 The next item of business is consideration of business motion 2.456, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out changes to today's business. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button now. I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and moved. No member has asked to speak against the motion, therefore the question is that motion 2.456 be agreed, are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is topical questions. In order to get in as many people as possible, I would prefer short and succinct questions and responses. I call it question number one, Jamie Greene. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what resilience measures are in place to tackle serious organised crime and terrorism in light of reports that the assistant chief constable in charge has been suspended. Cabinet Secretary, Keith Brown. This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. The chief constable has confirmed that assistant chief constable, Tim Mayers, will move from his current role on an interim basis to take responsibility for the organised crime, counter-terrorism and intelligence portfolio. The member will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to comment further, whether an investigation is under way. Jamie Greene. I do appreciate that there is an investigation under way. However, as the seniority of the individual and indeed the importance of his remit, which causes the most concern, the assistant chief constable suspended leads of the charge in tackling serious organised crime, terrorism and cybercrime in Scotland. We know that cybercrime increased 95 per cent last year. Web-based grooming offences have increased by 80 per cent over five years and the police are currently investigating nearly two and a half thousand serious organised gang members. Cabinet Secretary, are you confident that we are making progress in tackling those crimes? What steps has he personally taken in the past few days to make sure that those recent events will in no way impact Police Scotland's ability to protect the public? As I say, there is not much I can say in terms of the actual investigation. Just as the member says that it is very important because of the level of the person involved in the organisation, it would be just as important for a member at any level in the organisation in this kind of case. Is the responsibility of the chief constable to deploy his force as he sees fit? I have had discussions in the past few days, both with the police themselves and with the SPA. I am confident that the police and the chief constable will ensure that the same kind of coverage, the same kind of effort has been made in relation to organised crime, cybercrime, as was being made before this case came to fruition. That will be affected by the changes that the chief constable has put in place. I am reassured in the sense that a conversation has taken place about the resilience of the police's ability to handle such serious crime in Scotland. Let's not forget that it has been over a year since Dame Angelini's final report into police misconduct and complaints handling was published. The Government, I remember, snuck out a progress report on the final day before summer recess. I raised it as an issue at the time, but we have heard nothing since. It remains a fact that, astonishingly, an officer can resign while suspended during an investigation with no further action or recourse taken whatsoever. Why is this still the case? That is a very important point that Jamie Greene makes. He knows that it was one of the recommendations in Dame Angelini's report. He will know that there were more than 100 such recommendations, many of which have been progressed. I reassure the member that a meeting took place last week at which the latest tranche of recommendations that have been progressed were summarised and will shortly make a statement, make public the progress that has been made throughout the range of recommendations. The one that the member refers to is one that would require primary legislation to change. It is a question that we will have to take forward that. Perhaps another provision that is in relation to advisory and barred lists whereby somebody convicted of offence in one police force cannot join another police force without that police force being told about it. Those are on their own two very important recommendations, but they will require primary legislation and, if we take them forward, will require to be fitted into the legislative programme just to say that justice currently has around 22 bills scheduled for this Parliament alone before any bills that the member might bring forward and others. It is a congestive programme, but we intend to take that forward seriously. Serious progress has been made throughout the recommendations that Ailish Angelini has made. I thank the cabinet secretary for that information. The cabinet secretary will be aware that there has been an 18-fold increase in the stoppages of so-called street value in the space of a year, while seizures of psychoactive substance has nearly doubled. I would just like a further assurance that the cabinet secretary will be mindful that the successful work does continue and is not compromised in any way. I would like to give the member that reassurance. The reassurance is based on the 17,000 police officers that we have in place and the work that has been done through some new initiatives that psychoactive drugs are mentioned by the members. She will be aware of some of the things that have been done in relation to the presence of those drugs in prisons. She will also be aware of recent changes by the Lord Advocate in relation to how these drug offences are prosecuted and dealt with by the police. There is a real focus on that. It should not be the case that the discovery of an increased amount of drugs is necessarily seen as an increased prevalence. We cannot properly determine exactly what it is due to, but it may well be down to the fact that the police are acting very effectively to locate and seize those drugs. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to strengthen the process for the handling of complaints and misconduct allegations against police officers. I have partly answered the question in response to Jamie Greene's supplementary question. Following the review that was mentioned before by Dame Eilish Angiolini, which was into complaints handling investigations and misconduct issues, a number of recommendations have already been implemented. Others, as I have said, will require legislation and will consult on those proposals further to further strengthen the framework for complaints and misconduct allegations against police officers. We will do that next year, including the conduct framework for senior officers. There is, though, currently an established process for the handling of police complaints, investigations of serious incidents and misconduct. I welcome the significant progress that has been made by, among others, the Police Scotland, the SPA, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service to drive improvements in systems and processes in advance of those legislative changes that I mentioned earlier. 2. Daniel Johnson To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing NHS Lothian and other NHS boards, given the consequences and impact of delayed discharges. For a very important question, the health and care system is under extreme pressure due to the pandemic and all health boards are experiencing significant issues, including workforce challenges and high levels of delayed discharge. To help alleviate some of that pressure, we announced a substantial new package of the £300 million in hospital and community care to support NHS and social care systems over the winter of a substantial proportion of that funding going directly into social care to help with delayed discharges. I also announced last month further funding of £10 million to support health boards to maintain resilience throughout winter by putting in place a range of measures, including appropriate levels of staffing at the right time. I have been meeting with the chief executive of NHS Lothian alongside the chief executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and Judith Proctor and the team at the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership as well on a weekly basis for the last month to discuss that very issue. Daniel Johnson I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer and I'll be very measured in my question because myself and others in the chamber today read a briefing on Friday which painted an alarming picture where there has clearly been a spike in delayed discharge, particularly in Edinburgh, leading to a log jam right the way through inpatient care and into accidents emergency. In his meetings, the cabinet secretary identified what the issue is because my understanding is that it is not necessarily just one of money. Is this about social care provision or are there other blockages to discharge and is this an issue that is happening elsewhere in the country? I can thank Daniel Johnson and of course if he wants further briefing then this topical question will allow then I'm happy to speak to him offline with my officials in detail. In terms of the questions he asks, there are some Edinburgh specific issues. That's why I meet with Edinburgh every single week because I'm really concerned about the level of delayed discharge, the highest in the country, but also the very unique circumstances. So, for example, there is a severe lack of in-house provision as he probably knows, not just in care homes but of course care at home which is a vital part of keeping people out of hospital, be it via the back door or indeed preventing them coming through the front door. Workforce is clearly a challenge as well in Edinburgh given that there are other competing workforce pressures and hospitality and so on and so forth, but he is absolutely right that finances, as I have said, to Edinburgh City Council, to the health and social care partnership and to Lothian health board should not be an issue. In fact, I agreed additional funding recognising that, for example, for interim care placements in Edinburgh the cost may well be higher in Edinburgh than it would be in other parts of the country. So, I'm convinced and content that funding isn't the issues that he articulates, but there are a significant number of other issues that we're trying to work through with Edinburgh. Given the time that I have here in Topicals, I'm happy to either write to the member or if he wants a meeting I'm more than happy to discuss these in greater detail. Daniel Johnson. Indeed, I would welcome more detail and a meeting. A particular concern is inpatient care and particularly within trauma. One particular example is the orthopedics where delays in treatment can obviously have consequences in terms of bone growth and so on. Is there a particular concern in particular areas of inpatient care and would be able to elaborate that and what action is being taken to remove those issues? Cabinet Secretary. Yes, we have concerns right across the board but he's absolutely right to focus on the areas that he does. What I would say is really important is that we can often spend a lot of time in this chamber understandably so focused on unscheduled care, the emergency care but actually elective care. We know that there has been a building backlog due and exacerbated certainly by the significant impact of the pandemic. What we're doing is trying to use all the resources possible nationally, so taking for example the likes of the Golden Jubilee. How can the Golden Jubilee help with orthopedic surgery, be it in Lothian, be it in the west coast or indeed any other part of the country? We're trying to maximise as much resources as we can to help with the elective backlog because we know the longer people have to wait for that surgery, it builds up problems for us in the future. Again, I'm more than happy to go into more details with Daniel Johnson at a meeting. Thank you, cabinet secretary. You have announced money for delayed discharges and agreed in your previous answer that money doesn't necessarily seem to be the problem. My question is when do you expect to help more long suffering patients receive the care that they need and deserve by reducing the current level of hospital delayed discharges? Is reducing, in the last week's figures, we have gone below 1,500. It's still far too high and I want it to reduce even more, so I'm happy to provide Sandra Scrahani with the latest figures. I would say that we are beginning to see small levels of reduction but I need that to be far bigger than it is. I'm meeting with the six health boards that have the largest number of delayed discharges and we're working through solutions. We're making some progress, as I say, but I hope that progress continues. As I have said to Daniel Johnson, I've made it clear to the health boards that funding and finances shouldn't be the barrier to helping to reduce those delayed discharges. I also attended the briefings on Friday with NHS Lothian and then I went on to one with NHS Borders. Further to the answers to Daniel Johnson, it's not just an Edinburgh problem. Figures for beds as of today at the Borders General Hospital are out of 300 beds. Seven are occupied by Covid patients but 51 by those whose discharge is delayed. While appreciating the various causes of this, losing 17 per cent of bed capacity with all the predictable challenges this winter lie ahead, we have an immediate problem. Can I listen carefully to the cabinet secretary's answer? If he's also meeting with Ralph Roberts of NHS Borders, it's also a problem in the Borders. Yes, you could imagine I discussed this issue with every single health board. Of course, Christine Grahame is absolutely right, it's a problem that every health board contends with. There's also areas of very, very good practice which I'm ensuring is shared right across every single health board. However, Christine Grahame, as always, gets to the crux of the issue here, which is, of course, if we invest not just in care home placements, which are hugely important, but care at home and making sure that people have the appropriate packages at home, we hopefully prevent them coming through the front door of the hospital too. To give her an assurance, I meet the chief execs and the chairs every single week. Of course, Ralph Roberts is on those calls and we discuss those matters in great detail. I'm very grateful for the answers that we've heard today. Following the meeting on Friday, can the cabinet secretary say where the staff are going to come from that are needed to alleviate the problem across Scotland? Recruitment is under way, is going well, job adverts are not just out, but interviews are commencing and a number of people have already been recruited. I did reference in my question my answer to Daniel Johnson that Edinburgh does have an acute problem because there's a number of other pressures that are upon them from the retail sector, from hospitality and so on and so forth. Some of the £300 million of funding that I announced, of course, a bulk of that, a significant proportion of that was for additional recruitment of band 2s to force that work is very well under way and I'm happy if the member wishes to write to me if he wants more specific detail on recruitment, I'm happy to provide the numbers to him. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I ask the cabinet secretary if he will tell us how many people are now waiting in Scotland for a hospital appointment given the comments that he's made in relation to capacity within the system? I don't have the figures to hand in terms of exactly how many are waiting for a hospital appointment, but I'm happy to look to see if we have those figures and provide them to Stephen Kerr. What I would say is that we're investing heavily to try to free up as much capacity as we possibly can, delay discharge and freeing up those delayed, getting those delayed discharges back out and those people back out into community is going to help us to free up space within the hospital, see more people which is important. Our investment in primary care is really important for that, because we don't want everybody to just have to go into hospital to be seen where they can be seen in the community, where they can be seen at primary care is why we're making investment right across the entire system. For the exact figures that Mr Kerr is looking for, I'm more than happy to see if they can be provided to him.