 Felly, can I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus? The first item of business is general questions. In order to get in as many people as possible, I'd be grateful for short and succinct questions and answers to match. At question number 1, I call Faisal Choudry. wyf? A what guidance has it issued related to the funding of ventilation in schools? A Scottish Government funding package of £10 million for the delivery of CO2 monitoring in schools was confirmed with COSLA leaders at the end of August. That was in addition to the £90 million of funding that was previously provided to local authorities for Covid logistics, which was made available for use for a range of purposes, including improved ventilation. Funding to local authorities is set out of the popping out system. The additional £10 million shall only be used for the intended purposes in line with Scottish Government guidance. Those comprised of the purchase of an installation of CO2 monitors, funding of associated additional staff chaining or consultant resources requirements and the cost of any remedial action required that has been identified by outer monitoring. I think that the cabinet secretary for the answer. Can I ask the cabinet secretary, will the Government publish the criteria for each inspection, which informed whether a classroom had adequate ventilation? The guidance is quite clear on this issue, and it is a matter for local authorities to work with the professional staff that they have in that area to ensure that the monitoring has been undertaken correctly. That will, obviously, vary depending on the type of monitor that was chosen by that local authority, but we are supporting local authorities to ensure that they are using the monitors correctly, and local authorities are indeed supporting each other. The matters that will then happen following the monitoring are, of course, again for the local authority to undertake any remedial action that is required, but, again, that will depend on what the monitoring actually showed up. It very much is on a case-by-case basis, but certainly the material from the Scottish Government on the allocation of funding and on our guidance, I am happy to make available to Fousal Chowdry in writing if he has not already seen it. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will bring forward the date of 2024 for requiring zero direct emissions heating within new builds. The Scottish Government recognises the crucial need to take rapid action to reduce emissions associated with heating our homes and buildings. We recently reaffirmed our commitment to introduce regulations for zero direct emissions heating within new builds from 2024 within our heat and building strategy. That is faster than the UK is moving, it is faster than some expected. Our current review of building regulations for 2022 also includes provisions that will support those planned changes coming in 2024. Does the minister share the concern of local SNP councillors in north-east Fife, who were recently powerless to prevent gas boilers being installed in 13 new affordable homes in the village of Springfield? They will be powerless to act for another three years if the SNP Government refuses to change the rules. Why is the Government waiting until 2024 when there is a climate emergency now? As I said, we are cracking on with this work as rapidly as we can. I am glad that Willie Rennie is enthusiastic to push us further. If we were to say that we would complete the work by tea time, some people would still be outraged that we were not completing it by lunch. I hope that that is not what is happening here. What is necessary to achieve this work is not simply passing a regulation. It is working with the supply chain, working with the skills involved, so that we can go from a few thousand installations a year to hundreds of thousands of installations a year by the end of this session, and also working with our electricity networks to cope with the increased demand on electricity networks. Our heat and building strategy has been well recognised, is more ambitious than the UK's, both on zero emission heating and on energy efficiency, and we need to do both as fast as possible. Earlier this week, the Prime Minister said that new homes and buildings will be required to install EV charging points from 2022. Does the Scottish Government have similar ambitions? I am sure that Mr Johnson wants to respond to our consultation on the reform of the building regulations. He would be very welcome to do so, and we will give his suggestion all due attention. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress with implementing the recommendations of the Grasmawr management review group. Implementing the Grasmawr review recommendations remains a priority for the Government, as our 2021-22 programme for government set out will bring forward legislation in this parliamentary term. Since publishing our report, ministers, officials and NatureScot have met stakeholders in developing proposals for a licensing scheme. NatureScot has established a task group to progress recommendations, including on licensing and mure burn, and that group met on 23 November. We have commissioned a report on the impact of medicated grip, which was published by CIPA in November 2020. We have been engaging with the bodies involved in monitoring and regulating its use, and we will continue to do so. Can I thank the minister for that answer? It is clear that the work has now started at long last on this important work. Can I also ask about the related issue of extending the powers of the SSPCA to enable them to tackle wildlife crime that we are seeing in many areas of Scotland? It has been now 10 years since that was proposed. I believe that the minister is now the seventh minister to consider action in this area. When can that work begin? Mr Ruskell is aware that we have legislated for a task force to consider the scope of the powers, and our house agreement ensures that that task force will be able to report. Any recommendations that we agree to, which require legislation, will be reported in time for that to be included in legislation for grousmure management. A key concern on grousmures is the scale of trapping of other species through snaring. Can the minister tell us whether the animal welfare issues on the use of legal snares will be included in the snaring review, and when will that review report? Recently, I was in the chamber answering a question about snaring in response to one of Mr Smith's colleagues. I have made clear that, when the rules on snaring, which in Scotland are currently the tightest in the UK, but when they are reviewed at the end of this year—I think that it is all the while correct that I am wrong—I will see that the scope of that is extended to include a potential banning on snares. Ffyrgus Ewing. In thanking the minister for recently meeting with myself and senior members of the Scottish Game Keepers Association, I could ask her to reaffirm to Parliament that the Scottish Government recognises the value to the rural economy of country sports carried out professionally, as it has been, and will continue to be with the excellent professionalism of gamekeepers in our country. I am happy to confirm that the work that we are undertaking in grousmure management is not intended and will not put an end to grousmure management in Scotland. Mr Ewing knows that, because just in the months of September and October alone, having met with the League Against Cruel Sports, One Kind, BASC, Revive Coalition and the Scottish Raptors study group, I sat down with Ffyrgus Ewing and the Scottish Game Keepers Association and we discussed those issues at length. I feel very strongly that you should pursue policy and consultation with those whose lives and livelihoods are affected by it, and I will continue to do that. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support the funding of flood mitigation schemes. We are committed to providing an extra £150 million over the next five years for flood risk management, which is in addition to the £42 million that we already provide annually to local authorities. Miles Briggs. I thank the minister for that answer. Residents in areas that I represent in Stockbridge, Cymru Bank, Ravelston and Craig Leith have been hit by significant flooding in recent years. That has actually been because of urban waste water issues. Specifically, the Scottish Government funding mechanism does that on the basis of river flooding. So, could I ask the minister whether or not the Scottish Government plan to review that funding mechanism to make sure that Edinburgh is given a fair funding deal to do some mitigation projects to prevent future flooding? The flood risk management strategies, which SEPA coordinates on behalf of all bodies responsible for flooding, consider all those matters. They consider whether it is urban, the rurality of the area, but they also consider sources of flooding risk, be it that from river, be it from the sea, but it suffers from water. That is embedded in the work that SEPA is doing, and the Government is committed to funding the priority projects that SEPA puts forward in the flood risk management strategies, so long as they are valuable. To ask the Scottish Government further to the laying of MPF4 whether it can provide an updated timescale for the consultation on phase 2 of the strategic transport projects review 2. STPR2 will create the evidence base for future transport investment decisions in Scotland for the next 20 years. Given the link between land use and transport, it has been fundamental that STPR2 takes cognisance of the spatial strategy that is set out in MPF4. Work on STPR2 is proceeding well, and the intention is to move to publish recommendations for investment in the new year, followed by the appropriate statutory consultation period. That will be done in a way that it can be concluded before the local authority pre-election per the period begins. I thank the minister for his answer, and I look forward to seeing more detail in the weeks to come. Does he recognise the need to promote freight transport by rail, particularly for long distance journeys in terms of reducing transport emissions? The member will appreciate that, given the processes that we are going through and out of respect for the stakeholders, I will not get involved in too much detail at this stage. However, there is absolutely no doubt that getting freight on to rail is going to be a priority as we seek to decarbonise transport, and that will involve investment in infrastructure. In phase 1 of STPR2, the Government pledged to carry out an audit of all lorry parks and rest areas near to trunk roads in Scotland. Can the minister say what progress is being made on that and if there is going to be any investment for improvements? I will write to the member with details on the first part of that question, where I will say to him that we are in detailed discussions with the freight sector. There is just now a variety of subjects, and that includes the location of lorry parks and the appropriate charging infrastructure that might be needed for those. The MPF4 includes a statement that all local development plans should manage the use and development of land in a long-term public interest, which is the accepted purpose of planning. However, the draft framework does not set out steps to apply this public interest principle during the decision-making process when planning applications are actually being decided. I would like to ask the minister if the Scottish Government will set out a process for decision makers to deny planning permission if they deem that a development would be unacceptable on the grounds of public interest. In the context of SDPR 2, there is a very clear set of criteria deployed, and those are the criteria that we use. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of its plans to entitle all children whose skill start is deferred to access-funded early learning and childcare in their deferred year. Minister Claire Hawley. Positive progress is being made to deliver the commitment to offer funded early learning and childcare for all children whose school entry is deferred. The legislation will take effect from August 2023, as per the timetable approved by Parliament on 3 February 2021. A pilot programme is already underway in five local authorities to support local authorities in preparing for full implementation. We are investing £8.9 million to enable five additional local authorities to join the pilot from August 2022. The Scottish Government is commissioning an evaluation of the pilot approach, and that research will support local authorities with full implementation by evaluating approaches to policy implementation and parents' perceptions of the process. We anticipate that full evaluation findings will be published in spring 2023. Fulton MacGregor. I thank the minister for that response. Is she able to provide any further information on how the pilots are progressing? Also, could she outline how the Government intends to communicate the change in order to ensure that all families are aware of their rights around deferral, both in the pilot areas and moving forward? The pilot is progressing well with all participating authorities supporting families with their new entitlement. The new pilot sites were announced recently and local authorities are leading communication at the local level. Our parent club website has been updated to give parents and carers clear information about their rights around deferral, both for those in pilot areas and those in other authorities. We ask local authority to consider parental communications when applying for the year to pilot places. It is a key priority for our deferral working group, which meets on 30 November. We will be using it as an opportunity to share practice and to support local authorities with their local communication plans. That will also allow us to gather useful practice to share more widely ahead of the full roll-out in 2023. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards the R100 commitment to superfast broadband for all. Cabinet Secretary, Kate Forbes. The R100 commitment is being delivered through our R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish broadband voucher scheme and on-going commercial coverage. Despite telecoms legislation being reserved to the UK Parliament, which is something that I think is often forgotten, the Scottish Government is investing £579 million in the R100 contracts, the UK Government contribution being just £33.5 million and work is well under way across all the contracts. Jackie Dunbar. I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. I have been contacted by a number of constituents within the Aberdeen-Donside area who are not expected to be connected to the superfast network prior to the 31 December 2021 deadline. My constituents have been advised that they may be connected in 2022, however they have received no guarantee when this may happen. Over the past year, we have seen how important a superfast connection is. I would appreciate it if you could provide assurances that the Scottish Government will engage with residents in affected areas who have yet to be connected to ensure that they are aware of a timescale for this work to be completed. Although contract delivery for some premises in the Aberdeen-Donside constituency is scheduled to take place after the end of this calendar year, the R100 Scottish broadband voucher scheme offers a voucher worth up to £400 to enable constituents to secure an interim superfast connection, ensuring that everyone can access superfast broadband by the end of 2021. Where our online address checker currently shows a delivery date of 2022, it will be updated to reflect greater detail on delivery timescales once the survey work has been completed on the ground. We will continue to engage with communities across Scotland as part of the R100 programme. The Scottish Government, whether it will allocate funding in its 2022-23 budget to enable social care workers to be paid at least £15 an hour? As a member, we will know that the Scottish Government budget for 2022-23 is currently in development and will be published on 9 December. We are fully committed to reviewing pay and conditions for the social care workforce. Can I thank the cabinet secretary for that response? The Scottish Government has received some £4.6 billion in extra funding from the UK Government for this next budget. The cabinet secretary and I have discussed pay for social care staff in the last budget, and at that time she was concerned about continuing revenue funding. Given that that is no longer a problem, what is stopping the Government from increasing wages for low-paid social care staff? Accept a Tory press release when it comes to our budget. As the member will know, this year's budget is as challenging as ever in light of the fact that there are no Covid consequentials. In fact, the allocation does not accept that Covid continues to have an impact on our health service, on our education service or on local government. When it comes to social care workers, I agree with her on the importance of valuing their work, which is why this year we have provided funding of £64.5 million to deliver the living wage. Last month, we committed funding of up to £48 million to lift the hourly rate for social care workers to take it from £9.50 an hour to at least £10.2 per hour. That is sharp contrast with what social care workers in England and Wales face, most of whom are paid the national living wage of £8.91 an hour. That concludes general questions. Before we move on to First Minister's questions, I invite members to join me in welcoming to the gallery his Excellency, Mohammed Sarwar, Governor of Punjab.