 We are going to start this morning with general questions, and our first question is from Claudia Beamish. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact on communities of banks reportedly closing branches without consultations such as Santander in the South Scotland region. Minister Keith Forums, I am sorry to be answering this question again, because I remain deeply concerned at the scale of branch closures across Scotland, concerns that will be shared byw y cwmniadau gwmniadau sefydliadau o bapwysig a'n dechrau i rydyn niolodau'r fregyn â ddocherydd iawn. Nid oedd Rodi GŽ yn dyn nhw i ddrygu ffordd i ddwylo'r hyn fydd yn hynny'n i'n niw yw'r trwm bach, ond rwy'n aesdem yn gwak bardzo dym Axeldd Ain bydd yn bach o bach i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddysgu i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddrygu i ddrygu i the need of all customers and digital should never be exclusive and the only means by which customers can engage with their banks. Claudia Beamish. I thank the minister for that answer and it is indeed very interesting the point that she raised. I do agree with her on that. But what steps can the Scottish Government take to ensure that there is a presence on our high streets of banking? That's very important and also it's important to make sure that there are measures that Scottish Government maen nhw y gallwn cyddiadau i gael eich unid i gael dweud dod rydych chi i ddoch gyd? Rwy'n cael eu ddig呢. Rwy'n cael eu wir mae'n mynd y baieth i ddweud i gael dweud digarn o'r ymerdd o'r credu diwg i'r credu sy'n ei gro violate ddechrau. Mae'n ni ddatblygu i ffrif. ac wedi il iawn o'r union i poblem ei bod dal yn gyff SNPs. Mae�faenляid hwnnach yn cirpalad mwy ar gael eu defnyddio ar flynadau oesglwll yn oeddennodoo Leadership ond cynsweldon ond eisiau sleidio uglрыw ar hyfruion caf ei hannu mewn cwestiyneau yn eich cynnig ac maen nhw eggimno. of the Scottish population enrolled in a credit union at 7.3 per cent than elsewhere in the UK. In November, we launched a campaign to encourage people to sign up to credit unions and have previously funded junior saver schemes and the First Minister has written to employers to look at partnering with credit unions, as well as engaging with the post office too. Jackie Baillie? No consultation in advance, just a letter telling long-standing members of the Santander branch in Helensborough that they need to travel 40 miles for their nearest bank branch. The minister said that she regularly meets with some of these banks. Has she met with Santander? Will she seek a meeting with them specifically to encourage them to reconsider the extent of their closures? I would happily meet with Santander. I do meet with them regularly and make clear my disappointment in these areas and as somebody who knows well the impact in particularly in rural communities recognise the huge impact. Scottish Government officials are currently in contact with Santander and will continue to engage with the bank. Again, we do all that we can with the powers that we have to make clear our displeasure, but at the end of the day, when it comes to regulation, that is a reserved matter. Neil Findlay? To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to alleviate the reported parking problems at St John's hospital. Scottish Government health officials met with NHS Lothian yesterday. The board takes this matter seriously and has taken steps to manage availability of spaces and to provide alternatives to on-site parking along with alternative forms of transport. The board remains committed to on-going engagement with patient staff, visitors and neighbours to understand and address parking-related issues. Neil Findlay? Hundreds of patients and staff and local residents have contacted me about the parking chaos in and around St John's hospital. I have asked NHS Lothian officials to attend a public meeting so that they can hear ideas from patients, staff and residents about how those problems can be resolved, but so far they have refused to attend such a meeting. Surely NHS Lothian has to be accountable for their actions? Will the minister instruct them? To come to a public meeting in Livingston to hear ideas from patients and those who use the area in and around the hospital about how we can resolve those problems? Of course, 66 per cent of spaces are available to staff. The board has reconfigured some of those spaces that are available to increase the number of spaces available to patients in order to ensure that they are not late for appointments and that they receive very positive feedback. The board advises me that it has received a very small number of complaints from neighbours, around two to four complaints that have been dealt with directly. The board does engage with staff through the local partnership forum, which in our NHS is a very successful way of engaging with staff across an entire health board and in a particular site, in reaching shared solutions to matters. They continue to engage with staff through that partnership forum as they look to plan the new elective centre, which will of course be based at St John's. It is not for me to instruct the board in this matter. It is for me to make clear to boards, to the board and to others that I expect them to engage effectively and continuously with the local community, neighbours, staff, patients and others. They have done some work to ensure a corporate discount scheme in terms of public transport, and they have taken on a number of suggestions that have come to them from patients and staff through the work that they have undertaken. Mr Finlay may feel that that is inadequate, but from my purposes, as I said before, it is not for me to instruct the board exactly how they do these matters. I could see criticism coming my way if I did precisely that, probably from those very benches. However, it is for me to ensure that the board engages constructively, and I will continue to ensure that they do that. To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to consult on setting a target for all homes to have at least a sea energy performance certificate rating. Minister Kevin Stewart. The Scottish Government has already consulted on whether all homes should have to meet at least an energy performance certificate band C rating. We consulted on this proposal last summer, following the launch of our energy efficient Scotland route map, and welcomed the on-going cross-party support for this ambition. An analysis of the responses received was published on 22 November, and is available on the Scottish Government's website. Thank you very much. The minister will know that Paul Wheelhouse in November made a further commitment and that, in answer to a question only on 31 January, he said that the Government would consult in March seeking views on whether energy efficient Scotland could be accelerated, and how the risks of doing that could be overcome. In that context, will the minister recognise that those certificates are currently calculated on the basis of cost efficiency, which fails to take into account the cost disadvantages of rural communities that are off the gas grid? Will he consider taking the opportunity to base future ratings on kilowatts of energy that is used per square metre so that they are measuring carbon emissions rather than cost to consumers? Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. As Mr MacDonald pointed out, Mr Wheelhouse in answer to Tom Arthur on 31 January gave some detail about how we will progress on those issues. Mr Wheelhouse said that we will set out more detail about the suite of legislation that the Scottish Government will bring forward to deliver on the energy efficiency Scotland pipeline. We will do so in the very near future. Obviously, we will look at concerns right across the board, urban and rural. As Mr MacDonald and others in the chamber are probably well aware, we spend more on energy efficiency on rural areas per head of population than we do in urban and will continue to do so. Gillian Martin Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am not on that note. Can I ask the minister what solutions the Government is considering to assist those in rural areas who have limited choice in heating fuel and often have a harder to heat properties? As I said to Mr MacDonald, we are committed to continuing to spend more per head on energy efficiency in remote rural areas, where we know that installation and labour costs are higher since 2013-14. Our remote and rural areas have received almost £64 million in investment through our home energy efficiency programmes. That funding is distributed based on assessment of need, which means that remote areas receive more money per head of population to tackle fuel poverty. For example, the maximum grant that is available to households in very remote rural areas through the Heaps area base scheme has risen since 2013 to £9,000, and that is compared with the maximum grant of £7,500 elsewhere in Scotland. We have reviewed our warmer home Scotland programme, our national fuel poverty scheme, to see how it can better support those in rural communities. Ms Martin and others can be assured that we will continue to do all that work. Alexander Burnett Thank you, Presiding Officer, for noting my register of interests in property. I would point out that there is an increasing frustration in the housing sector about the lack of guidance from the Scottish Government on the proposed EPC regulations due to come into force in 14 months. Details were supposed to be published early this year, but none have been forthcoming. Does the minister understand the issues that the lack of details at this late stage creates, and can he clarify exactly when that information will be available? Presiding Officer, we are going through a very rigorous process in making sure that we get all of this absolutely right. We want to ensure that companies in Scotland, including companies such as the one that Mr Burnett owns, benefit from our energy efficiency programme and that we do our very best for the people of Scotland. We want to grow supply chains here and make sure that we have the labour and skills to develop energy efficiency properly. I realise that there are people out there who want us to move further and faster. What we will do, Presiding Officer, is do this right. Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of the proposed closure of the Cymorod village surgery. We are aware of the situation at this branch practice, and NHS Lanarkshire has been in discussions with the practice about options for the future. The board will ensure, as it is required to do, that a primary care service continues to be made available to all patients and that patient safety is maintained at all times. My understanding is that the practice has recently closed a consultation with two options available for consultation, but, as yet, no decisions have been taken. Mark Griffin. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. If the proposed closure goes ahead, patients will go from a service on their doorstep to a five-mile bus trip, not a journey that any of us would want to undertake when we are ill. Given previous interventions by health boards to directly run GP surgeries in the event of a closure, will the cabinet secretary ask NHS Lanarkshire to step in and protect this vital service that my constituents in Cymorod village depend on? I completely appreciate the sentiment that Mr Griffith is expressing and the concerns of local residents who use this particular practice about what may happen. We will ensure in our discussions with the health board and in the health board's discussions with the practice itself that primary care continues to be available and continues to be accessible. At this point, it would be wrong of me to lead to conclusions until I see what the GP partners want to do as a consequence of their consultation and the further discussions that they have with the health board, but I can assure their member that I and my officials will keep in close contact with it and do all that we can to ensure that the primary care service of the highest quality remains available and remains accessible to patients in the area that it serves. Richard Lyle Can the cabinet secretary confirm the increase in funding to front-line health services and explain what that will mean for GP practices across Scotland? As Mr Lyle will know, we have in the budget a significant increase to our front-line services. We are moving very fast towards our overall aim of more than 50 per cent of all health funding being directed towards front-line services. There is a significant investment in primary care, in primary care reform and, of course, in the GP contract, which is an essential part of that, and significant additional investment from my portfolio area to local government for health and social care partnership and those integration services. I am very happy to give the member the specific numbers for his area of interest and, indeed, to provide that to other members, should they wish. However, what is absolutely clear is that resourcing is significant in this area, and we have the plans, we have the commitment, and we now need to carry on and further the delivery of our ambitions. To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it has provided for mental health services in the current parliamentary session. Minister Clare Haughey In 2019-20, the Scottish Government will increase direct investment in mental health by £27 million. That will take overall funding from mental health to £1.1 billion. Mental health expenditure over the four years since 2016-17 will amount to £4 billion. As Mr Dornan is aware, mental health is a priority for this Government, evidenced by specifically appointing a Minister for Mental Health and significant investment in the Scottish Government mental health strategy progress in which I updated Parliament last year and there is a commitment to do so annually. James Dornan Thank you. Will the minister agree with me that proposals in the draft budget to invest in an additional £250 million over the next five years to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people is a step in the right direction? Will the minister also agree with me that it is deeply disappointing that the Liberal Democrats, who have championed extra funding for mental health services over the past few years, will not support that important investment because of their constitutional obsession? Clare Haughey I would agree with James Dornan that our £250 million investment will support the ambitions set out in the programme for government to build on the principles of early intervention and radically change what we do to ensure that care and support is available as close to children, young people and their families as possible. The better mental health delivery plan that was published in December, which includes a number of actions to reform children and young people's mental health and boards, will be expected to have in place by April improvement plans with clear milestones to be achieved over the next two years. While the Liberal Democrats talk about mental health and the need to invest in it and expand services, it is worth remembering that last week they voted against a budget that would deliver significant investment in mental health care. It appears that the Liberal Democrats might talk the talk, but when they have the opportunity to support the Scottish Government in improving mental health services, they refuse to do so. To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to increasing pay for local councillors. A Scottish statutory instrument to increase the level of remuneration payable to local authority councillors by 2.8 per cent, with effect from 1 April this year, was laid before the Parliament on 1 February. John Mason. I thank the minister for that answer. MPs are paid some £77,000, we get £62,000 and councillors get £17,000. It does seem a little bit uneven, given that I consider many councillors work just as hard, certainly as some MPs that I know. Would the minister not agree with that? Presiding Officer, Mr Mason has pointed out the basic salary of councillors as he is well aware. There are also special responsibility allowances above that in many cases. The independent Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee, considered in 2005 whether councillors' pay should be comparable to that of MSPs, but concluded that it should not, because the differences between the two roles are more significant than there are similarities, with MSPs being legislators with a national role, whereas councillors are responsible for local services. The committee revisited the issue again in 2010, and it came to exactly the same conclusion. As a former councillor myself, I very much appreciate the contribution and the hard work of councillors right across the country, but I am not personally persuaded that recalling the remuneration committee at this point would lead to a different conclusion. 7. John McAlpine To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Tenant Farming Commissioner. Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Fergus Ewing. The Scottish Government officials last met the Tenant Farming Commissioner on Thursday, the 24th of January, at his tenant farming advisory forum. As the cabinet secretary will be aware, the conduct of some land agent has caused concern for many. Can he advise me on what progress has been made in creating a code of conduct for individuals providing land agent services, as the land reform act is provided for? The member raises an important issue. The Tenant Farming Commissioner's report on the operation of landlord and tenant farming's agents was published in May 18, and I welcomed the report's findings. That highlighted that the majority of landlords and their tenant farmers are content with their relationship, but for some individuals there are still issues. The Tenant Farming Commissioner is currently working with the relevant professional bodies on producing a code of practice for land agents, which will include the standards expected of an agent and how to complain if an agent fails to meet those standards.