 Gwyn, yr ystafell yfnwysfer i ddyktu'r cyfaint a'r cwstiynau ymddeithasol gilydd y cefnwysbeth ni'n gwybod iddo ni, ac yn ddyddai'r cyfaint eraill yng Nghymru. Me shall drafodaeth yng nghymru i ddwynt Gwyrdd Gyngor yn ymddun Cymru i'r cyfaint a'r cyfaint ynghymru iawn i'r cyfaint ynghymru i'r cyfaint o'r cyfaint a'r cyfaint ynghymru i'r cyfaint i'r cyfaint ynghymru i'r cyfaint a'r cyfaint o'r cyfaint ynghymru i'r cyfaint aethiedig i Gybysun Hyw yw'r hwn rymes wedi'u llywodraeth yn edrych i Aberdein i Gybysun Hyw yw fanch�동 nhw'r ddiffinidwirol ac ddyngloghwilau yn ei wneud iddyntau, ac i wneud, oherwydd eu cael ei gwneud yn ei ddweudio'r cymdeinig, ac yn ei ddigwydd honno. Jeff Gippson I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that answer, and I'm pleased that the progress made since I raised this issue in my members debate last year. As the Cabinet Secretary knows one and ten Scottish Women of Child Rearing age, some 150,000, live with endometriosis the biggest cause of female infertility in Scotland." Given the numbers, the steps that are being taken to provide information about endometriosis, targeted particularly by young women, is to develop more special centres and when can we expect to see one in Ayrshire? I'm grateful to Mr Gibson for the supplementary and I want to thank him for the significant efforts that he's made to raise the profile of endometriosis, including his motion in February of last year. In terms of information, I have asked officials to work with our clinicians in this area. He's absolutely right in terms of providing additional information and awareness, particularly among young women and girls, in order to increase the opportunities to provide the kind of care and treatment that is necessary. As he knows, that can be a condition that only emerges later on in life and as a consequence of that can be much more difficult to treat. In terms of specialist centres, the clinical advice is that in the population of Scotland's size, with the level of prevalence that Mr Gibson has quoted, three specialist centres is what is recommended for the optimal approach to effective treatment of women in Scotland. However, that is where we are treating severe endometriosis and there is work going on to look at what else can be done that supports the pathway into those centres and is able to deal with women and girls much earlier in their condition. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent report by the City of Edinburgh Council that requested licensing powers under the Civic Government Scotland Act 1982 to allow local authorities to licence the use of domestic property for short-term letting. Minister Kevin Stewart. I understand the pressure in some parts of the country for new controls over short-term letting of residential properties, and we want to address that. That is why, in our programme for government, we have committed to working with local government, communities and business interests to ensure that local authorities have appropriate regulatory powers. That will ensure that local authorities can take decisions that balance the needs and concerns of their communities with wider economic and tourism interests. Those powers will allow local authorities to protect the interests of local communities whilst providing a safe quality experience for visitors. Licensing may or may not be a part of the solution. The solution must be based on the best possible evidence. We have already established a short-term let's delivery group of officials from across government to examine the issues around short-term letting. That group will consider the existing powers that local authorities have and gather evidence as to whether further measures are required. The Government is concerned about the potential negative impact of short-term let's and communities, which is why we are prepared to legislate if that is what is needed. Andy Wightman I thank the minister for his answer and welcome the programme for government announcement, and I am glad that we are beyond sandboxes and data observatories. However, the specific request from Edinburgh was for powers under section 44 of the Civic Government Scotland Act 1982. First of all, will he bring forward a statutory instrument to provide those powers? Second, can he confirm that such powers will be available to all local authorities? Third, can he confirm that such powers will be framed in broad terms to allow each local authority to develop their own licensing scheme or, indeed, no licensing scheme as they see fit in relationship to their own local needs? Andy Wightman We acknowledge the concerns that have been expressed by the City of Edinburgh Council, and we welcome its contribution to the thinking about how best to manage short-term let's in its paper that was published on 1 August. Government officials meet Edinburgh City Council on a regular basis, and we will be considering the Council's proposals carefully. We will work with them and other councils that might have different views and stakeholders to ensure that the right balance is struck between adequate accommodation for visitors and, of course, ensuring permanent housing stock. Kezia Dugdale Can I urge the minister to act as quickly as he possibly can? I have been inundated with complaints by people living in the city following the Edinburgh festival and the problems that they have had with Airbnb accommodation. If he is not prepared to act promptly, will he at least work with the sector to introduce a voluntary code to limit the number of days that properties can be rented out for short-term let's over the next 12 months if legislation is going to take longer than that? Andy Wightman Presiding Officer, I understand that Ms Dugdale and many folk want us to act quickly. What I would say is that we have got to act appropriately and get this absolutely right. That is why we have set up the group to examine all that is going on in this area. We will take the views of communities, local authorities and stakeholders very seriously. I know that everyone in this place wants to get this right. We have to find the right balance. We will do so. I am not going to talk about speed because I do not think that that is necessarily the way forward. It is about getting this absolutely right for all local authorities, for all communities and for stakeholders. Mark Ruskell Thank you. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle overcrowding on rail services between Edinburgh and Dunblane. Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson The member will be pleased to note that the final phase of electrification of the full route between Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dunblane is due to be completed later this year to support the major infrastructure investment. Around £370 million of Scottish Government funding is being provided to deliver a new fleet of 70 new Hitachi class 3A5 trains, which Abelio, ScotRail, will lease during the franchise term. The plan is for ScotRail to introduce greater capacity on Dunblane, Edinburgh and Glasgow services from December 2018, with further increases in May 2019. However, this timeframe is very much dependent on completion of network rails electrification works and how ScotRail and Hitachi introduce introduction of the new C3A5 trains at proceeds. My officials at Transport Scotland are working closely with those organisations to maximise the success of those transformational investments. I thank the cabinet secretary for that detailed response and welcome him to his new role. I am sure that, in discussions with his constituents, he will recognise that the capacity issue is a big one and that, effectively, the services are standing room only at peak times, so they are dangerously overcrowded. Can he assure me that, as the C3A5 trains get rolled out, the Edinburgh Dunblane service will not be stuck with a short four-carriage C365 trains, because an overcrowded train is still an overcrowded train, regardless of whether it is electrified or not? I recognise the concerns that the member is raising. As I said in my earlier response this year, ScotRail tends to have greater carriage numbers available on the Edinburgh Dunblane service. That will give an increasing capacity, but it is dependent upon electrification works being completed on time. I know that Network Rail and ScotRail are working closely together to make sure that the work is completed on time. Overall, once the new Hitachi trains are rolled out into service, that will provide even further capacity on services across Scotland, including on the Edinburgh Dunblane line. Users of the service talk about crush hour, not rush hour. There are shortage of carriages, there is a practice of scape stopping and early termination of services. The previous transport minister said that ScotRail would get a grip of that, but, given that ScotRail's PPMs are at a three-year low at the moment, what assurances can the current transport secretary make to users of the Dunblane service when they will see some tangible results and improvements on the line? I have just outlined in my earlier answers the improvements that are taking place just now. That includes the significant capital investment into electrification of the particular line, along with the rest of the electrification that is taking place in the central belt. There will be additional capacity provided in December of this year on the particular line once the electrification work is completed. That will continue to be rolled out as the new attachee trains come on stream as well. To ask the Scottish Government, in light of information provided by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre that NHS Grampian has received the lowest share of public funding of any NHS board for each of the last nine years. How the new health secretary plans to reimburse NHS Grampian for a funding shortfall totaling £165.6 million over that period? In this year, in 2018-19, NHS Grampian received a resource uplift of 2.1 per cent, the highest percentage uplift of any territorial board, taking its annual resource budget to £921 million. The NHS resource allocation formula NRAC sets out target shares for the distribution of funding to the 14 territorial boards. The formula was introduced in 2009-10 in order to provide improvements in predicting relative needs across board areas. The approach that is taken by the Scottish Government has been to move boards towards parity gradually over a number of years, and in 2018-19, all boards have been brought to within 0.8 per cent of parity. It is very welcome to moving towards parity, but NHS Grampian still has consistently the worst waiting times, the worst for chronic pain, the worst for cancer, the third worst for child and adolescent mental health, staff numbers dropping in almost every field, the tripling of vacant hospital positions. That is due to the funding formula. Will the health secretary make the case with her Cabinet colleagues to find at least some of the £165 million of underfunding from her own funding formula to address this crisis? Let me make a number of points. First of all, as I am sure Mr Rumbles knows, because he has been around this particular course many a time before, the funding formula is not my funding formula, it is set by an independent group of experts, including board representatives, health academics and so on. Secondly, it is not possible, as Mr Rumbles seeks to do, to make a causal connection between challenges that boards may have in recruiting staff or in meeting the right targets that we have set for them in terms of patient care and the funding formula. The way in which you move towards parity is precisely what we as a Government have done, and that is to take it step by step. Otherwise, the consequence of what Mr Rumbles is suggesting is that boards in other parts of the country, equally challenged, equally trying to provide high-quality healthcare, equally expected by me to meet those targets, will be stripped of funds. That strikes me as a deeply unfair, irresponsible and disproportionate way to proceed. We will proceed to deliver, as Ms Robison said before me, in that stepped way towards parity as we have done, and I am very pleased that we are now 0.8 per cent closer to parity across all our boards and approach that we will continue to take. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the completion status and final out-turn costs of the William McElvaney school campus in Kilmarnock. In October last year, I laid the foundation stone for the £45.3 million William McElvaney campus. I look forward to visiting the campus, which opened in April later this month, to see the modern state-of-the-art educational facilities that are available to the children and young people of Kilmarnock. Willie Coffey. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer as we formally opened the magnificent new campus next week and welcome all the staff from pupils and even those who voted against the budget that built the school. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that there will be no 30-year legacy of public debt with this campus as there is under previous school building schemes brought in by Labour? The William McElvaney campus represents a significant investment in the educational facilities of children and young people in Kilmarnock. It has been the product of very good joint working by East Ayrshire Council and by the Scottish Government working together. It is part of a very ambitious schools building programme that has seen the number of children and young people educated in good or satisfactory buildings across Scotland increase from 61 per cent in 2007 when this Government came to office to 86 per cent at the present time, representing a transformation of the educational estate for young people in Scotland and a significant element of co-operation between the Government and local authorities. To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to investigate the financing of the Kilmarnock vessel MV Loch Seaforth, which is now owned by Lloyd's banking group, after Alistair was agreed at a reported cost to the public purse of £53 million. Minister Paul Wheelhouse, a full tender process for lease arrangement was undertaken by Caledonian maritime assets limited, in line with the EU procurement rules. That resulted in the award of the contract of Lloyd's banking group, as their tender was assessed as the most economically advantageous. Audit Scotland published the report, Transport Scotland's ferry services to Parliament in October 2017. That included comment on the MV Loch Seaforth procurement, but Audit Scotland having concluded their analysis of that and other procurement decisions did not raise anything of concern regarding the procurement of the MV Loch Seaforth. Therefore, there are no plans on the part of the Scottish Government to investigate the financing of the MV Loch Seaforth. Rhoda Grant. That is truly disappointing. What is shocking is that the boat will require to be handed back as new in 2022 or a new lease negotiated. The two ferries that have been further delayed and it is not clear when they will come into service, if ever. Those revelations follow a summer of chaos in the western isles and Argyll. That is still on-going because of inadequate ferries and no capacity in the fleet to deal with breakdowns. That is costing the island's economies dear and the Government has simply turned a blind eye. Instead of taking money from CalMac, will he now invest in a new ferry? Minister. It is disappointing to hear from Rhoda Grant a lack of recognition of the £1 billion that has been invested by the Government in the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services since 2007. I acknowledge that there is great concern in the islands about ensuring resilience in the ferry services. I fully acknowledge that and am happy to engage in that issue with members across the chamber. However, I would hope that Rhoda Grant, in framing her question, might recognise that we are commissioning new ferries from Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd. A revised delivery programme has been discussed by FML and CMAL, and Parliament was informed of the dates on 16 August 2018. In recognition of the importance of that, the Government has invested not just in ferries but also in harbour facilities across the routes in the area. We continue to invest in ferry services, and I would hope that Rhoda Grant would acknowledge that. The minister will be aware that the need for additional capacities is the most pressing ferry-related issue. Will he commit to visiting my constituency to meet with myself and other stakeholders at the summit to discuss that important issue? I was very pleased to visit Dr Allan's constituency last month and to meet the curler and local stakeholders to discuss issues including ferry services. I would be very pleased to visit Dr Allan's beautiful constituency once again to meet with his stakeholders and discuss ferry services and other connectivity issues, which I appreciate are very important to the islands. I agree that capacity and peak periods are one of the greatest challenges that ferry services face, particularly given the very welcome increase in visitors that we have to the western isles. Recognising that service reliability and fleet resilience are also issues of high importance in the island community. In recognising that, we have added additional sailings to Lough Boysdale, and the Tarbot and Lough Maddie service is a new route between Malygon and Lough Boysdale, as I was saying, with a significantly larger vessel on the service to Barrow. The Government is investing in services for the west isles, but I will be more than happy to meet Dr Allan and his constituents. Donald Cameron In relation to the cost of the two new CalMac ferries that the minister mentioned, which are now delayed, can he confirm whether there will be additional costs as a result of the delay, and if so, how much? I recognise that those are matters that I heard Jim McCall recently from Ferguson Marine discussing the difficulties in getting regulatory approval. That is one of the causes of delay in vessels being delivered, but I would hope that the chamber would be behind the procurement of these innovative new ferries from a Scottish engineering company, and I would be happy to engage with Mr Cameron on further details of the procurement process and get him the details he requires.