Hansard

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

23 Mar 2016

Portfolio Question Time · Residential Care (Self-Funding Payments)

How can it be socially just when councils pay about £470 a week for a placement in a care home but a self-funding placement costs well over £1,000? As this is my final question, I will just say that I have been asking this question since 1999. The Labour Party’s response used ...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

23 Mar 2016

Portfolio Question Time · Residential Care (Self-Funding Payments)

I thank David McLaren in the chamber desk team for randomly selecting me for this question, given that I have been complaining about not being selected for the past year.

4. Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

23 Mar 2016

Portfolio Question Time · Residential Care (Self-Funding Payments)

To ask the Scottish Government whether it complies with its social justice policy objectives for self-funding older people in residential care to pay more than local authorities for the same care. (S4O-05699)

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

16 Mar 2016

Portfolio Question Time · College Sector (National Pay Negotiations)

I have an email from West Highland College, which says that it is unable to sign up to the current national bargaining initiative because it threatens the college’s financial viability and business continuity. I welcome the fact that some colleges have signed up but, where the...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

Annual Report

When I came here in 1999, David McLetchie was my leader. He offered me the Health and Community Care Committee. I said, “I don’t know much about it. I go to the doctor once a year—that’s about it.” He said, “What is it that you want to do?” I said, “I would like to go on the A...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

Annual Report

Hear, hear.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

Section 23 Reports

I appreciate that it is for the successor committee to do that, but for those of us who have been on the committee for most of the session, it has been an on-going issue. It is not the first time that the Government, on being unable to change a target, has changed the date. In...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

I have no doubt that future audit committees will come back to the matter.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

We have scrutinised the report, but I want to ask in particular about the final words, in paragraph 82. To be honest, they are neither hopeful nor optimistic for the future. Paragraph 82 states: “What is clear ... is that continuing on the current path of delivering local imp...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

That is good—thank you.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

There is still no financial strategy.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

Yes, I understand.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

If people are being discharged inappropriately when the whole care package is not in place but the NHS has met a target, the targets are coming before the patients’ wellbeing,

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

So the targets come before the patients.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

What were the “unintended consequences”, and how does that work counter to preventative care?

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

I thought that the question was worth asking. I will finish with some smaller points that I picked up. At paragraph 37, you use the example of Moray, which is a nice coterminous council area. Is that because Moray is the exception to the rule? Is there best practice in Moray ...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

I understand.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

Okay. I was a member of the first Health and Community Care Committee, along with Richard Simpson, in 1999. When we were considering the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Bill, which introduced free personal care, we were constantly told that health and social work did not ...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

Thank you. You talked about everything but the kitchen sink being included. I noted that the list of participants in community planning has been extended. I am sorry that I cannot find the page in the report that refers to that, but if you are complaining about everything but ...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

I quoted from the report.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

You have been here before, and you have heard it all before.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Committee

09 Mar 2016

“Community Planning: An update”

We seem to have been talking about community planning since 1999. I think that all parties were signed up to it. In the Christie commission report, which colleagues will remember, community planning was seen to be the answer to the future delivery of public services, which wer...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

09 Mar 2016

Rural Payments

Revenge, indeed. Finally, I thank Ruth Davidson and my Conservative colleagues for their friendship and their support over the years. They are the best bunch of people I have ever worked with, and I will miss every one of them. Thank you.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

09 Mar 2016

Rural Payments

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thought that I would keep the tears until the end. I thought that that was a shameful speech for Angus MacDonald, the son of a crofter from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, to make. He should be ashamed of himself. The crofters will certainly no...

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

I will first turn to the main issue of the day, which is funding, and I will then move on to performances. I will open the questioning by asking how direct funding has impacted on your operation, creativity, independence and autonomy. Could you also lump in the concern about ...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

Petition

I agree.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

I remember Scottish Opera serenading the Parliament. 11:45

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

Or both wrong. That is how important trends are.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

For the sake of clarity, I should say that the figures that I gave were for 2013-14, when National Theatre of Scotland performances were down by about a third in Scotland and were down internationally on the previous year, whereas Laurie Sansom’s figures were for the following...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

Yes, I am sorry that I do not have that.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

So in future we would need to look at the figures over five, seven or eight years to be able to see a trend.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

I am sorry: I only have the bare statistics and there is no further information. It is my duty to highlight the figures.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

We have some figures here, which show a comparison between 2012-13 and 2013-14. We looked at the figures for sponsorship and funding, which obviously vary, but the table shows that, for example, performances in Scotland by the National Theatre were down by about 25 per cent ov...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

You might have a nice little increase in your budget this year as a result of what you have just said.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

08 Mar 2016

National Performing Companies

I am trying to lump a few things together in order to get a general discussion.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I was the committee member who raised the concerns about telling our world-class universities that they had to advertise on the internet and that they had to tell people where to get an application form, so I thought that it was important and appropriate for me to welcome Gord...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Childcare Costs

There is a significant range in the payments per hour, per child, from local authorities. I was quite shocked to learn that some were under £3 and some were over £5. If we value the workforce, surely nurseries have to be funded, in order to ensure that we financially value the...

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Childcare Costs

I, too, thank Cara Hilton, because any opportunity to debate childcare in the early years is welcome. In this institution, we talk about higher education and schools, but I have no doubt—after almost a couple of decades in this Parliament—that the most important part of the ed...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill

I would like to, but I just cannot. As we normally do on these occasions, I thank the clerks of the Education and Culture Committee and, in particular, I thank the convener, Stewart Maxwell. It was not easy to gain consensus across the committee on the bill. It was fairly com...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill

The cabinet secretary is very knowledgeable about the time that Thomas Carlyle was writing, so she will know that we can assume that what he said applied to men and women. There are enough of us today to take on his comments. This is my last stage 3 debate. After this will co...

Mary Scanlon Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill

Of course.

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

08 Mar 2016

Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill

It has been quite a long day. When the cabinet secretary mentioned Thomas Carlyle, I thought that I would look up one or two quotes on my iPad. He said: “the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.” I li...

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

03 Mar 2016

Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc and Care) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I thank the minister for her response and for the very reasonable hearing that I got at stage 2. I am grateful that she has lodged amendment 2. Amendment 2 was born out of contact with a constituent, Mrs Blan Bremner, whose mother, Mrs Doreen MacIntyre, died in a care home in...

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con Chamber

03 Mar 2016

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Question Time · Food Waste

Many of us would like to increase the amount of food and drink for disposal. I refer in particular to the coffee in committee rooms. On behalf of my colleague on the Public Audit Committee and the Education and Culture Committee, Colin Beattie, and colleagues from all parties ...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

None at all.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

Convener, can I just point out that I am not asking for a delay? Quite often, when we get this kind of legislation, it is already through and we get about 30 days to comment. That is fine but, in this case, we have six months; this particular order is not due to be implemented...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

I was not on the committee during the passage of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill. However, my colleague Liz Smith was, and at the time, she raised some concerns about the implementation of the part of the bill under discussion. We cannot ignore the SPSO’s concer...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

So you expect the regulations to result in an increase in the figure.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

Does that happen at the moment?

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

Subordinate Legislation

This is not an area of policy that I am very familiar with. I seek some clarity. Like Liam McArthur, I was delighted to note that information that is contained in the register in Scotland will also appear in the adoption registers for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Is th...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

Is the Government willing to fund transitional moneys? Obviously, the University of the Highlands and Islands could not possibly give every lecturer an extra £7,000. Given the huge pay gap, is the Government willing to put money into the sector to ensure equal pay, once the ag...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

I have a final question. I am sure that you are as familiar with your party’s 2011 manifesto as your friend and colleague Mr Salmond is. It contains a promise of national pay bargaining and a promise of a national set of terms and conditions. I am sure that you know that in th...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

Part-time provision has been cut by 48 per cent.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

I appreciate that, but your predecessor, Mike Russell, also had that goal. If 244,000 part-time places had been sacrificed for several thousand additional full-time places, I think that we could have accepted that. My problem is that we have sacrificed a quarter of a million p...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

I think that we are all familiar with the recent figures on college places: the cut of 150,000 part-time places, the cut of 20,000 places for under-16s, and the cut of 74,000 places for over-25s. In total, almost a quarter of a million places have been cut from further educati...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

It is still trying to add value.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

It has been a process for five years.

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

I will ask my final questions together. Not everyone has to answer all of them. First, I want to ask about national pay bargaining. I have brought along an SNP manifesto that says “Re-elect” and has a picture of Alex Salmond on it—James Dornan is delighted about that. It make...

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

Are you funding more places or fewer?

Mary Scanlon Con Committee

01 Mar 2016

College Reform

I will go on to the reduction in learning activity that has been well documented over the past few months. The Audit Scotland report has the reduction in part-time student numbers at more than 150,000; the cut in the number of places for under-16s, which is an SDS issue, at mo...