 I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face covering should be borne when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. The first item of business is health and social care portfolio questions. Of course, in order to get in as many people as possible, I would prefer short and succinct questions and answers too much. If a member wishes to request a supplementary question, they should press their request-to-speak button or indicate so in the chat function by entering the letter R during the relevant question. Question 1, Alexander Stewart. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the number of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services that are declined. Minister Kevin Stewart. Referals that are not accepted for treatment are described as rejected or not accepted, not as declined, as in many cases that involve signposting or redirecting to a more appropriate service. The last available published statistics covering quarter ending 30 June show that 2,263, that is 22.2 per cent of referrals to CAMHS, were not accepted. The next published statistics will be available on 7 December. I thank the minister for that response. In 2018 Audit Scotland threw the report on children and young people's mental health warned that the scrutiny of CAMHS focused on inputs and outputs rather than outcomes. Since then, what action has the Scottish Government taken to shift the focus of outcomes and how will it measure service quality to seek to increase pathways for the mental health of our children? There has been significant progress made to improve CAMHS services and implement the recommendations of the children and young people's mental health and wellbeing task force. Most notably, in February 2020, the Scottish Government published a national CAMHS service specification that includes nationally agreed referral criteria, a first engagement appointment for all those who meet the criteria and personalised and meaningful signposting for all those who do not require treatment in CAMHS. There is also a duty for all CAMHS teams to provide a contact for referals to discuss referrals with them. We are continuing to work on data in all of that. We have in place the CAMHS and psychological therapies national dataset, which was commissioned to collect data about why people are not accepted. CAPTND was first published as an appendix in June 2021, and we will continue to work on that and improve as we move forward. It was reported by Public Health Scotland that at the end of June 2021, the number of children and young people who had been waiting over a year for mental health services had doubled from the end of June 2020. Can the minister actually advise Parliament what examples of alternative support that the Government has in place for those children on very long waiting lists, or indeed who may have been rejected by the service? As Ms Malkin knows, we have invested quite heavily from our recovery and renewal fund into CAMHS to bring waiting times down. It is essential that we do so. We also need to invest in other services, particularly community-based services, so that folks do not have to be referred to acute services in the first place. That is an absolutely essential move in moving away from acute to prevention. I am sure that that is something that Ms Malkin will welcome along with everyone else in the chamber, but we are working hard, along with health boards, to get those waiting lists and waiting times down. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made on the impact of the closure of Eddington cottage hospital. East Lothian health and social care partnership has taken the difficult decision to temporarily relocate the bed capacity—that is six beds—and staff from Eddington hospital to East Lothian community hospital to maintain safe staffing levels and provide safe and functional care for patients. The health and social care partnership will review that decision on 10 December as part of an agreed quarterly review of the situation. I am very grateful for that answer. I ask Sir Cees in his place, the cabinet secretary, whether he would meet with the steering group ahead of the discussions that will lead to the decision on 10 December to help to support NHS Lothian in reopening the Scottish hospital. I know for a fact that the cabinet secretary has already met with the local constituency member Paul MacLennan on that issue. As always, the Government will continue to speak to those that are in the know, including local members, on those matters. The Eddington hospital was closed with no community consultation whatsoever. Even in a pandemic, is that an acceptable way for the NHS to operate? What I would say to Mr Hoy is that we are in a pandemic and there are staff shortages. The reason why East Lothian health and social care partnership took the decision that it did was to ensure that there were safe levels of staffing for patients. Safety should always come first. That is what East Lothian health and social care partnership has done. To ask the Scottish Government what measures NHS Lothian and East Lothian health and social care partnership are undertaking in regard to recruiting additional staff in East Lothian. Decisions on local staffing requirements and recruitment are the responsibility of individual NHS boards. However, Scottish Government officials are continually engaging with boards to identify particular areas of concern. As well as officials, the cabinet secretary and I have been talking to health boards, health and social care partnerships and local authorities on a regular basis about those issues. NHS Lothian advised through on-going capacity reporting to the Scottish Government that measures to deploy staff flexibly and recruit additional staff are currently in progress. The member can be assured that we will continue to monitor that progress. To ask the Scottish Government how its winter care plan will ensure that adults in care homes will have continued and frequent access indoors to family and friends. The adult social care winter preparedness plan 2021-22 sets out the measures to protect the sector ahead of winter and outlines how we will support those who use services, the workforce and unpaid carers. The plan recognises the considerable progress that has been made by care homes in supporting people to see their family and friends through the implementation of the Scottish Government's open with care visiting guidance. It outlines our commitment to building that progress, working with partners, including the care inspectorate and local oversight teams, to ensure that care homes continue to be supported to normalise visiting opportunities. I remain committed to developing legislation in support of Anne's law so that those who live in adult homes have rights to see and spend time with the people that are important to them. We have sought views through a public consultation following the commitment that was made in our programme for government to deliver Anne's law, and we will consider those views carefully and publish the responses as soon as possible. Anne's law is named after Anne Duke, who sadly died last week. My thoughts and condolences are with Anne's husband and family, and we will be doing everything possible to honour Anne's legacy by getting Anne's law right. During the pandemic, there has been a high turnaround of care home staff, and the importance of caring roles has been reinforced by the difficulties of the past year. Can the minister advise to what extent Brexit has had an impact on staff vacancies in care, and can the Scottish Government forecast that care homes will have enough staff to meet caring needs over the winter period? Brexit has had a major impact on staffing in the social care and other sectors. One organisation that I spoke to a few weeks back had lost 40 per cent—40 per cent—of their staff in one service because folks had returned to their home countries because they did not feel as welcome as they should be here because of the hostile environment policies. Excuse me, minister, could we have less commentary from sedentary positions, please? From a sedentary position, folks are murmuring, but those are the realities. 40 per cent of staff in one service is gone. That has a profound impact on the delivery of services in many parts of our country. The Scottish Government has continued to speak to the UK Government on that issue. Colleagues and I spoke with UK ministers just the other week on the difficulties that Brexit is causing in terms of our social care services. I have to say that we were not really listened to, and that does not mean to say that we will not continue to pursue the UK Government on those issues. Beyond that, we have recently written to the Migration Advisory Committee to outline the difficulties that we face and the difficulties that have been highlighted by Scottish Care and Dr Donald MacAskill. We will do everything possible to aid recruitment and retention in social care over the course of this winter. I urge all members who may have constituents who are seeking careers in social care to advise them to look at myjobscotland.com to see the range of posts that are currently available. I support Anne's law, but I am concerned that we wait for that legislation before the rights of families and friends are secured. I am sure that the minister will agree with me that quality of life is incredibly important. What can the minister say to me to reassure families that we will not end up with a repeat of what we had during the pandemic, or where, months on end, families were excluded from seeing their loved ones? I agree with Willie Rennie that folk are deserving of quality visits with family and friends. That is extremely important. That is why we have put in place the open with care policy. It is one that I take a careful view on, and we monitor very carefully indeed. I also monitor all of the correspondence that comes into government, where families are having difficulty in accessing care homes. I have to say that there has been no correspondence in the past two weeks about that. I also have regular discussions with the care inspectorate, who is also monitoring that. I am due to meet with them again this afternoon. It is vital that care homes follow the open with care policy. If any member finds that that is not the case in their constituency or region, I will be happy to hear from them and deal with that accordingly. I will make a plea again for succinct answers. Otherwise, not all members will have the opportunity to pose the question that they have been preparing to pose. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to tackle the reported backlog of colorectal cancer screening. Since the Baal screening programme resumed in October 2020, invitations to participate in screening have been issuing at the same rate as they were before the pandemic. However, invitations to existing participants are issuing seven months later than they would have without the pause in March 2020. Anyone who turns 50 after the programme resumed will receive a kit shortly after their birthday as normal. Any patient referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer after screening, including those from the Baal screening programme, have and will remain a priority in accessing diagnostic tests. Hopefully, roll cancer out to ensure that, in this way, we have invested in four additional mobile units to support scope-based diagnostics, one of which is stationed at our national hospital at the Golden Jubilee. We will also shortly publish the endoscopy and urology recovery and renewal plan, which will embed further improvements and ultimately work towards reducing waiting times and providing equitable access. I thank the minister for that answer, but constituency reported to me that Angus residents, as far north as Edzel, must travel to Dundee and Perth to receive endoscopy and colonoscopy services. After mental health and stroke care were centralised away from Strachathro, the suggestion is that cancer screening and detection have gone the same way. Does the minister accept that it is long past time for the NHS winter plan and beyond to recognise that the withdrawal of local healthcare such as in Angus is storing up bigger problems in things like screening for the future? In response to that particular point, I would say that many boards are working really hard to take the pressure off their central units to ensure that they are using all the facilities right out in the community and working closely with primary care. Boards are working tirelessly to see patients in as timely a way as possible based on their clinical need. There are two mobile endoscopy units, one of which operates on NHS Tayside and a further two are borough to be brought in stream in the next couple of months. That additional two mobile endoscopy units will provide four rooms, so by January 2022 there will be six mobile endoscopy rooms in total across Scotland, which will increase the number of patients who can be seen and in turn reduce waiting times for endoscopy. To ask the Scottish Government what impact air pollution has on mortality and morbidity. The relationship between air quality and health is extremely complex. It is generally difficult to say with certainty what impact air pollution has on specific individuals. However, we do know that the very young, the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of poor air quality. The Scottish Government recognises that the air that we breathe is fundamental to our health and compared to the rest of the UK and other parts of Europe, Scotland enjoys a high level of air quality. At the time, evidence continues to grow on the impacts of poor air quality, expanding our understanding of how air pollution is harmful to public health and to the environment. In July this year, we published a new air quality strategy to set out the Scottish Government's policy framework for the next five years and a series of actions to deliver further air quality improvement. I thank the minister for that response. I asked my UK and the British Lung Foundation research found that 81 per cent of births in Scotland last year were on local authorities with unsafe levels of air pollution exceeding world health organisation guidelines for fine particulate matter. Meanwhile, six roads, including the A737, which runs through my constituency, still exceed the legal limit for nitrogen oxide. Can the minister advise as to when low-emissions zones will be extended from the four main cities, which will include Edinburgh from next year, to other cities in large towns and the health benefits that that will bring? Beyond the four cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, local authorities with air quality management areas, such as our AQMAs, are required to undertake a national low-emissions framework assessment to determine the suitability of a local emissions zone and LEZ for the air quality issues that they might be experiencing. To date, no other Scottish local authorities have determined that an LEZ is appropriate. However, all local authorities with AQMAs must produce an action plan detailing how air quality will be improved. The worst cases of morbidity due to pollution and emissions are in our urban areas. Can I ask what discussions the minister has had with other portfolios to encourage the use of low-emissions vehicles in cities to the health benefit of those who live there? The member asks an excellent question. Human health improvements are not related solely to direct reduction in air pollution. The policies that can improve air quality can potentially have multiple co-benefits for population health. They also address inequality and for mitigating and adapting to climate change. A prime example is the policy to promote active travel, which I know the member is passionate about. Walking, wheeling, cycling can increase physical activity. Significantly reduced cardiovascular incidents and mortality have been shown to reduce all-cause mortality, even after controlling other physical activities. That is a particular priority for the Government at the moment. You can see very clearly how we are working cross-portfolio to deliver on that particular benefit for the citizens of Scotland. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the reported backlog in at-home Covid-19 booster and flu vaccine appointments in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health ward area. That cohort is appointed locally. We are working closely with all health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to ensure that people are prioritised according to risk. Following JCVI advice, health boards prioritised administering boosters to highest priority groups. I make the point that I know has been made by other colleagues and myself previously that the moment we received that advice, there was already a backlog, which of course Greater Glasgow and Clyde are working through. Greater Glasgow and Clyde, like all health boards, is accelerating its vaccination programme to ensure that as many eligible people are protected as possible ahead of the festive season. Figures from the UK dashboard show that we have administered boosters or third doses to a greater proportion of the population than any other UK nation. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but the reality of this backlog for vulnerable people is quite stark. In one of my constituents' cases, she was 83 years of age and had to wait over a month for home vaccine appointments. When I made representations on our behalf to the health board in Glasgow, I was told that the vaccination team was simply too busy to provide her with an appointment date, which left her in the situation where she had to put herself at risk and attend a drop-in clinic to receive her vaccination. That means that vulnerable people, who are not normally well enough to attend the vaccination centres, have been left behind and stuck at home when they are up to Christmas. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what assessment is the Government making of the number of people in that situation, where they are waiting for at-home appointments and are forced into that position of having to potentially go in person to a facility and put them at risk? Will the Government commit to date ensuring that every one of them is vaccinated at home in time for Christmas? I thank Paul Suny for the question. He is right to raise it. That, to me, is an unacceptable lay-long wait for somebody who is vulnerable. To make the obvious point—I know that Paul Suny is aware of this—that home appointments take longer, not only will health boards have to travel to those individuals. There is that 15-minute recovery period thereafter, but nonetheless, those people who are housebound may well have vulnerabilities. They often have vulnerabilities hence why they cannot travel to a vaccination centre. My expectation would be that they would be prioritised. I am happy to give Paul Suny a breakdown of the progress that Greater Glasgow and Clyde has made in the vaccination programme. It is good progress, but I have asked Greater Glasgow and Clyde, as well as all health boards right across the country, to give me plans for acceleration in the lead-up to the end of the year. Can the cabinet secretary please tell me the date that Covid booster will appear on the Scottish Covid app? To do that, but we hope to be able to do that early next month. In a previous answer at First Minister's questions, the First Minister said that elderly constituents having to wait outside of vaccination centres for hours should not happen. Indeed, the cabinet secretary was meeting with boards to discuss that. Can he tell me exactly why constituents who are elderly are still having to wait outside in winter weather for their vaccine and what action has been taken to increase waiting facilities available at vaccination centres? A couple of points I would make. First and foremost, where people have to queue up and where they are having to queue up outside, I would expect local health boards to ensure that they take care of the welfare of those individuals, whether that is by, indeed, some health boards have put up marquise, gazebos, they have got heating in place, they have offered water, chairs, etc. I would expect the welfare to be taken care of. Of course, my preference would be that there should be no queueing where possible, but we are accelerating our vaccination programme. Almost 500,000 flu and booster vaccines were administered last week, and that will mean that some people will have to queue up. Thankfully, we have made excellent progress through the older-age cohorts. We are starting to make progress through those not-so-older cohorts, but where there are particular concerns of particular health boards and particular vaccination centres with that is still happening. I am more than happy to hear from members across the chamber, and I will raise it with the health board in question. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the measures that it has been taking part as part of the women's health plan to improve access for women to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis. We have developed a national referral pathway that will improve earlier intervention and support in primary care for women with endometriosis, as well as streamlining referrals to secondary and tertiary care for those who need it. To raise awareness of menstrual wellbeing, we are developing new information for NHS inform, and we funded endometriosis UK to produce information reflux that healthcare professionals can sign posts to if endometriosis is suspected. That will support women to be better informed and empowered to make choices about their treatment. All of that will launch in spring 2022. I have recently represented women suffering from endometriosis in my constituency, who have had the truly harrowing experiences in relation to the length of time that is taken for them to reach that all-important diagnosis and treatment plan stage. Does the minister agree with me that any improvements that can be made with reducing weight in times for diagnosing endometriosis and the work based on lived experiences to address inequalities in all aspects of women's health in Scotland are to be welcomed and expedited? Yes, I do agree. I, too, have spoken to women with endometriosis and have been moved by the difficulties that many of them face in receiving a diagnosis. Indeed, in being heard, our women's health plan, which was published in August, includes a number of actions to improve access to appropriate support, best treatment and speedy diagnosis for endometriosis. Because knowledge is power, the work that we are doing to improve the information on NHS inform and the patient information leaflet to support the referral pathway are both really important parts of the package. Empowering women and helping them to understand what is normal, when to ask for help and what options they have is a really important first step. As I outlined in my previous answer, we have already taken action to reduce the time when women with endometriosis have to wait to achieve a diagnosis and access appropriate care. Furthermore, as we implement these actions, we will work with people with lived experience, endometriosis UK, Public Health Scotland, as well to identify realistic targets to measure improvement of services and to care for women with endometriosis. I will be able to squeeze in question number eight if I could have brief questions and brief answers. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Orkney regarding the Covid-19 booster vaccination programme. Cabinet Secretary, I will be regularly with all health boards, including with NHS Orkney, met with them on Monday, or they were part of a call I was on on Monday, where we discussed the autumn-winter vaccination programme. Liam McArthur. I thank the cabinet secretary. Over recent weeks, Orkney has experienced Scotland's highest rate of Covid cases, at the same time booster vaccinations have not kept pace with the roll-out elsewhere in the country, leading to understandable concern. Thankfully, Covid numbers are declining, the booster vaccination is picking up pace, but what assurances can the cabinet secretary provide that all health boards will get the support that they need to ensure that any future booster programmes are rolled out as quickly as possible? I thank Liam McArthur for raising an important issue. The two issues that he raises are interlinked because of the high case rates. There were outbreaks in a number of care homes, and vaccination teams had to wait before they could go safely to vaccinate those individuals. To give some assurance, as he asks for, there is now a timetable that is published by NHS Orkney in relation to how they intend to get through the priority groups before Christmas. I am sure that he has a copy of that. I hope that that gives reassurance to members, but, of course, if NHS Orkney requires any additional resource whatsoever in relation to the vaccination programme and accelerating it, I would look at that extremely sympathetically. We will move on to the next portfolio of questions, which is social justice, housing and local government. I will allow a brief pause to allow front-benchers to change positions safely. Although we are just completing that move, I remind members that, if they wish to request a supplementary question, they should press the request-to-speak button or indicate so in the chat function by entering the letter R during the relevant question. I call question number one, Beatrice Wishart. To ask the Scottish Government how its housing strategy supports social landlords to ensure ageing properties meet current energy-efficient standards. The Scottish Government is committed to a just transition to net zero. Our heat and building strategy sets out how we will accelerate the decarbonisation of heating together with energy efficiency improvements in Scotland's homes. The Scottish Government's social housing net zero heat fund provides financial assistance to social landlords to retrofit their housing stock to meet the energy efficiency standard for social housing, and the fund will make available £200 million over the next five years to support social landlords across Scotland in installing zero emissions heating systems and energy efficiency measures. Social landlords such as housing associations work hard to provide decent housing, and today's ageing properties require extensive upgrades to meet modern energy-efficient standards at great costs. Given the answer that the minister has provided, will the Scottish Government ensure that there is enough investment to provide for modernisation and future proof of those upgrades too, as well as ensure that areas with high levels of fuel poverty such as those in the highlands and islands receive higher levels of resource to address the inequality caused by fuel poverty? I am grateful for the level of interest that members from a number of political parties, including Beatrice Wishart, have shown in the issue. The Scottish Government has been clear that, while we are committed to investing at least £1.8 billion in the agenda across the built environment more generally, we recognise that much more will be needed. That is why we are establishing a green heat finance task force to look at ways that the public sector, the third sector and the private sector can invest collectively to help landlords, including social landlords and tenants, to overcome the investment costs and decarbonise our buildings. I hope that Beatrice Wishart is also aware that the fuel poverty definition now takes account of the additional costs associated with living in remote and rural communities. We are committed to spending more per head on energy efficiency in remote and rural areas, where we have no installation and labour costs are higher. What response have ministers made to concerns on the installation of unproven heating under the energy efficiency standard for social housing, EESSH, resulting in reduced thermal comfort for tenants, but significantly increased costs? We are working actively with the social housing sector on not just the energy efficiency standard for social housing, but also on their own work on the Zest report. We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with the sector and we will listen to any concerns that they have and, if Miles Briggs wants to write to me with any specifics, I will certainly take that seriously. Can I ask the minister to elaborate on how Scotland's ambitious housing to 2040 vision is strengthened by complementary strategies such as the heat and building strategy and the draft national planning framework 4? Collette Stevenson is right that there is a great deal of work happening. I am really pleased that we have a long-term vision for Scotland's housing landscape to 2040. That kind of long-term vision is often requested not just by social housing providers but by the private rented sector and by those representing the interests of tenants. We have that long-term vision now. It is associated with the fuel poverty strategy, the heat and building strategy and, as the member mentioned, the draft national planning framework 4, which sets out a vision for how our places will change and bring together a wide range of policies, programmes and action, including transport, energy, environment and housing. The 18 national developments in that framework will support the delivery of a spatial strategy, which has a crucial role to play in supporting our transition to net zero. Ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help to tackle the reported affordable housing crisis in Edinburgh. The Government has delivered more than 103,000 affordable homes since 2007. We are committed to delivering a further 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70 per cent of which will be available for social rent. During that same period, Edinburgh received £558 million in grant support, which helped to contribute to the completion of over 13,000 affordable homes. In this Parliament, Edinburgh will further benefit from the affordable housing supply programme investment of £233.8 million towards the delivery of even more good-quality affordable homes, an increase of £32.4 million or 16 per cent on the previous five years. I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. As you stated, the Scottish Government is now allocating resource planning assumptions to all local authorities areas for the years 2021-22 to support the delivery of more social and affordable homes. Each month there are over 4,400 households living in temporary accommodation in our capital. Given that Edinburgh is home to about 9.7 per cent of the population of Scotland, but Edinburgh is only being allocated 7.3 per cent of that total budget, does the cabinet secretary agree that Edinburgh is not getting its fair share considering the number of people in temporary accommodation and the scale of our homelessness crisis? No, I do not agree with that. Although I fully understand the challenges in Edinburgh, I have had discussions with Councillor Kate Campbell, the convener, for that reason. We continue to discuss with Edinburgh how we can help them to overcome some of the issues that Sue Webber referred to. The issue of temporary accommodation has obviously been exacerbated by Covid, and we need to support councils to work through that. In terms of the investment this year, £52.4 million will mean an estimated £865 million. Affordable homes will start on site and a further £828 million homes are expected to be completed, the majority of which will be for social rent. We are looking at options to accelerate affordable housing expenditure in Edinburgh this year in conjunction with officials at the council, who have so far confirmed the capacity for a further £1 million of support, so we will continue to support Edinburgh to make sure that it can deliver on its affordable housing programme. Can I refer members to my register of interest? Minister, the citizens assembly asked for a right of affordable housing for young people. Will the Scottish Government agree to that? As an Edinburgh, for example, in the past decade, private rents have rocketed with a 40 per cent increase for one-bedroom properties, meaning that young people just cannot afford to live on their own or even share a flat, given that four-bed flats in the private sector are now around £1,900 a month? Can the minister talk about the affordable housing access issue but also give us a timescale on Scottish Government action on private rents? Obviously, we are well aware that many private rented tenants have been struggling and that some people, particularly young people, as Sarah Boyack pointed out, struggle with the rent levels. Of course, for those who are struggling in tenancies at the moment, we have provided £39 million to support them at this time, and we are also committed to tackling high rents by implementing an effective national system of rent controls by the end of 2025, which, of course, my colleague Patrick Harvie will be taking forward. We will be publishing a draft rented sector strategy for consultation in the next few weeks, and that will seek views on changes to tenancy arrangements, as well as taking forward a consensus on improving information about rent levels, leading to options for rent controls and better regulation. I would encourage Sarah Boyack to contribute to that consultation. Would the cabinet secretary agree with me that Edinburgh Council's consultation on short-term rent control areas, which closed earlier this month and has currently been reviewed in the city chambers, is proof that local authorities have been empowered under the Scottish Government to find terrible solutions to their own housing challenges? I agree with David Torrance. We know that in certain areas, particularly tourist hot spots such as Edinburgh, there are high numbers of short-term lets that can cause problems for neighbours and make it harder for people to find homes to live in. The powers that have been given to local authorities to designate control areas combined with those in the licensing scheme are sufficient to manage high concentrations of short-term lets where that is an issue. The regulation of short-term lets is vital to balancing the needs and concerns that communities have raised with wider economic and tourism interests. I look forward to hearing about Edinburgh Council's plans following consideration of the recent consultation by its planning committee. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the impact of the open market shared equity scheme in Argyll and Bute. Over the past five years, 11 properties have been purchased in Argyll and Bute with support from the open market shared equity scheme. In addition, 80 properties were purchased with support from the First Home Fund last financial year. The Scottish Government currently offers a range of schemes to assist first-time buyers and priority groups to access affordable home ownership. The first-time buyer relief for land and buildings transaction tax means that an estimated 8 out of 10 first-time buyers continue to pay no tax at all. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Due to the Covid pandemic, it appears that the pressure on housing stock in many rural and island areas, such as Argyll and Bute, is increasing property prices. Last week on Mull, I met Mull and Iona community trusts to express concern about the lack of support available for local people who wish to use the scheme. Would the cabinet secretary provide an update on whether the thresholds in the scheme will be reviewed to take account of inflated property prices in communities like Mull? The short answer is yes. The annual review of the open market shared equity scheme threshold prices is currently under way, and we expect to publish new threshold prices by the end of the year. Those will be reflective of the latest house price data available to the Scottish Government. Early indications are that a high number of threshold prices will see an increase. Although we are keen to see more people access support, the open market shared equity scheme is an affordable housing scheme, and the threshold prices reflect that. That is why we ask applicants who are offered a passport letter to be as flexible as possible about the areas and properties that they will consider purchasing. To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received the low-income pandemic payment. By the end of October 2021, around 500,000 households had received our £130 low-income pandemic payment. Those households received council tax reduction or households not liable for council tax, for example those in homeless accommodation. The investment of up to £65 million was part of a range of actions that we took to support low-income households during the pandemic and provide direct financial support during that difficult time. Local authorities have worked hard to deliver the vital payment for us and will provide full details of the final number of payments shortly. I warmly welcome the low-income pandemic payment. We know that many people are struggling as a result of the pandemic and the increase in living costs, so that will have a huge difference. What more is the Scottish Government doing with those powers that it has to support low-income families over the winter period? What more could the Scottish Government do if it had full powers? In addition, we are putting over £130 million in the pockets of families this year through our Scottish child payment and bridgwick payments. We also continue to provide support through our Scottish welfare fund and discretionary housing payments, together with more than £100 million this year. We have recently announced a £41 million winter support fund to support people struggling financially this winter. Of course, with full powers, we could do more. For example, we could support families by delivering a social security system that provides better support across all benefit areas. If we had powers over employment law, we could ensure fair, flexible work and mandatory payment of the real living wage. To ask the Scottish Government how to ensure that local authorities are compliant with best practice in building standards. Scottish Government monitors the performance of all building standard services within local authorities through quarterly performance returns. They adhere to a performance framework that sets out the importance of sharing best practice. Officials also offer where it is needed tailored support to local authorities and facilitate sharing best practice through a national engagement programme. Since 2017, overall performance levels for local authority building standard services have improved across Scotland, and I expect that to continue. Michael Marra I thank the minister for that answer. He may be aware that the SNP administration in Dundee has been forced to spend over £4 million to replace roof tiles due to the original installations also under the same administration, not meeting safety regulations. This, of course, diverts resources from other services in an already crippling financial environment. Does the minister agree that the savage cuts that have been made to local government over the lifetime of this Government has made such unexpected spending much harder for councils to absorb? Well, I am aware that this is a situation that a number of members for Dundee and the wider region of many different political parties have expressed serious concern about. It arises as Michael Marra will know not from building standards but from a change to the British safety standard, a different regulatory regime and a failure on the part of the local authority to pick up a change to that British safety standard, for which the local authority has apologised and, on a cross-party basis, agreement has been reached to hold an independent inquiry into that. I think that we should all have confidence in the ability of the local authority to conduct that inquiry and, hopefully, to take its recommendations extremely seriously, as indeed we would expect all local authorities to do. On safety concerns, over four years have passed since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, yet the Government has only just confirmed consultation on whether it will ban combustible materials at high-rise buildings. Can I therefore ask the minister when we will see action taken on this issue and can the minister confirm that any future ban on combustible materials will be truly comprehensive? We have an active review of building standards and consultation of building standards. I would encourage the member to contribute to that consultation if he wishes. If he wishes to write to us on the specific issues relating to the Grenfell inquiry, colleagues will reply to that letter. I understand that a significant number of my constituents are affected by the serious issue raised by Mr Marra, and they will be understandably concerned. They will be hugely disappointed by the politicisation of the issue by Mr Marra, and we will welcome the commitment by Dundee City Council for a full independent external review. Will the minister use his position to seek assurances from the council that it will rectify the issues as quickly as possible and with as little disruption to those affected? I would certainly support that call. I hope that everybody, regardless of party politics, supports that kind of quick resolution with as little disruption as possible that Joe Fitzpatrick is calling for. I welcome the fact once again that Dundee City Council have apologised for the quality of the work and for not picking up on the change to the British safety standard and have approved the review that will take place. I would appeal to all members across the political spectrum to support any local authority that picks up on an issue like that to resolve it, to get a solution for the people affected rather than turning it into a political football. To ask the Scottish Government how its housing strategy will support the retrofitting of homes to improve energy efficiency and to tackle fuel poverty. Housing to 2040, as well as the fuel poverty strategy and the heat and building strategy, together set out our approach to decarbonising heat and eradicating fuel poverty. We have run a number of advice and funding schemes with increased investment to £268 million in this year and we have committed to invest at least £1.8 billion during this Parliament to kickstart market growth and to support those that are least able to pay. As I mentioned earlier in relation to Beatrice Wishart's question, we are establishing a green heat finance task force to recommend ways that the public sector, communities and private investors can collaborate to scale up investment and help households overcome the upfront investment costs. Dean Lockhart I thank the minister for his response. He mentioned the heat and building strategy, which estimates that it will cost £33 billion to retrofit Scotland's housing stock. Can the minister clarify how this funding will be divided between public sector funding and private sector funding? There is also a lot of confusion over how much funding will be available for individual households to help them to replace existing fossil fuel boilers. Can the minister undertake to clarify what financial assistance will be available to individual households to replace their boilers? On the latter point, I can certainly say that the level of support to individual households in Scotland is higher than that provided by the UK scheme. The UK Government's boiler upgrade scheme, for example, is set to offer grants of £5,000 to £6,000 for renewable heat systems, but the Home Energy Scotland scheme that the Scottish Government funds gives interest-free loans for homeowners with cashback grants of up to £7,500 for zero-emission heating plus up to £6,000 for energy efficiency measures. I hope that the Government has the support of members across the chamber in providing that support to householders, but on the first point that Dean Lockhart raised, I am sure that he understands that the answer is no. I cannot pin down right now, and no Government would be able to pin down right now exactly what the share of costs will be right through to 2045. That is why we are looking to create a green heat finance task force to cast the net wide for a very wide range of measures to ensure that the investment that is necessary is available. The only alternative would be for Mr Lockhart to come forward with a £33 billion tax rise to suggest to us if he wants the public sector to pay for the lot. I am not sure if the microphone is on, Ms Brown. Maybe I should try to re-insert the card? Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to declare an interest as I am still a sitting councillor at South Asia Council. What action is it taking to ensure that construction firms adhere to the highest building standards? The Scottish Government established a ministerial working group that considered building standards, compliance and enforcement immediately after the tragic events at Grenfell Tower in 2017. The recommendations have been taken forward under the building standards futures board. The compliance plan that the futures board is leading seeks to improve levels of compliance through greater checking and evidence gathering as well as creating a new compliance plan manager for high-risk buildings. A consultation is currently under way on the compliance plan manager role and strengthening enforcement. I have a constituent who has been in touch who bought a new build flat several years ago where the Habitation certificate had been granted. It later transpired that the flat had very little sound or fireproofing and that, after a multitude of surveys at the cost to the residents, it has been deemed that the health and safety standards of the building are inadequate. The builder went into liquidation shortly after the sale of the flats. I ask the Scottish Government what procedures are in place to protect people who buy properties in good faith and then builders go into liquidation and are not accountable for their development. I suspect that everybody across the chamber will want to say, along with Siobhan Brown and myself, that this kind of situation is not acceptable. People have a right to security in their home. That is part of the Scottish Government's approach to a fundamental understanding of adequate housing as a human right. We would all have a great deal of concern about people who have been placed in that kind of situation. In relation to the expected levels of quality of a new-build house, we want to see the system strengthened so that buyers can purchase a new-build home with confidence and have access to efficient and effective remediation if things go wrong. We have a number of measures that we are currently consulting on to do so. The UK Government introduced the building safety bill this year. That includes provision for a new homes ombudsman scheme and a requirement that developers of new-build housing belong to that scheme. We are working with the UK Government as the bill moves through the UK Parliament to try to achieve a UK-wide scheme that works for Scotland while still respecting the devolution settlement. In the meantime, a homeowner should contact the home warranty provider to establish the extent of the warranty, and they should consider taking independent legal advice from a solicitor or advice agency to establish if they have options available to them to pursue. I can squeeze in question 8. If I could please have succinct questions and answers. Question 8, Neil Gray. I thank the Scottish Government for providing an update on the roll-out of the new Scottish child disability payment. I am delighted and very proud to say that, on Monday, we successfully launched child disability payment nationally. That is a significant milestone in the development and delivery of social security in Scotland. I want to take this opportunity to record my thanks to all the civil servants involved and others in this achievement. Following our successful pilot, families of children and young people with a disability who are not already in receipt of DLA, child can now apply for this benefit. For the 52,000 people already getting DLA child, we have successfully started the safe and secure transfer of cases from the DWP, and that will be complete by spring 2023. It has gone successfully well. There is a lot more that I could say if I had more time, Presiding Officer, but I will conclude there. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the minister for that answer and also welcome the new payment. I can ask the minister to expand on how he will make sure that people are aware of the changes and also how they can apply. Social Security Scotland has a multi-channel approach to raising awareness in place, including targeted social media advertising, press releases and a radio campaign. In advance of introduction, officials engaged with over 2,000 stakeholders via virtual roadshows and provided resources to help them to promote the new payment and case transfer process. In addition, the chief executive of Social Security Scotland and I have written to all MSPs, MPs and local authority leaders, seeking their support in raising awareness. We have also ensured that everyone can apply by whatever channel suits them best, whether that is by paper, phone, online or face-to-face. Just a number of weeks ago, we debated the issue of promoting benefits here in Scotland in this chamber. I was also asked about it in committee. I was therefore disappointed and somewhat dispirited that I did not see more uptake from colleagues, particularly on the Opposition Benches promoting the launch of the CDP on Monday. I asked them, in the interests of their constituents, to please be part of that shared responsibility and endeavour to raise awareness that child disability payment is now available to families across Scotland. In part of my question 2 in the social justice and housing, I should have declared an interest as an existing councillor in Edinburgh. That concludes portfolio questions and will be a very short pause before we move on to the next item of business.