Keith Raffan: To ask the Scottish Executive what implications Sir Peter Gershon's Government efficiency review will have for the delivery of public services in Scotland. (S2O-1390)
Keith Raffan: I hope that the UK Government has shared a copy of Sir Peter's interim report with the minister and that he has had sight of that. Can the minister assure us that the Executive will give serious consideration to the proposed reforms, not least in relation to procurement and the streamlining of regulation, which could save up to between £10 billion and £15 billion nationwide? That money is...
Keith Raffan: I, too, congratulate Lord James Douglas-Hamilton on securing this important debate and welcome the establishment of the Institute of Science Education in Scotland. As other members have said, it is important that we make science much more attractive as a subject to study at school. Although I am the son, grandson and great-grandson of doctors, I am ashamed to say that science came to a...
Keith Raffan: I welcome the principles on which the bill is based. The bill puts the treatment of patients first; or, to use the words of Dr Jean Turner, it will "improve the patient's journey", which is NHS jargon, but I like it. As the minister said, that means increasing the integration of primary and specialist services and removing the artificial barrier between the services that trusts represent. I...
Keith Raffan: Will the member give way?
Keith Raffan: I thank Rob Gibson for giving way. I have seen how managed clinical networks work in Tayside and Fife and Mr Gibson's point about specialists is not accurate—certainly not in my experience of the health boards in my region—because they do travel. Does he agree that with the developing information technology within the NHS, distance and travel are becoming irrelevant anyway?
Keith Raffan: To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Executive intends introducing random drug testing in schools. (S2F-672)
Keith Raffan: When the First Minister meets the Prime Minister this evening, will he tell him of some of the highly effective ways that we have in Scotland of tackling drug problems in schools, from which Mr Blair can learn? Will he tell him of Kirkcaldy's schools, where when teachers detect a problem—and they do not need a sniffer dog or a blood test to do so—they call in an excellent organisation...
Keith Raffan: This has been a good debate; it has been moderate in tone and mostly moderate in substance. Lord James Douglas-Hamilton is always moderate in style, if not always moderate in some of the things that he comes up with. Let me start from a very simple premise: all members can agree that we want to give every child in Scotland the best possible start in life and that, through their childhood and...
Keith Raffan: Hang on a second—let me finish my point. Robert Brown said that a parliamentary committee should be given the remit of considering the Airborne Initiative, although I would add that it should be considered in the wider context of the problems that similar organisations face in relation to funding, administration, monitoring, regulation and measurement of their effectiveness.
Keith Raffan: I will give way to Robin Harper first, then to Johann Lamont.
Keith Raffan: Airborne should be allowed to continue and a committee should examine the subject.
Keith Raffan: I would love to, but I am in my last minute and the Presiding Officer will not let me. We should not only share good practice—we should look for it elsewhere. Examples include the excellent play area project in Wrexham in Clwyd, which was discussed in an informative Robertson Trust seminar not so long ago, and the highly effective mentoring projects that were introduced by the former...
Keith Raffan: Fine. We should be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, but let us also be intelligent in response to criminal behaviour and supportive of rehabilitation.
Keith Raffan: Robert Brown made an excellent suggestion about remitting the issue of young people to a parliamentary committee for inquiry. Do Ms Hyslop and the Scottish National Party agree that such an inquiry might consider Airborne in the broader context of the type of problems that alternatives-to-custody projects face, in terms of funding, administration, running and monitoring? There is too much...
Keith Raffan: Will the member give way?
Keith Raffan: I agree with Nicola Sturgeon on the cycle of reoffending. Does she, too, think it interesting that the former chief inspectors of prisons for England and Wales, Stephen Tumim and Sir David Ramsbotham—particularly in his latest and quite remarkable book—and Clive Fairweather up here and Derek Lewis down there have all talked about exactly what we are talking about, which is sending fewer...
Keith Raffan: Will the minister give way?
Keith Raffan: I wanted to ask about truancy. There are some excellent anti-truancy projects, not least the one in Alloa, of which the minister might be aware. Will he say how those projects could be broadened out? Truancy is a particular problem in relation to looked-after children. Intervention in the school environment is needed in order to prevent a continuation of the cycle of reoffending.
Keith Raffan: Will the minister join me in thanking the outgoing chairman of NHS Fife, Esther Roberton, for the admirable way in which she led NHS Fife and guided it through a difficult period? During that period, the future of the health service in the kingdom and of the hospitals in Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy were addressed and extra services were initiated to treat drug misuse, an issue in which I am...
