 The first item of business today is general questions, and we start with number one from Alexander Stewart. To ask the Scottish Government what action they are taking to improve the accessibility of childminders for all families. Minister Marie Todd. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We recognise the valuable contribution that childminders can and do make to the provision of high quality early learning and childcare, which is accessible and affordable for all families. We fund the Scottish Child Minding Association and enable it to promote child-minding services through its work with local authorities. Our blueprint for action makes clear that we expect childminders and community childminders to play a significant role in the expansion of funded early learning and childcare to 1140 hours. To help achieve this, we have worked with the care inspectorate to develop a resource to support childminders to enhance the quality of care that they provide through formal and informal learning opportunities. I thank the minister for that response. Earlier this week, the chief executive of the Scottish Child Minders Association highlighted how childminders are being excluded from local authority plans to deliver funded childcare. The most recent figures from the care inspectorate have indicated that 23 per cent of local authority nurseries can provide care for two-year-olds, whereas 92 per cent for childminders. Can I ask the minister to comment on what action they are taking to recognise the vital role that childminders play and ensure that they are closely integrated to ensure that they can and do deal with the funding for childcare hours? We absolutely know that childminders provide high quality early learning and childcare. Childminders and community childminders have an important role to play in delivering the expanded entitlement. Through our review of the local authority ELC expansion plans and in response to the latest figures produced by the Scottish Child Mining Association on the current use of childminders in providing funded ELC, we have committed to working with local authorities, SEMA and individual childminders to identify any barriers to commissioning childminding services. We will work together to address and remove those barriers, building on learning from the national programme of 1140 hours of the 14 Scottish Government trials, 10 involved childminders. Local authorities are rather partners in the private and voluntary sector to deliver preschool education and the duty to fund these from the general revenue grant. Does the minister share the concerns expressed by some childminders and private and voluntary nurseries that some local authorities such as North Ayrshire refuse to fund them to the same degree as council-run nurseries and that, in doing so, they may be at risk of creating a level of unfair advantage for their own nurseries whilst diminishing parental choice locally? We have been very clear that our approach to the transformation of early learning and childcare is provider neutral. We will create a new funding that follows the child model for introduction in 2020. This new model will prioritise the settings that are best placed to deliver quality outcomes for children, regardless of which sector they are provided by, while offering parents a greater choice of settings. Together with our living wage commitment for childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement, that will support financially sustainable early learning and childcare provision across all sectors. To support providers, we will also introduce a new 100 per cent business rates relief for day nurseries from April 2018. The number of childminders has fallen sharply 400 since December 2015. We also know that the number of people graduating from childcare courses fell last year. Given the expansion of childcare is going to need more staff at all levels, will the minister guarantee that there will be more childminders and more childcare graduates by this time next year? Yes. We are absolutely committed to increasing the number of qualified childminders. We have increased the number of college places for childminding, and we will be delivering on the promises that we have made with our regard to ELC. To ask the Scottish Government when the power in the private housing tenancies Scotland Act 2016 to designate rent pressure zones will come into force. Presiding Officer, the private housing tenancies Scotland Act 2016 will come into force on 1 December 2017. From tomorrow, local authorities will be able to make an application to Scottish ministers for an area to be designated as a rent pressure zone. Ben Macpherson, given that rents in Edinburgh have risen significantly in recent years, does the minister agree with me that the potential designation of rent pressure zones in Edinburgh merits serious consideration? To that end, can the minister outline what guidance is in place to help Edinburgh City Council and other local authorities to take forward applications to propose that certain areas be designated as rent pressure zones? Rent pressure zones provisions are a valuable discretionary tool for councils. They must decide themselves whether it is appropriate to submit an application based on their knowledge of the local area. On 16 November, we published the rent pressure zone requirements for local authorities, and the document outlines the requirements that a council must meet for its application to be valid. Graham Simpson Thank you. Have any councils shown an early interest in setting up rent pressure zones, if so, on what grounds and in which areas? Ben Macpherson As I gave in my previous answer, that only comes into force tomorrow. I have read some media reports that other members have about certain local authorities looking at the possibility of rent pressure zones for their areas, but I will wait until their applications come in and the Government will look at those applications very closely indeed. Pauli McNeill I welcome the minister's statement today. In the guidance that will be issued, will local authorities be given an indication of the scope of evidence that would be required to make an application to be considered as a rent pressure zone? Ben Macpherson The document that I mentioned before rent pressure zone requirements for local authorities goes into some depth, and I would expect local authorities to pour over that document and act accordingly with their submissions. To ask the Scottish Government what level of input it had to the design of the asylum accommodation and support services contract that was issued for tender by the UK Government on 21 November this year. Angela Constance I wrote to the immigration minister on 2 March 2017 to set out the Scottish Government's very detailed priorities for the next asylum accommodation contract and raised the issue during my meeting with the immigration minister on 12 July this year. Scottish Government officials have taken part in a number of engagement events with members of the Home Office's asylum accommodation and support transformation project team since autumn 2016. I have to say to the member that I have not been satisfied with the operation of the current contract and have made it clear that I wanted to be involved in the development of the next contract to ensure that it meets the needs of asylum seekers in Scotland. It is therefore extremely disappointing that the Home Office has gone ahead and published a contract notice without discussion and without a clear commitment to integration support. I have written to the immigration minister this week to express my deep concerns about the process. Patrick Harvie Thank you. No one should be satisfied with the current level of provision of asylum accommodation and support services. The UK's Home Affairs Select Committee, among many others, has condemned the level of provision that is provided by multinational corporations on a for-profit basis under the current contract. The new contract will set the terms under which those services are provided for the next 10 years. It is one of the biggest contracts that the UK Government lets some £4 billion, half a billion of which will be spent in Scotland over that decade. It is important that we get that right rather than repeating the mistakes of the past. Has the Scottish Government indicated a desire to the UK Government to put together a public sector-led bid to take on lot 5, which covers Scotland, if it has not, will it? I am grateful to Mr Harvie for his question. I have written at least on three occasions to the UK Government, in and around concerns around the current contract, and, in my meetings now with two immigration ministers, I have raised the point about the desirability of a public sector-led contract. Despite the verbal assurance that the Home Office was open to a range of ideas, like Mr Harvie, I am disappointed that the Home Office and the immigration minister have not responded to the very detailed points and have ignored many of the points raised by the Home Affairs Committee, not least the need to recognise devolved administrations as partners. In terms of the work that the Government will lead, we will continue to work with our stakeholders in the third sector. We continue to have discussions with other devolved administrations, namely the Welsh, COSLA and an important partner here, as are Glasgow City Council. However, the crucial issue is that, for any organisation, any third sector or public sector organisation, they will have to satisfy themselves that they can provide a quality service to vulnerable people within the budget that the Home Office has now set. That is the absolutely critical point. For the avoidance of doubt, the Government has always been very clear that the provision of asylum accommodation and support should be led by the third sector or the public sector and not by those who have profit as a motive. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the action that it has taken to manage flood risk in the south of Scotland. Local Authority Scottish Water Forestry Commission Scotland and SEPA are taking forward actions to manage flood risk in the south of Scotland. They are set out by the relevant flood risk management strategies and local plans. Can the minister reassure constituents in the south of Scotland that local authorities have the necessary powers and resources to regularly reflect on and, if necessary, update flood defence plans in response to feedback from communities regarding measures currently in place? I can give that reassurance to the flood risk management act sets out a six-year cycle for delivering flood risk management strategies and local plans, which are implemented by councils and other responsible authorities. The first set of strategies and local action plans were published in 2015 and 2016. The focus of action is in areas where the risk of flooding and the benefits of investment are greatest. Planning for the second cycle is currently under way, and new evidence, information and lessons learnt will be taken into account when developing new strategies and local plans. As set out in the act, there will be consultation and, therefore, enabling communities to provide very specific feedback on flood protection measures that affect them. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that new-built housing estates are able to access fast fibre broadband internet connections. Despite telecoms delivery being a reserved matter, the Scottish Government has taken steps to assist with roll-out of broadband during housing construction. From 1 January this year amendments to the building Scotland regulations 2004 set a standard for in-building physical infrastructure for high-speed electronic communications networks. That enables easier installation of fibre at any time on or after completion and applies to new homes and other buildings. In new-build developments, where there is a commercial demand for superfast broadband, we would expect that that would be delivered commercially without the need for public funding. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I have been contacted by numerous constituents in the new and farmery of my constituency regarding poor broadband speeds that they are able to access in their homes. Most of the area is new-built housing and the estate continues to expand. Developers have not provided the infrastructure to their residents to access reasonable broadband speeds. There appears to be no onus in developers by local authorities at the planning stage to ensure that infrastructure is adequate to deal with the demands on internet speeds. Will the minister advise me what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that local authorities take connectivity needs into account when approving housing developments? The planning system cannot require delivery of infrastructure by third parties. That is not what it is for, but it does encourage developers to agree with infrastructure providers to build in coverage and capacity new developments. As I have said, the building standards that are applicable from this year basically require that physical infrastructure is in place. That is usually ducts or cable trays in buildings that are ready to receive fibre or cables for broadband for new single and multiple occupancy buildings. Last week, I raised that with the chief executive of BT OpenReach and the senior top officer of BT in Scotland. I urge them to go further than their pledge at the moment, which is to enable connection to fibre broadband for developments of 30 or more houses. I asked them to go further than that and consider developments of under 30 houses, and they told me that they are giving sympathetic consideration of that. The Scottish Government is very much pressing for further progress in addition to the higher regulation that we introduced at the beginning of this year, designed to help the member's constituents and other constituents around the whole country. Does the cabinet secretary accept that Scotland is behind every single English local authority, the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland in its approach to phase 2 of the superfast broadband roll-out? Cabinet secretary. Well, we veered off building regulations and planning, but let me reply quite directly to this. The claims persistently made by UK ministers and Tory MPs this week that Scotland is three years behind of the rest of the UK are entirely false. Moreover, more than 800,000 homes and businesses across Scotland now have access to fibre broadband as a result of the digital Scotland superfast programme. That programme was an investment of more than £400 million. It has been recognised by independent commentators and regulators such as Ofcom that Scotland is ahead of the rest of the UK in the speed of equipping people with access to broadband. Indeed, when I met Mr Hancock on Monday, he agreed that our approach is the correct one and he will co-operate with us. So he said anyway that we will wait and see how if that co-operation materialises, but he undertook to co-operate with the Scottish Government as our plans go forward for the final stage of broadband connection. Bear in mind that we have an undertaking to connect everybody to enable them to access superfast broadband. Down south, the UK Government has made and, apparently, are not going to make any such commitment. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding ticket price anomalies on the Nith valley line and the west coast main line. Transport Scotland meets with ScotRail as do I on a regular basis to discuss franchise matters, including rail fares. No reports have been received yet concerning ticket price anomalies on the Nith valley line and west coast main line. However, where fare anomalies are identified, ScotRail will be asked to take appropriate action as required and as specified in the franchise agreement. I thank the minister for that answer, although it is a bit surprising given that, when I was a councillor, I raised this issue with his predecessor. Is the minister aware of the extent to which passengers on Dumfries and Galloway are being ripped off when it comes to rail fares? I will give him two quick examples. A passenger who travels the 50-mile trip to Glasgow from Kirkconnell on the Nith valley line will pay £13.50 for a single, which is £27p per mile. However, if they drive a few miles north-out with Dumfries and Galloway and catch the train in Newcombe, they pay £8.40, just £19p per mile for the 43-mile trip. Passengers on 28 commuter routes across Scotland benefit from ScotRail's flexi pass ticket that allows discounts for regular users, but that discount is not available anywhere in Dumfries and Galloway, including the region's busiest commuter route from Lockerby station to Edinburgh and Glasgow. How can the Government say that they are committed to tackling the economic challenges facing Dumfries and Galloway, one of the lowest-wazed regions in Scotland, when those anomalies make it more expensive from passengers from the region to use our railways to get to work? Can I say to the member on the specific of the anomaly that he suggests? Of course, I will have a look at that. As I say, there is a mechanism within the franchise agreement for ScotRail to rectify that, so I will most certainly have a look. I absolutely agree that passengers and commuters need to have fair and affordable access to rail. That is why this Scottish Government has taken action in relation to fair rises. They are capped here in Scotland and therefore are lower than the rest of the United Kingdom, so we will continue to take that action and continue to drive our performance. In the meantime, to be constructive and helpful, I will take away the fair anomaly that he suggests exists and see whether that can be rectified by ScotRail. To ask the Scottish Government how the load advocate decides whether a matter is in the public interest. I think that we need a card here. That is quite understandable. I am grateful to Mr Tomkins for the rare opportunity to use my card and answer a question. That is a question that concerns my functions as head of the system of prosecution, assessing whether it is in the public interest to take prosecutorial action in an individual case or to amend prosecution policy in the public interest will depend very much on the particular facts and circumstances of a particular case or policy proposal. It is an assessment that involves careful consideration of all the relevant public interests. In an individual case, that may include, for example, the nature and gravity of the offence, the impact of the offence on the victim and other witnesses and the age background and personal circumstances of the accused. The factors that will require to be taken into account and the weight to be given to each factor will depend on the circumstances of each case. In an individual case, consideration of the public interest arises only if there is sufficient evidence. A non-exhaustive list of factors that may, depending on the circumstances, be relevant when assessing the public interest and the context of a prosecutorial decision is included in the publicly available Scottish prosecution code. Adam Tomkins. I thank the Lord Advocate for that answer. Earlier this month, it was announced that the Lord Advocate will not suspend the operation of our drugs laws to enable a fixed room to operate in Glasgow. I very warmly welcome that decision. Can the Lord Advocate explain to the Parliament his reasoning as to why this conclusion is in his judgment in the public interest? Lord Advocate. I should make clear that the proposals for a safe drug consumption facility principally pursue public health objectives. It is a matter for health officials to assess the public interest in implementing such proposals and to determine how they would operate in practice. I have not been asked to assess whether the proposals are in the public interest in any general sense. A request was made to me by the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to consider amending prosecution policy to facilitate the operation of a safe drug consumption facility. I responded to the partnership on 9 November advising them that even where I minded to, the granting of immunity from relevant statutory or common law offences would not enable the operation of the facilities and identifying that there are difficulties both of principle and practicality in responding positively to the particular request that was made to me. No change has been made to prosecution policy as a result of the request and no immunity from prosecution granted in respect of any offence.