 Mae derbyn ystafellu'n ac yn gennymau cyfl coincidwyr oedol, mae'n gweithio i ddweud gallu tot fel nhw i ddefnyddio erbyn swyddon. Mae'n gweithio i ddweud los fémoeddau ar govern C пять, neu fe fyddai gyddorol i biddylliaeth cyfl coincidwyr oedol. Llyr Gruffydd, 1. Gweithio i ddweud i ddweud hi ddweud hynny i ddweud hynny i ddweud hynny i ddweud, Er olobod oedd Cymru gyfnod i ag gyrydoliaethu seโ learntym gynllun yn cael chw膽 rhaglen, cychwyn o boblmdd ar draws am Constitutional �ed конфiwnol.頭b Sex finale ni'n попробu bod y hynny oahol hynny a gan cyfnodol a ruartu am y cuw dangos. Mae'n intech Letshow er newidio y cemaid unig ei wneud drwng sodi! Mae'r portbwysig n whiffen hefyd i heddiw However, can the First Minister tell us how many businesses in Scotland have so far received funding and how many are waiting to receive it? It is an important issue for many businesses across the country. Before Christmas, I said, and I repeat again today, that the Scottish Government is in partnership with local authorities who are responsible for administering the significant bulk of the funding that we have made available are working to get that money to businesses as quickly as possible? As I'm sure everybody will accept, including I hope Douglas Ross, there are some checks that councils have to do to guard against fraud and any businesses, and I'm not suggesting that many would try to claim money that they weren't entitled to. That process is on-going for the hospitality strand, for example. Businesses who previously got support have been contacted or the vast bulk of them will have been contacted. They've been asked to complete a declaration and then money will start to flow when those declarations have been returned. I know that many councils are in the process now of making the payments, so Edinburgh, Midlothian, for example, have started to make payments. Glasgow is starting today on the back of that process. The nightclubs fund, which I know there has been commentary on this week, is open for applications. Nightclubs are being asked to submit an application. As soon as they do, money will be allocated to them within days of that process. That is an on-going process, but everybody is working hard to get the money into bank accounts of businesses as quickly as possible. Finally, I remind particularly Douglas Ross that, where the Conservatives are in power—I touch his subject, I know today—some of that money is not being provided at all to businesses, because this Government has made sure that we are providing financial support to businesses. Many businesses suffering the same impact of Covid south of the border are not getting the money that they will get in Scotland. Let's just look at the First Minister's answer. Apparently, this is an important issue, yet she could not tell us how many businesses in Scotland have received the funding and how many businesses are still waiting. She stood in this chamber and promised to do everything possible to deliver the funding before Christmas. Here we are in the middle of January, and businesses are telling us that the process is going at a snail's pace. However, the First Minister somehow defends it or blames councils for not acting quickly enough. The responsibility is on the Scottish Government. The SNP in Scotland added restrictions that have impacted businesses, but they have not delivered the funding. One business group said yesterday, and I quote, a business group here in Scotland, not a single penny of funding we were promised before Christmas has reached businesses. Now, a month after the funding was announced, John Swinney came forward to say that it is difficult to give a precise timescale on when this money will be paid, a month after it was announced. First Minister, this has happened time and time again during the pandemic. The SNP is quick to demand more funding from the UK Government, but very slow to get it out to the businesses who need it. First Minister, is a month-long wait for this vital funding really good enough for our businesses? First Minister, at least under an SNP Government, money is being allocated to businesses and we will get to businesses. Under a Tory Government, money is not getting to businesses at all. I am sure that if either central Government or local Government was to disperse money without basic checks to guard against fraud, for example, Douglas Ross would be one of the first to get to his feet and complain about that as well. If we take, for example, the nightclub enclosure fund that is open for application, businesses who previously received support are being contacted, they are being asked to complete their application and then payment will be made within a matter of days once that application has been received. The hospitality fund, for example, is only being asked to complete a declaration, not a new application. Businesses are being proactively contacted and councils are starting now. Some councils have already started and others are starting today to pay that money. I am not criticising councils. I know how hard councils are working and how quickly councils are working to get this money out of the door. I come back to this point. We all want this to be done as quickly as possible. Businesses in every part of the UK are suffering some of the same impact of Covid, but in Scotland businesses will be getting financial support that they are not getting where the Conservatives are in Government south of the border. Douglas Ross, businesses in other parts of the United Kingdom were not shut down in the same way that they were shut down by Nicola Sturgeon. We all remember her public health Scotland telling people not to go to Christmas parties the next day that the First Minister came on to TV to confirm that. That is why funding is required here in Scotland and that is why it was required in December, not the middle of January. The First Minister said, this is because there are basic checks to be made to ensure that money goes to the right people. We cannot make the basic checks if, in some areas, the application process has not even opened. That is the problem that businesses are telling us. This week, here in Scotland, businesses were dealt another blow. Restrictions on them were extended by a further week without any clear evidence that Omicron data is now far more positive. The First Minister herself has accepted that the Government's projections in December were wrong. Why are hospitality businesses still being held back by her Government? Can the First Minister explain to people across Scotland why, on one hand, it is safe for tens of thousands of people to now go to stadiums but it is not safe to walk from your seat to the bar in the local pub? I cannot believe that Douglas Ross must be the only person in the entire country in the run-up to Christmas who did not hear the howls from hospitality businesses south of the border about the collapse in footfall and the loss of revenue and the dire straits that they were in. He is standing here trying to suggest that businesses in every part of the UK have not suffered the Covid impacts. However, the difference in Scotland is that the Scottish Government has responded in a way that is much greater than the Government has south of the border. The application that I have already said—again, Douglas Ross might want to listen on hospitality—is a case of businesses being contacted and asked to complete a declaration. That process is under way and that money has started to flow. In terms of the nightclub closure fund, the application process is open and that money will be flowing soon. We take our responsibilities seriously to allocate money and then get that money to businesses in a way that the Tory Government is simply not doing to anywhere near the same extent. Secondly, the projections before Christmas were not wrong. What happened is that we didn't just fold our arms and accept those projections as inevitable. We took proportionate, sensible, balanced action. The public responded as they have done throughout this pandemic magnificently, and we were able to change the course of those projections. If Douglas Ross had been standing here, something that I know is hard to contemplate for people in Scotland and even harder for some people in his own party, it seems. However, if Douglas Ross had been standing here, is he really saying that he would not have responded to those projections in December? If that had been the case, we would be in a seriously difficult position right now. Because we took sensible action, we are now lifting those restrictions, but we are doing so in a phased and responsible way. Finally, had I followed the advice of Douglas Ross over the past months, we would not have face-covering still being used in Scotland, we would not have some of the mitigations that we have in schools, we would not have taken many of the sensible actions that we have taken and we would have been in a much worse position than we are in right now. I will continue to follow a sensible, responsible course to lead this country as safely as possible through the remainder of this pandemic. Douglas Ross, if the First Minister had listened to me in December, listened to the voices from the Scottish Conservatives, businesses would not be telling her in January that they are not getting the funding that they need. She says that I have to listen to her answers. First Minister, please listen to the businesses that are telling you here in Scotland that you made a promise to them that you failed to deliver and that they are waiting for this vital funding. This is to protect their businesses, this is to protect jobs and shaking your head and dismissing what they are saying undermines everything they are trying to do to keep their business alive through the toughest possible time. The First Minister tells us to live with Covid, but then she won't trust the public. She imposes restrictions but doesn't deliver compensation. She says that the data on Omicron and Covid is more promising and then she threatens businesses with a wider vaccine passport scheme. She demands more money from the UK Government and then doesn't give it to the businesses here in Scotland. When our economic recovery is so fragile, it simply isn't good enough. First Minister, why are Scottish jobs and Scottish businesses always an afterthought for you and your Government? The first time from Douglas Ross isn't nonsense. We can't give more money from the UK Government to Scottish businesses because we didn't get the more money from the UK Government that not just the Scottish Government but the Welsh Government and the Northern Irish Government asked for. We managed to find within our own resources additional money so that we can get extra support to Scottish businesses because we do accept how important it is in the face of this on-going challenge to provide as much support as we possibly can for businesses. We are in a process right now, Scottish Government working with local government to get that money out of the door into the bank accounts of businesses. I come back to a central point. That is money that will get to businesses that counterpart businesses in south of the border will not get, even though they have suffered, much of the same impact as businesses here in Scotland are suffering. I don't know why. I lose track week on week as to what exactly Douglas Ross thinks we should or shouldn't do to tackle Covid. All I can conclude is that Douglas Ross's approach to tackling a global pandemic is simply to oppose everything that the Scottish Government tries to do. Thank goodness that he hasn't been responsible for those difficult decisions because, on his display in opposition, the country would be in a sorry mess over Covid had he had anything to do with those decisions. We will continue to take responsible decisions, we will continue to support businesses and we will continue to lead this country as safely as possible through the Covid pandemic. Almost 10 months ago, the First Minister said that her focus was on getting the NHS back to normal, but today, almost two years into the pandemic, things are getting worse and not better. While I accept Omicron and put more pressure on our NHS services, many of the promises that we are facing were avoidable. In September, residents in Lanarkshire were told to expect delayed and cancelled operations as the health board was put into code black. This week, they have gone further, introducing a suspension of many GP services for at least the next four weeks. Paces were told that NHS services would be cut, except for the ones that, in the health board's words, they would never wish to stop. This is an unprecedented situation affecting the health and wellbeing of over 650,000 Scots. Is it not the case that, for people in Lanarkshire, their entire health service has now effectively been turned into an emergency only service? No, that is not the case. Let me reflect on the first point that Anna Sarwar made there, which is that, 10 months ago, I stood here and I accepted that that will be the case and said that we were focusing at that point on getting the NHS back to normal and back on track. 10 months ago, if my memory serves me correctly here, we had not had the Delta variant, nor, of course, had we had the Omicron variant. This pandemic has dealt us two significant additional blows since that period 10 months ago. I accept that that means that what we had hoped would be the case in terms of the… Anna Sarwar is saying that it is after Delta. That may or may not be the case, but what I am saying here, and I think that any reasonable person listening to this would accept, is that this pandemic has continued to deal us blows that we were not necessarily anticipating. So, yes, that means that our NHS is still struggling with the weight of Covid in a way that we all hoped would not be the case by now, but our NHS boards—those working in the NHS—every single day right now are undertaking that task magnificently. In terms of Lanarkshire, NHS Lanarkshire has operationalised level 2 of their GP escalation framework. That is not the most serious level. There are levels 0, 1, 2 and 3 of that. That is something that they have initially said is for a four-week basis, but we have asked them to review that weekly and report to the Scottish Government on the status of that. They previously had to do that at an earlier stage of the pandemic in 2020. That ensures that, given the staff absences that are being experienced right now, they can continue to focus on the patients who most need to care. None of us want to be in this position. We hope that we will be out of this position sooner rather than later, but that involves all of us continuing to take the responsible action to get Covid under control so that we can get our NHS fully back to normal. The First Minister says that that is not the case in terms of emergency-only services, but the previous guidance did not include primary care. That now includes primary care, and they have said that it is now essentially only protecting what they call never services. It is also important to note that this was after delta to what the First Minister said, so we cannot say that this is all due to Omicron. NHS Lanarkshire was warning of pressure last July. Code Black was put into place in October. That was long before Omicron arrived in the UK, but by allowing the NHS Lanarkshire situation to reach crisis levels, the First Minister has let down patients and staff who believed her when she said that there was a recovery plan in place. Across Scotland, more than 650,000 people are now languishing on NHS waiting lists. 60,000 people have been on a waiting list for more than a year. In one month alone, more than 1,600 operations were cancelled just hours before they were due to happen. The number of people and the length of time they are waiting keeps going up. First Minister, you promised a recovery and a catch-up plan. Shouldn't recovery mean that things are getting better, not worse? Shouldn't catch-up mean that the waiting lists are coming down, not mounting up? I do not say that to be pedantic, but it is a really important part of the context. Anna Sarwar, on his first question, I think that the official report will bear me out here. I referred to something that I said 10 months ago and then tried to say that that was somehow after delta. Delta was identified as a variant of concern in May, April, May last year. Since delta, which caused significant additional disruption to the health service and society, we had Omicron and we have been dealing with that since. None of us want to be in this position, but any reasonable person would realise that that has seriously frustrated the attempts on the part of the NHS, just as it has attempts across wider society to get back to normal. That is the context that we are dealing in. On Lanarkshire, Anna Sarwar is mixing up two different escalation frameworks. There is the Scottish Government board performance escalation framework, which he has cited to me before in the context of the Queen Elizabeth university hospital. At the start of the pandemic, the GP escalation framework was also put in place, which goes from level 0 to level 3. Lanarkshire is currently at level 2, which is the practices that may need to request reduced access to some services in order to focus on the most serious patients. That has been put in place in Lanarkshire for a short period. We have asked for it to be reviewed weekly. On waiting times more generally, we are focusing as much as possible on supporting boards to recover the position in terms of backlogs in waiting times, but the key to doing that is to reduce the pressure that is on boards and in hospitals that are being caused by Covid. Over the next few weeks, as we start to see the Omicron position ease, that will happen and those recovery efforts can escalate and accelerate. That is a really difficult position for the NHS, but it is one that we need to support through, but the sooner we get Covid back under control, the sooner those efforts can step up again. The First Minister said 10 months ago that the first time that we get the NHS back to normal, and the health secretary published the catch-up plan after the election in May after delta 2. What patients would expect—and it is reasonable to expect—is that after almost two years of the pandemic, they are getting back to normal NHS services, access to basic health services so that we can protect people's lives and livelihoods. Nicola Sturgeon wants to pretend that all the problems in the NHS are because of the pandemic, but she has been in government for 14 years and she has been First Minister for seven years. The NHS was under-resourced and undervalued by this Government before the pandemic. We had a workforce crisis before the pandemic. There were more than 3,500 nursing and midwifery vacancies. Let us not forget that Nicola Sturgeon as health secretary cut the number of training places. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that we are at least 1,000 beds short in the NHS. This Government cut double that. There was a staggering 450,000 of our fellow Scots on NHS waiting lists even before the pandemic. Patients are suffering, staff are burnt out. Is not it the case that we do not just need a recovery plan from Covid, we need a recovery plan from 14 years of the Scottish National Party Government? The people of Scotland had the opportunity to make that choice less than a year ago and they recorded their verdict on that. On the issue of the pandemic impact, I do not second suggest that all the challenges faced by the national health service are down to the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the NHS was dealing with changing demographics, with the impact of technology. All that was putting a pressure on the national health service and we stood here and had exchanges on that then. Although it is the case that Anna Sarwar seems to try to deny the significant impact that Covid has had and is having on the national health service, if you take just over the most recent period as it has been dealing with Omicron, there has been a 65 per cent increase in Covid-related staff absences in the national health service. That is the kind of pressure the NHS is dealing with. We need to get that under control, we need to bring the NHS and the country out of this pandemic and get back to making sure that we are dealing with those other challenges. That is where I come back to my answer. Under this Government, we have put in place the solid foundations to do that. Health spending is at a record high level in Scotland right now. NHS staffing is at a record high. Since this Government came to office, NHS staffing has increased by 27,000 whole-time equivalent staff. We have put in place those foundations, we need to get through Covid and then we will support our NHS to recover in full and to continue to deliver the services that patients across Scotland need and deserve. We will now move to supplementary questions. To ask the First Minister if she agrees that the unmasked disdain the UK Government has shown in the last 24 hours for their own colleagues in Scotland dismissing their Scottish leader as a lightweight makes it crystal clear that Scotland needs to become an independent country so that we can escape the sleazy, corrupt and criminal Westminster system for good. I think that, as we have just seen, we have big political differences with Douglas Ross. Even a high—I am not as derogatory about him as his own Tory colleagues—is not a big figure lightweight. Those might be personal insults directed at the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but they say something much deeper about the Westminster establishment's utter contempt for Scotland. If they can't even show basic respect for their own colleagues, what chance do the rest of us have? The fact is that Westminster thinks that Scotland does not need to be listened to and can be ignored. Now, we are being told that we have to throw a Prime Minister that his own colleagues think is not fit for office. Independence is fundamentally about empowerment and aspiration, but an added benefit of being independent is that it will no longer have to put up with being treated like something on the soul of Westminster's shoe. I suspect today that even Douglas Ross finds that a really attractive proposition. We have a number of people in hospital who have missed their vaccination appointments, and the First Minister stated in her answer to my colleague Rachel Hamilton that this was due to clinical reasons. Could the First Minister investigate the possibility of reviewing the policy and the protocols in acute hospital settings to give those patients anyone else who wants an inpatient vaccine? I am happy to ask the health secretary to look at that to see whether any changes are required to be made. I repeat again and ask the member to take that in good faith. There is no blanket policy in place right now that stops inpatients in hospitals getting a vaccination if their clinician thinks that they should get the vaccination. If we can accept that that is the case, I will absolutely undertake to see if there is anything else in the wider protocols that is leading to a situation where people who could or should be getting the vaccination are not getting it. I will ask the health secretary to look at that and write to the member once he has had the opportunity to do so. I listened to the First Minister's reply to Anna Sarwar. I have to be really blunt here. People in Lanarkshire are very afraid of becoming sick, and for those who are already unwell physically and mentally, they are at breaking point, because many have been on waiting time since before the pandemic. People at Lisbarie, whom I have mentioned before, the code black situation has been going on now for 12 weeks. The First Minister wrote to the Cabinet Secretary, who I think is sitting beside you, on 9 December, asking for an urgent meeting with all the MSPs in Lanarkshire, because we are all worried. I did not even get a response. What am I supposed to tell constituents in Lanarkshire who are reaching for the Samaritan Scotland phone number, because they cannot get through to GP surgeries? They feel they are not allowed to go to A&E. The letter from NHS Lanarkshire yesterday did not mention mental health, so it is very scary to hear the suspension of services when you are not a doctor and you cannot decide if you are an urgent person. Can we get the meeting that I asked for and can we get sight of a plan so that people in Lanarkshire can sleep better at night, please? I understand that not just for patients in Lanarkshire but for patients across Scotland and, indeed, for the wider public. That is a really anxious time because of the on-going challenges of Covid and the impact that that is having on the national health service, secondary care and primary care, but also the impact that that is having in many aspects of life that pre-Covid people would have taken for granted as normal. All of us want to get that back to normal as quickly as possible. Key to that is getting and keeping Covid under control, and as we do that and as we come out of Covid, supporting the NHS to recover. The step that has been taken in NHS Lanarkshire, of course nobody wants any health board to be in that position, but it is about making sure that they can maintain access to essential GP services at a time of unprecedented demand and also unprecedented staff absences. People, of course, can continue to use GP services where that is essential, wider community pharmacy services, NHS inform, where they have questions or queries that they need answered. That is a short-term measure. Nobody wants or will allow it to be in place for longer than necessary, and we will continue to take steps to support the NHS to get all services back to normal as quickly as possible for all patients across the country. Thanks. This week we have seen tens of thousands of young people successfully apply for the national entitlement cards that will open the door to free bus travel across Scotland at the end of this month. We have also seen some schools and libraries help those who are the hardest to reach to apply for the card. What more guidance can the Government give to councils to make sure that those who could benefit the most from the scheme successfully get their cards by the end of the month? I am delighted, as I am sure many people are, that applications are now open for free bus travel for young people under 22. The scheme goes live from 31 January, and it will make public transport so much more affordable for children and young people. Obviously, local authorities are key delivery partners, so we have provided them with a toolkit to help them to communicate the scheme to local residents, including providing information on the range of ways in which people can apply. As Mark Ruskell has said, in some areas, schools are co-ordinating applications on behalf of pupils. Other councils are using public libraries, and all partners are working hard to make the application process as accessible as possible. We know that some people might need additional support, so we are working with delivery partners to make sure that all young people and their families can be reached so that they are aware of the scheme and know what they need to do to make an application. I hope that everyone across Parliament will recognise the substantial social and economic benefits that the scheme will bring for children, young people and families, and, crucially, for our climate and environmental policies. I hope that everybody across the Parliament will help to promote it to young people and families in their constituencies. We understand that, this weekend, new EU health certification rules will come into effect. Has the Scottish Government had any reassurance from the UK Government that Scottish exporters will not be damaged by yet more delays at borders? On an on-going basis, we seek assurances from the UK Government that the implications of Brexit will not cause disruption or, indeed, continue disruption to Scottish exporters. I do not think that I could say that we have been given adequate assurances, because I am not sure that there are adequate assurances that can be given. Brexit, by its very nature, all that it brings in its wake causes disadvantage and disruption. The Scottish Government, for our part, will seek to do everything that we can to support businesses through that, but it does underline again the fact that Brexit is something that is against Scotland's interests and is being done to us against our democratic wishes. At the common select committee this week, we heard that 400 jobs have been lost at Aberdeen airport since the start of the pandemic. Can the First Minister outline what support the Scottish Government will give to our airports, or is another industry that the First Minister has turned her back on? We continued, of course, just as one example of the support that we are giving to businesses, aviation businesses, the rates relief that leisure and hospitality and aviation businesses were entitled to. We extended that for another year. I think that, if I am getting this wrong, I will stand corrected, but I think that that is more than the UK Government did around aviation. Already, we are providing additional support. Airports, aviation and the travel sector more generally have been very severely hit by the pandemic, not just in Scotland or the UK, but across Europe and the world. We will do everything that we can to support the sector as it gets back to normal, as hopefully it does as we come out of the Omicron wave. To ask the First Minister what deadline the Scottish Government has set for making any further changes to this year's examinations process. Given that we are still living through a global pandemic, contingencies are needed in education, as in all other aspects of life. Right now, should any of those contingencies be required, and there are two key contingencies in education, as far as exams are concerned, we would obviously notify that as soon as possible. However, first of all, I hope that that is not the case. I hope that we do not need to activate those contingencies and, as has been clear since August, our firm intention this year is that exams will go ahead. The First Minister is right that contingencies are needed but not the type that her Government proposes. She should be guaranteeing that exams take place this year and does she reflect negatively on the cabinet secretary's confirmation yesterday at the Education and Skills Committee that no additional resources are being put in place to allow that to happen safely? What has happened to suggestions of acquiring larger community spaces? What about putting additional invigilators in place and what about one-to-one support, most importantly, for those young people who have lost out on their learning? All of her Mandel says that the contingencies that we put in place are not the type that should be put in place. I think that that is probably a standard for the Conservatives. We say one thing, they will say another. However, let me say what those contingencies are so that people can judge for themselves. The first contingency is that if education is further disrupted, which we all hope it won't be because of developments in the pandemic, then additional support will be provided for those studying for exams. I'm interested that Oliver Mandel doesn't think that that's an appropriate contingency. I think that it is indeed an appropriate contingency. The second contingency is that if public health advice says that it wasn't safe for young people to come together to sit exams in the traditional way, then we'd go back to a situation that I came to in the past two years where we would have teacher judgment coming to bear instead of exams. Again, I think that that's an appropriate contingency. We don't want to have to use either of those contingencies because we want exams to go ahead because we think that that's in the interests of young people. However, Oliver Mandel asks me to guarantee things. I would really love to be able to guarantee all sorts of things, but we are still living through a global pandemic. In my exchange with Anna Sarwar, we've just been reflecting on that. We've had two new variants of this in the past few months alone. None of us can guarantee the immediate future in the context of this pandemic, but we make plans based on what we hope will be the case. Right now, that is to allow young people to sit their exams this year as normal, but have sensible and appropriate contingencies in place in case something happens that makes that impossible. Willie Rennie. To be frank, the education secretary has made a right mess of this. She issued two conflicting statements within two days, including making a major announcement on Twitter, which is hardly the forum for such a major announcement. There was such confusion that the SQA had to step in to clarify. Does the First Minister think that this is the right way to treat pupils preparing for exams right now? I think that that is a complete misrepresentation of the position of that. I am sorry if Willie Rennie missed it, but the education secretary set out in a statement to the Parliament in August last year what the intention was of the Scottish Government in relation to exams this year, that exams would go ahead. However, as she was reflecting, as I have just reflected again, when we are living through a global pandemic, there has to be contingencies in place. However, that intention for exams to go ahead has not changed. If he is referring to the same Twitter exchange that I saw, what the education secretary was rightly seeking to do was not to make announcements on Twitter, but to deal with some of the confusion that I think, if I may say, has been added to by the misrepresentations of Opposition politicians, as we have just heard from Willie Rennie. To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government will take to urgently progress the green transition in North Ayrshire following the closure of Hunterston B power station on 7 January. The workers at Hunterston B have made a really valuable contribution to our energy security over very, very many years, and I have no doubt that they will continue to distinguish themselves through the safe decommissioning of the site. While that will rightly take time, we must plan and invest in the green transition of North Ayrshire. We have invested £103 million into the Ayrshire growth deal, and we are working with partners to deliver projects that I know will help to create the good green jobs that are needed in the region. We will also publish a draft energy strategy and just transition plan this year, setting out how we will work with businesses, trade unions and communities to manage the economic and social impacts of a changing energy system. The closure of Hunterston B is at the end of an era for North Ayrshire, regardless of one's view of nuclear power. 125 jobs have been lost with more to follow over the next eight years as the plant defuels and is then decommissioned. Significant investment bringing 900 jobs has been considered in terms of subsea solar energy cable manufacturing at Harnersham Port and Resource Centre. Does the First Minister agree that the efforts of Scottish Government agencies working with North Ayrshire Council must be redoubled and on-going to attract and consider further potential job-creating developments at Hunterston? Yes, I agree very much. Kenny Gibson knows all too well. I grew up in North Ayrshire, not too far from Hunterston B power stations, so I know firsthand how important it has been over many years to the local economy there. It is important, as it decommissions, that we support that green transition. The Ayrshire growth deal is central to that. The Scottish Government and our agencies are working with regional partners to support the delivery of Hunterston Port and Resource Centre projects, the proposed subsea cable that Kenny Gibson refers to, as well as multiple other projects across Ayrshire that are included within the deal. Those projects, of course, are led and driven by colleagues in North Ayrshire Council on behalf of the wider deal, but it is really important that we fully support that and I can give an assurance that the Scottish Government will continue to do so. Katie Clark Last month, I raised with the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise that, although North Ayrshire Council has set up a task force to look at the economic development at Hunterston, its ambition has always been that the Scottish Government be involved with a ministerial task force to look at the development of the Hunterston Park site. Is this something that the First Minister will look at given how important it is to ensure that good quality trade unionised green jobs are created, but also given that it is an area of environmental importance with a site of special scientific importance, that the biodiversity and environmental concerns are also taken into account? The First Minister I am happy to give consideration to that wider point. I certainly accept the importance of the environmental considerations for the reasons that the member has set out. Obviously, it is for the Scottish Government to set the wider policy and strategic framework, which we will do through the draft energy strategy, through the just transition plan that I referred to, which will be published over the course of this year. Beyond that, it is right that those plans are driven by local councils and local agencies. As I said earlier on, the Scottish Government is contributing more than £100 million to the Ayrshire growth deal. The balance between local leadership and strategic direction from the Scottish Government is always one that we need to be careful to get right. However, I will give consideration to the wider point and revert to the member as soon as possible. I, too, would like to thank the workforce at Hunterston, who has been an integral part of the North Ayrshire economy, but also community, but nowhere in the question by Mr Gibson or indeed the First Minister's answer did I hear an explanation as to how the SNP's current moratorium on exploring new nuclear energy or technology or even having a sensible debate about it will support either job creation in North Ayrshire or secure reliable energy for Scotland. Why, therefore, is the Scottish Government simply not interested in exploring Scotland's potential to be a world leader in this field? We will continue to debate those issues, and that is right and proper. I and my party have made clearer views on new nuclear power over many years. In summary, there are two reasons behind that. New nuclear power is not good value for money for taxpayers to be blunt about it, and there is still the issue of what we do with the nuclear waste that comes from nuclear power that nobody has been able to really satisfactorily resolve. Of course, Scotland has an abundance of renewable energy potential in the not too distant future. We will hear the outcome, for example, of the Scotland leasing round, which is about ensuring that we maximise our offshore wind potential. We are focused on making sure, both for our energy needs but also for the jobs and economic needs of the country, that we maximise that vast renewable low-carbon potential that we have. That is what we will continue to do. 5. Brian Whittle To ask the First Minister what data the Scottish Government has collected on the number of people diagnosed with cancer and the stage at which they are diagnosed since the start of Covid-19 pandemic, and how that compares with pre-dup pandemic data. Public Health Scotland published latest staging data for breast, lung and colorectal cancers in November last year. That report showed that the number of people diagnosed at the earliest stage is lower than would have been expected had the Covid pandemic not happened. However, more recent data shows that more patients are being treated now on an urgent suspicion of cancer pathway compared to the situation pre-Covid. Also, since the start of the pandemic, we have established the first early cancer diagnostic centres and launched public campaigns, including on lung cancer, to raise awareness of the vital importance of early diagnosis. We have also committed an additional £20 million to the detect cancer early programme. 5. Brian Whittle I have a friend who has just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that, unfortunately, has spread to other areas. He was diagnosed at stage 3, having waited six months for his test. The NHS is under severe pressure, as we are all aware, and this kind of story, I am sure, is replicated across the country. Collection of that kind of data from non-Covid conditions is critical in planning for what challenges are coming down the track. Today, in the Covid recovery committee, we were told by an adviser that inadequate data is not being collected, so we must make proper informed decisions on those matters. Does the First Minister agree that data collection analysis is crucial in forward planning, including for post-Covid planning? If so, what will the Scottish Government do to support the development of data collection as quickly as possible to help the NHS as it plans its future strategy? Yes, I agree very strongly that data is important in all sorts of areas, but in particular to ensure that we are diagnosing cancer as early as possible and treating cancer as quickly as possible. After that, I spoke in my initial answer about the data on staging that Public Health Scotland does publish. I will certainly speak to Public Health Scotland about the additional data that it may be possible to gather and to collect. We put a big focus on early diagnosis for reasons that everybody understands and have focused through the detect cancer early programme on some of the most common cancers, but one of the functions and one of the purposes of the new early diagnostic centres is to make sure that symptoms that are perhaps not the ones that people suspect may be cancer and are treated more urgently. We are trying to widen that net as much as possible. Staging is important in anybody's cancer journey to make sure that they are diagnosed as quickly as possible, but so too is access to treatment. Even during the Covid pandemic, once a decision to treat was made, cancer patients waited on average between two to five days for treatment. All of those different stages are important. Data is vital to understanding performance now and how we improve performance. I will certainly take the points that were made back and have a further discussion with Public Health Scotland about them. Whilst Covid-19 has undoubtedly had a challenging impact on the delivery of NHS services, does the First Minister agree with me that the establishment of the three early cancer diagnostic centres that you have just mentioned, including the one in my constituency, are providing a welcome referral route for patients who do not have the standard cancer symptoms and that that is going to be the way that we can get those patients on the most urgent of pathways, specifically where there are unfortunate cases of later stage diagnosis due to the lack of the traditional presenting symptoms? I agree very much with that, and it is the point that I was seeking to make in response to the previous question. The urgent suspicion of cancer referral route is one that is really important, but it refers to people who have symptoms that are most traditionally and commonly indicative of cancer. What the early cancer diagnostic centres are seeking to do is to add to that so that they are providing primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for patients who have nonspecific symptoms that might be suspicious of cancer—for example, weight loss and fatigue, which could be cancer, but which might be other things. That is widening the ability of primary care to get people who might have cancer into that fast-track pathway as quickly as possible. I think that those centres really do add something very important, and I hope that they will give additional reassurance to people who may be worried that the symptoms that they are suffering are indicative of a cancer diagnosis. Question 6, Christine Grahame. To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Government can provide to people struggling to pay their electricity bills. Powers over the energy market, of course, are reserved. We have written to the UK Government calling for urgent action to support households. That, in our view, should include a reduction to VAT as one of the simplest short-term measures, as well as action on the warm homes discount and cold weather payment. We have also taken, within our own powers and from our own resources, action through our £41 million winter support fund. That includes a £10 million fuel insecurity fund to help people with heating costs and provides £25 million of funding to local authorities to tackle financial insecurity. In addition, we continue to invest in trying to make people's homes warmer and more affordable to heat, with more than £1 billion allocated to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency. That £1 billion has been allocated since 2009. I thank the First Minister and note the mitigations. Added to the misery of skyrocketing energy bills, there is the 5 per cent increase in the cost of living, £20 cut to the universal credit, national insurance like, all pushing more Scots into poverty and desperation, all reserved to Westminster, but the impact on the fallout lands on our devolved public services. Therefore, does the First Minister agree with me that only with independence and full power over our economy could we prevent this economic tsunami? Perhaps, while I am at it, I invite Douglas Ross to join us in this, because I am sure that he will have a better political future in an independent Scotland. Those issues are really important. Sometimes in the chamber we debate them as if they are abstract, but they have real meaning to people's lives. Inflationary pressures are going to be one of the biggest issues that we are dealing with in the months to come and are going to have a really severe impact on household budgets. We have to recognise as we try to decide how best to help people where the powers and the resources lie. Right now, levers over energy costs, 85 per cent of welfare spending, powers over the minimum wage and national insurance, they are all held at Westminster, so while this Parliament might want to act, it is not able to do. We have also seen a Westminster Government take £20 a week out of the pockets of the poorest families in our country, and we see them instead of helping to do things that are making life harder for those already struggling. I think that it is the case, not in an abstract sense, but in a real tangible sense, that we take more of the powers that are being misused by Westminster into the hands of this Parliament so that we can use them in the interests of people across the country. Yes, Christine Grahame is right. We can try to do that through increased devolution and we will always try to do that, but fundamentally the best way of resolving this is for Scotland to become an independent country, so this Parliament can take the decisions that are in the interests of the country and not constantly have to hope that a Prime Minister, who everybody, without exception in this chamber, thinks is unfit for office to take those decisions for us. That concludes First Minister's questions. There will be a brief pause before we move to Members Business.