase - more than twice the rate of inflation.

Two weeks ago, Sir John Arbuthnott's final report - "Fair Shares For All" - on the fairer distribution of resources to the Health Service in Scotland was published. The Health Minister today announced that £12 million extra will be allocated to Health Boards in the current financial year to kick start the implementation of the new funding formula.

In a statement to Parliament Ms Deacon said:

The Minister will shortly announce details of arrangements to keep the formula under review; will recommend any essential changes; and will undertake a major updating of the data underpinning the formula every 5 years.

The allocations announced today form a large part of the health budget. The sum covered by the formula based allocation represents more than £4.4 billion of a total cash health budget next year of £5.8 billion.

Further details of health spending plans will be announced when the Scottish Health Plan is published later this year.

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S DEBATES

LONG TERM CARE OF THE ELDERLY

The Conservatives have opted to spend part of their opposition morning on the Sutherland Report.

The Scottish Executive will be announcing its response to the recommendations of Sutherland shortly, and they cannot be pre-empted in this debate.

The current position regarding implementation of the Sutherland Report can be summed up as follows:

• The manifesto on which the Labour Party stood in the 1997 General Election, contained a commitment to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the issue of care.
• The Commission made 24 important recommendations, and progress is being made with 23. (This includes the key issue of setting up a Social Care Commission, on which legislation was announced in the recent legislative programme.)
• The last recommendation - who should contribute for what care in what circumstances - has been actively considered in the context of the spending review and the Executive will respond in detail shortly.
• There is a misconception in some quarters that Sutherland recommended free care for all. Even full implementation of the Commission recommendations would see better-off people making a contribution.

Background to the Report

The Royal Commission on the Long-Term Care of the Elderly was appointed in December 1997 to examine the short and long-term options for a sustainable system of funding long-term care for elderly people. The Chair was Sir Stewart Sutherland of Edinburgh University, and for this reason the Commission’s findings are often referred to as the Sutherland Report.

The Report’s Conclusions

The Commission itself identified two recommendations as key:

• The costs of long-term care should be split between living costs, housing costs and personal care. Personal care should be available after assessment, according to need and paid for from general taxation: the rest should be subject to a co-payment according to means. The UK Government is investing in older people’s services – the amount would more than fund the cost of the Commission’s recommendations. But it is not the Executive’s view that personal care universally free is the best use of these resources.
• The Government should establish a National Care Commission to monitor trends, including demography and spending, ensure transparency and accountability in the system, represent the interests of consumers, and set national benchmarks, now and in the future. The UK government implemented this with the Care Standards Act 2000.

There were twenty-two other recommendations, as follows:

• The Government should ascertain precisely how much money, whether from NHS, Local Authority Social Services and Housing budgets, or from Social Security budgets, goes to supporting older people in residential settings and in people's homes.
• The value of the home should be disregarded for up to three months after admission to care in a residential setting (with appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse) and the opportunity for rehabilitation should be included as an integral and initial part of any care assessment before any irreversible decisions on long-term care are taken. Accepted by the UK government.
• Measures should be taken to bring about increased efficiency and improved quality in the system, including a more client centred approach, a single point of contact for the client with devolved budgeting, budgets shared between health, social services and other statutory bodies and greater integration of budgets for aids and adaptations. Accepted by the UK government.
• The Commission set out a number of other changes to the current system, such as changing the limits of the means-test, or making nursing care free, which would be of value in themselves, but which would be subsumed by our main recommendation. Accepted by the UK government.
• The resources which underpin the Residential Allowance in Income Support should be transferred to local authorities. Accepted by the UK government.
• The Government should consider whether "preserved rights" payments in social security should be brought within the post 1993 system of community care funding, or whether some other solution can be found to address the shortfall in funding experienced by this group. Accepted by the UK government.
• The Government's proposals on pooled budgets should be taken further, with pooled budgets being implemented nationally. Accepted by the UK government.
• Budgets for aids and adaptations should be included in and accessible from a single budget pool and a scheme should be developed which would enable Local Authorities to make loans for aids and adaptations for individuals with housing assets. Accepted by the UK government.
• The system for making direct payments should be extended to the over 65s, subject to proper safeguards and monitoring. Accepted by the UK government.
• Further research on the cost effectiveness of rehabilitation should be treated as a priority, but that this should not prevent the development of a national strategy on rehabilitation led by the Government to be emphasised in the performance framework for the NHS and Social Services. Accepted by the UK government.
• Further longitudinal research is required to track the process and outcomes of preventive interventions and to assess their impact both on quality of life and long-term costs. Accepted by the UK government.
• It should be a priority for Government to improve cultural awareness in services offered to black and ethnic minority elders. Accepted by the UK government.
• The role of advocacy should be developed locally, with backing from central Government. Accepted by the UK government.
• There should to be wider consultation on the provision of aids and adaptations and on what should under a new system be free and what should be subject to a charge. Accepted by the UK government.
• Better services should be offered to those people who currently have a carer. Accepted by the UK government.
• The Government should consider a national carer support package. Accepted by the UK government.
• The National Care Commission should be made responsible for making and publishing projections about the overall cost of long-term care at least every five years.
• The Government should set up a national survey to provide reliable data to monitor trends in health expectancy. Accepted by the UK government.
• The Government should conduct a scrutiny of the shift in resources between various sectors since the early 1980s, and should consider whether there should be a transfer of resources between the NHS and social service budgets given changes in relative responsibilities.
• A more transparent grant and expenditure allocation system should be established. This is a task which could be referred to the National Care Commission. Further longitudinal research is required to track the processes and outcomes of preventive interventions and to assess their impact both on quality of life and long-term costs. Accepted by the UK government.
• In the light of the Commission's main recommendations, the Government should consider how the provision of care according to need would relate to Independent Living Fund provision for the personal care needs of younger disabled people.

Further Information

The full text of the Sutherland Report is available from: http://www.official-publications.co.uk/document/cm41/4192/4192.htm

Deputy Minister for Community Care, Iain Gray’s, speech from the SNP debate on pensioners on 2^nd December is very useful. In particular it picks up on the Executive’s view of many of the recommendations contained within the Sutherland Report. This speech is available on the Official Report on: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/official_report/session99-00/or031202.htm#Col1116

TOURISM

The Tories have used a small amount of the parliamentary time allocated to them on Thursday to hold a debate on Tourism. The Parliament last debated tourism in February this year, following the publication of the Executive’s New Strategy for Scottish Tourism.

Spending

In February an investment of £11million in the tourist industry was announced. This comprised £5 million to develop e-commerce initiatives and a £6 million investment in skills to boost skills in the industry through modern apprenticeships and individual learning accounts.

New Strategy for Scottish Tourism

Also in February, the New Strategy for Scottish Tourism was launched. This identifies the need to develop a modern tourist industry.

The strategy also sets tough targets and puts a clear responsibility on the Scottish Tourist Board and area tourist boards to be responsive, effective and appropriate to the industry.

Ossian IT project

One in ten Americans who visit Scotland book their accommodation over the Internet. It is vital that Scotland is up to the challenge of Internet booking which is why the Executive has heavily invested in the project.

The Ossian project was launched in March 1999 with over £1million funding from the then Scottish Office. The site itself (www.visitscotland.com) was launched in April 2000 by the Scottish Tourist Board. It enables hundreds of millions Internet users all over the world to access information about tourism in Scotland.

The system is a world first. It gives Scottish tourism global exposure and gives opportunities to small and medium-sized businesses who may not otherwise be able to take advantage of IT possibilities. As well as providing information, it allows potential visitors to book and pay for their accommodation over the Internet.

Tourism and the Scottish Economy

Tourism is a key sector of the Scottish economy, generating £2.5 billion in revenue each year - more than £2 billion from outside Scotland - and supporting 180,000 jobs. The industry accounts for five per cent of the Scottish gross domestic product.

Scotland ranks eighth in the world in terms of visitor spend per head of the population, and contributes proportionately more to the Scottish economy than English economy. In 1995, tourism receipts account for £539 per head of population in Scotland compared to £358 for England.

Over 60% of Scottish tourism revenue comes from within the UK. Between 1990 and 1997 domestic visitor spending rose in real terms from £1.3 billion to £1.7 billion, an increase of 26%. The following year saw a small fall in spending from UK tourists – represented by a large fall in Scottish tourists but a slight rise in English ones.

UK residents are spending fewer nights in Scotland but are spending more while they are here. This reflects the virtual disappearance of the main holiday market for UK residents and the rise of the short break.

Business tourism in the 1990s has been a success story 20% of Scottish tourism revenue in 1998 (£500 million) was generated by business tourism - 80% of which is from UK and 20% from overseas. Business tourism has the added advantages of generating higher spend per head and being less seasonal that other visitors.

In real terms overseas spent £710 million in 1990 and £965 million in 1997 – an increase of 36%. The USA provides the largest element on the overseas market accounting for £200 million of spend, with other large markets including Germany, France and Holland.

Employment in tourism related industries is estimated to have increased from 112,000 in 1970 to some 177,000 in 1998 (including 17,000 self employed), an increase of 58%.

Progress has been made in reducing the seasonality of tourism in Scotland. For example the proportion of UK tourism expenditure taking place out with the July – September period has increased from 55% in 1986 to 62% in 1996.

Useful Links

• New Strategy for Scottish Tourism
• Ossian website

THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

Sam Galbraith’s Emergency Statement on the SQA on Wednesday 6^th September led to this debate being postponed.

A full briefing is available in e-Brief 33 (4^th September 2000).

STAGE 3 DEBATE: THE SEA FISHERIES (SHELLFISH) AMENDMENT (SCOTLAND) BILL

While hardly the stuff of legend, this member’s bill from Liberal Democrat Tavish Scott, (which aims to primarily protect the interests of scallop farmers) would be the first Members Bill to be passed by the Scottish Parliament.

The purpose of the bill is to avoid unnecessary and avoidable conflicts of interest between shellfish farmers and fishermen.

The Bill would amend section 7(4) of the Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Act 1967 to permit Scottish Ministers to authorise the use by fishermen of non-damaging types of fishing gear such as creels in areas covered by Several Fisheries Orders.

As the law currently stands, a shellfish farmer will seek a Several Order to allow him/her to farm shellfish in a designated area. A Several Order means that all fishing is banned within the area covered – regardless of whether the fishing would damage the interests of the shellfish farmer.

This Bill would allow Scottish Ministers to issue a Several Order which permitting the continuation of ‘specified non-damaging fishing operations’ within the area covered by the Order.

This is a straightforward bill which will allow shellfish farmers and fishermen to share an area of seabed as long as they do not harm the interests of the other.

Fairly uncontroversial, the only political disagreement surrounded Jamie McGrigor’s (con) submission of two amendments to the Bill during Stage 2, which would allow fishermen to use any equipment as long as it is used "in the spirit of not damaging the scallop beds".

There was a cross-party agreement in the Committee that actually not damaging scallop beds was more important that the spirit of not damaging scallop beds, and Mr McGrigor withdrew his amendment.

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