 Cwestiwn 1, Cæsadugdeol. Ie, cwestiwn nid, cwestiwn ni yn gweithio dod am ffwrdd dros y jogd. Felly, cwestiwn ni'n gofio bdeg diabocu hwnnw, eich gweldion ar y corff mwy, ac mae'r cwestiwn ni'n gweithio gwaith o'i defnyddio arnau soldiadau SNP. Mae cwestiwn ni wedi gweithio presidiau neu bwysig o'r hebogledd, o ddalid, wrth hyn, i'n gael sicr o'r gweithio geithagol i'r warchon dawn iawn. Yn rwyny, yr ddaeth y gwahol mul ac oes ar hyn o'r cyflwybr neiddo iawn ac rydyn ni. Arlai ddau'r reguethau cyfaintol o'r ddigreid. John Swinney wedi gael gylem ddeithas fel swydden i'r chymwel iddangos yn economaidd iawn i'r trwyddiol fel rydyn ni, ond i'r cyflwybr neiddo iawn i'r cyflwybr neiddo iawn i'r cyffredin niol, rydyn ni'n ddaeth i'r cyflwybr neiddo iawn. byw, i mi rhaid i llwyddwch ac d palmau i gael ffordd hynny ac yn ddau'r cyhoesbyddasau yn ei ddigwysio i'r cyflyg ac i wneud bryd wedi feti eu sacynigol, mae oedd maen nhw ydych chi'n tymlog o gychwyn iawn i gwleidio gael i gael i gael i'ch sefydlu cyffredinfaid, a i gael i'ch ddigwyd gyfan gyda resfyrdd i gael i gael i gael i gael i gael i gael i gael i gael i gael i痛fain ar gyfer яdda i ddweud ynglŷn yn CSC, yn llwybu i ddweud ar 1 350. Mae yna ddweud o'r clyw yn sgwrth yn ddiogelio gyda mamfa ar yw gwaedd Cymru, yn ystod gyda i ddweud ar gyfer hwyl, ac mae ei bod yn dod i'r rhai ddweud ynglŷn yn gwneud, hynny oedd ym Mhacolor Cllwyddon yn eu ddweud yn yr oedd. Foddwr yn ffraeg degi i ddweud fy gael ynglŷn, a ddweud a diogelio y mae roeddaf mewn cezia Dogdeal yn ddysgu but still is worried about their own desperate fight for survival there than anything else. Kezia Dugdale. She calls it wild scaremongering. Heres Willie McGonagall from UNITE. We have lost 40,000 local government jobs since 2010, and over the next year we will likely lose a further 15,000 as a result of Scottish government cuts. Felly, erdoedd yn gwybod i ddweud yr oeddaeth ar gyfer bod gydymdeithasol yn ddweud fe mawr o phanodol o'r gôl o'r achos penedig fel y rai. Rhaid rydyn ni'n nawr, wrth gwrs, o fe ddweud o'r credu Cymru i gael yr oedd adrygiadau oerdd. Rwyf y casgau rhywbeth adrygiadau mewn i John Swinney i amendmentu'r trafwy arcaf, ar gael bod ni'n cyffredin gyda grannu'r cyffredin. Dech stato'r prif, mae'r Prif wedi'i gyrsio ar gyfer gydag ei gwych gyda'r cyflmmodig, Rydym ni'n gallu credu cyfnodol ar gynnig oherwydd ei wneud yn cyfryddiaeth y SNP. Rydym ni'n gallu refyeisio ganddloeddau SNP i gyd, ac mae'n gofyn nhw i'r cael ei ddweud i'r ystafell. Rwy'n ni'n gweld i'r ystyried i'r ddweud i'r ddweudio i'r ddweud i'r ddeuig a'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r gael. Felly, rwy'n credu i'r ddweudio i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud? I was just wondering, the Hezia Dugdale in this chamber yesterday exaggerated the impact in one council by a factor of three. The figures she has just quoted are simply not born out by the reality of council budgets. Let me quote Aburdinshire council, for example, where Labour is part of the administration, there will be a minimal impact on jobs. Our pan тыi, yn gyntafol, taw wgwgiau hwn i hefyd yn gwahodol i'r bwrdd a chi wedi'i ffordd neu dwyllgor. Ar Aberdeen Cymru, gynnyddio siaradau yn Ydyn ni, rwy'n gwybodaeth at gyflugiau. Yr hyn wedi y gwirfaedd, Kezia Dugdale erioedd yn cael ei ddigonwch ar y gwirfaith yma, serious issues, and they deserve to be treated seriously. At the last session of First Minister's Questions, Kezia Dugdale stood up and said that Perthyn Cunross council were going to cut childcare, were going to cut additional support needs, were going to cut early years teachers and were going to cut maths and English teachers. Perthyn Cunross council set its budget later that same day, and they agreed a budget for 2016-17 that has no reductions in early years teachers, no reductions in childcare, it maintains teacher numbers and actually their budget doesn't cut additional support needs, it increased the additional support need budget by 6%. So there is a gulf here, Presiding Officer, between what Labour say in this chamber and the reality of what is happening across the country. Before we go any further, with any more claims from Labour, I wonder if Kezia Dugdale will take the opportunity to retract what she said yesterday about Clackmannanshire and to retract what she said two weeks ago about Perthyn Cunross. Both were flatly wrong. Kezia Dugdale, Mr Dugdale. She's trying to deny that there's cuts in education and we've seen 4,000 fewer teachers in this country since she came to office. She can't re-profile that away. Now, she didn't like hearing the truth from Unite. Let's see what she has to say about the GMB. Here's Gany Smith, Secretary of the GMB in Scotland. Representing public sector workers, don't forget that, First Minister. Government ministers need to take their heads out of the sand about the devastating impact of the cuts that they are making on essential local services right across Scotland. That, First Minister, is the reality. Nicola Sturgeon is the first to line up to set up task forces and summits when jobs disappear in the private sector, but when teachers and classroom assistants and office staff find themselves out of work because of choices she has made, she's nowhere to be seen. This afternoon, the SNP-controlled Dundee City Council will vote on plans to cut the budget for supply teachers, on plans to close a high school, on plans to cut the budget for classroom materials for a decade. The First Minister has told us that more powers would mean fewer cuts, yet when she had the chance to use the powers of this Parliament to stop cuts to schools and save jobs, she bottled it with her austerity budget. How many jobs need to be lost and how many cuts need to be made before this First Minister will finally use the powers that she has? Given that I have already demonstrated that what Kezia Dugdale said two weeks about Perthyn Kinross was wrong, what she said yesterday about Clackmannshire was wrong, I think that people should take what she's saying today about Dundee with a pinch of salt. It's interesting, isn't it? Kezia Dugdale stands here and complains about a reduction in the number of teachers, and yet, yesterday, in this chamber, she joined forces with the Conservatives to vote against a budget that expressly maintains the number of teachers. That is the blated hypocrisy of Labour in this chamber. Kezia Dugdale likes to quote people, but let me quote a couple of her own colleagues. How about the Labour leader of East Lothian Council? He should be familiar to Ian Gray. This is what he said earlier this month. Our budget will enable us to invest in the future through increased provision for education and promoting the local economy. Or we could have the Labour leader of West Lothian Council. We have a budget that focuses on and meets the needs of local people while protecting services that impact on the most vulnerable. Or we could go to Aberdeen. The Labour leader in Aberdeen has today joined forces with the Conservatives to issue a letter to every council tax payer in Aberdeen. That letter says that John Swinney's budget is so dreadful that it has enabled Aberdeen City Council, and I am quoting from the letter, to protect front-line services and jobs for the people of Aberdeen, and to progress an ambitious and comprehensive plan that supports education, new infrastructure, roads, culture and prevention against flooding. Terrible John Swinney enabling a council to do all that. Presiding Officer, the First Minister might like to remember that the Green Party, those notable right-wingers at the back of the chamber there, also voted against her budget yesterday. I tell you what I voted against. I voted against cuts to jobs, cuts to schools and local services. No politician can be taken seriously about wanting to tackle poverty and inequality unless they are prepared to challenge the current Westminster model of austerity. Not my words, the words of Nicola Sturgeon, but her budget used this Parliament as a conveyor belt for Westminster austerity yesterday, and we were faced with a choice between using the powers of this Parliament to invest in the future or to impose more cuts on vital public services. So when she knows thousands of jobs will be lost and she knows the impact this will have on generations of young people, why on earth did she choose more cuts? Not only does Kezia Dugdale's claims not bear any resemblance to reality, I have debunked most of the claims that she has made through reference to the reality in Perthyn Cynross, in Clackmannanshire and in Aberdeen City Council, but let me just outline to Kezia Dugdale exactly what she did join with the Conservatives to vote against yesterday. She and her colleagues arm in arm shoulder to shoulder with the Tories, voted against record funding for the national health service. She voted against the doubling of the education attainment fund. She voted against increased funding for social care services. She voted against the protection of the police budget in real terms. She voted against the protection for apprenticeships and perhaps most galling of all, given everything that Labour has had to say on this issue over the past couple of years. Labour MSPs joined with the Conservatives to vote against a living wage for care workers. There have been a lot of quotes thrown about this chamber today, Presiding Officer. Let me just end with this one. It is from Kezia Dugdale herself. When asked this week, will you come second in the Scottish Parliament elections, Kezia Dugdale said, yes, and I think we've just seen why? Order. Question 2, Ruth Davidson. Ruth Davidson, and I think even that may be in doubt. To ask the First Minister when she'll next meet the Prime Minister. First Minister. No plans at present. Ruth Davidson. Presiding Officer, I would like to return to the growing crisis affecting our rural economy that's been caused by this SNP Government. Yesterday, I received an email from Jim Walker, the former head of the National Farmers Union of Scotland. In it, he told me that he may have supported independence but I quote, he could never support a party, a minister or a government that have been quite so incompetent and frankly naive. He's writing an article to be published tomorrow in which he says that the NFUS should call for the resignation of both the cabinet secretary and his director in the civil service. Here are the facts, Presiding Officer. Our rural economy is currently being starved of half a billion pounds worth of funding because this SNP Government couldn't organise a payment system in time. A system that has already run £75 million over budget and still doesn't work. What is it going to take for this First Minister to get a grip? First Minister, it might be worth just pointing out that in the most recent cap negotiations, the Conservative Party actually argued for the scrapping of the direct support for Scottish and UK farmers that we are talking about today, so that's perhaps just a contextual point that is worth bearing in mind, but this is obviously a very important and serious issue, Presiding Officer. We are continuing to do everything possible to get installments out as many farmers as we can by the end of March and the balance of payments as soon as possible after that. The number, as Richard Lochhead said in portfolio questions yesterday, is now approaching 50 per cent. We are reporting progress weekly to the Racky Committee and to industry and are in fortnightly discussions with banks to discuss the situation. Of course, Richard Lochhead, when he spoke to the NFU, announced a £20 million hardship scheme so that any farmer who hasn't had their payment and is not getting support for their bank can apply for hardship payments from the Scottish Government. It's interesting perhaps to reflect on what the chief executive of the Scottish Crofting Federation said about that. It's heartening to see the Scottish Government dealing with these challenging circumstances in such a creative way in the idea of the Government being a lender, while not new shows that they are doing everything they can to address the difficult situation. We are doing everything we can, Presiding Officer, and we will continue to do so. Ruth Davidson The payments were supposed to be made by December and it's now nearly March. Only the SNP could take that sort of a failure and try to claim it some kind of success. I mean, I heard what the First Minister said there, but the truth is, if this was affecting urban Scotland or the central belt, then the SNP would be all over it. But because it affects rural Scotland and the borders, it slipped off her radar. Let's be clear about this. This is a complete failure of Government. It is damaging people's livelihoods. It's now cost the taxpayer half of what it cost to build this Parliament building and it's still not fixed. Jim Walker speaks for thousands of farmers and crofters who are looking for some action. It's clear that the Cabinet Secretary is part of the problem, not the solution, so isn't it time that the First Minister stepped in and took personal charge of ensuring that our rural economy is led out of this crisis? Cabinet Secretary. As I said to Ruth Davidson two weeks ago, the Cabinet has been discussing this matter on a weekly basis, but Ruth Davidson has just said something in her question that is factually inaccurate. The EU payment window for those payments is 1 December 2015 to the end of June 2016. The deadline for payments is 30 June 2016. That is the reality. She also talks a lot at nonsense about about the costs of the IT system and says that it costs half of what this Parliament costs. That is an IT system to cover the entire seven-year programme of the cap and efforts are being made to ensure that it is supporting those payments. We will continue to take the responsible action of making sure that we get payments to farmers as quickly as possible, but also making sure that we have the arrangements in place through the hardship fund that I have spoken about to ensure that any farmer who does not have their payment or who cannot get support from their bank can come to the Government for that support. I think that that is the right way to deal with what is a difficult situation and we will continue to do so. To ask the First Minister what progress there has been on the fiscal framework negotiation. As I reported to Parliament on Tuesday, there is now an agreement in principle that I think that we can recommend to Parliament that draft heads of agreement will be published by the end of this week. The agreement that we have reached on the block grant adjustment ensures that there is no detriment for the next six years and that there can be no default by the UK Government after that to a funding model that would deliver detriment. In other words, this deal will not allow a single pound or penny to be taken from our budget. It will ensure that the funding for Scotland cannot be changed without our agreement that protects the Barnett formula and will allow new powers to be delivered. The First Minister is, of course, aware that when the Deputy First Minister and I served in the Smith commission, we achieved unanimous agreement that the Scottish Government and the UK Government were equal partners in terms of any negotiations. Can the First Minister confirm that this parity of esteem was respected during the fiscal framework negotiations just completed and will be maintained? Does the First Minister agree that equal partnership in entering any negotiation is absolutely crucial to protect Scotland's future interests? I believe that that is absolutely vital. It was that parity of esteem and equal partnership that meant that we were able to resist an attempt by the Treasury to cut our budget by £7 billion. If we had not had that, then the Treasury would have been able to impose that. The equal partnership meant that John Swinney's superior negotiating skills could come to the fore and protect Scotland's budget. Linda Fabiani raises a serious point about the future, because not only did that equal partnership allow us to protect Scotland's budget, making sure that that equal partnership and requirement for joint agreement is built into the arrangements for the review after the first five years will be essential to making sure that then we can also protect Scotland's budget, and that is exactly what we will intend to do. Gavin Brown? It was rightly welcomed on all sides. One part of the agreement was getting the fiscal commission to do the official tax forecast, and this is a vital step forward. Will the First Minister work with me to convince her back benchers that this is the way to go? The very thought of working with Gavin Brown is bringing me out in a cold sweat, but I will try to get over that. On a serious matter, I said on Tuesday that we had to give and take in those negotiations, and I think that that should be welcomed as part and parcel of a mature negotiation. One of the areas where John Swinney has made a concession and agreed to is around the arrangements for the fiscal commission. I know that John Swinney has already given some detail of that, and more detail of that will be in the heads of agreement when they are published before the end of this week. Overall, that is a good deal, and a deal that I think that everybody across the Parliament should welcome. Congratulations to the Deputy First Minister and to herself on that. In her statement on Tuesday, she said that the block grant adjustment would be based on an annual adjustment to a treasury methodology, which now appears to be a tax-capacity adjusted levels deduction. Is she absolutely certain that an annual population adjustment to that methodology will produce the same result as per capita indexation? Yes, and that is absolutely critical to the agreement. When the heads of terms are published, Malcolm Chisholm and everybody else will see that what we have agreed to is a method of making the block grant adjustment that is required over that transitional period to deliver the same outcome as per capita index deduction. That is absolutely crucial. Can I take the opportunity to thank Malcolm Chisholm for his support on this issue? I think that even before the official Labour position was to support the position of the Scottish Government, Malcolm Chisholm was steadfast in saying that the Scottish Government's position was correct in that, and the support of the STUC, for example. Many others were really helpful in getting to the agreement that we struck on Tuesday, so I would accord Malcolm Chisholm my thanks for that. To ask the First Minister what progress the Scottish Government is making in reducing A&E waiting times. The latest published monthly performance for December shows that A&E performance across Scotland was the highest level that we have seen in any December since 2009 and is the best-performing country across the UK. For course sites in December, A&E waiting time performance was 94.5 per cent in Scotland compared to 86.6 in England, 76.9 per cent in Wales and 70.9 per cent in Northern Ireland. However, there is still more to do to ensure continued progress in A&E performance in Scotland. That is why we launched the six essential actions approach in May last year. That is a two-year programme that aims to minimise long waits in A&E and assessment units by improving patient flow throughout all areas of the hospital and back into the community. We have also provided additional £10.7 million winter funding to support boards through winter pressures. Thank you First Minister. I am sure that the Parliament would like to thank NHS staff for their hard work and dedication for the impressive improvement that we have seen in waiting times, of course, boosted by a 178 per cent increase in the level of A&E consultants under this Scottish Government. With Scottish A&E performances now clearly the best in the UK, comparing favourably with Labour-run Wales and an English NHS where its Tory Health Minister is too busy picking fights with junior doctors, does the First Minister agree with me that taking a partnership approach as opposed to conflict with health professionals is key to building that success? Would the First Minister also welcome health professionals from elsewhere in the UK should they wish to make a positive choice and bring their skills to the Scottish NHS? I would certainly welcome health professionals from anywhere who want to come to work in Scotland, but Bob Doris raises important points. They will be important to patients across the country. We have work to do in A&E and I would not for a second stand here and say that it was job done, but there are two things that I think should give us encouragement. Firstly, our A&E waiting times, I think almost a week for a week at the moment, are better than in the same period last year. Relative to the other nations of the UK, our A&E departments are performing much more strongly. That is good and positive news, but we will not be complacent at all and we will continue to work with health professionals to make sure that we improve performance even further. I am glad that the First Minister mentioned not being complacent, because last week saw the worst A&E performance in Scotland since weekly stats began. One in 10, not treated within four hours, only four health boards met their targets. Can the First Minister explain why and can she promise to support our local and hard-working NHS staff? Figures will fluctuate week on week and there will be a variety of reasons in different hospitals why that is the case. I think that everybody will understand that. Jim Goome talks about the most recent weekly performance, which incidentally saw nine out of 10 patients across A&E departments treated within four hours. However, the weekly performance, although it was lower than we would have wanted it to be, is nevertheless three percentage points better than it was in the same week last year. That underlines the point of making. We are seeing consistent improvement in each week compared to the same week in the previous year, and that is good. Our accident emergency units are performing much better than any other nation in the UK. I am standing here giving that information, but that is entirely down to the hard work and dedication of those who work in our accident emergency units. It is probably an appropriate moment again for me today to thank them for all the work that they do. We all thank the staff for their hard work. The First Minister mentioned immediate assessment units. My FOI has shown that there are 30 of these units now, 15 different names, no common protocol, no monitoring, no reporting, and targets that are unlike A&E range from the four-hour target to none. A Glasgow and Clyde reported that patients could expect to wait, and I quote, 12 hours. There have been 115 deaths in those units. That is the alternative doorway to A&E getting in. A&E stats only mean something if we combine those two. What progress is she and the cabinet secretary making in ensuring that there are proper croto-crawls on those units so that we can see transparent figures in relation to admissions? The immediate assessment units, many of which were established under the last Labour administration, which is a good thing, are different from A&E units. That is why they are treated differently. Patients often receive treatment in those units, not just the tests and monitoring that they would receive elsewhere. Guidance to boards—this is important—is that patients on trolleys awaiting admission in an assessment unit are monitored against the four-hour A&E target until they are admitted to a bed or to a dedicated area. We are also working with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh to share best practice across the different assessment units, including sharing information on monitoring, and we will be considering with the Royal College whether assessment units should be subject to further common standards. Richard Simpson raised the important issue of deaths in hospital, and I do not seek to underplay that point at all. However, again, for context, it is worth pointing out that hospital mortality rates are now at their lowest level in Scotland since records began. They have dropped 16.5 per cent since 2007. That is another example of the excellent work that our health professionals do around the country. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the impact of the local authority budget settlement on nursery education? Within the financial settlement for local government, we are funding the additional costs of early learning and childcare provisions under the Children and Young People Scotland Act 2014. That includes the expansion to 600 hours and extension to more than a quarter of two-year-olds. So far, we have provided £329 million to fund the expansion, and we have committed a further £170 million in the 2016-17 budget that covers the first three years of the expansion from August 2014. We have committed to continue increasing revenue funding year on year until 2019-20 to enable local authorities to provide more choice and flexibility. I will be meeting local government leaders and key partners this afternoon at the early learning and childcare summit to discuss how we will continue to work together to deliver those commitments. She will know that, earlier this month, the EIS revealed that, since the nine years of SNP government, the number of teachers in Scotland's nurseries has fallen by a quarter. Many of us were intrigued and encouraged by her pledge at the weekend to increase the number of nursery teachers. I encouraged clearly, but I am intrigued because, when Mr Surgeon was first elected in 2007, she said in her manifesto, and I quote, we are concerned at the removal of nursery teachers from nurseries, and she pledged to maintain teacher numbers. Can I ask her what has changed? Did she not mean her promise then but means it now, or does she have some other explanation? The registered child daycare workforce has increased by 7 per cent. The announcement that Ken Macintosh referred to from the weekend—I do not know whether he just missed it—made that announcement back in October last year, where, as part of our efforts to make sure that we are tackling the attainment gap, I have given a commitment that all nurseries in deprived areas will have an additional teacher or graduate with early learning and childcare expertise working with young children. That is an important commitment, as we try to make sure that we use not just the expansion and quantity of childcare but also improve the quality of childcare to make sure that we are giving every young person the best start in life. To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had about the relationship between Presswick airport and the Trump organisation. Presswick airport operates on a commercial basis. The Scottish Government has had no discussions on the relationship between Presswick airport and the Trump organisation. The senior management team at the airport is responsible for developing business opportunities and we expect them to work closely with local businesses to explore all avenues. I was very pleased to hear Ryanair's announcement on Tuesday that it will introduce three new routes for winter 2016 and increase passenger numbers at Presswick by 75,000. It has been clear for many years to anyone who cared to take an interest that Donald Trump was an arrogant and racist bully. I had thought that when Nicola Sturgeon took the decision to rightly kick him out of the global Scott network, the Scottish Government had come to regret ever having courted his business. But now it appears that Presswick airport, publicly owned by the Scottish Government, is pursuing an official partnership, a strategic alliance with the Trump organisation. Doesn't the First Minister agree that any owner of any business, but most particularly a Government that exists to serve the public interest, must ensure that the business that it owns cuts ties with such a dangerous extremist? Firstly, while I would probably use more diplomatic language, I suspect my views and Patrick Harvie's views on Donald Trump are not that materially different. It is important to be very clear that there is no contractual relationship between Presswick airport and Donald Trump or any of his organisations, including Trump-Tyrnbury. However, in terms of the operation of Glasgow Presswick airport, European Union state aid rules require that airport to be operated on a wholly commercial basis at arm's length from the Scottish Government. We are not permitted to intervene in the commercial discussions of the airport. We brought that airport into state ownership to save it from closure. It is making progress. The management there, as I have just said, in relation to the Ryanair announcement, are making progress in getting that airport on to a better footing. I think that we should get behind them as they continue to make those efforts. Thank you. That ends First Minister's questions. We are now going to move to members' business. Members who leave the chamber should do so quickly and quietly. People who are leaving the gallery should move as quickly as possible to vacate. I will give a few moments for that to happen.