 Can I ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the day? Engagements to take forward the Government's programme for Scotland. Earlier this week, the SNP Government published its latest economic strategy, and that the heart of this was tackling inequality. To do that, we need to expand opportunity Ie oedd yn剛stdo. Rydyn ni'n golygu i'r hurr o oedwyd i'r gwneud o'r gwneud o'r colli yn Sgalwyddon yn rhaid o'r rhai ar gyfer fynd yn eich cyntaf oedd yn yr smp yw'r pwyllt ddwy blod? Rydyn ni'n gweithiau gosod ar y cesiadog deulu'r cyfath o'r hyn o'r hyn oherwydd ei fod yn gwneud oherwydd ei ddysgu cynnig fel yn i ni. gwybod y by alot oookwaith driellis iawn yr Papa Un ësasworth maintenant a ddiogel iawn am criwe anghyntenniaid bachwynt iawn. Mae ar sut yn fawr iawn o gre wedi bod Merlun Popeth Lai office Afterview a Elinсаe. BBsóf digitaliaeth sydd gorfoddolol珍 Micstrathion sangilion a ddiogel iawn a'n amser ffwrdd o ddiogel iawn i hynny y cythigau gwyddadu dros ythirds feddlain Lord YOUR番, Äocel Sredin hon. a fyddai i chi wnaeth y peth yn eu cyfleidio amddangos gydag ar gael gael gydag, a gael gydag y mwyaf amddangos fe diwethaf iddyntion ei bod yn digwydd. Felly, we will continue to take the real action to ensure that women, young people and indeed everybody in Scotland has the opportunity we want them to have, and will leave Labour to its desperation. Keisia Dugdiel It's quite clear from that answer, Presiding Officer. The First Minister doesn't have a clue How many places and college the cut of the cuts? The reality is that under the SNP, the number of women studying at college all across Scotland has fallen by 85,656. The SNP's cuts to colleges... Oargh! The member shouts rubbish. These are our Government's own figures. 85 are fewer women studying in our colleges. gyda gyntaf o gynghor wedi ychydig eich bod yn beidio gwybod yn eich cyfrannu mynd yn hynog. Felly, mae gweithio gwybod yn dweud gyda'n ddigwyddol a ches healing mewn sydd yn byw gael mewn ddarparu gyda'i gwiniaeth sufyn. Rwy'n gen i ddim yn llwy ar y mae ystafelliaeth. Rwy'n credu i'r Prifysgolodau, nid mewn cyfrannu'n dweud y dyfodol iawn, oedd roi hyn yn lleoliau ar dda'r Lleidyddol. Can the First Minister tell us how many women in Scotland started an engineering apprenticeship last year? I think Kezia Dugdale's back benchers would like her to get all the way through her questions without mentioning the position of the Labour Party this morning. Can I again try to share with Kezia Dugdale some facts? Here they are. Scotland has the highest female employment, the lowest female unemployment and the lowest female inactivity rate of any UK nation. That is the result of the action that this Government has been taking. Let me give her some more facts about colleges. We are spending more on colleges today than Labour ever did throughout their entire time in office. We have delivered our commitment to maintain full-time college places. In 2013-14, approximately 14,000 more students successfully completed courses leading to recognised qualifications than was the case in 08-09. That is an increase of 33 per cent. We are delivering on providing the opportunities that women, young people and people across Scotland need. This Government will continue to do so. Kezia Dugdale? I am glad that she finally found the answer to the first question in her book. I asked about apprenticeships. Last year there were just 68 women who started an engineering apprenticeship. 25,000 apprenticeships in the last year and just 68 women learning to be engineers. Under the SNP, women are being walked out of the jobs of the future and being deprived of the opportunity to develop their skills. Maybe once women get into work things improve under the SNP. Can the First Minister tell us how many women in Scotland are in less than the living wage? Let's address the point on skills in modern apprenticeships. Under Labour in 2007, there were just 15,000 people starting modern apprenticeships. We are now delivering more than 25,000 every year and we intend to increase the number to 30,000 by 2020. I want to see more women go into modern apprenticeships. I particularly want to see more women go into modern apprenticeships in careers like engineering. That is precisely why last Friday I was visiting GSK in Irvine to launch a campaign to encourage more women into apprenticeships. On the living wage, it is because we want to see more women included in the living wage that we are funding the poverty alliance to run the living wage accreditation scheme. We are seeing growing numbers of companies sign up to that scheme and pay their staff the living wage. We will leave Labour, who have had ample opportunities to tackle those things in the past, to talk about those things. This Government will get on with doing them and delivering. The First Minister talks with ample opportunities. She has had eight years to do something about this. On the living wage, she was the minister who ordered her MSPs to oppose the living wage when we fought for it last year. The reality is that 264,000 women in Scotland are in less than the living wage. That is more than a quarter of a million Scottish women locked into low-paid work, struggling to make ends meet. The SNP's record on supporting women is not one that they should be proud of. College cuts hurting women the most, quality apprenticeships for young women lagging miles behind men, and voting against a living wage for hundreds of thousands of women in Scotland. Just saying that you are for gender equality does not make it so. Hundreds of thousands of women in Scotland applauded when this First Minister walked through the front door of Bute House, and they are already wondering what difference it makes. The First Minister might know that the theme of International Women's Day on Sunday is make it happen. When will she? On issues that are important, might have more credibility coming from Labour. If this was not the party that had resisted every single attempt to devolve employment legislation to this Parliament. If this was not the Labour Party that had linked arms with the Tories to prevent this Parliament having control over the minimum we will get on with delivering, making sure that we are providing opportunities, making sure that we are extending the living wage in a way that Labour never ever did when they had the opportunity in government. I think that it is because people see this government delivering that people right across our country, whether they are men or women, are opting to support the SNP and have left Labour languishing in an obviously very desperate position. Question 2. Ruth Davidson. To ask the First Minister when she will next meet the Secretary of State for Scotland. First Minister. No plans in the near future. Ruth Davidson. When Nicola Sturgeon was health minister, the number of A&E admissions hit the 1.5 million mark and she said that we had to act. The Scottish Government introduced a new target of performance, telling health boards across the country to reduce the number of people attending A&E. In fact, she told this Parliament and I quote, NHS boards will achieve agreed reductions in the rates of attendance at A&E between 2009-10 and 2013-14. Can I ask the First Minister whether she has met her own target? Can I share some facts with Ruth Davidson on A&E performance? 11 out of our 14 health boards are treating around 9 out of 10 patients within four hours. Six of them are already meeting the 95 per cent target. We have three health boards where there are significant challenges. Partly, yes, as a result of higher winter demands in these areas. If you look at our two poorest performing health boards, for example in Ayrshire and Arran, the rate of hospital admissions is more than double the rest of the country in Glasgow, it is nearly double that. That is why we are working intensively to support these boards to improve their performance. I want to see people access care where it is most appropriate for them to do so. Where that is an accident and emergency department, we have to make sure that all of our boards, not just 11 out of 14 of them, are meeting the targets that we set. We also need to make sure that, where people require care in settings other than accident and emergency, whether that is GP services or by accessing NHS 24, they do that as well. The Government will continue to support our NHS to improve even further on the performance that it is already delivering. Ruth Davidson. Thank you, Presiding Officer, with the greatest respect that was an answer but not to the question that I asked. It is okay because the Scottish Government's own website this morning has that answer. It admits that the emergency figures for 2013-14 are, and I quote again, the highest figure seen so far. That was a target introduced six years ago that has still not been met. In fact, the latest figures out this week show that A&E attendance was up by 83,000 and a half thousand compared to 2008, and that is more than ever before. I absolutely accept that we need a range of solutions. The A&E staff that I spoke to this week told me that one of the biggest problems that they face are the people in emergency departments who simply do not need to be there. That includes thousands who clog up casualty simply because they have drunk too much. This week, we suggested that one of the ways that we could ease the pressure was by setting up recovery centres so that A&E units are not required to mop up after a Friday night out. I know that the First Minister needs to use all her powers to sort this out, but will she consider this plan as part of the solution? First, I remind Ruth Davidson that this Government is reviewing out of our care, and I hope that she will welcome that move. Secondly, I am not sure, and I assume not whether Ruth Davidson is saying that people who are going to A&E over the winter period are inappropriately accessing accident and emergency. However, if she looks at the figures in depth, she will see that the increase in people being admitted to hospital from accident emergency suggests that people presenting are ill people who require hospital care. On the specific question about alcohol, I am very happy to discuss this in more detail with Ruth Davidson. It is very important that we do not have our accident emergency departments burdened by people that we do not want to see there and people who get drunken disorderly. We do not want to see them adding to the pressure in our accident and emergency departments. For example, we are providing investment to support the setup of safe zone buses in Glasgow and Dundee and Edinburgh to try to provide that alternative care for people. However, I am happy to discuss this with Ruth Davidson. The final point that I would make to her, though, is this one. It is a serious point. Yes, we need to look at how we care for and deal with people who get into that position, but surely we should be trying to ensure that we reduce the number of people who are getting into that position. I can say to her and to others across this chamber that, if we are serious about reducing the burden caused by alcohol on our accident and emergency departments, it strikes me that one of the things that we certainly should not be considering doing is bringing alcohol back to football matches. To ask the First Minister what can be done to protect the livelihoods of sustainable fishers in the inner sound of apple cross in my constituency and that of Dave Thompson's, when those local fishers who have harvested the area regularly will be excluded by the Ministry of Defence plan unilaterally to double the size of the butec torpedo testing range there. Richard Lochhead, the cabinet secretary, is writing to MLD ministers to stress the need to take full account of the impact of their proposals on local fishing communities and the marine environment before coming to a decision. He is also seeking to put the consenting of marine defence developments onto a more rigorous basis with formal involvement of the Scottish Government. I am sure that Richard Lochhead would be very happy to discuss that in more detail with Rob Gibson, who clearly has constituency interests in the matter. The First Minister will be aware that Police Scotland wants to merge K&L divisions, creating a policing area covering over 3,000 square miles from Tyree to Clydebank. They were forced into consultation, they have refused FOIs, they tell me that everybody agrees with them but with no evidence to support this and they will not even tell us when a decision will be made. Will the First Minister draw back that veil of secrecy, ensure that consultation responses are published before a decision is made and that the cabinet secretary for justice meets local representatives? I am sure that the cabinet secretary for justice would be very happy to discuss this and other matters with people with an interest, including Jackie Baillie. Police Scotland was right to consult on the issue and should consider the responses to that consultation very carefully. These decisions are important decisions, they are obviously and for understandable reasons very sensitive decisions and they should be taken with the appropriate degree of transparency. Question 3, Willie Rennie. To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the cabinet. Matters of importance to the people of Scotland. Willie Rennie. NHS Fife standards have been below target in 10 out of 19 areas since October and performance has got worse since Christmas. There is an internal review but as a former health secretary she must have some insight into why people in Fife seem to be getting a raw deal. Why have things got so bad in Fife? NHS Fife, like many of our health boards, are dealing with a range of challenges and NHS Fife, like all of our health boards, is performing well in meeting those challenges but needs to be supported to do even further. That is why the cabinet secretary for health discusses these matters regularly with NHS Fife and other health boards and we will continue to make sure that that health board gets the support that it needs to appropriately meet those challenges. Willie Rennie. But none of that is new. There has been soaring levels of delayed discharge. Cancer and accident emergency waiting times have been missed and this is critical. Our dedicated NHS staff are under increasing strain with alarming numbers of work in Fife. Patients there are waiting for answers. What is the longest she is prepared to wait to see Fife turn around? There is, as the member will no doubt be aware, a plan in place between the council and the health board to tackle delayed discharges. If memory serves me correctly, my first day in office is First Minister. I spoke to the chair of NHS Fife about this particular matter and they are working hard. As are other health boards and local authorities to tackle delayed discharges, because as we all know, tackling delayed discharges helps to tackle some of the other pressures on emergency services. In terms of the most recent statistics available, for the weeks starting 16 February, the performance of NHS Fife against the four-hour accident emergency target was 88.2 per cent. That is not good enough but we are working with the board to improve that further. Our NHS boards face challenges each and every day. This Government will work with them each and every day to help them to meet those challenges. That is the case in Fife, as it is in every single part of the country. To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the MOD regarding environmental concerns on the river Clyde. According to the MOD's figures, there were 105 nuclear safety incidents on the Clyde in 2013-14. That is a 50 per cent increase since 2012-13, which I am sure is of concern to all of us. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency regularly engages with the MOD about environmental issues concerning its sites but the current legislation limits the role that it can play. That is why we are proposing to legislate so that CEPA has the power to demand action from the MOD to enforce the requirements on radioactive substances. I thank the First Minister for her answer and, as she mentioned, the increase in safety incidents in Ffars Lane, which was reported at the weekend, and the nuclear convoys travelling over the Eskin bridge in January at a time when the bridge was closed to high-sided vehicles due to high winds. Does the First Minister agree with me that this dangerous act, along with the environmental concerns, shows just how dangerous and damaging it is having these weapons of mass destruction in our waters? I absolutely agree with that. The Scottish Government is strongly opposed to the possession of nuclear weapons and committed to seeing the safe withdrawal of Trident nuclear weapons from Scottish waters. The financial costs of the proposed replacement of Trident have been estimated at a staggering £100 billion over its lifetime. I think that money would be far better spent on initiatives to support our people and our economy. I was interested to see that most of Labour's candidates for the general election agree with the SNP on the issue of Trident. According to a CND survey reported in the new statesman, 75 per cent of Labour's candidates are opposed to renewing Trident. Maybe one day their leadership will find the backbone to agree with the majority of their candidates. To ask the First Minister what measures the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that NHS 24 is able to recruit and retain the staff that it needs. Safe and effective staffing levels are a priority for all NHS boards and NHS 24 is no exception. We work closely with all boards to ensure that they comply with our requirement that they recruit and retain a high-quality workforce fully able to deliver high-quality services. There is a record high number of staff working in Scotland's NHS. NHS 24 staffing levels have risen by over 9 per cent under this Government. Despite a busy winter NHS 24 has provided safe, effective support to tens of thousands of people when they have needed it and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all of the staff of NHS 24 for the work that they do. Professor Crookes, the medical director of NHS 24, was reported this week as saying that NHS 24's difficulty in recruiting nurses may make the service unsustainable in the long term. In 2007, Labour's last planned intake of nursing students was over 3,300. Why has she cut the intake of nursing students in every single year of this SNP Government, resulting in 3,000 fewer nursing students being admitted to training? Is not this another of our NHS emergency services being put in jeopardy by this SNP Government's planning failure? The number of qualified nurses working in our NHS has increased under this Government. There are 10,000 more people working in our NHS in total than was the case when we took office. If you look particularly at NHS 24 staffing levels, they have increased by 9 per cent. NHS 24 staffing increased by 4.6 per cent between September and December last year. George Crookes, given that Richard Simpson quoted him, said that we can absolutely assure the safety and effectiveness of NHS 24 services to the patients who call us. That is the delivery of this Government working with the NHS, and we will continue to work with the NHS to ensure that it continues to deliver high-quality services to all of the people of Scotland. The First Minister will be aware of the particular problems in recruitment of GPs in rural and island areas. Can she advise the chamber on what assessment has been done on whether, in those communities, there is more of our alliance on NHS 24 and, therefore, will she undertake an assessment of the potential impact on rural and island communities of any staff shortages in NHS 24? Liam McArthur raised a valid point. It has long been the case that there are particular recruitment challenges in some of our more rural communities and, certainly, in our island communities. I am more than happy that the specifics of his question, which is asking for us to assess the impact of that on NHS 24, is something that we pick up in our general review of out-of-hours care. I am sure that the health secretary would be happy to discuss that with him in more detail. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the national trust, the John Muir Trust and RSPB Scotland's view that the planning process should be wholly independent of government. I am not sure that the representation of the views of those organisations is entirely correct. If you look at RSPB's website, it has said that, of course, the Government must have a central role in planning and in other national important decision making. We believe that local and central Government have important and complementary roles in our planning system. In terms of an appeals process, we already have the respected and valued reporter, the directorate for planning and environmental appeals who provide a separate process to that. We continue to engage with stakeholders to ensure that planning remains efficient, effective and inclusive with the majority of decisions that are taken locally. I thank the First Minister for that. I have the letter to the Herald here. What those important bodies and some others are expressing in that letter is our very deep-seated concern that the public has largely lost confidence in the planning process, that local communities who unite to conserve our most popular and natural assets are frequently swept aside in an unequal battle with government and powerful commercial interests. Does the First Minister accept that that is a very serious issue, which undermines the heart of local democracy and which can only be addressed if there is an involvement of an independent body? I also have the letter in front of me. I am very happy that the Government engages with the organisations at our signatories to discuss with them how we can further improve the planning system. I think that there are two points that I would make. First, the vast majority of planning decisions are already made locally by those who are best placed to consider in what circumstances planning consent should or should not be granted. I think that that is right and proper. Secondly, planning does benefit greatly from being part of a democratic process, and it is informed at all stages by high-quality, objective and professional advice. I am happy to discuss the particular points with all of those organisations, but I do not think that we should take the planning system out of the democratic process. I think that that would be a mistake. On democracy, does the First Minister share my concerns that if this proposal were to become a reality, that democracy would be removed? There is, for me, no greater test of democratic accountability than the ballot box. If people are unhappy about local decisions, they can take it out on their councillors or, indeed, on us in this chamber. I do generally agree with that point. That is not to say that we cannot improve the planning process further. This Government has been working to do that over the past number of years, and I am sure that there is work still to be done. However, I do think that there is an important point of principle here, that there needs to be democratic accountability in the planning process as there does in any other aspect of government policy. I think that that is the principle that we need to start with, but within that, of course we should look at where we can make further improvements. The published statement refers rather vaguely to improvements to existing planning procedures, including potentially the creation of a body or process that is truly independent of government, without any detail of the proposal. Nevertheless, some of those concerns might be alleviated by the publication of an options paper into the creation of an environmental court. What is the First Minister's position on that? As Rod Campbell says, the letter does very candidly and very rightly say that there is not any great detail in the letter in terms of the proposal that it has made. However, as Rod Campbell will be aware, we committed to consulting on an environmental court in our manifesto, and we will publish an options paper on an environmental court or tribunal later in 2015. We have already brought forward significant improvements to ensure that we have the appropriate structures in place to protect our environment, and that includes changes to environmental regulation and planning policy, as well as to the civil court system through the court reform act. Given that the planning system at the moment is not wholly independent of government, would the First Minister agree with me that it is hugely important that the views of local people are taken into account by government when planning applications are being finally decided by government? I do think that there is a real debate here about whether the planning process should be entirely independent of government because of the points that I have already made about democratic accountability. That may well be a debate that this Parliament wants to have. It is a legitimate debate, but there are some big issues at stake in it. I believe that the views of local people are important. That is why I think that it is right that the majority of planning decisions are made locally, not by national government but by those who are best placed in local areas to decide in what circumstances it is right to grant planning consent for a particular project and in what circumstances it is not. We want to continue to make sure that there is local accountability as well as the overall democratic accountability that I have spoken about. The First Minister may well be aware of a planning decision taken in Ayrshire in Ayr, famously known as the plot 9 decision, whereby the whole of the local authority, every councillor on the regulatory panel, voted against that proposal on Ayr seafront, yet it was overturned by Scottish ministers. If she is looking for an example of local democracy being allowed to have its head, she could seek no finer example than that to hold her own ministers to account. There will be circumstances in which decisions are taken nationally. That does not change what I have already said, that the vast majority are taken locally. But when decisions do fall to be taken nationally, it is absolutely vital, and it will have been the case in the particular example that John Scott sites, that it is taken in line with the proper planning considerations. That is what is required to be done, and that is what will have been done in this case. I am very happy to ask the minister responsible for planning to discuss the particular circumstances of this case with John Scott directly. There is outrage in Aberdeen about the decision to proceed with Marshall Square against the feelings of people of that great city. Can I ask the First Minister how we ensure that people's views are taken into account when councillors and others take decisions around about planning, because in this case the people's views are not being listened to? I certainly think that it is the case that Aberdeen city council could do with a few lessons on taking account of the views of local people. It has appeared to be the case that they want to ignore those views whenever possible. I suggest that, as well as all the checks and balances and safeguards in the planning process that are rightly there, it is also open to people when they get the opportunity at the ballot box to make their views known. Perhaps that is what people in Aberdeen should choose to do.