 That concludes General Questions. The next item of business is First Minister's Questions, and I call Douglas Ross. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. On this, 11 November, we pay tribute to those who gave so much and sacrificed their lives to protect us. We thank those who are currently serving in our armed forces and all of the veterans across our country for everything they have done to keep us safe. Mae'r mlynedd ydych yn cyfnodol gyda'r cwp gyfnodol gyda'r ddodol gan gyrtwm iawn. Rhywbeth y wneud y gyrdion, 55-y rwy'r Richard Brown, rwyf yn ystod yn cyfnodol 5 oes gafodd y rhan. A oedden nhw ar gyfer y llunio, rydyn ni'n gallu i'r rhan o'r teimlo bwysig, ar rhan o'r hyn o'r rhan o'r hyn o gafodd. Mae ari ddau i ddod yn cishedigol oedd yn anghwyl fel gwyllid, ac ydynt gofynas unig i ddwyedd. Rwy'n maker oedda i ddweud â gyrhau arfer ac yn ymddangos. Felly'r chwarae ddweud yn ddweud iawn. Ydw i gyd yn ddweud... Felly mae'r pwysig ar y cyfnodau droswaith ar gyfer na fddangos. Prif ydych chi'n lle ei gyfaceg ymddangos yn ddweud, mae'n ddweud i'r ddweud i ddysgu i'r ddweud. Felly, we pay tribute to armed services personnel both past and present, and we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. This year marks 100 years of the Royal British Legion Scotland and the Scottish Poppy appeal in that time. The appeal has supported countless servicemen and women, veterans and their families. I know that I speak for everyone in the chamber in offering our thanks and our continued support for their efforts to the Scottish Poppy appeal and the important work that they and the Royal British Legion Scotland will do for us all, and especially for servicemen and personnel. I am answering questions on the First Minister's behalf, as she is at the conference of the parties in Glasgow. Mr Ross raises a serious issue in relation to Richard Brown. I first of all want to express my sympathy to Mr Brown's family, because Mr Brown should not have had the experience that he had, and I am very sorry that Mr Brown's family are enduring the added agony that they are having to endure in addition to the loss of Mr Brown. An investigation into the circumstances relating to the delay in reaching Mr Brown has been launched, and all findings and licence will be shared with Mr Brown's family as part of that process. To move to the general questions, I think that some of the issues that—well, first of all, I recognise the enormous pressures that are faced by the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Government has been clear in that recognition. I think that part of the explanation, perhaps, is from the level of demand that has been placed on the Scottish Ambulance Service as a consequence of the pressures that there are on the whole healthcare system within Scotland. As an illustration of that, in August 2018, the Scottish Ambulance Service responded to 5,788 immediately life-threatening incidents. By October 2021, that figure had reached 10,733. It had almost doubled. I say that simply to explain and quantify the pressures that the Scottish Ambulance Service is under. The Government has provided increased investment of £20 million to support the staff, and staff recruitment is under way. We will continue to invest in the work of the Scottish Ambulance Service to make sure that it has the capacity to undertake the task that it needs to undertake and to ensure that other families do not have the experience of Mr Brown's family. Douglas Ross. The problem is, Deputy First Minister, that other families are having that experience, because this is not the first time in this chamber that I have raised a distress in case, such as Richard Brown's. We have raised several of those cases of lives unnecessarily lost. This week, Dr John Thompson of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine told a Scottish Parliament committee that excessive waiting times are resulting in avoidable deaths. He laid out the grim facts. For every 67 people that wait at A&E for more than eight hours, somebody dies. If we look at just the last two months, according to Dr Thompson's estimate, there will have been more than 200 avoidable deaths. Lives are being lost that could have been saved. Will the Deputy First Minister therefore accept that the Scottish Government simply is not doing enough to support our emergency health services in their time of greatest need? The research that Mr Ross cites is based on data and experience within the ambulance service and experience within England. We are engaging with Mr Thompson to establish the comparability issues that will arise out of that information. First of all, I do not want to be suggested in any way that I am not recognising the pressures that there are on the health service in general and the ambulance service in particular, because I acknowledge that at the outset of all of my answers. That is why the Government has put in place increased investment of £20 million. We have already seen 179 new staff joining the Scottish ambulance service over the course of the last two months, and that will rise to £356 by the spring. The Scottish ambulance service budget has risen under the Government. It has sustained investment over the course of our period in office, but what we have to do is make sure that we take forward a series of measures at every stage in the health service to try to reduce the immediate burden on the national health service. That means that we have to have whole-system solutions in place about boosting social care capacity to make sure that people are better supported in their own homes and therefore have less need to use the Scottish ambulance service or about ensuring that we have improvements in the level of delayed discharges, which is the focus of great attention by the health secretary and by COSLA, on reducing delayed discharges so that our hospitals are less congested and, crucially, we can make sure that people have a swift journey through accident emergency when they are required to be there. Those issues are all the subject of on-going attention by the health secretary and by ministers. The health secretary met with the Scottish ambulance service yesterday on those questions, and that dialogue will continue. Douglas Ross has to continue, but we need action from that dialogue, because this morning there are worrying reports from paramedics and ambulance staff that they are at breaking point. A survey found that more than half of ambulance staff here in Scotland have seen patients die or become seriously ill because of long waiting times. Pat Rafferty, Secretary of United Scotland, said that the workers at the Scottish ambulance service are sending out their own 999 call to the Scottish Government, saying that they are undervalued, stressed and exhausted. How will the Scottish Government answer that emergency call? It is very important, given the fact that ambulance personnel, as with many in the health service, are dealing on a constant basis with trauma. Over the past 18 months, the experience of trauma by our health service professionals has been even greater because of the significant burden of Covid. That is why the Government has invested £12 million in supporting the wellbeing of members of staff, because we have to have a healthy staff if we want to have a healthy population. Those individuals have to be able to exercise their functions and their responsibilities and be supported in so doing. I have seen the survey evidence that Mr Ross cites this morning. I am troubled by it, because I want staff to feel valued. I can say it from this podium. We can reinforce it by the investment that we make over the course of this Government's period in office investment in the Scottish Ambulance Service has risen by 74 per cent. Staffing has increased by 62 per cent, but I acknowledge that there are significant demands and pressures on the Scottish Ambulance Service. We have put in place that investment. We are seeing staff numbers rise. The staff are doing a magnificent job in really difficult circumstances. I give the Government the assurance that the Government is not looking at the challenges just about the Scottish Ambulance Service, because the self-same staff that completed that survey to which Mr Ross refers will also be aware that meeting the challenges that they face requires a whole health service system solution, which is about social care, accident emergency, tackling delayed discharges, and those are all the issues that the Government prioritises. The Deputy First Minister is right that this is not just about ambulance staff but workers across our NHS, including nurses who are considering strike action. Doctors, medical students, paramedics and nurses—everyone in the NHS—are all desperately trying to save lives, but they do not have the resources that they need. They are crying out for help. The front-line staff has sent out their own 999 call to this Government. Scotland's NHS needs more support. This winter is going to be its toughest ever test. There is an extra £605 million coming to the Scottish Government this year. How much of that money will his Government commit to Scotland's NHS right now? Mr Ross will appreciate that, although I used to be close to decision making on financial issues, I am no longer the finance secretary. I will leave those questions for the budget, which will take place on 9 December. I can say to Mr Ross that employment in the national health service has never been higher than it is today. There has been a consistent increase in employment in the national health service in all areas of responsibility. I talked about the Scottish Ambulance Service personnel a moment ago. In consultants, in nurses, in every area of the national health service there has been growth in the number of staff recruited and employed. Employment in the national health service has never been higher on the question of pay. Our nurses are the best paid in the United Kingdom, and we have given the best offer of an increase to nurses. I appreciate that there are many strains within the national health service and many strains that members of staff are feeling, but what I want to make absolutely clear today is that the Scottish Government values every single individual that makes a contribution to the operation of the national health service. We applaud what they are doing in very difficult circumstances. We give them the assurance that we will resource them to enable them to be able to continue to do that work so that together we can as a country overcome the enormous burdens that we have faced with Covid and ensure that we support the population to health, and we need the national health service to deliver on that objective. Today, 11 November, we honour and remember those who have served and served in our armed forces. We pause to reflect on their duty and courage and to make clear that those have made their ultimate sacrifice that we will always remember them. We should also thank our armed forces for all their incredible contributions throughout the Covid pandemic. I want to go back to the issue of the national health service, because, to be frank, the answers weren't good enough. They were just words, and what we need is action. Last Saturday, a 55-year-old man, Richard Brown, died on the stairs of his tenement in Glasgow. Mr Brown had waited five hours for an ambulance that didn't arrive. Our NHS is in crisis. Mr Brown is not the first avoidable death this winter, and if action isn't taken, he will not be the last. People are dying not because we don't have the treatments to help them, but because help isn't coming fast enough. Even when an ambulance does arrive, people are spending hours sat outside of hospitals waiting to be seen. The support announced by the Government in September is not good enough and isn't making a difference. When will the Government come forward with a sufficient package of support so that we can prevent unnecessary suffering and deaths this winter? In my answers to Douglas Ross, I will often insist that he reiterates some of those points, because they relate directly to Mr Brown. The circumstances of Mr Brown and where his family's experience is unacceptable and the matter is being investigated and I extend my sympathies to Mr Brown's family. Part of the reason why the ambulance service is under so much pressure is because of the significant increase in demand for its services and the increase in demand in general for healthcare services as a consequence of the pandemic. The pandemic has put enormous strain on the NHS workforce, which has performed magnificently throughout an incredibly difficult 18-month period, and there will continue to be demands placed on them because of the fact that we are going into winter. The Government has responded to that by putting in place £20 million of increased investment just in September. New staff have been recruited and are now operating within the Scottish Ambulance Service. We have seen an increase in the budget consistently of the Scottish Ambulance Service over the period in which the Government has been in office, and we will continue to have dialogue with the Scottish Ambulance Service about how we can support their efforts. We have secured some military assistance, as Mr Sarwar properly paid tribute to, to assist us in that task. The Government is taking the necessary action to address those circumstances. We want to ensure that every individual is able to receive the healthcare that they require in the appropriate circumstances, and that is the focus of the investments that the Government is making. Given that answer from the Deputy First Minister, you can understand why 88 per cent of the staff say that they do not feel valued by the Scottish Government. You can understand why 98 per cent of the staff say that the announcements in September were insufficient. We hear all the talk about record numbers of staff. The facts of this, 79 per cent of the staff believe that they are understaffed and not enough of them. Listen to NHS staff, do not ignore them. I am sorry, Deputy First Minister, Covid cannot be the cover. Those are pressures that were existing in the national health service even before Covid. Covid is exacerbating the problems, but let us not pretend that those problems started with Covid. The survey that was released this morning by Unite the Trade Union outlines the challenges faced by ambulance service staff and the pressures that they are under and the risks that that means for patients. More than 70 per cent of the staff said that their calls had taken more than six hours to complete. A shock in 16 per cent of staff said that at least one of their calls had taken over 20 hours to complete. More than half said that delays had led to an adverse clinical event. That is a situation like a patient having a cardiac arrest and an ambulance when they could have been in the hospital. The Deputy First Minister points to that Government's announcement in September that 98 per cent of staff say that that is insufficient. Paramedics have made clear that they need a commitment from the Government of a maximum 30-minute turnaround so that ambulance staff are saving lives, not queued outside hospitals. Will the Deputy First Minister, if he is sincere about actions, not words, make that commitment today? It is abundantly clear that I and the Government want to make sure that ambulance time and capacity are used as efficiently and effectively as we possibly can do. Ambulances waiting at accident and emergency and not out collecting patients and providing support in the community are ambulances that are not in the right place. The Government is intensely focused with the Scottish Ambulance Service on making sure that ambulances are operating in an efficient and effective way so that they are not delayed by congestion in the accident and emergency departments. As I said to Mr Ross a moment ago, all of this is tied up with the fact that there is a whole system solution required. We need to make sure that patients are able to leave hospital to go into the community with social care packages. We need to make sure that accident and emergency has the capacity to ensure that patients can be moved from A&E into hospital wards if they need to be discharged as efficiently as possible. That is why the Government put in place a £300 million NHS and winter care package back in September about recruiting an extra 1,000 NHS staff, about making sure that there was £40 million for step down care, that there was £60 million to maximise the capacity of care at home services, that there was £48 million available to boost the pay of social care staff to make sure that we can deliver more social care packages and £28 million to support primary care and community solutions. All of that investment has been made right across the health service to make sure that the Scottish Ambulance Service can make its contribution as efficiently and effectively as it possibly can do. I assure Mr Sarwar and the public that the Government is absolutely determined to ensure that we use all the resources available to us to make sure that individuals receive the care that they require. The Deputy First Minister says that the system is broken. Who has been in charge of the system? You have been in Government for 14 years. Let's not pretend that this is some kind of new problem that has just appeared. He lists all the actions from September. I repeat, 98 per cent of the Ambulance Service staff say that that response is insufficient, so let's be absolutely clear. People are dying because of those choices, and NHS staff have been warning about them long before Covid, because there is a pattern here. The Royal College of Nurses tells us that there is not enough nurses, and the Government denies it. Emergency medicine doctors say that delays are causing deaths. No acknowledgement of that from this Government. Consultants are telling us that hospitals need at least 1,000 more beds to keep up with demand. This Government cut beds by 1,300 over the last decade. Patients are telling us of long delays at A and E, and the health secretary's answer is to tell patients not to go to A and E. The problem here is not patients or staff. The problem is the out-of-touch and hopeless Government that is providing over a crisis in our NHS. I ask again what will it take for this Government to act? Why does this Government believe that they know best, and not the nurses, the doctors and the paramedics on the front line of our NHS? I am afraid that Mr Sarwar is absolutely in denial about the impact of Covid on our national health service. That is the problem in this exchange. Mr Sarwar seems to think that the challenges that we face in our national health service today are somehow unique to Scotland. Every single healthcare system in the western world is facing the same problems, yet, apparently, according to Mr Sarwar, the impact of Covid is irrelevant to that process. I am not going to accept that skating past the impact of Covid on the situation that we face. The Government has made the investment that we have made. We continue to engage in discussion with trade unions, with employees, with health boards, with the ambulance service to make sure that we have all the capacity in place to deliver on those services. However, we have to recognise that. That is why the Government is taking the cautious steps that we are taking about Covid, some of which members of this Parliament tell us not to take. Some people are not prepared to support us when we take those steps. We do them to protect the people of this country, and we will make no apology for doing that. I welcome that Anand in Dumfries and Galloway has been selected for the Climate Action Towns programme, which will empower communities to engage in collective climate action, taking account of the unique challenges and opportunities that each town faces. Given the flooding Anand experienced just last week, which washed away two of the town's foot bridges in an unprecedented water levels, can the Deputy First Minister outline further detail on how the Climate Action Towns programme will work to help to tackle the global climate emergency? The Climate Action Towns programme will work to support communities so that they can influence the steps that are taken to create better resilience against the climate. I saw first hand last week the damage that had been taken place in Anand. There was a tremendous community resolve to address those issues, as there had been a tremendous community resilience operation to protect households and businesses as a consequence of the flooding. Fundamentally, the Climate Action Towns programme will empower local communities to be able to take more of those decisions and to resource them to undertake that activity. At the Finance Committee on 31 August, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy gave the following commitment. The A9 is still going to be dualled, and the A96 is referred to in the co-operation agreement in terms of the priorities of the next few years. In the chamber yesterday, the Minister for Public Finance, Tom Arthur, when a question by Fergus Ewing and Jamie Halcro Johnston could not give any commitment. Can I ask the Deputy First Minister, will the A96 be fully dualled by the 2030 commitment date? The member referred to the A9 and the A96. The A9 programme continues apace. I was delighted that the latest stage of the dualling of the A9 was opened recently in my constituency between Lunkarty and the Passive Burnham, and it has made a huge difference to the local community. The issues in relation to the A96 are covered in the partnership agreement, which sets out transport enhancements on the A96 corridor, including dualling from Inverness to Nairn, bypassing of Nairn, Keith Elgin and Inverruri, accompanied by measures to remove traffic from bypass town centres, targeted road safety improvements that were needed between Fockebers and Huntley and Inverruri to Aberdeen. The current plan is to fully dual the A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen, but we agreed to conduct a transparent evidence-based review to include a climate compatibility assessment to assess direct and indirect impacts on the climate and the environment, and that will be reported by the end of 2022. In February, after the chief executive of NHS Tayside cast doubt on the future viability of breast cancer services in Dundee, the First Minister promised Parliament that she would act on the unfolding crisis. Instead, as reported in the courier this morning, a further resignation of a senior consultant has left the service on the brink of collapse and an urgent need of external support. That has been a catastrophic failure of leadership on behalf of the board and the SNP Government. What has to happen? How many lives will we put at risk before this Government steps up with a plan that guarantees the future of this vital service? I honestly do not think that Mr Marra is serving the people who he represents well by expressing this issue in that fashion. After February, a new consultant was appointed in NHS Tayside to provide the service. There is on-going recruitment for a further post, and there is on-going clinical support provided by NHS Grampian. I hope that that provides the reassurance to members of the public in the Tayside area that Mr Marra's unfortunate expression of his question certainly did not. Deputy First Minister, a constituent received this text, and I quote NHS, You are now eligible to apply for your NHS Covid pass. Failure to apply may result in a fine. Please apply for your Covid pass via and then it was addressed to me to look like the NHS. Now the constituent had the good sense not to click on the link, but since my office advised NHS borders and the police, there have been further instances. Can I ask what the Scottish Government is doing to alert the public to this more recent spate of scams? Deputy First Minister, the Christine Grahame's right to raise the issue. There are some reports of scam calls and texts related to Covid-19. Let me be absolutely clear that neither the Scottish Government or any other agency will text individuals to invite them to apply for a Covid pass or certificate. Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, have published information on their website on how to be vigilant against such activity. Any suspicious emails can be forwarded to the National Cyber Security Centre, and suspicious texts can be reported. However, I encourage members of the public to be vigilant and follow the fact that neither the Scottish Government nor any other agency will text individuals to invite them to apply for a Covid pass or certificate. My constituent Norma Dyrlton received her booster vaccine some time ago, but yesterday she received a fourth letter calling her for a jab. She has been a bit unable to cancel the appointment, but her 88-year-old neighbour has received no vaccine booster correspondence, and she too has faced problems getting through on the appointment line. Despite attending a mobile vaccine bus twice last Thursday in Gullin, she had to leave due to the length of the queues. Will the Deputy First Minister urgently look into the on-going problems in the vaccine booster scheme across the Lothians? The vaccine programme in general has been rolled out very effectively, and the booster programme is being rolled out across the country very successfully. Scotland is the highest performing part of the United Kingdom in relation to the rolling out of the booster programme. However, there have been a number of issues in relation to NHS Lothian in connection with the appointment system, with which we are familiar. We are in discussion with NHS Lothian. Our officials met with the chief executive of NHS Lothian earlier this week to discuss the very practical issues that Mr Hoy raises with me. If he wishes to provide me with specific details, I will look into the case and try to resolve it, because I am sorry for the inconvenience that his constituent has experienced. They should not have experienced that. In general, the programme is being rolled out well, but there are some challenges in NHS Lothian with the appointment system. We expect those to be resolved very shortly, but if there are particular details that he wishes to share with us, we will act to resolve them. In mid-Scotland and Fife, as across the Holy Scotland, I think, the numbers of people who have been assessed as needing care packages and not being able to access those care packages is growing by the day. At the Covid recovery committee this morning, Dr Donald McCaskill for Scottish Care was clear to the committee that the key factor in recruitment and retention issues is low pay. Whilst welcoming the £10.2 per hour, he said that it was not enough and it will not fix a problem. At the same committee, Dr Arn Rebuse from the GPs said that the key issue that had to be resolved for this winter is the social care backlog and social care problems. Will the Government, who are putting hundreds of millions of pounds into this area, listen to all those professionals from that sector and bring forward in the budget a care, a wage increase for all carers in Scotland? Mr Rowley has made a number of contributions to Parliament on this question and a number of them I have handled and we have discussed it at the Covid recovery committee. I acknowledge the significance of the point that he makes. It has formed part of my answers to both Anasawa and Douglas Ross that, if we can address and build the capacity of the social care workforce, that will give us some ability to withstand some of the other pressures that the national health service experiences. We have already put in place an increase to the salary of the social care workforce that has been put in place by the Government already to assist in resolving those issues. One of the other issues is the availability of people in our community. Mr Rowley, I am sure would accept that the ending of free movement of individuals across the European Union has diminished the size of the workforce available to us here in Scotland. It is posing a real and practical effect in a number of sectors. One of them is social care. That is why we encourage the United Kingdom to arrive at a more sensible position on free movement than it currently occupies. On Armistice's day, it is incumbent on all of us to pay respect to those who have paid the ultimate price to protect this country and to protect our freedoms. Can I ask the Deputy First Minister when the Cabinet will meet him next? There is a muscle memory to those exchanges. Week after week, Opposition members ask the Government about the crisis in emergency care. Week after week, the Government responds by blaming the pandemic. The Deputy First Minister has doubled down on that today by accusing a Nassarwar of being in denial. The former outgoing chief executive of NHS Scotland said that the crisis has been years in the making, but the pandemic has only hastened the date. I want the Deputy First Minister to put himself in the shoes of our hard-working emergency care staff. The call-handlers, Anseling, repeated calls asking again and again when the ambulance will come. Paramedics who are attending doors knowing that behind that door is somebody who has been waiting in pain for hours on end. That must be absolutely traumatic. I have here a freedom of information response. We learned that the number of ambulance staff hours lost to mental ill health is now up 300 per cent since 2017. That is 40,000 hours between July and September alone. One paramedic told the daily record today that we feel as if we are failing the public even though it is not our fault. I ask the Deputy First Minister to stop grasping its straws, to stop blaming the pandemic and to accept that his Government is letting its vital staff down. First of all, I value the contribution that is made by all healthcare staff to our national health service in all its component parts. We recognise the pressure on the wellbeing of members of staff. That is why we put in place the £12 million investment to ensure that staff wellbeing was supported and that individuals could be enabled to continue their activities. I also recognise, as members of staff do, the significant impact that Covid represents on the operation of the national health service. Anybody who comes to Parliament and seeks to diminish the enormous impact of Covid on our national health service is not recognising the reality of the situation that we are facing. For those reasons, that is why we have put in the extra winter care package of resources, it is why we have strengthened the resources that are available to the Scottish Ambulance Service and it is why the Government will continue to invest as assiduously in the national health service as it has done since the minute that this Government came to office, with a significant increase in the budget of the national health service over the length of this Government's term in office. To ask the Deputy First Minister whether he will provide an update on the work of the Under 2 Coalition at COP26. The Under 2 Coalition of which the First Minister is the European Co-Chair launched a new memorand of understanding at the General Assembly this week, setting out a higher level of ambition for the coalition and committing the coalition to net zero by 2050. The First Minister signed the MOU at the General Assembly this week and 27 Governments also signed up. We endorse the new, further, faster together statement, outlining the actions that members are already taking to meet their ambitious 2030 targets. 41 Governments endorse the statement demonstrating the leadership of these Governments to this important objective. I welcome the announcement made today of the trebling of support for climate justice. What plans does the Scottish Government have to continue the discussions and networking established by the Glasgow climate dialogues, as we will discuss in our lunchtime members' debate, beyond COP26? In particular, will it use its role as a European Co-Chair of the Under 2 Coalition of Sub-State Cities and Regions to promote a similar dialogue among all the Under 2 members? In doing so, will the Scottish Government advance issues such as the loss and damage fund with them following the First Minister's announcement of a now Scottish £2 million loss and damage fund? Yes, small in amount, but significant in terms of leadership on the issue. I am happy to confirm the Government's support for the objectives that Fiona Hyslop has set out. As European Co-Chair, Scotland is committed to promoting values of justice and inclusivity. We hope to build a lasting legacy for COP26 by building a just transition alliance with members of the Under 2 Coalition. We are also championing issues of global importance to mobilise increased action from our fellow members. I recognise that there is a member's debate today that will be initiated by Fiona Hyslop. It is focusing on ensuring that the global south is heard and understood, and the Scottish Government and the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition has co-convened the Glasgow Dialogues to enable this to be the case. That is, of course, the first member's debate in 14 years that Fiona Hyslop has been able to lead in the chamber because of her service as a minister. I cannot think of a more formidable parliamentary voice to be leading on this topic than Fiona Hyslop. I wish her well for the debate that is about to come. The international energy agency says that development of new oil and gas fields must stop this year if we are to reach net zero by 2050, as advocated by the Under 2 Coalition. That alone should rule out development of the camber oil field off the coast of Shetland. Camber would not only be bad for the climate, but it would also be devastating for biodiversity. Sixteen marine and climate groups recently highlighted that the pipeline would cut through 22 miles of UK marine protected area and threaten hundreds of rare and ancient species in the Faro Shetland sponge belt. Will the Deputy First Minister raise this issue with the UK Government in order to uphold the NPA designation for this important area? The issues in relation to camber are obviously for decision making by the United Kingdom Government and I am Burgess will be familiar with the fact that the Scottish Government has made clear our desire for the UK Government to subject that particular development to a climate compatibility assessment given the length of time that has taken place since its original consent. There will be specific issues in relation to marine protection areas that would have to be the subject of statutory dialogue where that development to take its course, but the stance of the Scottish Government is to ask for a climate compatibility assessment to be undertaken before we get to that stage. Question 5, Liam Kerr. As the Deputy First Minister, how does the Scottish Government plan to meet the requirement for electric car charging points by 2030? Over the past decade, the Government has invested more than £50 million in public charging points, creating one of the largest networks in the United Kingdom. We are working with industry, local authorities and technology suppliers to expand the network and, through a partnership approach, create opportunities for Scottish business, industry and communities. At the core of our approach is making sure that no one in no part of Scotland is left behind as we switch to electric vehicles. I thank the Deputy First Minister. I am not sure that answer will give much confidence, because latest figures show that, of those already installed, the number of faulty charging points recorded this year far exceed those recorded in 2020. Nearly 40 charging units per week are registered broken. The Press and Journal recently made an electric vehicle trip from Jonogrotts to Glasgow ahead of COP26, and it found significant numbers of charging points, particularly in Aberdeenshire, broken or inaccessible, leaving EV motorists stranded. Scottish Chambers of Commerce says that the situation is nowhere near good enough. Will the Deputy First Minister address the issues with Charge Place Scotland to ensure that Scotland has working infrastructure to support the roll-out of electric vehicles and meet our net zero targets? This is an important issue, and the transition has got to be made effectively. Scotland has the second highest number of public charge points for electric vehicles per 100,000 of the population, second only to the city of London. It has to be operational. If Mr Kerr wants to furnish me with information about the particular examples that he is concerned about, I will make sure that they are addressed. In relation to our dialogue with Charge Place Scotland, we will ensure that the issues that are raised here are raised with Charge Place Scotland in order to ensure that we have an effective network. However, in terms of the investment, the Government is making sustained investment, which gives us the position that Scotland has the second highest number of public charge points for electric vehicles in any part of the UK other than London. Bill Kidd Mr Kidd does not wish to ask a question. To ask what steps the Scottish Government is taking in response to reports of an increase in turnaround times for ambulances offloading patients at A&E departments. The Scottish Government recently announced a package of support for the Scottish ambulance service, backed by an additional £20 million, which will help to increase capacity and improve response in turnaround times and staff wellbeing. That includes the recruitment of additional hospital ambulance liaison officers who provide targeted support to ambulances at our busiest A&E departments to reduce turnaround times. We are working with health boards to reduce handover times within A&E departments by putting in place a range of measures, including decompressing the A&E department by focusing on flow, implementing Scottish Ambulance Service arrival screens and opening additional capacity for ambulances to safely and timidly offload patients. That will support our improvement journey, aiming to prevent ambulances being delayed at A&E departments. In all of his answers to the subject, the Deputy First Minister has pointed to increased demand due to the pandemic. I have statistics here from the Scottish Ambulance Service showing that turnaround times in A&E departments going back to 2014 have increased. In my own region, the Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, ambulance turnaround times have doubled from 22 minutes in 2014 to 43 minutes in 2021. That is simply unacceptable. What those statistics demonstrate clearly is that the crisis in ambulance wait times began well before the pandemic, with wait times growing year on year. In answer to Anna Sarwar, the Deputy First Minister would not commit to the maximum 30-minute turnaround time called for by ambulance staff. Can he tell the chamber then what he thinks is an acceptable turnaround time for ambulances at A&E? When is he going to listen to staff and get a grip of this crisis? I have set out in my answers to Douglas Ross and Anna Sarwar some of the substance of the issue, so I will not rehearse it again to Paul O'Kane. One of the important investments that we have made is the investment in the hospital ambulance liaison officer service. It has proven to be effective in a number of parts of the country to improve the turnaround of patients who have been brought to hospital by ambulances. We have also expanded the capacity of the Scottish ambulance service, which is the investment that we have made. The Government is taking those practical steps in discussion with staff to ensure that we have the steps in place to ensure that people can be supported when they need access to ambulance services and that they do not spend any longer in the ambulance than they require. That will vary depending on the conditions and the circumstances of individual patients as they arrive and as they are presented to hospital. However, the clinical judgments that are made by staff in the national health service are judgments that I trust and I rely on to make sure that patients get the treatment and the care that they require. Deputy First Minister, you have just given a list of things that you are looking to do. Clearly, they are not working. Ambulance turnaround times are rising. Will you accept that the plans that you have put in place are not working and will you look to improve and actually make tangible differences to the ambulance turnaround times right now? The investment has been made and we are obviously seeing an expansion in the number of staff and personnel able to be working in the Scottish Ambulance Service. We are also seeing the recruitment of individuals designed to support the flow of patients from ambulances into accident emergency and on to destinations either within the hospital or to a return home. Dr Gilhane will accept—I would have thought—that this is a whole systems issue. It involves the roles and responsibilities of general practitioners. It involves the roles of social care. It involves the role of hospitals. It involves the role of delayed discharges. It involves the role of accident emergency. The Government is taking sustained action in a number of areas to ensure that we deal with that within the context of a national health service that is under colossal pressure because of the impact of the pandemic. We are working our way through those challenges to ensure that we meet the needs of patients in all circumstances. To ask the Deputy First Minister what his response is to the comments by the Lord Advocate to the Criminal Justice Committee on the potential for new proposals regarding the use of drug consumption rooms and whether non-prosecution is in the public interest. The Lord Advocate statement confirms a new opportunity for new proposals to be considered regarding safer drug consumption facilities. We have been clear on the benefits that safer drug consumption facilities would bring to reducing drug-related deaths in Scotland, and we are actively exploring how we can overcome the existing legal barriers that will allow us to progress the use of those facilities. There is clear evidence that those facilities mitigate the chances of a fatal overdose, provide additional support, including that around reducing harm-related injection practices and allow for connection with wider treatment services. We see problem substance use as a public health issue, and there is a growing recognition of the harms that punitive drug policies cause. Providing individuals with options for treatment, rather than a route into the criminal justice system, is our priority. Thank you. The statement from the Lord Advocate is very welcome. I welcome the Government's commitment to look at a way to address the issue. We all recognise the significant problems that Scotland has with drug fatalities, and we have been critical of the Government's approach to this so far, but we are looking to work constructively. I hope that the Lord Advocate will be aware of the plan from Glasgow City Health and Social Care partnership that was rejected by the previous Lord Advocate. I am looking for some assurances that a proposal from the Government this time—although it was not done previously—will be robust, and an indication of when we can have some conclusions, and a proposal will be brought forward. I am very happy to give Clare Baker the assurance that the Government is taking forward active discussions to establish what could be an acceptable route to enable the appropriate use of drug consumption rooms as part of a public health strategy to tackle the drug problems that we face in Scottish society. That involves a great deal of dialogue with a range of different organisations, Police Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Crown and various other organisations to ensure that we can establish and propose an appropriate and a sustainable route. That work is under way. As for a timescale, if Clare Baker will forgive me, I cannot give a definitive timescale today, but I assure her that that is being actively pursued as a consequence of the remarks that the Lord Advocate has made. That concludes the First Minister's questions. We will now move on to members' business.