 I just wanted to make a few personal remarks about Tom McCabe. As you are aware, Tom passed away on Sunday. Tom McCabe had a unique place within this Parliament. He was our first elected MSP and he was the Parliament's first ever Minister for Parliamentary Business. Tom was a good decent man and like erbyn amddai gyd yn ysgolwladol. Felly, nid oes yn ysgolwladol i fyf ysgolwladol i'r gwaith, i ddielfynodol, a i'n gŵr amddai'n gwybod. Fy gyd yn ysgolwladol, i'r llefio'r ffasilau busnes, i'r ffasilau busnes, i'r nameu Jofix Patrick, ymgyrch ar y Ffasilau busnes. Fy gyd yn ysgolwladol, i'r llefio'r ffasilau busnes, i gael i'r moysg How many members wishes to speak against the motion? I thank the member who wishes to be open. Do members ask to speak against the motion. Therefore, I now put the question to demonstrating to the members it is that motion number 12973osit the name of Joffith Potrick to ingredient and be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Question 1 and to the next sections of business is torf yangrif to tada the two submission I say you to a question. Question one Mr Al Myster. letter to the UK Government regarding the rescue of migrants attempting to enter Europe across the Mediterranean. Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop, the tragic deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean is sadly not just a recent experience. I have persistently raised the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean since 2013. I raised this issue at the GMS of Europe on 31 October 2014 and my letters of 3 November to David LinkedIn, Minister for Europe, on 20 January to James Brokenshire, Minister for Security and Immigration, both highlighted that abandoning search and rescue is wrong in humanitarian and practical terms and that the current policy has clearly failed. A rethink in both immediate and strategic terms is essential. The UK Government response to my letter of 3 November 2014 focuses on the traffickers, not the victims, as did the Home Secretary's statement on Monday. The agreed 10-point plan from the European foreign ministers is more hopeful and the agreed summit to be held on Thursday a positive development. Humanitarian issues are cross-border and pan-European. Together the EU must prevent the Mediterranean from becoming a watery grave for so many flame conflict, fear and hate. Alison Johnstone, I welcome the cabinet secretary's strong stance on this issue. Poisonous damaging rhetoric on immigration has allowed governments to create a policy where thousands of people drown at sea. The UK Government believes that a search and rescue operation is a pool factor, ignoring the push factor, the persecution, the conflict and the war that causes so many people to leave home and family behind to embark on truly terrifying journeys without any guarantee of safe arrival, let alone a warm welcome. Does the Scottish Government unequivocally reject the concept that drowning people will stop others from making the crossing? I agree very much with that last sentiment, because that was the argument that was being used continuously, that somehow this would avert people from travelling. Quite clearly that policy has failed. However, it is an important point about where we are now and how we go forward. Not only does the EU have to take collective responsibility, which they are starting to do for the issue, instead of leaving the Italians to deal with the issue on their own. One of the concerns is that, because the UK is not a member of Frontex, because they are not part of Schengen, they have not direct involvement in the exercise. Therefore, all they have provided at the request of Operation Triton is two debriefing officers in 2014 and, furthermore, this coming year. Therefore, the rethink has to not just be a rethink on approach to immigration and the value of human life in a dangerous context, where not just adults but children here are drowning in the Mediterranean. They have not just been drowning in recent years. There is an estimated 10,000 people who have died in the Mediterranean over recent decades. We want strategic thinking, but the most important point and the argument that we should be putting forward to David Cameron and the other EU leaders is that they must take a humanitarian approach, first and foremost, as well as dealing with some of the strategic issues that we all need to address. The cabinet secretary will be aware, too, that merchant ships are preventing an even worse crisis that they have rescued approximately 40,000 people in 2014 alone, and everyone expects that number to increase. Does the Government support Amnesty and others' calls for more safe and legal routes to Europe for people fleeing persecution and conflict? As the minister noted, frontex is beyond the control of the European Parliament. Does the Government support more parliamentary accountability for that agency? I encourage Parliamentary and, indeed, not just at European level but also domestically scrutiny of this issue. I think that there is a real concern that so much of the emphasis from the Home Secretary in her statement and, indeed, if you look at the 10-point plan, is focusing on the traffickers and smugglers. Whereas, if you look at the experience of the migrants, most of them have paid for transportation and go on to claim asylum in Europe. I think that the general approach has to be scrutinised further, but in her point about the idea of better management across Mediterranean for merchant shipping and legal routes, I think that that has to be addressed. However, the key issue is where those people fleeing from—many are from Syria, Libya and the overall response of Europe—and, in particular, from our perspective, the UK in relation to Syria has to be addressed, because that is not a problem that is going to be easily resolved. In the meantime, we must renew those humanitarian efforts. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, 100 1,400 souls perished since the beginning of this year. We are 101 days into 2015, and we have lost 1,400 men, women and children—not just migrants, not just trafficked people and human beings. I believe that the EU and the UK have an abdication of responsibility and a dereliction of duty when it comes to those people. Can I ask the cabinet secretary if she can provide an assurance to all of us today that she will lobby the next UK Government to reverse the coalition's refusal to support planned search and rescue of those souls who have perished? I appreciate the member's point. Chris McKelvie is the convener of the European External Affairs Committee. She was at the session where the Italian ambassador set out concerns that the Italians had and they are pleased for more co-operation across Europe. Her point about treating people as individuals and the humanity of it most definitely has to be stressed. However critical I have been of the previous Government in its approach to the issue, let us take this opportunity that is provided by the summit on Thursday—a summit to think differently, to act differently. With the encouragement of all parties, I am sure that we can ensure that any incoming Government at the UK level will approach the issue in a different manner and take a different approach. I am sure that, if they did so, they would get support from across the chamber. I am sure that everyone in the chamber was horrified to see the reports over the weekend and the tragedies in the Mediterranean. Those were mothers, fathers, sons and daughters and there were people who were attempting to find a better future for themselves and escaped the terrors of their own home country and the dangers that that was bringing them. As both the member and the cabinet secretary write the highlight, the tactic of cancelling the search and rescue operations last year has failed with horrendous consequences. As the cabinet secretary said, these are complex problems. They will require not just the EU but also the international community to work together and will include the need for humanitarian assistance. I ask the cabinet secretary if the Scottish Government is what contributions they are making and providing to the area at this point in time. In my correspondence to the UK Government in November and in January, we indicated that the Scottish Government stands ready. We have also said to the UK Government in terms of Syrian refugees that we also think that we can play our part in what is required in terms of co-operation in that area. We will continue to make that offer. One of the concerns, and I think that this is why the UK is in a different position than the rest of the EU, but it should not be allowed to abdicate responsibility, is that its non-membership of front-ex should not prevent it from providing that assistance. Similarly, in terms of our reference within the powers of this Parliament, we stand ready to provide our support. Roderick Campbell Cabinet Secretary, when the Italian ambassador gave evidence to the European Committee in October last year, he called for work with countries of origin through the Rabat process, for example, to co-ordinate and aid better and create economic opportunities and jobs in those countries to discourage people from leaving their homes to look for a better future. What can the Scottish Government do to assist in this approach? I referred previously to the Italian ambassador's evidence to the committee of this Parliament, in which he addressed the wider and complex issues. It needs a multi-pronged response, of which I must stress again. The humanitarian response within the seas of the Mediterranean outwith the current borders of Operation Trident must be part and parcel, but also in terms of strategic efforts. We should also be looking at the displacement of millions of people within the sources of the origins from which the original countries, from which those migrants are travelling, and to provide support there for rehabilitation and compassionate treatment of refugees, but also in dealing with the areas of origin. The suggestions that were made by the Italians initially have stood by it on their own. Operation Mario Nostrum was finished in November and was replaced by an operation that has clearly failed, but we must stand by our Italian friends and colleagues. They should not bear the burden of that themselves. In terms of the proposals by the Italian ambassador, it is something that would encourage EU leaders to look at. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS staff to deal with stress. Our staff are at the heart of our NHS. Their health and wellbeing is something that the Government takes very seriously. The staff government standard for NHS Scotland commits all boards to providing a continuously improving and safe working environment, promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider community. Standards are subject to a framework of local and national monitoring to ensure that measures are in place to achieve and maintain those objectives. She will be aware of the concerns around staff using drugs and alcohol, which has always been a problem but may be increasing. I know that, as an experienced clinician, this can sometimes be a result of stress, resorting inappropriately to drugs and alcohol. Is she also aware of the figures in the latest staff survey, which showed that a quarter of nurses agreed that they did not have enough time to do their jobs? In other words, 75 per cent did not feel that they had enough time, 50 per cent felt that they were too busy to provide an appropriate level of care and 64 per cent felt that they were under too much pressure. Specifically, what individual support is offered to nurses to try and manage stress that they are inevitably going to face whatever resources are provided? First, I say to Richard Simpson that I am aware of the issues that he raises. The staff survey shows that a mixed picture of some areas is improving others, showing that there is more to be done. The issue of drugs and alcohol is an issue for many people in Scotland, working in many professionals. We have to make sure that, where the issue is identified in the workplace, the right support is there to support staff in whatever job they are working in. On the general position of support—I am sure that Richard Simpson is aware that the partnership information network managing health at work is one of a range of HR policies that is agreed nationally in partnership between the NHS employers, the trade unions and ourselves in the Scottish Government. It covers a full range of occupational health matters, including work-related stress and staff wellbeing. What we expect boards locally to do is to set out how they will meet or exceed that national pin policy. That will include making sure that support is there, whether it is for nurses or any other professionals within the NHS, to support them in whatever issues they are dealing with. I am certainly happy to write to Richard Simpson with more detail of that, particularly on the drug and alcohol issue, if he would find that helpful. I thank the minister for her reply and say that I agree with almost everything that she said. My one concern that I wonder if she would agree is that we need to be thinking more proactively about individual nurses and how we advise them. Once they get to occupational health, their stress has been recognised and may have been off sick with that stress, but I wonder whether we cannot, in fact, get Health Improvement Scotland to examine that in a bit more detail and look at how we can support individuals before they get to the point where the stress requires them to go to occupational health. I agree with Richard Simpson that early intervention and prevention has been a lot of work, not just in the NHS but in other workplaces as well, to look at putting in place a range of prevention measures to ensure that we have good mental health in the workplace. We should try to make sure that interventions and support are there at the earliest stages of issues being raised and identified rather than just waiting until it becomes an occupational health matter. I am very happy to look at his suggestion around whether it is his or any other support of some of the organisations that we have in the NHS that could perhaps look at more early intervention support. I am very happy to take away that and get back to Richard Simpson about that. The cabinet secretary will be aware of the recent news that Bremen Medical Group practice in Buxburn, Aberdeen, will close at the end of September due to the number of GPs retiring or leaving and an inability to recruit replacements. Will she agree with me that this example is symptomatic of the crisis regarding GP recruitment and retention as a never-increasing workload combined with reduced resources has led to many GPs to retire early or go to work abroad because of the stresses affecting their working lives? Will she continue to work closely with the Royal College of GPs and the BMA to find an urgent resolution of this problem that could well come to affect patients in many parts of Scotland? I am aware of that particular local issue being well cited on it, but I say to her that we have already been working with GPs, the BMA and the Scottish General Practitioners Committee on the redesign of the contract in order to sustain and support general practice for the future. We have negotiated changes to the current contract that reduce the GP workload associated with bureaucracy, for example, and that is a direction that the redesign contract will continue to take. On the general point, we have seen an increase in the number of GPs, almost 7 per cent increase in the number of GPs. We have more GPs per head of the population in Scotland than in England, and we have invested in GP services by almost £70 million. However, there is more to be done, and I am very keen that we look at the opportunities for the new Scottish-only contract that will come in in 2017. Obviously, we want to begin those discussions soon. We have already had some very productive discussions with the BMA, the Royal College and others on what we can do to make general practice more attractive. There are issues around young doctors not choosing general practice for a variety of reasons. We need to overcome that, and we need to look at how we can change that to get more young doctors choosing general practice. I am keen to discuss with the net mill and others how we can take that forward, hopefully on a cross-party basis.