 The next item of business today is consideration of business bureau motion 7384, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick. On behalf of the bureau setting of the business programme, I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to say so now. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion 7384. Firmly moved. Thank you. No member has asked to speak against the motion. The question is therefore that motion 7384 be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 7378, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the bureau on variation of standing orders in relation to First Minister's questions. I would ask any member who wishes to object to say so now. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion 7378. Moved. Thank you. No member has asked to speak against the motion. The question is that motion 7378 be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. The first item of substantive business is topical questions. We start with question number one from Daniel Johnson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government how many teacher vacancies there are. Cabinet Secretary John Swinney. In 2016, the Scottish Government and COSLA worked together to develop a teacher vacancy survey seeking to provide high-quality data from local authorities. The information was fed into the 2017-18 teacher workforce planning process. A further exercise is currently underway as part of the 2018-19 workforce planning process. We recognise that there are some local authorities experiencing challenges in filling vacancies. That is why we have taken the decisive action that we have taken to recruit and retain teachers. We have increased the student teacher intake targets for the sixth year in a row. We are setting targets to train teachers on the subjects where they are needed most. We are investing more than £1 million from the Scottish attainment fund to develop new routes into the profession. Daniel Johnson. I think that the number that has come out in recent days is that there are 500 teacher vacancies, which the Cabinet Secretary failed to put in his answer. The reality is that excellent education starts with excellent teachers, so this number of vacancies is of concern to us all. However, it can be a no surprise given the falling pay in real terms, increasing workload, leading to retention issues. There has been much talk in recent days about lifting of the public sector pay cap. What steps is the Cabinet Secretary taking to make sure that teachers are amongst the first benefit to stop the spiralling situation of pay and conditions? The first thing that I would say is that I recognise, as I did in my earlier answer, that there are challenges in teacher recruitment around the country. Even if we take Mr Johnson's figure at face value, that represents 1 per cent of the teaching profession. We have to have a sense of perspective about the issues. I was pleased when some of the survey information came out that local authorities made clear that they were optimistic that they would be able to close those vacancies in the course of the school term. We have seen as part of that a dramatic change in the employment of post-probationers where, when this Government came to office, only 66 per cent of post-probationers were in permanent or temporary employment, but that is now at 87 per cent at the current period. In relation to the questions on public sector pay, I can assure Mr Johnson that the dialogue is under way within the SNCT process to agree the teachers' pay round for the current school year. It would be premature of me to make any judgments about that process, but I assure him that the Government is participating in that process along with the teaching trade unions and the local authorities. The cabinet secretary did much to try to downplay the numbers, but the Government's own paper shows that it will take three years to fill the shortfall. We know that we have 4,000 fewer teachers than we did in 2010. On 31 May, John Swinney came to the education committee and admitted that, with hindsight, too many teacher training places had been cut. With the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge that we have 500 teachers missing from our classrooms, what mistakes does he think that the Scottish Government has made in the stewardship of the teaching profession and workforce in Scotland? I have returned to my point to Mr Johnson about post-probationers, because his question makes my point for me. In 2007, 66 per cent of post-probationers were in permanent or temporary employment. Opposition parties in this Parliament were demanding that this Government did something about that level of probationary employment, so we did. We now have 87 per cent of post-probationers in permanent or temporary employment, so we addressed the issue that the members of Parliament were concerned about. Of course, at that time, there were more teachers than there were places for teachers to be employed in, so the numbers of the intake into initial teacher education were reduced to a relative comparative of the lower levels in 2010-11. In 2010-11, 2,282 teachers were recruited into initial teacher education. That figure now stands at 4,058 for this academic year. That is what the Government is doing, responding to the fact that we need to create opportunities for teachers to gain employment, to train sufficient teachers to enter the teaching profession, and the reforms that I set out in June are designed to strengthen the profession and to strengthen the attractiveness of the occupation of education to more and more individuals in our country. Oliver Mundell, the cabinet secretary will know from committee evidence that concerns have been raised about the accuracy of data on teacher numbers, specifically that data in relation to supply teacher numbers is patchy across local authorities. Can he therefore tell the chamber what he is going to do about that problem? Fundamentally, it is for individual local authorities to manage their resources to employ the teachers that they require to deliver education. I was in Mr Mundell's constituency yesterday. I visited Dumfries High School. I was very pleased to see the strength of educational provision in Dumfries High School. I was very pleased to hear from Dumfries and Galloway Council that they have started this school year with a full complement of teachers in the schools of Dumfries and Galloway, which I warmly congratulate Dumfries and Galloway Council on achieving. Of course, the supply pool needs to be managed, and I am taking steps actively to ensure that we have a strong supply pool so that when the inevitabilities of illness and other factors take their course during the year, we have adequate supply cover in our schools. I encourage members of Parliament to see the progress that has been made by the significant increase in initial teacher education intakes that we have delivered, which has strengthened the recruitment into the teaching profession and has ensured that, in some parts of the country, we have a sufficient supply of teachers, but we are working with others to ensure that those issues are addressed in other parts of the country. Ross Greer To address the issue of teacher shortages, the Scottish Government has opened the door to fast-track training for teachers, including potentially the highly controversial teach first course. What evidence of the Scottish Government gathered that the length of traditional, highly regarded initial teacher education courses is, in fact, the issue? What the Government has done has been to insist that the high standards that are expected for the recruitment of teachers into the teaching profession are maintained. I give Parliament an absolute commitment on that point. All the new routes into teaching that have not been validated by me have been validated by the guardians of the process, who are the general teaching council of Scotland. Any course that comes forward—I hear Mr Greer speculating about possible courses that may come forward, and it is speculation, I might add—will have to be validated by the general teaching council of Scotland, and it will have to have an academic partner as part of that process. The objective of what the Government is trying to do—I met some of those students myself at the University of Strathclyde, who are people who have had a career in other areas of activity, who have an interest in STEM teaching, and because of the refinements that have been made to the course by the University of Strathclyde, validated by the general teaching council, those individuals have been prepared to change from their other careers into teaching, and I welcome them for doing that. They will still be put through rigorous training and education, but what it is guaranteeing is a stronger flow of teachers into our classroom, and particularly addressing the areas of shortage that we have in the STEM subjects. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the reported shortages of NHS radiologists. Under this Government, the number of consultants with a specialty of radiology working in NHS Scotland has increased by 41.9 per cent to 317.2 whole-time equivalent. We have also enhanced the supply of doctors to fill radiology training posts with 26 new training places over the past four years, an increase of 20 per cent. That will be augmented by a further increase of 10 radiology training places for 2018, agreed by the shape of training transition group on 24 August. Supply will improve from 2018 onwards, as our increased investment in radiology training numbers begins to produce an increased output. With regard to NHS Highland, the Scottish Government is working with the board to support improved performance of the radiology service, and the board is already taking action as part of this work. The chief executive of NHS Scotland, the chief medical officer and the director of health workforce recently met with radiologists from NHS Highland. I will also be meeting with the Royal College of Radiologists later this month to discuss their concerns. Edward Mountain I thank the cabinet secretary for those figures. I will let me give you some figures in return. On the back of letters that I have received from the department of medicine and general surgery at Regmore, the situation is critical, signed by over 50 single people in there. NHS Highland undertakes about 167,000 imaging examinations annually, a 250 per cent increase on 10 years ago, but there are four less full-time radiologists at Regmore than there was then. 50 per cent less staff than there are in Lothian. NHS Highland is sitting on some 8,000 unreported films. It has proved impossible to recruit more radiologists, despite the board's direct input for the past three years, and there has already been one resignation this year. The result is that doctors say that there are unacceptable delays to elective surgery and emergency surgery and reporting. Cabinet secretary, do you think that those figures are acceptable? Cabinet secretary, the report and review that was commissioned by the Scottish Government along with NHS Highland into radiology services was produced last month, which will form the basis of an action plan to address those problems. I am very happy to provide Edward Mountain with a copy of that if he has not already seen it. Of course, he did, in his question, touch on the problem here, and that is being able to recruit to radiology within NHS Highland. It is very clear that there are some specialties in some parts of Scotland that are extremely hard to recruit to, so a number of actions are under way, including the work that is set out in the review. For example, to ensure that the international medical training initiative at NHS Highland is putting forward radiology posts as part of that. It is also working with NHS Education for Scotland to help the board to identify where other radiology trainees may be located, including through joint appointments with other boards and teaching hospitals to ensure that they achieve the required educational experience and make those posts more attractive. I can say to Edward Mountain that everything that can be done will be done, but I reiterate that across Scotland we have seen additional radiology consultant posts, nearly more than 40 per cent, and more than 20 per cent training posts. However, there are certain parts of the country and certain specialties where more work has to be done in order to fill those posts, and that work is under way in Highland. Edward Mountain Thank you, cabinet secretary. If I quote the board, it says that there has been significant investment in time and energy and commitment by the board over the last three years. Indeed, cabinet secretary, I think that you had a personal visit some two and a half years ago from radiologists from the Highlands alerting to you to the problem. You have had two and a half years to solve it. The board has had over three. It appears that you cannot solve it and nor can the board of NHS Highland. Will you step down and make way for those who can? Will you do the honourable thing so that the people in the Highlands can get good service? I do not think that that is worthy of him. I have had very constructive engagement across this Parliament, and I would hope that that would continue. I have set out in my initial answer and in the follow-up answers all the work that is going on to address this problem. There is no magic wand here or magic bullet or whatever else you can describe to sort the issue. It is difficult to recruit to radiology within Highlands and other areas because it is a specialty that is difficult to recruit to generally but particularly in remote and rural areas. That is why the action that is under way in this report here and all the other action that I have said is looking at the international recruitment initiative, making sure that Highlands have those posts there at the top of the medical training initiative. I think that that will help to bring people into Highland because it is something new and it is worked in other areas. Also, in terms of the joint appointment with other boards, that has worked for other specialties, and that is something that Highland is looking at to make those posts more attractive. I am happy in a constructive way to make sure that Edward Mountain is kept the best of those developments if he would find that helpful. I encourage all members to keep their questions and the answers tight, please. Clare Haughey. Last week, the Financial Times revealed that doctors had been leaving NHS England at a rate of more than 400 a month, with the vote to leave the EU exacerbating shortages. Will the cabinet secretary agree that the Tory approach to Brexit is hindering efforts to ensure that the NHS is staff for the future? On radiologists, please. Of course, Clare Haughey makes a very important point, because whether it is radiology or other specialties, we can ill afford to lose any opportunity to recruit here from the EU to those posts. It is interesting that Edward Mountain completely did not mention any of that within his question. Of course, it is an issue that every health board, including NHS Highland, has raised with me as a deep, deep concern. That is why it is so important that a message goes out that EU nationals are very welcome to work here, the ones that we have here already and the ones who may wish to come and make their home here in Scotland. They are very welcome. Cabinet Secretary, the truth is that this is not just a problem with radiologists and in the Highlands. It is part of a wider crisis in our NHS to recruit. We have consultant vacancies up now at 500 published today. We have nursing midwifery vacancies up to 3,200 published today, and that is now directly impacting on patient care. We were promised a comprehensive workforce plan before the summer recess. Instead, we got part 1 of a three-part plan. Is not it time that we had a comprehensive plan and we had a demonstration on this Cabinet Secretary that she understands the concerns of the NHS workforce? She understands the concerns of patients waiting for treatment and that she demonstrates that she has to have some idea about the problems in our NHS? A wider question, but a tighter answer, please, minister. Okay. Well, thank you, Anna Sarwar, for that question. First of all, the reason that the workforce plan is in three parts is because the second part was asked to be delayed by COSLA because of the elections so that it could jointly make sure that the workforce plan is published later on. The third part, of course, dealing with primary care and the GP workforce, would be silly to have published that when we were in the midst of a contract negotiation with the BMA where workforce is part of that negotiation. That workforce plan would be published at the end of that negotiation. That makes sense. Everybody knows that it makes sense. Perhaps Anna Sarwar may also agree that it makes sense. A comprehensive workforce plan has already been published and will be followed up by the rest of the plan in order to take forward these issues.