 Before we move on to the next item of business, members may be aware that some details of the proposed ministerial statement on the ambulance service appear to have been made public via the media prior to being announced to this Parliament. It is extremely disappointing and I would make clear that the expectation for statements to be made to this Parliament is about demonstrating respect for this Parliament. I consider this a very serious matter. Given that I can't be sure that all members will have seen this coverage, I will, in this instance, allow the statement to be made. However, if there are similar instances in the future, I reserve the right not to allow the minister to deliver the statement but to move straight to questions from members. I welcome the statement that you have just made, Presiding Officer. Paragraph 3.5 of the Scottish Ministerial Code spells out clearly that, when Parliament is meeting, ministers should ensure that important announcements of government policy are made in the first instance to the Parliament. It would appear that the code has been broken. Presiding Officer, I appreciate that the matter of the ministerial code resides chiefly with the First Minister, but I wonder if you could advise us as to whether this issue could be laid before the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee to investigate further. I thank Mr Kerr for his point of order. I have yet to see the statement myself. I have been chairing in the Parliament, but I am aware of the significant references made in the daily records to what I expect we are about to hear from the Cabinet Secretary. At this point in time, I will allow the statement to go ahead as I have stated, but I will certainly look further into the matter. Presiding Officer, I hope that you will appreciate that it was never my intention to cause you or, indeed, this chamber any issues when speaking to the media ahead of my statement. Today, let me offer an apology to you, but also to the chamber if issues were caused in my assurance that we will take the necessary steps to ensure that this does not happen again in the future. In terms of my statement, Presiding Officer, the last 18 months have been a time of unprecedented pressure, and the NHS has faced the biggest challenge of its 73-year history. The Scottish Ambulance Service is the very heartbeat of our NHS. It has a unique role in engaging with all parts of the health and social care system across the whole of Scotland, 24 hours, seven days a week. I would like to take the opportunity once again, as I am sure other members will, to thank all our hard-working ambulance service staff for the work that they are doing in such difficult circumstances. While I understand those calling in ambulance are often in considerable distress, I hope that we can all agree that our ambulance colleagues deserve to be treated with the utmost respect. It is important to remember that, despite the significant pressures that our service is under, they continue to deliver a highly effective response to our high acuity patients with 30-day survival rates for those patients at the highest levels ever recorded. That said, I recognise that some people are not receiving the standard of service that they should be getting, or indeed the standard of service that the ambulance service or the Scottish Government wants delivered. I completely accept that some of the cases that we heard in the chamber last week and in the media are unacceptable. I have no hesitation in apologising to families who have been let down. It is in that context that the ambulance service is currently operating at level 4 of its escalation plan. That is the very highest level. That is a decision that has not been taken lightly. It means in practice that all clinically trained staff in support departments have been redeployed to the front line. The service has stood up its national command and control centre and management teams, regional co-ordination cells and support teams are all working to extended hours. We are, of course, not unique here. The global pandemic has created the most challenging crisis in almost every sphere of our lives, including in our NHS, in the history of peacetime Britain, certainly in our lifetimes. Ambulance services across the UK, as well as the wider NHS, are experiencing unprecedented demand, largely because of Covid but also due to a combination of increasingly complex cases, delayed demand and exceptionally busy emergency departments. Last month, our ambulance crew responded to 10,733 immediate life-threatening incidents, which was 20.7 per cent of incidents attended that month. In comparison to a figure of 5,788, that is 10.6 per cent of incidents that were attended in August 2018. It clearly shows us a significant increase of acuity in presentation to the service. That means that the vast majority of those patients require to go to hospital and, with acute occupancy for most boards already between 87 per cent and 96 per cent, and most mainland boards in excess of 100 per cent for ICU occupancy, we can clearly see the pressure our services are under. That is why we have already taken significant action, both prior to and since the onset of the pandemic. That includes additional funding to recruit more ambulance staff, enhanced air transfer capacity through a contract with Loganair and a strategic working group set up to implement actions to improve turnaround times for ambulances. However, it is important that, once again, I make it categorically clear that we are still firmly in the midst of a global pandemic. Today, I will outline to members the measures that we are putting in place to ensure that our ambulance service has the full range of support from our wider public services at its disposal as we enter what will inevitably be the most challenging part of the year in autumn winter. Our immediate actions will be backed by an additional investment of up to £20 million. That is on top of the additional £20 million already invested this year to recruit an additional £296 ambulance staff. That equates to additional in-year investment of over £44 million in the service. That is an uplift of nearly 16 per cent on last year's resource budget. Many of the actions that we are taking are aligned to suggestions made by unions, attached to our ambulance service, who have set out a number of different suggestions of support and focus on immediate assistance from partners, continued workforce enhancements and improvements to flow of cases into emergency departments. In terms of the immediate, there are short-term pressures on the ambulance service that will only be relieved through the wider public and voluntary sector standing up in supporting the service at this incredibly challenging time. I can confirm the request for military assistance that was made immediately after First Minister's questions last Thursday. Officials have been working since then to finalise the package of support that the military will provide. That assistance will mainly consist of providing 88 drivers to free up our paramedics and technicians to focus solely on providing patients with the best clinical care. 15 support staff are also being requested, meaning support in the form of 103 military personnel. There are still authorisation processes to go through, but we do not envisage any challenges with gaining the required approval. All going well, some of those military personnel will be ready to be deployed in driving ambulances this weekend. My thanks to the Army, as always, for their responsiveness. I have also reached out to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and I am glad to say in typical fashion that they have risen to our call. They will scale up the ambulance services' access to volunteer firefighters and now also full-time firefighters for driving. Again, with the view to providing more valuable paramedic and technician time on the front line. The immediate assistance, however, is not just being sought from the wider public sector. We have also brought support from the British Red Cross and as well as private contractors such as taxi companies to help with some of the ambulance services work where no emergency ambulance is required. Let me be absolutely clear that if you are in critical or life-wrecking need, you will be taken to hospital in an ambulance if one is requested. Alternative transport arrangements are for those patients, with low acuity and patient safety, of course, will remain our number one priority. Bear in mind that around 27 per cent of calls to the ambulance service in August 2021 did not require an ambulance response and only 21 per cent of calls were life-wrecking situations, so this percentage has risen considerably recently. Those are not decisions that we have taken lightly at all, but given the urgency of the situation, this Government needs to respond with this decisive, if unconventional action to save lives, as it has done throughout the course of the pandemic. Let me be clear, though, that the full range of measures that I am announcing today have been assessed as clinically safe. Of course, it is important that we are not just freeing up paramedic and technician capacity but creating additional emergency capacity within the wider ambulance service. That is why we are also aiming to bring on board 100-second-year paramedic students to work across the service, including assisting our ambulance control centre to help with call handling and dispatching over the winter period. On specific clinical issues, we are also bringing in temporary clinical input to decision making on mental health, on addictions, falls, breathing difficulty, high intensity and trauma. That will provide senior specialist clinical decision support to patients, optimising the response to people in need by the service and utilising additional clinical pathways where that is appropriate to do so. Bolstering capacity at the front and back ends of the ambulance service will be fundamental to saving lives, and I am thankful to all those individuals and organisations who have offered their support. I am, however, mindful that this has been and will be a long pandemic, and we cannot solely rely on immediate short-term measures to build a sustainable future for the ambulance service. That is why, as part of our recovery plan, we are delivering almost 300 additional ambulance staff by April 2022. 148 new staff were recruited last year, and the service plans to recruit another 443 this year. 148 of whom will be new staff, and the remainder will be to cover planned staff turnover. 172 have already been recruited this year, with 186 June posts by the end of November, and the remaining by April 2022. The service is taking forward recruitment plans at pace. The specific breakdowns of new recruits sees 69 staff in the north of Scotland, 139 in the west and 88 in the east. The additional new staff are a mixture of paramedics, newly qualified paramedics and technicians. We are also funding additional fleet for the service, which will see the introduction of a number of extra ambulances over the coming months. As part of our on-going commitment with the service to reduce and remove the requirement for staff to work on-call in some of our more remote and rural areas, we are providing funding for our 14 additional staff, which will see on-call requirement reduced in Campbelltown and removed entirely in Fort William, Kirkwall and Broadford. We know that our emergency departments are also under significant pressure. That is why we need to ensure that we are not just creating further problems for our A&E departments that are already struggling. That is why we are also further investing in additional hospital ambulance liaison officers, almost doubling numbers from the 11 currently in place to 20 posts throughout the country. Those liaison officers are important in supporting flow through the emergency departments and in supporting improvement in ambulance turnaround times. Halos will take part in the daily huddle and work across the hospital site in order to maximise flow as best as possible, and the halos will be concentrated in our busiest sites. Most of us have also seen pictures from across the UK and of course here in Scotland of ambulances queued up outside of emergency departments. Getting people the care that they need in the most appropriate setting is crucial and another key element in freeing up our ambulance crews to respond to other patients' needs. We need a concerted effort across the whole public sector to ensure that all parts of the system can respond to the demand that this difficult winter ahead will bring. Our forthcoming winter plan will set out measures that we and our partners will take to ensure that we can deliver high-quality safe care in the coming months in a sustainable way. That will create capacity in our community health and care services and our hospitals and will ensure that, when it is safe to do so, there are alternative pathways that people can access to avoid the admission to hospital and to ensure that they can be discharged from hospital as soon as clinically safe to do so. I know that some members have suggested pop-up facilities outside of our A&E departments. That issue has been explored and we will keep it under review. Our clinicians and the likes of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine have expressed concerns in relation to patient safety with this option. However, with immediate effect, we are repurposing some of our spaces in our hospitals to maximise capacity in the front door across the country to ensure that patients can be safely transferred to clinical teams as quickly as possible. Where necessary, that may need to include expanding the fruit-pinter of our hospitals even if it is on a temporary basis and we are working with NHS boards on that very issue. To conclude, this will no doubt be the most difficult and challenging autumn-winter that our health and social care services have ever faced. As with other parts of the UK, Scotland's health boards have faced unprecedented demand over recent weeks, whether that be in emergency departments, elective activity or local GP practices. The following months are going to require all of us to come together to support one another. As we are seeing through the brilliant response to the call for help from the military, from the fire service, from third sector, from volunteers, from the private sector, as well of course as ambulance service staff themselves. On that point, let me close this statement by saying that the wellbeing of our ambulance service and wider health and social care workers is of paramount importance. Throughout this period, our staff need to know that we are doing everything that we possibly can to provide them with the support that they need. The situation that I have described has inevitably resulted in additional pressure for ambulance staff with regards to rest and break compliance and shift overruns. That is why we are going to provide £500,000 of funding for additional support to ambulance service staff wellbeing this year, which includes additional welfare for crews and a range of wellbeing initiatives including personal resilience packages and techniques supported by a dedicated wellbeing team. I am still very supportive of SAS discussions with our trade union partners about having a rest break action plan in place as quickly as possible. I have outlined an immediate plan of action backed by up to £20 million of additional investment. Our ambulance service and the NHS has been there for us in our hour of need. Government will in turn be there to support our public services during their hour of need. I look forward to taking members' questions. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I am conscious that the statement is overrun for understandable reasons, but I intend to protect the 20 minutes or so available for questions. I would, however, be grateful to members and to the cabinet secretary to keep questions and answers as brief as possible. I would normally have welcome advance sight of the health secretary statement, but on this occasion it was published on the front page of the daily record first rather than announced to this Parliament. For weeks we have heard stories of horrendous waits for ambulances. Jamie McNamie of Unite said this morning that this is as bad as it has been in my experience of 35 years in the ambulance service, that the Government is using the pandemic as an excuse for long-standing problems in our ambulance service. He said that the supposedly 300 new ambulance service staff and, cabinet secretary, I quote, from a totally different project that has been on-going since 2016. So let me ask the health secretary how many of those 300 positions really are new. He said in his statement that the Scottish ambulance service is the heartbeat of our NHS. So why is the Government demanding that it makes £15 million of efficiency savings, otherwise known as cuts? Will he commit to publishing weekly response data so that we know exactly how the service is performing across the country each week? I asked the First Minister earlier when we would get a winter NHS plan and she didn't answer, preferring instead to read a pre-prepared script. Will the cabinet secretary confirm now when Scotland's NHS will finally get the real plan that front-line staff and the public needs? On a few points, I have given detail in my statement about the additional staff that we are recruiting, but on the one hand I will stand up in this chamber and have opposition telling me that we should have taken action many, many months ago and then castigating us for taking that action months and months ago. So we had taken that action, we have invested an additional £20 million before my announcement, which of course sees a number of additional staff recruited to our ambulance service. So I am delighted that we have those additional recruits. I have now just given you in my statement additional actions that we are going to take backed by £20 million of investment. In terms of some of Dr Gurhani's other asks, let me be clear when he talks about efficiency. Let me be absolutely clear that there has not been and will not be a single penny cut from the Scottish Ambulance Service budget. In fact, quite the opposite, I have just stood in this chamber a moment ago and told you how the budget has increased by almost 16 per cent in this year by £44 million. So we will continue to make those investments in the Scottish Ambulance Service. Of course, when there are efficiencies that are made, for example by introducing electric vehicles, which saves you money on petrol and diesel, then those savings are retained by the health board, in this case by the Scottish Ambulance Service. Dr Gurhani will forgive me if I don't take any electricity and public spending from a Conservative Party that is responsible for a decade of austerity in Scotland that has hit the poorest in our society, the hardest. In terms of when consideration of publishing more data and stats, yes, I will give that call some consideration. I will revert back to the member. Our recovery plan, of course, is already underway backed by £1 billion of investment, but as I again have mentioned in my statement, we will bring forward a winter plan and bring that forward imminently. Before calling Jackie Baillie, could I invite members who want to ask a question? Who haven't already done so depressed to request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible? In a day of new records and not good ones, the health secretary has been missing in action, refusing press interviews about ambulances for five days, which I think he would acknowledge is unusual for him. Ambulance delays continue at record levels and people are dying as a result. Accident and emergency waiting times are at an all-time high, despite the best efforts of NHS staff who deserve our thanks. Just this morning, John Thompson of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that the NHS needed an additional 1,000 beds to cope with the current crisis, yet not a single mention of additional bed capacity in the statement. Is that because the SNP cut beds in the NHS by 1,200 in the last 10 years? Given that the problem with ambulance delays is about patient flows at A and E and the lack of beds in hospitals, will the cabinet secretary tell me whether John Thompson was wrong when he asked for an increase in bed capacity and will he urgently consider temporary wards or field hospitals like the Louisa Jordan? She is incorrect. She may want to go back and correct the record. I did interviews last week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, so to somehow suggest that I have been missing in action. I suspect that she is probably just not watching the news, and one hand has been castigated for speaking to the media and the other hand being told not to speak to the media. The member may want to listen. I am referring to the fact that she may want to correct the record. She is correct that part of the reason and the problems that we are facing is undoubtedly due to the additional capacity and demands at our front door. One of the actions that I will bring forward to the chamber in relation to our winter plan is that we are urgently having discussions with local authorities and social care providers about how we free up bed capacity, particularly in amongst that delayed discharge cohort. That is a reasonable question for Ms Bailey to ask. We are urgently absolutely exploring that, and I will come back to Parliament with a further update. Our halos, which I have announced, are increasing from 11 to 20. We will help, hopefully, again for people to get not just discharged from the ambulance but then, hopefully, work their way through into the hospital system so that, again, they are not just sitting in A&E and emergency departments. In relation to fuelled hospitals, I mentioned that, when it comes to pop-up facilities, there were some concerns. In terms of fuelled hospitals, I have spoken to every single health board, as you would imagine, and I have made mention of the fact that the equipment that we had for the Louisa Jordan is available for them to use. It is not just the case of simply setting up beds—we have to have staffed beds as well. We would have to pull the workforce out of extremely busy hospitals and put them in. If she just listens as opposed to shouting from a sedentary position, I am trying to answer her question with all sincerity that I am not dismissing the idea in its entirety. However, if you set up beds, that is only part of the resolution. You have to ensure that they are staffed beds. You would have to pull out staff then, for example, from already busy sites. That, of course, would present its own challenge, but I would not dismiss the idea, of course, in its entirety. Given that we are indeed in the midst of a global pandemic, with unprecedented pressures right across the health service, including resultant pressures on our ambulance service, does the cabinet secretary agree that we should be looking at having all hands on deck? That is by, for example, bringing back to the wards those nurses currently in NHS management roles and in NHS educational roles, thereby avoiding what we currently see, which is theatre nurses and operating department practitioners, being redeployed away from their key and vital roles. In short, yes, and I know that health boards are already doing that. Of course, they will continue to look at where staff can be redeployed into the front line, where appropriate and where necessary. That has been done. I mentioned, of course, that in the ambulance service, escalating to its highest level, level 4, they have already taken clinical staff away from support roles and into the front line and being redeployed. I should also say that we are working, of course, with the appropriate bodies to also think about a call to arms for those retired staff who responded so well at the beginning of the pandemic to see if they can come back and help us in what will be the most challenging winter that the NHS has ever faced. Sue Webber, to be followed by John Mason. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The last 18 months have been a time of unprecedented pressure in the NHS, but this is a historic problem. In 2018, only 20 per cent of ambulance staff thought that there were enough staff to do their jobs, and even before the pandemic, the number of ambulances that recorded turnaround times of over an hour had doubled. GMB Scotland recently said that the understaffing crisis in the ambulance service was already understood pre Covid. Why then did the SNP not recognise that then and actively chose to ignore the historic call from front line staff to fix it before we reached this crisis? Does the cabinet secretary not agree that the forthcoming winter plan that we are now waiting for should have formed an essential component of the NHS recovery plan? I would say to Sue Webber that she clearly is not talking to her front bench colleague, because our front bench colleague just said that we had announced this investment in additional staff pre the pandemic. We were addressing those issues around staffing in the ambulance service as her own colleague has recognised that additional investment in the Scottish ambulance service, which is going to see 300 again. I use the word additional staff is going to help us in this regard. In terms of the winter plan, we are working closely with the UK Government to get finalisation of those additional consequentials that are coming our way, and I will inform Parliament imminently about the detail of that plan. John Mason, to be followed by Paul O'Kane. I wonder if the cabinet secretary can say any more about the 103 military staff who are going to be helping, for example, will they be driving their own vehicles or normal ambulances? Will that be similar to the way the military are involved in England and Wales? I'm sure that it would be. I haven't seen the detail of the MACA requests made by the UK Government or the Welsh Government, though I know those requests have been made. I put again on record my thanks to the army and military personnel for always answering the call with such responsiveness and pace. Again, the final details are being discussed between the ambulance service and the military, but as I referenced in my statement, 88 of the military personnel will be driving ambulances and the 15 in support roles in that regard. Once further detail becomes available from the ambulance service, I'd be happy to share that with the member. Paul O'Kane, to be followed by Christine Grahame. The cabinet secretary says that there will be additional ambulance staff on the ground by April 2022, and that of the recruitment of another 443 staff this year, only 148 are new staff with the rest coming to cover staff turnover. Can I ask the cabinet secretary if he intends for the British Army to support ambulance services all the way through until April 2022? Where will those military personnel be deployed and when will members be made aware of that? I'll send the final detail to members once that has been officially agreed between the Scottish Ambulance Service and the military. We would expect some of those military personnel to be deployed on the weekend. As you'd imagine, it would be in the areas where we are facing the most acute pressure. He will also see from my statement that we are recruiting 300 additional ambulance staff by April 2022, but he is right that some additional staff will also be recruited to ensure that we don't have any gaps when it comes to staff turnover and retirement. I'm happy to provide further detail to all members on the military assistance request that has been made once that detail has been finalised. Christine Grahame, to be followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, I note that only 21 per cent of calls in August were life-threatening conditions. Will I welcome the additional 100 call handlers? Can I ask that the Cabinet Secretary will consider reviewing the 999 and 111 call triage IT systems to ensure that cases that can be dealt with by other services, such as out-of-rgps or minor injuries clinics, are referred appropriately and not sent an emergency. I'm just as I stress that the IT systems are not the call handlers themselves. The issue of the IT systems is looked at very regularly, but SES, clinical advisers and control centres already do signpost patients to alternative services. However, increasing clinical capacity in control centres and strengthening links to and availability of alternative pathways, which includes, for example, GPs, is a key part of the work to be done in support of patients getting the right care at the right time and in very much the right place. By extension, making emergency ambulance available only for those patients most in need of that particular resource. Her point about the IT system itself is one that I will look at again. We have looked at it previously, but we will look at it again to see if that can be done in a more efficient manner. This situation is unacceptable. It's not just the pandemic. To suggest that it undermines the very real concerns that staff have been expressing for a long time before we heard of Covid-19, it should never have reached the stage where the fire service, the army and taxi drivers have to bail out front-line care staff. Just this morning, the BMA said that there was no realistic workforce plan that can get the NHS working 10 per cent harder. This is caused by an interruption in flow throughout our NHS, from GPs to the lack of social care provision, which is leading to delayed discharge. So can I ask the cabinet secretary just how long does he expect this crisis to last? It is unbelievable that the member stands there and says that it has nothing to do with the pandemic. Of course it has something to do with the pandemic. We are still in the midst of that global pandemic. Case numbers are still too high. Community transmission is still too high. For the member, I should say to suggest that the pandemic has played no role, I'm afraid it does him no favours. He can whack his finger all he wishes to do from a sedentary position, but he will lack credibility if he does not acknowledge that fact. In fact, I have stood up here and managed to give you detail about how 20.7 per cent of the cases that were responded to by the Ambulance Service in August were high acuity. That was in comparison to about 10 per cent or just over 10 per cent in August 2018. That shows just how the pressures of the pandemic are feeding through, not just to the front door of our NHS but to the back door. So how long will it last? We are still in the midst of that pandemic. I'm afraid I do not have the crystal ball. Our life would all be made easier if it was, but what this Government will do is take immediate action, as I have already outlined in this statement, to ensure that we bolster our NHS and our Ambulance Service. Mr Cole-Hamilton, enough sedentary interventions, please. I have spoken with frustrated first responders in my region who, despite being ready and willing, are not being offered the training required for them to help with those workforce issues. They are baffled that the army is being brought in before they are being used, despite many of them having blue light training from their day jobs. Will the Scottish Government encourage the Scottish Ambulance Service to make use of their around 1,500 community first responders to help tackle this crisis? The amazing community first responders to which she refers to provide exceptional support to our patients in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service, SAS, are imminently planning to increase the numbers and the range of codes to which CFRs can be dispatched. There are advanced discussions about implementing some digital solutions to support CFRs in keeping patients safe within the ambulance when the ambulance is enroute. There are no immediate plans to train volunteers and driving under blue light predominantly due to issues with driver training across the UK at the present time. I have raised the pressure being put on out-of-hours GP services previously in this chamber. Is the cabinet secretary concerned that, faced with long waits for A&E ambulances, people may turn to out-of-hours general practice, putting further strain on a service that is already under extreme pressure? What impact does the cabinet secretary think that the increased demand for out-of-hours emergency services will have on our out-of-hours GPs? Will a similar package of support be put in place for out-of-hours practitioners and services? We are committed to increasing our funding to primary care by 25 per cent. That was a commitment that was made, and I know that it has been welcomed by the member. In short, we are looking at the entire system. She is right to raise this point. Although the focus is understandably so and rightly so of this statement is on the ambulance service, we know that we have to take a whole systems approach. In the announcement that I intend to make around our winter plan, we will demonstrate action that we are taking right across the entire system. Of course, we would always say that individuals who call 999 should listen to the clinical advice on where it is best for them to go. If they need an ambulance, if it is critical for them to be in an emergency department, they will be taken there. It is being taken to ensure that ambulance services transport, including patient transport, other than blue light ambulances, can be utilised to free up ambulance capacity. It is part of my statement that we will look towards other transport, and I thank the British Red Cross for the support that they have already provided in this regard. Let me also be clear, as I was just in the previous question, that if you require an ambulance and it is clinically required, an ambulance will come to you. Following a clinical triage and ensuring that there is no patient safety issues of paramount importance, it makes sense to use all reasonable options in order to ensure that patients get to the right place at the right time. I have outlined some of those measures and some of the actions that we are taking that will have an immediate impact in this regard. Craig Hoy, to be followed by Colin Smyth. I thank the minister for coming to Parliament to repeat his statement. For someone who is in contempt of Parliament, he has shown little contrition. Senior police officers have told me that significant front-line policing resources are being lost due to delays at A&E departments. Many police officers are now spending hours transporting patients from the scene of an incident as a result of severe ambulance delays. What contact has the cabinet secretary had with Police Scotland to assess the full impact that this crisis in our NHS is now having on the fight against crime? You can imagine my officials and I, we speak across government and portfolio in terms of the pressures. Let me thank Police Scotland. I know clearly from my previous role the importance of joined up working between our emergency services. Let me thank our police officers for the incredible work that they have done in this regard. Even pre-pandemic, we know that they were often at the forefront when it came to challenges around people who were vulnerable and had particular mental health challenges. I thank Police Scotland for continuing to work across all the emergency services and across government. I thank all those emergency responders that have responded to our call during this time of great need. The cabinet secretary has just admitted that the reluctance to establish temporary wards and field hospitals is because health boards are struggling to safely staff existing hospitals. Cabinet secretary, what does he say about the more than a decade of utter failure in workforce planning in the NHS by this Government that health boards cannot recruit enough nurses and doctors to meet pre-pandemic demand, never mind the extra demand caused by this crisis? Workforce and NHS workforce under this Government is at record levels, not only at record levels but we have the best paid NHS staff here in Scotland than anywhere else in the entire UK. We will continue to pay them the best in the UK and we will continue to make sure that our NHS remains at record levels. That concludes the statement and I thank the cabinet secretary and members for allowing us to get through all the questions that were lodged. We now move on to the next item of business.