 that is up to scratch? Thank you for that. That ends the statement from the First Minister on Ebola. We now move to next item of business, which is a debate on motion number 11976, in the name of Peonies in his lap on winter festivals. Members who wish to speak in the debate should press the request speak button now. I think that it would be helpful if I advised members that we are extremely tight for time this afternoon. You really do need to keep to your time your time and we can't make any wises for interventions. Can I come for a little with us to speak? To move the motion, cabinet secretary. Ten minutes. Presiding Officer, in the first debate of the new year can I wish all members from across the chamber happy new year. It's very appropriate time to reflect on and debate Scotland's winter festivals and in particular, I welcome Claire Baker to her first debate as culture spokesperson for the Labour Party. Mae gennym i wneud y gaunau bydd rwyllfa diolch i ddechrau ILIwS Fffeswyl, yw ddechrau fastidol o gyfathrydiad Fffeswyl o'r ffordd gyda Cyllidion Cyngorfaenol yn gyfathryd gyma'r gy chefs. Felly, mae'n bwysig ei gyd yn gallu ddod gyfan gwellion gyda Gwynedd Cymru. Felly, mae e'n bwysig ei gyrraedd eich bod hynny. Felly, mae ydyn nhw ei gyd yn cydael o'r ffrachwyr, a'i gyd yn gyffeswyl gyngorfaenol rhagorfaenol, is to harness the significant collective potential of these key events by showcasing across the entire winter season the exciting range of events and activities on offer that promote and celebrate our distinct traditions to the people of Scotland, our visitors and to those with an affinity for Scotland from across the world. Scotland's winter festivals have three primary objectives, to celebrate and showcase our unique culture and creativity at home and across the globe, to boost tourism and the visitor economy, and to engage communities and enhance national pride. Since their introduction, the winter festivals have gone from strength to strength. The 1314 events programme recorded a total footfall of 250,000—that's an 8 per cent increase in the previous year. Over the 2014 period, we're investing around £500,000 in Scotland's winter festivals. This is supporting a series of 18 funded events across 12 local authority areas. Events include the open winter festival, which included over 50 events set around St Andrews Day and Haggis, Bees and Tatties, a celebration of burns at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. Marketing and promotion of the winter festivals is led by the Scottish Government with support from Visit Scotland. Initial evidence from our most recent St Andrews Day celebrations shows that the winter festivals are on course to deliver another great success. For example, there was a fantastic response to the start of Scotland's celebration of St Andrews Day, with 35,000 free tickets provided for 35 sites across the country, including Edinburgh Castle, Lysgow Palace and the Border Abys. The Saltire Festival at East Lothian from the 24th to the 30th of November was also very successful. The race day at Musselburgh racecourse attracted a crowd of more than 1,500, and the feast and folk gave locals and visitors the chance to enjoy traditional music and a delicious Scottish menu at more than 14 bars and restaurants in the area. To encourage people to join the celebration of St Andrews Day, we have again recruited a range of private sector organisations to offer free or discounted vouchers to attractions across Scotland. In 2014, 127 organisations signed up to be day-out partners, and in total we reached out to around 270 partners celebrating St Andrews Day, including the Scottish Book Trust and Scottish Opera. All that is evidence of exceptional partner collaboration, providing visitors and communities an opportunity to sample many of Scotland's attractions and a fantastic natural larder for which we are renowned across the world. I am also talking of Scotland's larder, as suggested by Jamie McGregor during a previous St Andrews Day debate. I am also delighted to see that our fish and our fish dishes are now being showcased on or around 30th of November to reflect St Andrew the fisherman. Moving on to Hogmanay, Edward Hogmanay, a key element of the winter festivals is supported from a funding contribution of £100,000 from the winter festivals and £200,000 from the Scottish Government's Expo fund. It is a great success story. It generates £32 million for the Scottish economy, and reaches almost 1 billion people in 200 countries across the globe. In the 1415, Hogmanay attracted more than 120,000 people over three days. The Edinburgh event is one of the many highlights of Scotland's Hogmanay. It sits alongside a wealth of other events across the country in or around 31 December, including the Hogmanay concert in Stornoway, which was a sell-out in the wider festival programme that attracted more than 500 people. We are now seeing new and innovative events celebrating Scotland's culture during the Hogmanay celebration. Building on the success of 2014, on 1 January 2015, Scotland has invited audiences to come to the homeland at the National Museum of Scotland to begin a journey around 10 atmospheric venues in Edinburgh's old town, each curated and customised by notable Scottish artists and arts organisations from all over Scotland, supported by the Expo fund. Let me take a moment to look at the three key aims of the winter festivals. Firstly, the winter festivals aim to enhance the celebration of Scotland's unique culture and creativity and boost our international profile. Andrews Day celebrated across the globe with events in Singapore, Istanbul, Rome and Montreal, for example. China, where we had 5 million people viewing the topic page in one of China's most popular media channels, Sinau Webu. In order to promote Scotland, we have managed to showcase truly world events across the country and making sure that our cutting-edge culture and creativity is being showcased on or around 31 December. There were unique music showcasing events in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Obentoname, but a few. The second aim is to boost tourism. The winter festivals programme is positioned alongside other initiatives to ensure that Scotland offers a wide range of exciting and inspirational events right across the country throughout the year, so it should not be seen in isolation. The winter festivals programme started off and brought to a close in 2014, which, of course, was a momentous year for our country. We celebrated homecoming in spectacular style. I saw the hugely successful Commonwealth Games with a very strong cultural programme, which is very much part and parcel of the partnership that takes place driving that. I will be interested to hear what Liz Smith says, but I am very focused on the success of our events and winter festivals, in particular the partnership that we have with many of the organisations. It is not top-down driven and it is important that we reflect people in place. Great year last year, with international events such as the Ryder Cup and the MTV Europe Music Awards, certainly put us on the global stage. Looking across 2014, we can also see how the winter festivals programme, along with all the other events, helps to include the promotion of Scotland as somewhere to visit all year round, inspiring our visitors and communities to be part of all of Scotland's brilliant moments. We are looking forward, of course, now to 2015, to the fantastic launch programme of the Year of Food and Drink. That started on 1 January again, a great opportunity to showcase Scotland all year round. The winter festivals aim also to boost national pride, to enhance community engagement and empowerment. I want to particularly focus on one element. I was delighted to attend the finale of the multicultural homecoming celebration on 30 November last year. The programme was a partnership between Bemis and the Scottish Government, inviting Scotland's multicultural communities to celebrate homecoming. It included over 40 different events across the country, attracting more than 6,500 people. It was a great way to celebrate Scotland in the modern Scotland that we have, all the different cultures that form our modern Scotland. The finale event was held on St Andrew's night, and we had spectacular celebrations with a range of exceptional performances reflecting all the different communities here in Scotland. It was very clear to me that our multicultural communities are keen to celebrate home and St Andrew's day in their own particular way, but to share it in an open and inclusive way, and looking towards 2015 and beyond, that is something that we will work with Bemis to build on. Boosting our unique culture and our creative sectors has become a key part of what we do, and our winter festivals provide a key element to our year-round programme. In going forward, I am keen that we build on that momentum. We undertake planning for 2015-16 with my officials, and we will undertake a review of the winter vessel strategy to ensure, in keeping with our programme for government, that all that can be done is being done to ensure that we can help boost local economies, encourage greater community participation on the events that are on offer. We will also look at how we can broaden and include different activities in perhaps our more remote and rural areas. I welcome ideas and suggestions that members might have for boosting the winter festivals going forward, building on today's debate. In closing, I thank all of the communities, the organisations, businesses and other partners who have worked so hard to make Scotland's winter festivals a great success story. I look forward to building on our impressive achievements as we progress towards 2015 and beyond. I move the motion in my name. I now call one queer baker to speak to move the amendment number 11976.2, the speaker, seven minutes. This afternoon's debate gives us the opportunity to recognise the diversity of celebrations and festivals that take place in Scotland over the winter months. I would like us to take a moment to reflect on the tragic accident in George Square in the run-up to Christmas, and our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones in the midst of Christmas festivities. It was heartbreaking to see families experiencing shock and loss at this time of year, and I wish all who were injured a full recovery. We again saw Glasgow having to pull together as a city to deal with the difficult time, and it showed the importance of community, which lies at the heart of that city. While St Andrew's Day in November to Brunsnight later this month is the focus of the official winter festivals programme, for many Halloween and bonfire nights mark the start of the many exciting opportunities to gather and celebrate through the dark months. A winter festival is not always about a big gathering, but it is also about the community-led celebrations that mark our winter months. They all play an important role in our lives, supporting our local and national economies, boosting the tourist trade and promoting Scotland as a year-round destination, and showcasing and sharing some of the best of Scotland's rich culture. Winter festivals are growing in popularity in recent years, and are increasingly seen as an important part of community life. Scotland is a Northern country, and as our days get shorter, winter festivals provide a focus for celebration and entertainment. The Winter's festivals programme, which is delivered and supported by events Scotland, promotes the landmark cultural days through major events. A wide range of ticketed and free events encouraging participation are offered. There needs to be an appropriate balance between the commercial aspect of the events while recognising how important that is to their viability and the need for inclusivity in events at this time of year, which can be expensive for many people. The figures from Visit Scotland in their briefing show the popularity and success of the festivals. Edinburgh's Hogmanay programme in particular has grown over the years and was the only festival recently listed in the Discovery Channel's top 25 world travel experiences, which is pretty impressive. Anyone who comes to the city at this time of year is increasingly spoiled for choice over what to do. While the big events remain the focus, we are increasingly seen innovative and imaginative events spring up. Now in its third year, Scotland, as the cabinet secretary said, takes audiences on a treasure-like hunt through New Year's Day, through a series of venues in the old town, staging music, dance, film and more. While there is a focus on our cities, which are the key tourism destinations, winter festivals give opportunities to encourage people to go further afield. The St Andrew's Day celebration in St Andrew's this year attracted almost 10,000 people to the town over the course of the weekend, providing a significant boost to the local economy. The event for burns nights extends from the big burn supper in Dumfriesen Galway, which is an imaginative and modern celebration of the Bard's work and has grown in recent years, to the Haggis Bicentatti's event, which will be at Eden Court in Inverness. It is smart and important to highlight the events that are uniquely Scottish. It encourages people to come here and visit us for a special experience. We need to ask, are we doing enough to promote what we have, promote and support international marketing? We read today of Scotland's export figures stalling in the final quarter being due to a depressed European market. We need to be flexible and recognise where future tourism markets need to grow. To ensure continued success for our festivals and Scotland's brand in general, we need to do more. We must look at new and innovative ways to promote our unique and sought-after brand across the world. I was very pleased to read yesterday that Visit Aberdeen is pushing forward with plans to develop a Chinese version of their tourism website. We all know the benefits of overseas tourism to Scotland and of the strength, in particular, of the Chinese tourism trade. It is estimated that £125 billion is spent on overseas leisure and business by the Chinese. To put it into some context, that is apparently on average 50 per cent more than what is spent by Americans. We know from recent surveys that Chinese tourists appreciate countryside, built heritage and culture. Scotland has all three in abundance, therefore in a prime position to benefit from its tourism. However, according to yesterday's report, only 1 per cent of the Chinese population speak English, so multilingual websites are therefore a very important tool in promoting what we as a country have to offer to as many countries as possible. Promoting Scotland as a destination is increasingly culturally focused. We cannot rely on weather as our selling point, and as we saw over the holidays in fortunate cancellation of Stirling's Hogmanay celebrations this year due to high winds, the weather can still have a very negative impact on our festivities. Winter festivals provide opportunities for businesses and activity over traditionally quieter seasons. For example, I recently met the showman's Guild and the growth in winter festivals really supports their members out with their traditional summer seasons. While the growing success of the major festivals is important, particularly in terms of tourism and the economy, smaller local festivals are increasing and play an important part in the local economy and the vibrancy of an area. They are increasingly innovative and imaginative, and with the involvement of the local authority or the arts trust, local groups and schools, they are often more inclusive, more collaborative and more directly engaging with the community. The Cercodi lantern parade in the run-up to Christmas was a beautiful example of community engagement with lantern making workshops so that people could join the parade and bring off the lights songs, especially composed for the event and a firework display. Is the cabinet secretary confident that we have an integrated strategy and that enough sport and advice is targeted to more regional and local events, which may not return the big tourism figures but provide community activity and celebration, as well as supporting a domestic tourism market? We also see local festivals supporting the retail sector, online shopping has become increasingly popular and town centre festivals do provide a way to broaden the experience of shopping and help keep our high streets alive, making sure that they get a share of festive shopping. We need to continue to change the way that we use retail in public space. As an amendment says, I would like to recognise all the hard work of volunteers, community groups and trade associations and small businesses that do much to make those events happen. This is a debate that is followed by a debate on mental health, a huge health challenge of our times. Although that debate will load out an attempt to address broad and complex issues, if we are talking about health and wellbeing factors that underpin good mental health, whether winter can be a challenging or particularly isolating time for many people, and in a small way winter festivals or winter activity provide important and valuable opportunities for people to come together and socialise, benefit from a collective experience and we should do all that we can to support them and encourage wide participation. I move amendment 11976.1 up to five minutes, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I congratulate Clare Baker on her new appointment. May I also at this stage move amendment 11976.1 up to five minutes, please. I also at this stage move amendment 11976.1 up to five minutes, please. I am sure that we have all attended some local winter festivals in recent weeks, and of course we are all looking forward to the burn season. As the cabinet secretary has said in her motion and provided us with excellent evidence in her speech, these winter festivals are hugely important both on a national and on an international scale, most especially in terms of the number of visitors that they attract, the contribution to the economy and of course a celebration of Scotland's unique culture. She is absolutely right to point to the important influence that they will have in Scotland's year of food and drink and various other themes in forthcoming years. You only need to look at the very impressive financial benefits of the Hogmanay season to see just how important that influence actually is. So too it is important in terms of local communities. Winter festivals can often provide a huge major community focus on some of the issues that Clare Baker has just spoken about in areas that perhaps do not always have the same degree of economic and social advantages, and I think that it is entirely appropriate to mention the vast army of volunteers as Clare Baker has done in her amendment, who do so much to enhance that cultural experience in their own small town or village, many events and indeed would not actually happen without them, so I think that we should support them in whichever part of Scotland they come. Several times in the past, the cabinet secretary has spoken about the intrinsic value of culture for its own sake, and I agree with her on that comment. As do the majority of commentators who make it their business to explore Scotland's cultural activity. I think that there have been some very interesting articles and papers that have been written partly over the Christmas period but just in recent weeks, and I have been struck by some dominant themes within those. First, if the referendum year perhaps brought divisions within the arts world, just as it did elsewhere in society, I believe that it actually fired up a new intellectual debate in Scotland, and I think that that is incredibly healthy, and it is on that theme where I think that we can look at the celebration of our winter festivals as well, because I believe that our artists have a great deal of interesting things to say about culture just now, most especially about how the evolution of a nation's culture can only come about through healthy self-criticism and also about freedom of expression, and I think that that is an important thing, because the cabinet secretary mentioned about ensuring that winter festivals are more accessible and meaningful for all, and that has very much been a desired aim of our winter festivals, but I think that that is a point on which we can reflect on a broader issue. The one underlying theme that concerns some of those financial constraints is that local authorities who are running those festivals are under fire because they sometimes have very difficult choices to make about how they prioritise their spending. I know some who have been criticised because they have chosen schools or social care or road spending above those of cultural bodies such as perhaps libraries and museums. We should not forget—as I am sure that the cabinet secretary is not in a position to forget—that Creative Scotland was able to disperse £90 million in its recent round of funding, but the bid that came in was well in excessive £200 million. That shows the extent of what people wish to do with culture, but there is a danger that, in some cases, it will be some of the smaller ones that cannot be afforded. That raises some issues about resources. It also flags up some tensions that are within the arts in Scotland just now. The value of the arts for its own sake, which is so important, does not actually sit very easily sometimes with the financial management. For example, we need to only read some of the passionate comments within the film industry just now or listen to some of the artists within our orchestras and choirs to know just how strongly they feel that tension. I think that that is something that was very much taken on board by Janet Arthur. I think that it is something that has been taken on board by the cabinet secretary herself when Creative Scotland was trying to get over the problems that it had two years ago. However, I think that those tensions still remain. I think that they are real tensions. Some of them are financial, some of them are about economic management, but I think that it is an interesting time in Scottish culture because people have new ideas that are flourishing and we have to ensure that to bring all that together, we have a seriously coherent strategy that can have overarching themes with industry, with tourism, with lots of other businesses and how that interacts. I think that that is an area that we have to look at because I think that it is a real challenge for the cultural sector and I hope that the Government can take that very seriously. Many thanks. Very tight for time today. Up to four minutes, Stuart Stevenson followed by Hans Alamalech. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Fifty years ago Christmas for me was simply when as a student I obtained temporary employment with the GPO, delivering a larger than usual post back. We got paid off on Christmas Eve and the regulars did the postal delivery on Christmas day. Shops were open, newspapers and milk were delivered to the house and my GP father had surgeries on Christmas day. In short, there was very limited celebration when I was a youngster of Christmas. Now, new year was an entirely different matter. First footing, carrying something to drink, something to eat, something to burn was what we normally took as we went to neighbour's houses to visit. Now, a great deal has changed. The focus is perhaps less now on individual action. The focus is now much more on organised events. Let me just gently, and I've said gently, tweak the tale of the Tories through their amendment because some of it is at odds with my instincts. When it talks about strategies, I don't think that this is about strategies at all. It's about defining winter celebrations as something that happens locally. We have a huge amount of talent to draw on, perhaps organising it and directing it through a strategy is not the way that I would see forward. I will indeed. I thank Mr Stevenson for taking the intervention. I think that if we listen to what the arts bodies themselves are saying, they agree with you entirely about allowing creativity to flourish in local areas, but what they do want to see is a wider overarching strategy that brings more aspects of Scottish society together to give that intrinsic value to arts. How will you see that when we fundamentally disagree, Presiding Officer? I don't want to bring people together. I want to encourage diversity, and I want to encourage local community action. I recognise that I might be a lone voice in that, by the way. It's not expressing a view of my political colleagues when I say that. I just think that this is an opportunity for individuals to enjoy themselves in communities and little groups to get together. We have heard that 18 funding streams were used in the last year, and that's very much to be welcome, because we need anchor points that will attract international attention. However, self-directed, self-organised, spontaneous celebration of the good in winter, be that religious like Christmas or secular like New Year, or simply an excuse for a party in a dark night with appropriate lubrication to keep the wheels turning, all of that is to be welcome. The word Hogmanay is a mysterious one. It might be the Gaelic Hogmanay, meaning new morning, or it might, and this is my preference, be the Flemish Hogmindag, which means high love day. I say that in particular because, of course, there's the opportunity to celebrate the old new year, which comes in the middle of January, which I feel a particular affection to as I was born on 15 October. Those who have a gynaecological disposition will think about that carefully and work out why I say that. My brother was born on exactly the same day, three years later, so clearly my parents shared my enthusiasm for the old new year. Drawing my considerable experience to the matter, I regret the fact that there was no snow this winter. Not every minister in the Government will agree with me on that, but I think that seeing my great-niece and her brother pulling a sledge in Denmark over Christmas, I felt really jealous. We have lots to celebrate in Scotland. We are doing extremely well. Let's keep it up and do even better in the future. I hope that everyone had a good break this winter, and I wish everyone a happy new year. Scotland's winter festivals celebrate our nation's rich cultural heritage and showcase Scotland on an international stage. Scotland's winter festivals are a fantastic programme of events taking place across the country, incorporating three of Scotland's most celebrated day, St Andrew's Day, Hogmaney and Burns Night, and to round off the year homecoming. It encourages everyone to get out and about in Scotland in the winter. There's much to be done and much goes on. As Hogmaney and St Andrew's Day are now passed, we can look forward to the Burns Night events, and I look forward to my vegetarian or Halal haggis, as I can assure you that I enjoy them. We are a country renowned for our warmth hospitality, and in 2014 we showed the world what a great country Scotland really is. These celebratory nights offer great opportunities for visitors and residents alike, and to continue the efforts from 2014 and celebrate our rich cultural and diversity around the world. In my constituency, we saw Glasgow and Ice return once again into George Square, and it promised to be better than ever, and it certainly delivered. Glasgow and Ice came alive in a celebratory of events in Scotland on St Andrew's Day and has continued over the first period. There has been skating with a Scottish twist. The Glasgow City Council front was transformed by a light show celebrating a snapshot of Scotland throughout the night, thanks to video artists Tim Reed and playwright Jenny Knox on St Andrew's Day. I was happy to see that the busiest days in Glasgow, if you were travelling on public transport or on foot, the people were encouraged with various discounts and offers and given goodie bags to take home, and I can say that the children particularly enjoyed the free goodies. One idea I have to offer as the Cabinet Secretary has suggested that she is looking for offers is perhaps next year, during the burn supper events, we could try and encourage cafes, shops and retail outlets to open later in the evenings. I think that would encourage a lot more activity, and I hope that one day we will see greater events grow and generate retail industry and local communities as well as for Scotland as a whole. I look forward to hearing the reviews that we attract for the years activities that have been going on. The Cabinet Secretary has also mentioned the fact that these festivals are not only restricted to winter that we do rather well in Scotland throughout the year, and just to give a small example of what is happening in Scotland, particularly in Glasgow, is that we are going to have the European Jewish Championships, the Turner Prize and the British Athletics International just to give a sample of what we are looking forward to seeing in Glasgow in particular, and I hope and I pray that we can not only just consolidate on what we've done so far to date that we can actually build on the continued success that we've had, and Presiding Officer, just to conclude, I want to say that we've seen year in year on that we've actually done rather well. We seem to be reaching levels of expertise that are around throughout the world, and I wish everybody who has participated and helped to engage in those issues to continue to do so in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I wish you and the other members in the chamber a happy new year. I'm delighted to have been called to speak at this debate, Heraldine, in the success of Scotland's winter festivals and as an Edinburgh MSP. I make no apology in using Edinburgh as a great example of a winter festival. For over 21 years, the city has welcomed the world to celebrate new year in spectacular style, the now internationally famous Edinburgh's Hogmanay, with three days of free and ticketed events featuring headline concerts, theatre, music dance and street party extravaganza. For this reason, as Clare Baker has pointed out earlier, it's the only festival recently listed in Discovery Channel's top 25 world travel experiences. Initial analysis suggests that Edinburgh's Hogmanay welcomed visitors from over 70 countries, in contrast with visitors from 55 countries in 2013-14. The highlight of the festival, of course, was the Hogmanay street party, which was a sell-out with over 75,000 revelers and including two ticketed events. The concert in the gardens with Lillie Allen, which attracted 9,500 revelers, and the Caleon Mounds, which attracted another 3,000 people. Of course, it's not just in the city centre that revelers have fun as part of this great winter festival. Add to this the additional estimated 100,000-plus people watching the midnight fireworks across the city and beyond, and on New Year's Day, a sell-out of 1,000 participants braving the freezing waters of the First and Fort at Queensferry in my constituency took part in the Looney Dooke, and all viewed by an estimated 3,000 observers. Edinburgh can quite rightly claim to have had a highly successful winter festival. I also agree with some of the comments that Stuart Stevenson said earlier on. Local traditions, merging with modern ideas, have shown that Scotland can produce events that the world wants to come and see. Anyone watching any news programme on New Year's Day would have seen the way that other countries and cities across the globe celebrate the beginning of the new year. Sydney, New York, Berlin and London all producing spectacular events, but not necessarily producing festivals as we know them, and that's the advantage that we have here in Scotland. When we had a similar debate a few months ago, there was a reference to the City of Edinburgh Council thundering who's reports. Those reports refer to how Edinburgh maintains its position as a leading arts festival in the world. I believe that Edinburgh has a world-leading winter festival, but we cannot be complacent. There is no doubt that there are pressures on public finances, thanks to austerity and various other problems, and I welcome the Scottish Government funding. In my opinion, local authorities, local residents and the private sector all have to come together when organising local festivals and whether in Edinburgh or elsewhere, in order to work on sustainable models of planning and financing those national assets that are winter festivals. Rather than life in general, the world doesn't owe Scotland a living. We are in competition with some huge players for the revenue that is generated by tourism. At a time of the year, which can be less than pleasant, we need to take every advantage that we can muster—our artistic talent, player for planning our festivals, and at this point I would like to mention and congratulate Faith Little of festivals Edinburgh on her award in the new year's honours list and, of course, the ability to make these local festivals relevant to local residents who enjoy the festivities as much as our visitors. Can I make two points to finish, Presiding Officer, headed towards those outside the chamber? Hotel accommodation and charges in Edinburgh can be embarrassingly high at festival time compared to some of our competitors internationally. Festivals won't work unless we have visitors, and secondly, I would make the plea once again for a speedy devolving of air passenger duty. That would make a huge difference, not just at festival times. Scotland is a major player globally when it comes to festivals. Let's keep it that way. John McAlpine Thank you, Presiding Officer. Today is the 12th day of Christmas, which traditionally marked the end of the period where people lit their homes and streets to dispel the dark cold days of winter. For many, it also marked the time to take down the decorations and get back to a normal routine. Winter festivals are part of that same tradition, a way of bringing some much-needed festive cheer to the streets of Scotland. The festivals are often rooted in history and heritage, but, increasingly, are providing a focus for modern-day living, community activities and wider interests. Scotland has always had its share of celebrations over the winter time, from St Andrew's Day through New Year to Burns Night. Each of those obviously exists in its own right and features different events and activities. Given the increasing popularity of the events and also in recognition of the array of local, more community-based events that take place all over Scotland in the winter months, it makes sense to recognise these different celebrations and occasions as part of a branding and wider marketing exercise to celebrate our winter festivals. In reaching out via the traditional festivals and drawing on that cultural heritage to bring in new opportunities and experiences, we see that the winter festivals form a bridge between old and new, enabling the cultural events over the season to face both ways, much like the Roman god Janus, after whom January is named, the god of beginnings and transitions and also of doorways, endings and time, looking with his two faces to the future and the past. So events like Burns Night in St Andrew's Day are rooted in Scottish tradition, but a more modern and marketable take on them ensures a focus on economic development and the continued growth of Scotland's popularity as a visitor destination. It also provides some excellent balance to the rest of the year and provides a counterpoint to the hugely successful cultural events and festivals that dot the calendar throughout the summer months. As a member from Scotland of Fife, I am delighted to speak in this debate today which draws attention to the increasingly popular St Andrew's Day celebrations. That wee town on East Nuk of Fife is world famous for so many reasons, and it is great to see that there is growing celebration of its namesake and an international recognition of what it means to be Scottish. I note that the 2014 celebrations in St Andrew's on 30 November took that Scottish identity and celebrated all aspects of it, from influences from the past through to the present, whether through Irish dancing, banger beats or a pipe ban parade in a cailian evening. If you look at other events that make up the winter festival season, not only is international appeal so evident, for example in our world famous celebration of hug money, which attracts visitors from across the globe, but also in increasing participation from local residents or UK-based tourists on a staycation and choosing to have a city break, not in Berlin or Paris or Amsterdam but in Scotland's cities and major towns. However, there can be a criticism that many of the events that were developed over the past few years, particularly around the festive period, are costly and add an extra financial burden to the pockets of parents that are already overstretched at Christmastime. So initiatives such as those that have been developed in Edinburgh, where residents of the local postcode were eligible for discounted entry to attractions, are to be welcomed and I hope for their development. Similarly, in Dunfermline, the winter festival organised by Dunfermline Delivers was designed to attract local residents and visitors and in so doing provide a boost to local businesses. Visitors to the city over the festive period were also able to check out the new businesses, given the chance to trade in the town centre from 14 November until 24 December in the town's venture street competition. For arts and crafts to fashion and food, there was a diverse and appealing mix of businesses that drew people to the area and also saw budding entrepreneurs given rent-free premises to run their own business and the chance to win a support package worth up to £85,000 for starting a new business in Dunfermline. So in conclusion, winter festivals continue to demonstrate their appeal as a celebration of our traditional culture, a major factor in attracting visitors and a boost to local economies. All of this alongside their no less important role as a way of providing fun and entertainment and a chance for families to do things together, which are all things that perhaps don't value enough in our busy modern world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I also start by wishing yourself and other members of the chamber a happy new year? It seems particularly appropriate that we are celebrating Scotland's winter festivals right at the beginning of 2015, which is, of course, UNESCO's international year of light. UNESCO, as the UN's cultural arm, and in 2015 it will stage events around the globe to highlight the central role light plays in human activities. Of course, there is nothing new under the sun, even the thin winter sun. Light was accorded just as much importance by our ancestors who celebrated the winter solstice to brighten the cold months when daylight was scarce, and our Scottish winter festivals have their origins in that time. The UNESCO blog on the subject this week points out that, on a fundamental level through photosynthesis, light is necessary to the existence of life itself. It has revolutionised society through medicine communications, entertainment and culture, and for this reason, the Nobel prize this year will have light as its theme. However, it is not just Nobel laureates who will contribute to the UNESCO's global celebrations. In Dumfries, this coming burns night is part of the big burns supper winter festival. 2,000 children will also celebrate the year of light with a spectacular carnival. Each will carry a glittering lantern, and the parade will trace a journey to the centre of the earth through the centre of Dumfries. I have to say that it does not seem like a year since I led a member's debate in the chamber celebrating the big burns supper in Dumfries, which has become the premier burns event in the winter festivals calendar. Despite being launched in 2012, the big burns supper has gone from strength to strength and I am particularly heartened to hear that it was rewarded a 30,000 grant this year from events Scotland. This year's festival has been extended to nine days and includes everything from Nina Nisbeth in the undertones, to the contrasting burns tea dance and burlesque burns supper le hagas. There are very special treats after the burns night parade when regular music and NTS collaborate on Janice Joplin's full tilt, which has been described by one reviewer as brilliant and intense. There are dozens of events in the emerging talent stand of the festival, far too many to list in the time available, but I would like to highlight the work of a young woman called Robin Stapleton. She is a local girl from Stranraer and a graduate of the Conservatoire of Scotland's traditional music course. She will be singing as part of the emerging talent programme. Robin has a stunning voice and she seems set to become a leading burn singer for the future generation. She has spent her final year at the Conservatoire researching and reviving the traditional music of her native Mullen Galloway. If anyone gets the opportunity to hear her sing, I would very much urge them to do so. This year, the big burn supper festival has extended its community involvement, and that might be of interest to those members who raised the importance of arts at a local level. The big burn supper has launched a festival within a festival in north-western Fries. That is the areas of Lincludden and Logside. This is an outreach programme aimed at involving residents of what is a low-income area in the festival. Eight acts, including the award-winning scary war folk rock band and the Canadian vocal group countermeasure, will put on free pop-up shows in the area. There will also be performances of the very popular Hamish The Haggess children's show and much more, which is still to be announced. When I spoke about the big burn supper last year, I pointed out that it was really special because Dumfries itself is a living stage. It is the same place where burns lived and worked. You can visit the same pubs that he drank in and indeed the house that he lived in. Similarly, the people of Dumfries in north-western Fries have a direct connection to the people in places who inspire the barred. They speak in the same language as them and have the same humanitarian values. Therefore, I would say that this is an excellent development of one of our most successful winter festivals. I am very delighted to highlight it in this debate today. I wish everybody a happy new year also. Winter festivals, as others have said, contribute to national and local economies, but they do a lot more than that. As others have said, they also contribute to our wellbeing. In northern countries, such as ours at this time of year, the nights are long, the sun, when it does appear, does not rise much above the horizon. Many of the trees are bare and the plants have died back. It is apposite that mental health is also being debated this afternoon, as the depth of winter is often particularly hard for sufferers for conditions such as depression and seasonal affective disorder. The social benefits of winter festivals were probably understood long before their economic opportunities. As others have said, many cultures over many malaria have celebrated festivals of light, bringing people together to celebrate a common culture. The Druids and others celebrated the winter solstice, and it has been argued that Pope Julius I in the fourth century AD decreed that the birth of Christ should be celebrated at that time, partly to prevent people from continuing to celebrate pagan festivals. In Scotland, of course, we have continued to celebrate new year as a separate festival from Christmas. The Celts did not only celebrate the solstices and equinoxes, they also celebrated quarter days in four fire festivals, sewing at the beginning of October, which was the precursor of Halloween, and marked the start of the dark half of the year and belting at the beginning of May, which started the light half of the year. In between, these felt lamest around the end of July. Interestingly, a number of the common ridings took place around that sort of time and in Oak at the end of January. In Oak was now celebrated in other parts of the Celtic world as St Bridget's Day. However, here in Scotland, we have the good fortune that our national bard was born at the end of January and giving us the opportunity of more cultural celebration at that time of year. As we know, the burn's upper season stretches out throughout February. Although Robert Burn spent time in Edinburgh and the Highlands, he lived and worked first in Ayrshire and then in Dfresha and his burn's country, which I think has the greatest potential benefit from the celebrations. That potential for Dumfries, where Burn's died and his buried in St Michael's church, was recognised as Joes McAlpine has already said today. I think that both she and I have also celebrated in previous debates a very enterprising group of people in 2011 who launched the big burn supper to coincide with the weekend of Burn's night in 2012. That was only three years ago and it seems quite extraordinary because it seems to have been on our calendar for a lot longer than that. The success of the very modern and eclectic celebration of the life of Robert Burn's is demonstrated by his expansion after only three festivals from a long weekend event to a nine-day event, which now involves 100 shows and 50 venues, and a burn's night carnival involving over 2,000 people from Dumfries and Galloway. The wonderful Smeagol tent will be in town again, hosting a variety of acts, comedy, cabaret, music ranging from folk to heavy metal, and, as Joes McAlpine said in an earlier debate, the burlesque, the haggisburn supper, which I did not dare to attend last year, but many people must have attended it because it was actually going to be running for a week this year. I know that many of the organisers were on the other side of the referendum debate to myself. That may mean that I am less welcome at the events, but it makes no difference to my appreciation of the work that they put in to ensure the success of the festival and its increasing importance to the region. I hope that this year's festival will help to heal some of the divides in the community, too. Scotland is often depicted in a country where there are four seasons, all of which are rainy. That may well be true. However, our seasons are very distinct in terms of the amount of daylight, and I think that that can be turned to our advantage by the promotion of seasonal festivals that celebrate that particular aspect of our northerly part of the globe. I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate on Scotland's winter festivals, and, like other members, I welcome this new year and wish all members a happy new year. While reflecting on the success of the events, I would also like to take the chance to consider the opportunities that hosting such events provides, not just, as Stuart Stevenson implied, a party on a dark night, nor, indeed, possibly, the opportunities for procreation that he implied. At a local level, I am particularly pleased to have the privilege of representing an area that held one of the first events of this programme. I speak, of course, about the four-day celebration that took place in St Andrew's around St Andrew's Day, which Claire Baker has already referred to. For a town with a population of approximately 9,000 people, not including the student population, or approximately 16,700, including students, to accommodate some 2,000 spectators for their final day of activities, including performances by performers such as ED Rider, together with the switching on of the town's Christmas lights, is impressive, to say the least. Although I have no doubt that celebrations in St Andrew's would have been an excellent success, regardless of whether or not additional funding from the Government has been provided, I am sure that their share of the £315,000 has been gratefully received. St Andrew's has, for a very long time, been a popular tourist destination, but it requires continued investment and attention to ensure that that success continues. The town is sometimes referred to as the jewel in the crown of five and is a haven for many foreign and domestic tourists, particularly golfers. To that extent, for the town and the surrounding area, events such as the St Andrew's Day celebrations are something of a bonus, but a very useful addition to the local economy and something that the local economy needs to keep ticking over. The celebrations in St Andrew's, of course, also encompass the St Andrew's Food and Drink Festival, helping to promote the local food and drink sector even further. As we all know, St Andrew's, like so many places in North East Fife, has an excellent reputation for top-quality food and drink. Viewers of the most recent BBC series of Masterchef will know what I am talking about. With the winner of the 2014 series, Jamie Scott and Arbroathman, but working at the Rocker in St Andrew's, and the runner-up in the 2013 series, Scott Davis, being a chef at the Towns Adamson restaurant. In addition, two chefs from the Fairmont Hotel just outside St Andrew's have also featured in two recent finals. We have quite a reputation for food and drink. Scotland's winter festivals are therefore not just a series of events in their own right. They also act as an advert for Scotland's year of food and drink, and an opportunity for those areas hosting events to showcase themselves for the year ahead. I am certain that my constituency will be up there with the best of them, with its fine history of being a purveyor of good food and drink. I also hope that St Andrew's will reaffirm its excellent reputation as a tourist destination in time for the Open Golf Championship later this year. Presiding Officer, if I may, I would like to conclude on some statistics. Information from the Scottish Government shows that attendance at cultural events and places reached 89.6 per cent of the adult population in 2012, which is the most recent data available. That includes attendance at places such as libraries, live music events, cinemas and theatres, and in that respect I am pleased that attendance at cultural events in the town may just increase further this year following the successful reopening of the bar theatre in the late latter part of 2014, following a deal being reached with the university. Scotland's winter festivals helped to close 2014, but I am sure that the festival event still to take place will help to kick off 2015 with a bang. Indeed, burns night is almost on us, and I am sure that this is eagerly awaited in Dumfries and elsewhere. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Many thanks. We now move to closing speeches, and I call on Cameron Buchanan. Four minutes please, Mr Buchanan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is always welcome to hear about the cultural successes throughout Scotland, and our winter festivals have done us proud once more. All manners of parties, celebrations and traditional festivals have been held the lengths and breadth of this country, with local communities benefiting greatly. I will first of all say that it is fantastic to hear such great unanimous praise for the deserving performers and organisers. However, the Parliament must also use these debates to focus attention on what needs to be done to build on those successes. More could be done by the Scottish Government to support our winter festivals, which is why we Scottish Conservatives have submitted an amendment calling for a coherent art strategy to boost our cultural reputation. Before explaining further why I believe this chamber should support Ms Smith's motion, I feel strongly that the invaluable contribution of the Hogmanay festival to Edinburgh's life deserves recognition and further congratulations. As a resident of Edinburgh and as an MSP for Lothian, I understand very well how much the annual festivities mean to our wonderful city. We are extremely proud of our multi-day festival. It is one of the kind and very grateful tool who are involved. Around 70,000 people attended in 2013, and it sold out for the street party very quickly. That was just last week. It obviously delivers a great boost to Edinburgh's economy and the whole of Scotland's economy with estimates of the previous years nearing £30 million. On that note, if the Scottish Government could provide a figure for the contribution of the Hogmanay festival 2014-15 to the Edinburgh economy, it would be very useful. Although I will enjoy going on here to touch on events such as the Burns Festival in Edinburgh, I will use this opportunity to look at what should be done going forward. The amendments submitted in Ms Smith's name highlights what is clear to many people. Our arts and creative industries need a fully coherent strategy set out by the Scottish Government. There are a large number of fantastic cultural successes of which we can be proud, including winter festivals of which this is being held this season. However, this Parliament needs to discuss aspects of Scotland's cultural scene where, regrettably, things are not working as well as they should. More money could be done to help them. We do not have the time and more in this debate to enter into the details of where specific organisations have struggled. However, it appears that both Creative Scotland and the film industry, to name a few, could benefit from a clearer arts strategy. As my colleague touched upon earlier, arts bodies of all shapes and sizes across the country should be provided with integrated support and funding priorities that will enable them to move more easily to reach their full potential. Without such a system in place, some of the wealth of cultural talent that we have in this country may be lost. I am sure that we can all agree that such a loss of talent is always a great shame. According to Presiding Officer, I hope that Scotland continues to deliver fantastic winter festivals that all our creative industries can strive to strengthen our well-earned reputation as one of the best countries for arts to flourish. In order for that to happen, they need a fully coherent arts strategy and they need it as soon as possible. I therefore urge all of my family members to support the amendment in Smith Smith's name. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and happy new year to all. I am delighted to be closing today's debate on behalf of Scottish Labour on winter festivals. As a mother of three dear children, winter festivals are something that my family gets involved in every year in my hometown of Glasgow. Let me start, though, by saying that Scotland has a strong record and an invaluable reputation on arts participation. We are a host to world class events such as the Rider Cup and the Commonwealth Games, which attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to Scotland and promoted our image as a proud country on an international stage. There is no doubt that Scotland plays a host to an impressive list of events and festivals during the winter months, as we have heard from this debate. Our winter festivals, which begin with the celebration of St Andrew's Day in the 30th of November and hug me, celebrations on the 31st of December, culminating with Burns Night on 25 January, celebrate Scotland's rich culture and creativity and welcome locals and tourists for celebrations in many local and community-organised winter festivals across the country. We know that, in 2013-14, the winter festivals programme attracted more than 250,000 people from the Highlands to Dumfries and Galloway, and participation in those festivals is growing every year. My colleague Angela Malik mentioned Glasgow on Ice and reminded us about skating with a Scottish twist. It is even bigger and even better than in previous years, but I did not hear him disclose if he had been on it or not, but I am sure that we will hear about that later. Jane Baxter identified the celebrations of St Andrew's Day in 5 in the importance of that, which marks the start of the winter festival celebrations. It is not only celebrated in Scotland, but events are hosted all around the world to mark Scotland's national day. I believe that everyone will agree with me that no one celebrates hug me, like us the Scots. We got it all from traditional fire festivals and torchlight processions to street parties with live music and fireworks displays. Joan McAlpine and Elaine Murray identified the celebrations of the big burns supper in Dumfries, which we have yet to look forward to. That marks the world's biggest celebration of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. His work created an enduring legacy for the nation's art and culture, which continues to define its cultural heritage. We, in Scottish Labour, fully appreciate and understand that the excellence in arts has its own intrinsic value, but that its power can be used to drive change throughout our society. Although it is inspiring to know that so many people engage in cultural and winter festivals, I am sure that my colleagues here will agree with me that we need to address the fact that people in our most deprived communities still participate less in cultural activities and are therefore isolated from the benefits that they bring. If we look at this, yes, certainly. For taking an intervention, just on the topic of arts funding, yesterday morning, the Labour press team sent out a tweet saying that page 44 of the Tory dossier says that Labour will cancel cuts to the arts budget. We won't. A number of artists have expressed concern that Labour seems to be boasting that they are going to cut the arts budget, and I wondered whether she would want to distance herself from that comment by UK Labour. I appreciate Joan McAlpine's intervention, but it is important that we concentrate on what is happening here within the Scottish Government budget, as opposed to elsewhere and really in blame elsewhere. If we look at the Scottish index of multiple deprivation of those adults living in the most deprived 20 per cent, only 68 per cent will have participated in cultural activity in the past 12 months, compared to 87 per cent in the least deprived 20 per cent. With Scottish Labour investment in cultural activities, we made entry to museums and galleries free so that everyone could enjoy our nation's history, heritage and culture. We should ensure that our winter festivals hold more free events in order for more people from deprived areas to benefit from those festivals during the winter months in their local communities. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, I believe that people from communities across Scotland benefit hugely from winter festivals events, as mentioned in this debate. Winter festivals attract tourists and boost economy thereafter. I am also proud that we as a nation are able to host such an extensive range of winter festivals throughout the length and breadth of the country, which provide a great opportunity for visitors and residents to celebrate our unique culture and distinctive heritage. I am sure that my colleagues will join me in commending the extensive work of the volunteers, local groups and small businesses that contribute to making the success of those festivals. Thank you very much. I now call on Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop to wind up the debate eight minutes, Cabinet Secretary. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's been a very enjoyable debate and I do want to try to address a number of the points that were raised during the debate. I agree with the amendment from Claire Baker, and I appreciate her points about community, in particular local festivals. I'm not sure I agree with the idea of extending winter to start at Halloween. I think that it's too long and dark, as it is, but the important points that she made was about local festivals, and she mentioned Cucody. Town centre festivals are important from a retail point of view, whether it's during winter or at other points. I have been working with Derek Mackay formally now, with Marko Biazio, on the town centre, regeneration town centre plan and how culture will form part and parcel of how we can make sure that there is vibrant life in our town centres. She also talked about the need for wider promotion. She talked about China. I mentioned the references that we've already had in terms of our reach. A lot of bookings, tourist bookings, are still on a group basis, so we have to promote them on a group basis as well as individually. One of the new innovations that we always have to innovate is blogbony, which was about bringing the world's bloggers to Edinburgh during Hogbony to tell the people to generate more interest. I think that that's a good example of being innovative in that regard. I want to address Liz Smith's points. I appreciate her arguments. I don't agree with her amendment, but I understand where she's coming from. In terms of what we need to address, in terms of balancing the expression of Scotland in the modern day, and she's absolutely right, the generation of the intellectual thought that came out of the last year is something that won't go away. We want to make sure that it doesn't go away. We want to embrace it, but to do so in an inclusive way has merit in terms of how we see the wider issue of arts and culture. It would be wrong to say that the winter festivals haven't been successful in an absence of a national art strategy precisely because of all the arguments that they made about the spontaneity of place, the connection with place, the partnerships, the local character of many of our festivals. However, the point that she was making about there somehow being some tension between intrinsic value of financial art in terms of financial aspects of what can be generated. I think that the real challenge for Scotland, and I think that it's one that we can bridge, is that not being an either-or argument, it can be a both-and-and argument. Now, why do I say that? I'll let the member give me an example. Secretary, I think that we're broadly on the same theme. One of the examples that I think is particularly pertinent just now is what the film industry is saying, that it can't do some of the things that it would like to do without the help of, for example, the broadcasting industry or some related tourist industry, and it's to try to get that into a unified structure. That's really the point. The integration that is required, and I know that there's a committee looking into those issues. I don't think that Cameron Buchanan is familiar with Creative Scotland's film strategy, but I'm happy to send it to him. Her point about everybody working together is something that we've done extremely well, particularly over recent years, but particularly in the last year, when we brought together Visit Scotland and we've got Event Scotland to start Scotland, Creative Scotland in terms of how we coordinate what we do. Also, I chair the causal group that brings all the arts and culture conveners from across Scotland for the first time to address some of the opportunities and challenges. Going back to my point about how we can have a society in Scotland that values intrinsic, the intrinsic merits of art, but also the financial aspect, let's take the example of a big burn supper and a feast. The big burn supper and a feast that was spoken about by John McCaffpine and Elaine Murray, it's not easy art or safe art, it's actually great art, an ambitious art, but what we've also heard is that it's now nine days, it's generating great opportunity and finance for the local community, so you can actually embrace both. I also want to reflect on Stuart Stevenson's points as well, although before I get to that I think I'll talk about the intellectual debate rather than the social debate that he grew on to. The point about trying to embrace that, the Saucer Society reinvigorated is precisely using the St Andrew's opportunities to have that type of debate. We deliberately had the Scottish Book week in that first period, that first week of the winter festivals because it is a time for Scotland to reflect, to read, to think about the argument, so I think there was merit in some of the arguments that she was making. I just don't think that this is the right debate or in the context in relation to the festivals to think about that positioning, but I'm happy to take that debate forward as 2015 progresses. Stuart Stevenson talked about the importance of having diversity, I agree with him. Spontaneous celebration, I can confess that I was celebrating spontaneously with my teenage daughter's friends dancing to a delayed recording of Jules Holland's TV programme Hooting Annie. You can do it with modern music, you can do it in different ways, but also reflecting what Scotland is, some of the music that's been showcased in our winter festivals. It's fantastic. Scotland, as we talked about, was first footing of 10 different venues but by different audiences coming to Scotland. Wonderful Kenny Andersons from Scotland with Love was a fantastic showcase at the Commonwealth Games, but it was shown again as part of the Hogmanay celebrations on 1 January, which is again supported by the Scottish Government. I think that we have to have authenticity. The bridge that I can perhaps divide between Stuart Stevenson's comments and those that are talking about structured events is that, what have we got that no other country in the world probably has is the authenticity of celebration of St Andrew's Hogmanay and Burns Night in a way that nobody else has, but it's got to be based on that energy and that participation and that authenticity that lies at the heart of our tourist offer. In terms of other points, Colin Kear is quite right to talk about not being complacent. APD, absolutely, we need to have that as quickly as possible. You've seen the advantages that can provide. Also real problems in tackling that. I think a big difference that would make to our tourist industry, so there are practical things we have to do as well as creative points as well. James Baxter and Rod Campbell talked about St Andrew's and the diversity and the range of celebrations that were there. In terms of looking forward, we have Burns still to come in terms of our celebrations and as a girl from Allaway, as the Presiding Officer well knows, I want to make sure that we can celebrate that in style. There's over £45,000 allocated to support five events. The Haggess Beasts and Tatties event in Inverness, the Big Burn supper in the Freeson Galley, Burns Fest at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Burns Unbound at the National Museum of Scotland and, of course, the inspirational Robert Burns humanitarian awards in Allaway. Visit Scotland's website shows events that are happening all over Scotland. I would encourage people to look at that. Looking forward, we have Celtic Connections from 15 January to 1 February. One of the largest music festivals of its kind carving a global reputation. In 2014, Celtic Connections was boosted by homecoming. It had 2,100 artists, 300 events, 20 venues and, of course, up Hellyar in Lerwick. Going back to that theme of celebrating with fire and light. We've got the celebrations of food and drink. We'll again have creative opportunities. If we look ahead, if we can marshal—and I think that's the key point—marshal all our resources, all our enthusiasm, all of the talents of Scotland. We can look forward to the themed years that are going forward, the 2016 year of innovation architecture design, 2017 the year of history heritage and archaeology, 2018 the year of young people, all based on a country that can deliver authentic celebrations from our winter festivals to celebrations throughout the year and in the years going forward. That concludes the debate on winter festivals. It's time to move on to the next item of business, which is a debate on motion number 11975 in the name of Jamie Hepburn on mental health. I invite those members who wish to speak in this debate to press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Mr Hepburn, when you are ready, and since you are on your feet, if you are ready, we could kick off. You have 10 minutes, please. I was nearly ready. Given it is the first occasion on which I've had to do so, unless I forget later, can I move the motion in my name? I welcome that opportunity to my first, as the minister with responsibility for mental health, to debate the matter of improving Scotland's mental health. I know that members will join me in welcoming that opportunity to cover that important matter, particularly at this time of year when mine's turned to doing better and to renewing resolutions. Let me set out at the outset that one of my resolutions is to do all that I can to ensure that we see improved mental health in our country. The First Minister of any Scottish Government to have mental health explicitly stated in her ministerial title. I hope that it gives some indication as to the importance on which this administration places in improving Scotland's mental health. Of course, in our efforts, we shall be rightly judged and I hope to set out some of that over the course of the next 10 minutes or so. It is also the case that the Government is taking forward a mental health bill at this time, seeking to refine and improve the system that we have in place to ensure people with a mental health disorder can access effective treatment quickly. I easily hope that this itself gives some indication of the importance that we are placing on the area of mental health. That bill will rightly be subject to debate on its own merits at another time, but I would like to briefly take this opportunity to thank the Health and Sport Committee for their efforts in scrutinising the bill thus far and saying that I am looking forward to reading the stage 1 report in due course. In this opening contribution, I will aim to cover some key issues today about illness, recovery and stigma, about what we have done and how we are doing, and set out the progress that we are making across Scotland. We will speak about what we will do next to focus on the challenges before those challenges members may be familiar with from discussions with constituents. Mental health is, of course, a subject that touches us all whether we have a mental health problem, whether we are a carer for someone who has a mental health problem, or whether we have family, friends or colleagues who have had a mental health problem. Mental illness is one of the top public health challenges, not just here in Scotland but across Europe as a whole, where it is estimated that mental health disorders affect more than a third of the population every year. Yet, despite it being such a common human experience, too, often people might not always admit to their closeness to a mental illness. A person might be unwilling to mention a spell of illness the time they needed anti-depressants, the time they required therapy. They might be reluctant to mention that they take medication daily to control symptoms and might shy away from asking a friend who has been down if they are okay and if they want to talk. That reluctance, that reticence, that unwillingness can come about because we expect a bad response. That is an issue. It is one of the challenges that I spoke of earlier. It is why we must continue to break down the stigma of mental health. Debates such as those are key to doing just that. It is vital that this Parliament or country's national legislature regularly and openly debates topics related to mental health. Of course, our partners in the third sector have a huge role to play in tackling stigma. I am pleased at the work of organisations such as Alzheimer's Scotland, Penumbra and the Scottish Association for Mental Health. The Government recognises the importance of the third sector. In 2013-14, we are providing over £1 million to numerous national mental health organisations to watch that end. I welcome the joint Scottish Government comic relief funding for CME, as members will know. CME is Scotland's national campaign to end mental health stigma and discrimination, as is hosted by the Scottish Association for Mental Health. The Scottish social attitudes survey shows that the work of CME is still needed with a greater emphasis on changing outcomes. People are still experiencing negative attitudes because of their mental health problem, and people are self-stigmatised, avoiding events and not wanting to talk about their illness. The defounded CME has a framework of action to take forward over the next three years, with activity areas based around, for example, equality and human rights, the workplace settings where people experience discrimination, lived experience participation and national campaigning. There are other ways in which we can start to end mental health discrimination. There has been a debate around parity of mental health and physical health, and I see that Mr Fum's amendment refers to that. Let me say that I welcome that debate. I want to see the same focus and approach to improving mental health services as we have to physical health services. The National Health Service Scotland act 1978 states that the Scottish ministers have a duty to secure improvements in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland. It does not distinguish between the two, nor does it place a higher importance on one over the other. Our Scottish NHS has a duty to promote the improvement of health, and it does so equally to the areas of physical and mental health. For too long, though, mental health lacked targets. People waited lengthy periods to receive well-recognised evidence-based treatment. The Government is working to change that. Scotland was the first nation in the UK to introduce a target to ensure faster access to psychological therapies. For all ages, the target for boards is that patients will get a referral to treatment for psychological therapies within 18 weeks. That is a challenging target, but we should recognise the work that boards have been doing to try to meet the latest data that shows that the average-adjusted waiting time for psychological therapies is eight weeks, and 81 per cent of people were seen within 18 weeks. Some boards are doing better than that, others we know are not. That is a point that was made in Richard Simpson's amendment, as was our shared concern about Stigman. At this stage, we will be supporting the Labour amendment this evening. We have been offering support to boards to tackle waiting less. I want to see the good work sustained, but let me be clear that I want to see all the boards meet the target. That is why the Government has embedded it into NHS Scotland's local delivery plan guidance for 2015-16. I want to talk a little about recovery. People with mental health problems have been at the forefront of rethinking what is meant by recovery. As the Scottish Recovery Network emphasises, people can and do recover from even the most serious and long-term mental health problems. The network also stresses that recovery is a personal journey, and that is about living a meaningful and satisfying life with or without symptoms. A meaningful and satisfying life is as important for people with a mental health problem as it is for people with a physical health problem. One of our challenges now is to address the higher immortality rate of people with a mental health disorder compared to the general population. We have produced guidance on how NHS boards could ensure good work between primary and secondary care and providing good quality physical health services to people with severe and enduring mental illness. Physical health improvement is built into the Scottish recovery indicator. Ensuring practice in mental health services relates to the factors that help recovery. The mental health of our children and young people has been a focus of our efforts to improve Scotland's mental health. We have increased the specialist child and adolescent mental health services workforce by almost 50 per cent since 2008, and we have introduced a waiting-time target for accessing child and adolescent mental health services to help drive improvements. In the two years between September 2012 and September 2014, the number of children and young people who have been seen by CAMHS has increased by over 60 per cent. That is a phenomenal increase that reflects more children and young people being referred to services. It is little wonder, then, that this has been a challenging target. We have been transparent with publishing the data. Again, it is clear that some boards are doing better than others. Again, I make the point that I want all the boards to meet the target. This target, too, is embedded into NHS Scotland's local delivery plan guidance for 2015-16. Ensuring access to mental health services for children and young people is an absolute priority for this Government. That is why not only have we increased the numbers that are employed in this area. Do you have time, Presiding Officer? Given that only one health board in mainland Scotland has achieved the 18-week target for CAMHS, when does the minister expect that all health boards will be able to achieve that target? I think that I have made the point. I expect all health boards to achieve this target this year. That is my expectation. We have set the target for a reason. We expect the health boards to achieve that target. As I began to say, we have not only increased the numbers that are employed in this area, but we have invested almost £17 million since 2009 to deliver faster access to children and adolescent mental health services being delivered in Scotland's communities. That spending comes as part of increased expenditure on mental health, up by £31.9 million, to £899 million in 2012-13, from £867.1 million in 2010-11. We are investing an additional £15 million over the next three years to improve mental health services particularly. Ensuring that the prompt treatment of people is a key priority for improving Scotland's mental health services. What we know to be true of physical illness is that the sooner treatment begins, the sooner a person can recover as invariably true in mental illness. Of course, the more we do, the clearer we see how much more we still need to do. I am glad that this Parliament has welcomed in this year of 2015 with the mental health of all at its heart. I ask that all of us, all members, think about the right way forward. I now call Dr Richard Simpson to speak to and move amendment 11975.2. Dr Simpson, seven minutes, please. Thank you. I draw attention of members to my declaration in respect of fellowship with the law colleges of the country, the BMA, and my chair in psychology, the University of Stirling. Can I say how much I welcome this debate as the first one for the new administration and health? I hope that it will be one of many, because we have had a rather porcity of health debates in the past. Can I also welcome the minister to his first debate and say how much I welcome the tone of his opening remarks, which are very welcome indeed? Can I begin by saying that the inequality in false division into mind and body as separate entities occurred over a century and a half ago, and it has really dogged to the biological model of medicine ever since. GPs, as we know, treat most patients with mental illness and do so holistically, but GPs are confronted with serious difficulties in not having the time to manage complex mental and physical morbidity. This is particularly the case in deprived areas where mental health problems are massively more prevalent. The deep end practices have reported this as part of their view of the inverse care law—in other words, the application of resources—in inverse to the care needs. I welcome the appointment of the six link workers, but this is just a beginning, I believe, that reads to be a much more dynamic and radical approach to primary care if the specialist services are not to be even further overwhelmed. I know that Malcolm Chisholm will speak a little more about primary care. In 1997, the mental health framework started by saying that it was written to assist staff in health, social work and housing agencies to develop a joint approach to the planning, commissioning and provision of integrated mental health services. It was also intended to assist the people who use those services, those who care for them and the staff in voluntary and other agencies to play their part as partners and stakeholders. That introductory message is as relevant today, I believe, as it was then. That framework, however, was mainly directed at the problem of severe and enduring mental illnesses, and, certainly, much progress has been made in the management of psychotic illness and dementia, but less so in personality disorder and in developmental disorders. Much, of course, has happened since 1997. The closure of old and unsuitable hospitals has continued, and with the help of PPP, though I know that the SNP does not approve of that, but presumably the continuing NDP model, which is similar, that closure rate and replacement rate has intensified. We passed the Adox Within Capacity Act in 2000, and Mary Scan will remember our debates on that issue. The Milan commission reported in 1999 with 10 principles that they enunciated, and those were incorporated into the 2003 mental health act. That was the first time in my professional or political life that a Scottish act was not simply a tartanised version of a UK act. It led the way, was hailed in Europe as a piece of really far-thinking legislation, and was actually eventually copied in England, so they actually copied us. We led the way. I know that further attention is now being paid to the human rights of patients with mental illness, and I suggest to the minister that this may require a larger review of the interaction of these acts than has been possible in the rather limited MacManus review, which we are currently considering. The minister referred to the CME anti-stigmatisation programme, which was established by Malcolm Chisholm as the minister at the time. In its first four years, it had begun the process of transforming public and, in part, media attitudes. Regrettably, the social attitudes survey in 2013, as the minister has alluded to, shows that some attitudes have not continued to improve and, in some respects, have gone backwards. The overdue refounding, as it has been titled, of that programme, in my view has far too great an emphasis on very short programmes. They are one-year programmes, and we are really beset by one-year artists in our projects. We should be building on what has actually worked before to a far greater extent. In 2006, there was the follow-up strategy under Labour of delivering for mental health, which introduced standards and integrated care pathways for severe and enduring illness. The benefit of that has been reflected in the initial reduction within a year by 25 per cent of readmissions, and that process has continued under the current Government and is very welcome. The heat target for reductions in suicide that Labour introduced has also been continued by the present Government and has led to a substantial reduction, even if it has missed its target. However, it is to the Government's accommodation that it has not been an increase straight under recession, as has occurred in many European countries. The heat target for antidepressant prescriptions to reduce those has been, in my view, wisely dropped. It was in part a proxy for psychological treatments, but better quality prescribing has meant a rise in the amount and the length of treatment, so that is something that we commend the Government again for changing that heat target. The heat target, which it introduced in 2010, of a 90 per cent referral to treatment for psychological therapies, has not been met, although, as the minister said, there has been really quite good progress. However, again, as the minister said, this masks huge variation with Lanarkshire and Glasgow performing well into the 80s, and yet Lothian and Forth Valley, the area in which I introduced community psychology for the first time in Scotland in 1982, depressingly low at 40 per cent. That is why we have called again, in this area, for rigorous inspection, clear-agreed prans of action to match the improved reporting that is demonstrating that those matters are hugely variable. Dementia diagnosis has improved and the standards for support have been effective. However, there are serious problems of failure to undertake or record cognitive assessment in the acute elderly inspections by Health Improvement Scotland. Staff may feel that this cognitive assessment is not a priority, but it really is. It is very important. Progress in a number of other specific areas has also been slow. Health inequalities have not reduced, they have actually increased. Calms, as the minister has accepted, is still a major challenge and I welcome the targets, tough targets that the Government has set in this respect, although they have not been met, as Mary Scanlon has said. Can I suggest strongly to the minister that, in order to achieve those targets, it is absolutely necessary to support the lower tier services? Those will actually reduce demand. If you look at the last two quarters of referrals to Calms, those have increased hugely and will continue to do so unless the lower tier services are improved. For example, the recent spread of the place-to-be service from a cluster in Nidry primary schools in Edinburgh to East Lothian in Glasgow, all in more deprived areas, is welcome as our home start, triple P parenting and family nurse partnership, but that is not enough. Minister, I hope that this is the first of many debates. There are many areas that we have not covered, especially prisoners, question of psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, substance disease, veterans, etc. However, I hope that I welcome the fact that the amendment in my name has been accepted and I move that amendment. I now call Mary Scanlon to speak to you and move amendment 11975.3. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I first of all welcome the minister to his new portfolio. Just to say that there is certainly considerable scope to do so much more to improve mental health services. It is one of those issues that tends to gain cross-party support with very little party political intervention. It is so important. We are supporting the Government's motion today and the amendments in the name of Richard Simpson and Jim Hume, and I move the amendment in my name. I am very pleased to start 2015 with a debate on mental health. In the short time available, I hope that I can cover some concerns regarding the mental health strategy in particular, which runs from 2012 and all the commitments should be achieved by the end of this year. Conservatives want to see progress in improving mental health and wellbeing, so today it is an opportunity to review the Government's report card. As Richard Simpson said, the SNP has actually had two debates specifically on mental health, apart from dementia. There have been two debates on mental health since 2007, one in September 2011 and the other in January 2013. That is confirmed by SPICE, but I would have thought that mental health would at least justify an annual update and a debate at the very least, although I do appreciate that the health committee is currently looking at a mental health bill. For those of us who were on the health committee in 2003, Richard Simpson and I, we had high hopes that the Mental Health Care and Treatment Act would make a huge difference to service users, and today is our opportunity to look at that. I first want to welcome something that I read in the penumbra briefing, that it has now developed a personal outcomes approach with an internationally recognised tool called Individual Recovery Outcomes Counter. It has been developed along with Aberty University and it allows self-assessment of mental health and wellbeing to track improvements. For so long, we say, oh, we've given 10,000, we've given 10 million, we've given 20 million and we sit back and think, well, that's fine, we've thrown the money there, but we've never measured the outcomes, so I want to put that on record how much I thoroughly welcome that. Given that this is the minister's first mental health debate, can I draw his attention to some of the progress in the commitments of the Government's strategy, whilst I do appreciate that the timing is to be achieved by the end of this year? I'll just pick out a few. Commitment 1, a 10-year follow-up to Sandra Grant's report to be published in 2014. Nothing. Commitment 6, a Scotland-wide approach to improving mental health through new technology with NHS 24. To date, nothing. Commitment 12, raised by all three Opposition parties in their amendments today. A Government commitment to reduce the number of children being treated in adult psychiatric wards, something that we spoke about in 2003, but, according to the Mental Welfare Commission's most recent annual report, the number of children treated in adult wards in 2013 rose to 202 from 177 the previous year. So, again, no progress there. Commitment 26, audit of inpatient estate. July 2014, confirmed there are fewer beds, no reasons for changing why people are there, and no significant aspects looking at future strategy or action as a result. Commitment 30, mentioned by Richard Simpson, women in prison with borderline personality disorder, nothing. Commitment 33, to develop appropriate specialist capability in respect of developmental disorders, something that Richard Simpson raised in 2003. Again, nothing. I do appreciate the strategies due for completion later this year, but many targets have already been missed, and there is a huge amount of work to do this year to meet the commitments given. I am summing up as well, so my final point, Presiding Officer, is, as if this wasn't poor enough, when you look at the psychological therapies, the 90 per cent commitment to me, the 18 weeks from referral to treatment, was met by four out of 14 health boards, with more than 14,000 people still waiting to be seen across the country. Again, it's not good enough. There's been plenty time to plan for resources, and the lack of alternative psychological therapies probably explains why so many people are on antidepressants, and I'll pick that up in the summing up. Many thanks, and I now call on Jim Hume to speak to a move amendment 11975.1. Mr Hume, five minutes please. Thank you Presiding Officer, and I congratulate Jamie Hepburn on his first Government motion, and I welcome him to his new post, which I'm pleased to see included in the title is mental health. Of course, I'll be happy to work with him constructively in the future. It's also fitting that mental health is the topic of one of the first debates of this new year, because with this year, seeing the end of the current mental health strategy for Scotland, I think that we have a golden opportunity to change the way that mental health is viewed and treated. Of course, we need to ensure that we have a meaningful new strategy in place a year from now. I think that for too long mental health has been something that has not been spoken about, and in treatment terms it has been the Cinderella service within the NHS. Our RCN briefing at Royal College of Nurses stated that mental health is often the poor relation to physical health when it comes to priority and funding within the NHS. I welcome the fact that in Scotland we have heat targets for mental health services, but I don't think that that goes far enough. I would like the Government to follow the UK Government's lead and lay out quite clearly in legislation that mental and physical health are recognised equally. I don't think that that's the same as Jamie Hepburn when he mentioned that they should be improved. Of course they should improve, but that does not make them equal. I thank Mr Hume for giving way. The UK Government has put in a requirement—this is the supposed parity requirement—in the health and social care act, which says that the Secretary of State must continue the promotion of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England. Such is one of the national health service in Scotland in 1978, and it says that it will continue to be the duty of Scottish members to promote in Scotland the comprehensive and integrated health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland. It's not such a big difference, is it? There is a difference, because down south of the border they have actually put it in legislation that it is on a parity. I thought that today the Government's motion did not make any great reference to the pressure on NHS services and that concerns have raised in the chamber on many occasions. We have a consensus emerging around this as an issue that needs to be addressed now and is to be welcomed. The investment is to be welcomed. Of course it is never enough. If the Scottish Government, we really need to acknowledge the weaknesses so therefore we can hope that the situation will improve. One in four people will have mental health health at some point in their lives. Ten per cent of children and young people in Scotland have mental health problems that are so significant to the impact on their daily lives. Without proper support and treatment, the impact can be devastating, affecting education or work, or in individuals' home life and their relationships. For each and every one of those individuals getting the right treatment and support quickly, I think is absolutely essential. However, it is clear that in Scotland they are not getting the services that they need and deserve. NHS boards are failing to meet targets put in place by this Government. Ninety per cent of young people needing treatment should be seen within 26 weeks, but in six of Scotland's 14 health boards they are not. There has been a 12 per cent increase in the number of children and young people waiting upwards of six months for treatment. A SAMH briefing for this debate said that it is impossible that the 18-week targets for psychological therapies will be met. The most recent figures show that only four out of 14 health boards meet the 90 per cent target, with more than 14,000 people still waiting to be seen across the country. SAMH also reported that two-fifths of GPs have said that they have not referred anyone for psychological therapies recently because waiting times are too long, so the current level of referrals does not reflect need, and yet still people are waiting too long and the targets are being missed. The £15 million over three years by the Scottish Government for Improvements and Primary Care level mental health services is very welcome. Of course, it is not enough to see the transformation that we need. It is not just waiting things that are an issue. It is also an environment in which we treat those vulnerable young people. Guidelines are clear that treating young people in adult psychiatric units should only occur in exceptional cases. However, the Mental Wealth Fair Commission for Scotland found that last year, 202 young people were treated in adult wards up from 177 a year before. Scotland does not have specialist secure healthcare services for young people. Young people are placed in specialist units in England, so that makes it difficult for the young person to retain links with family and local services, and of course it is expensive. In concluding, all mental health services need to be the best that they can be, evidence-led and responsive to local demand. Individuals receiving the care that they need in the setting that is most appropriate for them, no matter where they live. I move the amendment in my name. Many thanks. I now move to open debate. I call on Dennis Robertson to be followed by Sandra White. Up to four minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also welcome the minister to his new post. Again, with a specific aspect to mental health, I sincerely hope that the minister and I can have dialogue about that in the continued future. Mental health, there is a stigma, and it is an unfortunate one, but it exists. I think that we need to be able to recognise its existence. It is how we move forward from that. Legislation and its health cannot solve the problem, and it is about attitude. It is about attitude sometimes to one's self and about recognising that if you have a physical illness, you can go to the doctor and talk about it, but when you have a mental illness sometimes or you are not feeling too good, it is sometimes shy away from it. I do not know how we get over that, but it needs to be a dialogue that we need to continue to have and I certainly look forward to further debates. I worked in the third sector before coming to this Parliament. What I did recognise was that people with sensory loss went through a period of adjustment, and that adjustment meant that their wellbeing, their mental health, was always impaired because they were losing their ability to do things that they had always been able to do in the past. However, it was a short term for many in that adjustment, and once they realised the sort of can-do approach, life did become better. Now, not for everyone, but for the majority of people coming to terms with their condition is the way forward. The peer support can be an asset to someone moving forward, and I have seen that in many aspects of the work that I did in my previous existence in the social work and care sector. However, I want to commend the Government on its approach, because Mary Scanlon mentioned the mental health strategy. The Government recognised that we needed to improve the services for people with mental health. It went out in an extensive consultation process, and it came up with key findings that did not shy away from the problem. It was a recognition that it is complex and that it needs to be resolved. It cannot just be resolved by putting money into it. It needs to be resolved in an effective and appropriate way. That is sometimes using the appropriate specialists. Dr Simpson mentioned the family nurse partnerships, for instance. That is an excellent way of sometimes coming to terms with some of the problems that already exist within our communities. The minister is aware, I am sure, of my own personal circumstances, and when we look at the child in adolescent mental health service, I know that it is lacking in some areas. I know that sometimes that initial intervention is essential to trying to offset the problems that some of our young people have. Not every child in adolescent will have their mental health improved through CAMHS and through the appropriate psychological services, because the condition is perhaps extreme in some cases. However, we need to ensure that someone is listening at the outset. If that referral comes from a GP and is referred on, we need to do our best to try to ensure that the young person is seen by the most appropriate specialist in the healthcare sector. Where I would like to see the improvements, Presiding Officer, is perhaps to manage clinical networks for specific conditions. In the eating disorder aspect, I would love to see something like that happening to try to prevent deaths within our communities or our young people with eating disorders. I am sure that the minister and I will have this discussion in the future. Once again, Presiding Officer, I commend the Government for the work that it is doing and the recognition that more needs to be done. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I welcome Jamie Hepburn to his job and, in particular, that of the mental health minister. I know that Jamie Hepburn will give his full attention. I welcome the strategies that have been put forward by previous and present Governments to tackle mental health illness. In particular, the CME campaign that has been mentioned by Dr Simpson launched in 2002 to tackle the stigma of mental health. I think that it has been a huge success. I look forward to more strategies such as that. I think that it has raised awareness of mental health issues. I have been very welcome throughout the communities, certainly in the community in Glasgow, which I represent. The mental health strategy that was published in 2012 with its seven key themes and its four key change areas is an important piece of work. I know that Mary Scanlon had mentioned that. I am particularly keen on two of the key change areas that are mentioned in the CME campaign. The first is to rethink how we respond to common mental health problems. The other is community, inpatient and crisis services. In particular, the community part is very interesting to me. The reason that I raised that is because, when you work in the community, you see how mental health services are delivered in the community. I wonder whether those areas are applied properly and whether they will be able to enhance the services that are there at the moment. I want to pick up in two of the issues. One of the local services, which I thought might have been enhanced by that and have been able to keep open, is the child and the reed centre in the Ymbank Street in my constituency. It closed its doors in May 2014 after 21 years of service in the Glasgow area. It was very much loved by users and the staff alike. When I used to visit, there were so many different things on-going. It was a sheer joy to visit that people got a lot out of it. Unfortunately, it closed its doors, as I said, in May 2014. The reason it closed its doors was the withdrawal of core funding by Glasgow City Council and the reliance on personal funds and direct payments. I wonder whether those two key change areas that I have already mentioned, if that had been applied, would have ensured that the child and the reed centre stayed open or ensured that other child and the reed centres in inverted commons would stay open? There is no doubt that the knock-on effect from the closure of the child and the reed centre in Glasgow is going to have on Gam H, which is a Glasgow centre for mental health, which I know that my colleague John Mason will raise in his contribution. The other issue that I want to raise is that of older people in isolation. That leads to depression, and that can have a really devastating impact on people's lives. Once again, I looked at the key change areas that, as I said, have already mentioned the localised areas communities. The reason I asked that is that, perhaps the minister—I know that he is your first outing minister—is this particular minister. However, I wonder whether local authorities are involved in the strategy, because many of the community-led issues in my area, in particular, are closed down and are not being used because of funding being withdrawn by local authorities. People in my area and the elderly people going to daycare centres have been withdrawn from Glasgow City Council in regard to them getting out to daycare centres. It is a lifeline for many of the elderly people, and some of those people are being charged £15 a day to use that. I would like to say that, perhaps when you are summing up or when the strategy is published at the end of the year, which has already been mentioned, one of the issues that I raised could be looked at in respect of local authorities having the involvement of the strategy or even, perhaps, more involvement of the strategy. I welcome the minister to his post, and I also welcome the many developments that have been in mental health since 1999, with a great deal of continuity from one administration to another. I think that it is right in debates like this that we highlight the problems that exist, particularly when those problems have been brought to us by constituents. There are two examples of that that I want to refer to today. The first was a woman who came to see me quite recently, who was anxious, and she met the criteria for referral for psychological therapy, as has been confirmed recently by an NHS helpline, and yet her GP did not refer her. I wonder how common that is. I note in the Sam Age briefing for today's debate that it says that two-fifths of GPs have not referred anyone for psychological therapies because waiting lists are too long. They quote one particular GP who says, and I quote, that access to psychological therapies is extremely poor with long and unacceptable wait times. GPs feel under pressure not to refer people to already stretched services, so I am very concerned by that Sam Age research as well as by the experience of my constituents. Although four health boards out of 14 make the 18-week target for access to psychological therapies, it may well be that the situation is worse because of unmet need through non-referral. There is definitely a big challenge there. Of course, there may be other factors involved here. I am a great fan of GPs, including Dr Simpson, and I am a special fan of my own GP, but let us sometimes be realistic and accept that some GPs are probably not as knowledgeable about mental health as they should be. Some people have said that there should be more about mental health in GP training. I note that an expansion of GP training to, presumably, once your training posts a degree, an expansion of GP training to include more mental health placement is a recommendation of the recent shape of training UK report and the Royal College of Psychiatrists briefing for today's debate says that they support that recommendation. The Sam Age research on GPs is also interesting. They say that 90 per cent of GPs said that they wanted more information on local social prescribing opportunities and that almost 50 per cent were not aware of sign guidelines on non-pharmaceutical treatments for depression. Realistically, there is room for some work in that area. Indeed, if you want to find out more about it, come to the Sam Age reception, which I am sponsoring next Thursday, on mental health and primary care. Excellent timing there. Of course, there are many good examples of mental health and primary care in the community more generally. Richard Simpson referred to the link workers in the deep end practices. Let us see a bit more of that. There are all the great nursing projects. I will be highlighting them in my member's debate tomorrow. A lot of them have a mental health focus. Of course, there are the community projects that I am sure we all have in our constituencies, such as, for example, for me, the Pylton community health projects, with its women supporting women counselling and other work that a lot of witches do with mental health. The second woman I referred to at the beginning is an even more distressing example, because her son committed suicide and she felt that there was no help and services available for him. Laura Nolan has set up a trust called the Joshua Nolan Trust. She has done amazing work in the last year, fund raising to raise money for counselling for those who cannot get services on the NHS. That, of course, should not be necessary, but we should pay tribute to all the work that she has done. She is now also starting to work in terms of the awareness of mental health in schools. That is part of that very important public mental health agenda, which includes the work to see me and that is something that we have to work on as well. I had a lot more to say about young people and mental health, but I am being told to stop, so I shall. John Mason from Fawr by Linda Fabiani. On 28 October, we had last debated mental health on a motion tabled by Linda Fabiani, and it is good that we are returning to the subject today in Government time. I would like to start off by focusing on GAM-H, the Glasgow Association for Mental Health, which is a charity based in my constituency. Members may know that Glasgow City Council is planning to cut the GAM-H budget pretty severely—in fact, by 40 per cent or £888,000. All budgets are under pressure, and everyone expects their budgets to fall a few per cent each year. However, that is much more severe and represents a real shift of resources away from this section of mental health provision. If we are serious about preventative expenditure and trying to tackle the problems before they escalate, I am really puzzled as to what the thinking is behind those Glasgow cuts. The evening times of 30 December carried the story of Jenny Robertson, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a youngster and who had gone through various treatment regimes, including prescribed drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. However, one of the things that has helped her most was the input from GAM-H. I have had some connection with GAM-H, including almost exactly a year ago when they launched a book of writings by folk with mental health issues in Denison in my constituency. That was a really impressive and moving event, and the main speaker at the launch was Liz Lochhead, who spoke in a very personal way about her own experiences. It strikes me that one of the things that people with mental health issues need is time, including time spent being listened to so that someone really understands their problems, time to form friendships and trust people, time to take part in physical activities or hobbies, which can be a real help, time to reflect and perhaps write of their experiences. This is exactly the kind of thing that GAM-H and I am certain other or similar organisations do. Giving people a few pills may be quicker and it may be cheaper, but I am increasingly certain that this is not always the answer. I have raised the question of GAM-H with Glasgow City Council, and I have to say that I was somewhat unhappy with a number of points in their reply of 2 December. For example, they said, quote, "...a citizen's engagement with social work should only ever be in the main transitory in nature", unquote. But surely, as with physical disability or illness, some conditions are long term in the mental health realm. I understand the decision to cut funding in Glasgow has been called in by committee, and I very much hope that the decision will be reconsidered. If the Government is able to make any representations to the council on behalf of some very vulnerable people, that would be very much appreciated. Just a few other points I would want to make in relation to mental health more generally, as has already been mentioned, the continuing challenge of stigma. We had a very negative reaction from some folk, admittedly a minority in a community in my constituency, when it was proposed to build a care home for folk with mental health issues, and we do need to really continue working, I think, to counteract such stigma. And also the link between poverty and poor mental health, audit Scotland figures show that GP consultations for depression and anxiety ranged from 28 per thousand in the least deprived areas to 62 per thousand in the more deprived areas, and similarly suicide is three times higher in the most deprived areas. Finally, can I say that while we should talk about the shortcomings and the things that we want to see improved, we do need to keep things in perspective. During recess, I was reading a report about Cambodia, where the Government has stated that they will not look at mental health issues because they have so many other issues like malaria to deal with. You need to bring your merch to close. At the weekend, I spoke to Canadian, who has worked all over the world and currently in Mozambique, and he was saying one thing that we must not forget is how superb the NHS is by world standards. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Mason, Linda Fabiani, followed by Paul Marta. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Of course, this is a big, big subject, and I know that Mary Scanlon feels that it is not often given enough time, but I think that it is one of those subjects that is affecting so many people that we could literally talk about this constantly, and for that reason we have to hone down our own contributions as everyone has today. I was particularly interested today in the aspects of the Government motion that talk about mental health and wellbeing, because wellbeing is such a very, very important word about someone's state of health, whether it be physical health or whether it be mental health. I am also interested in the mental health innovation fund, and I would quite like to hear a lot more about that, because I am reading that it is about identifying new ways of treating people in the early stages. It ties in with primary care services as well. Malcolm Chisholm referred to the SAMH briefing. I think that Richard Simpson spoke about primary care services, too, and the importance of primary care in that early identification understanding. I am also trying to take away some of that stigma. I cannot remember which research it was, but I do remember previously reading some research that said that people felt that even their GPs were stigmatising them sometimes when they went along looking for help, so there is a big awareness-raising exercise to go on as well. Beyond that, all those things tie in, and the Government's mental health strategy ties in with the NHS Scotland quality strategy about health and care to be person-centred, safe and effective. I think that that is particularly relevant to mental health issues. It has got to be person-centred, it has got to suit that person, and that joined up issue is not just about within the health portfolio. It should be joined up across portfolios, across every aspect of life, because that is what then leads to an overall sense of wellbeing. I think that too often we separate those things and we put them into categories. When you look at, for example, health budgets and then you look at transport budgets, you look at arts and culture budgets, sometimes the pulling together of those creates that whole and creates that sense of wellbeing. I see it regularly in my constituency. I have spoken about theatre and Nemo many, many times and they do wonderful stuff in the arts, but another one I want to mention today and it ties in very much with new towns because new towns are different from other town centres. New towns like Cumbernail, Glenrothes, East Kilbride and my own, and the shopping centre is the town centre. I want to talk today a wee bit about shop mobility and yes, they supply disability carts and bikes and trolleys and things within the centre, but it is not just about shops, it is about that ability for people to feel part of their own community, be in their own town centre, where they, as I say, not just shops but libraries, cafes, places where they meet people. People who live in new towns do not just walk out the door and walk along to local shops, they have to go to their town centre. I would like to see a lot more joined up thinking across portfolios and I would ask Mr Hepburn in this new role to look at reaching out beyond his own portfolio and seeing where the mental health innovation fund can be used, augmented and helped by other aspects of government and really look at promoting that sense of wellbeing that does not just come from walking into your GP and being told that you will get help by referral but that comes from feeling that you have a very useful life. Paul Martin, followed by Mark McDonald. Presiding Officer, can I, like others, welcome the minister to his new post and I think he should take in good spirit some of the robust exchanges that we have heard from a number of members and I actually think that those robust exchanges should ensure that we learn from some of the challenges that it faces and I think some of the measures that have to be met in the current mental health strategy that have not been met, the minister should take on board and I think that there should be absolutely no doubt that we should include in the government, should include in future business the opportunity for us to revisit the discussion and the debate that we have had today and ensure that we can take those issues forward and I hope in the minister's closing remarks that he can show humility and recognise that some of the challenges that face the Government have not been met and come forward at a very early stage with how the minister intends to take them forward and I do appreciate what a complex area that this is but we have to recognise that the patient experience out there is not always as positive as it should be and whatever measures that we can put in place to improve that would be welcomed. Can I take this opportunity, like others, to recognise the dedication of the staff who treat people with mental health conditions? I think that they are to be commended for their good work in ideal over the years dealt with many members of staff who have shown absolute dedication to what is a complex area and in the challenges that they face both in resources and the bureaucracies that exist in the system as well they are to be commended for the work that they do. I think that for every case of mistreatment or misdiagnosis we should recognise that sometimes those who are treated by the health professionals don't always get the best treatment that they should and people do find themselves in that process of the bureaucracy of making complaints and being concerned that perhaps their condition has not been met as best as it possibly could be. I would like to raise one particular case of a constituent who is similar to Malcolm Chisholm's particular case of a constituent who visited me just last month, who suffers from a bipolar condition who contacted me and said that she had a prescription from the centre of integrated care at the NHS homeopathic facility in Glasgow. Having been on us for over 30 years, she had to give up work and get treatment and get better and get back to the job that she had done for many years. Her new treatment has been working well and she is beginning to return back into the state that she found herself in previously. However, in a similar case to Malcolm Chisholm's case, her own GP refused to give her the prescription that she had requested. Unfortunately, because of her GP's refusal to provide that repeat prescription, she has found that her condition has deteriorated. I find that unacceptable and perhaps it could be similar to Malcolm Chisholm's case that my GP has not been able to refer my constituent to those services because those services are not available. That is, for me, a very clear case of a patient experience that has gone wrong and unacceptable. Her condition has now deteriorated. She wants the opportunity to raise that as an official complaint and is currently going through the bureaucracy of taking that forward. I would ask the minister to, in his new role, ensure that he takes on board the patient experiences of those out there who are experiencing these very real-life experiences and ensure that we can take action. I also ask members to support the motion in the name of the Government today and the amendments that have been brought forward as well. I begin by welcoming the minister to his new role and, indeed, to welcome the tone that he struck in opening the debate. Broadly speaking, it has been a constructive debate that we have been having. I think that there are a number of key areas that I want to touch on. I think that the first was about stigma, which has been mentioned by a number of members. I noted the rather stark figures in the briefing provided to us by the Alliance, which said that a quarter of people had experienced a mental health problem at some time, but almost half of people said that if they were experiencing mental health problems, they would not want people knowing about it. Indeed, one in six people said that they would find it difficult to talk to someone with a mental health problem, and only 82 per cent of people said that they thought that people with mental health problems should have the same rights as anyone else. That is very troubling for anyone to read that. When we talk about one in four people being affected by a mental health problem, let us not be about the bush, Presiding Officer. Essentially, 30 odd members of the chamber could, at one stage in their lives, be affected by a mental health condition. Most of us will have somebody in our family and friend networks who either are experiencing currently or have experienced at some stage or will experience at some point in the future mental ill health. It is not just our responsibility as parliamentarians and politicians, it is our responsibility as those who have loved ones in our networks who are likely to be affected as well. Linda Fabiani made the point that it is not just the responsibility of the health service or necessarily of the social care services, it is everyone's responsibility to ensure good mental health. It is worth noting that the length of time that an individual will spend being treated for a mental health condition will vary from person to person because each individual by their nature will experience mental health conditions in a different way. It is not the same. I will make the point that I do not think that that needs to be put into new legislation because I think that the minister already highlighted that it is already in legislation. However, I do think that it is important that mental health receives a priority treatment and I believe that that is as much down to attitude as it is down to any form of legislation. At the same time, if a person breaks their leg, they can roughly gauge the length of time it is going to take before they are going to have to have the cast taken off before they are going to be able to walk again. With somebody with a mental health condition, it is less easy to predict exactly at what point that individual will no longer require treatment and that is something that I think bears remembering when we are talking about treatment and we are talking about the kinds of treatments that are being offered. In terms of negative influences, I think that it is worth noting that in the briefings that we have received, certainly the briefings from Inclusion Scotland and from the Alliance, that the impact of welfare reform on mental health, particularly on those who are already suffering from significant mental health conditions, but also those who are finding anxiety and stress increasing and therefore having a negative impact on their mental health, is being documented by a range of organisations across Scotland. We must accept that external factors are going to have an impact on the ability of an individual to enjoy good mental health but also to recover from a situation where their mental health deteriorates. Finally, I just want to touch on something positive from a local perspective. I noted in the press and journal in October a fantastic rating of excellence from the Care Inspectorate for the service provided by VSA at Westerton Crescent, which switched from in February 2014 from being a care home to a housing support service for individuals with mental health conditions. There is a lot of positive work going on there. I hope to visit the facility soon, and it is worth recognising the strong work that the voluntary sector plays in ensuring that those with mental health conditions get the best support that they require. Thank you. We now move to wind-up speeches called in human form minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As I said in my opening speech, I welcome the consensus that is emerging for action on mental health today. I think that the debate has also highlighted some of the concerns that exist around treatment and service availability. I am glad that the minister wants all boards to meet the heat targets within the year but, of course, with the loss of beds and the cuts to experience and specialist staff, that may be difficult. We must recognise some of the weaknesses, as well as the ambitions that there are, as if we do not do so will fail to make progress. That is, of course, something that none of us want or we can afford. I was a wee bit disappointed, I must say, in the amendments from the Conservatives and Labour for perhaps not going far enough. They accept that there is parity between physical and mental health, I should say, which I do not think is the case. The RCN says that it is not the case. The evidence is there. GPs are not referring to talking therapies because they know the pressure on services. I was glad that Richard Simpson brought up a real on having three minutes left. I am sorry, minister. I am glad that Richard Simpson mentioned human rights and have concerns that guardianships are being more and more used for those with learning disorders, but I think that I will leave that for another day. Not having quality services in suitable surroundings compromises the recovery of individuals, and in turn, I believe, compromises their health and their future. For the most serious cases, we rely on the expert knowledge of mental health officers. It is hugely worrying, therefore, that mental health officer numbers are inadequate for demand. Because of that, there was a 5 per cent fall across Scotland in mental health officer consent for emergency detention in a hospital. People should not be detained without this consent unless it is totally impratical. Yet 42 per cent of detentions had no mental health officer consent. We back the calls made by the Mental Welfare Commission for an urgent recruitment and training strategy for mental health officers, and we thank them for highlighting that need. Campaigns such as CME, which is mentioned by many, have gone some way to addressing the stigma attached to mental health, but that stigma still exists. Nine out of 10 people suffering from mental ill health have experienced discrimination. That is unacceptable, so we must do more. We look forward to that revised mental health strategy this year, and I hope that the minister will listen carefully to what has been said here today and to those involved on a daily basis have raised as issues in their meetings and briefings with all of us. We cannot make progress unless we deal with the concerns and the failings. I rated the call of the Scottish Liberal Democrats to set out in law that mental and physical health deserves equal recognition. I believe that doing so will not only help to ensure improvements and treatments for those with mental health, but will also help to address stigma where it exists. I was a little bit surprised that Mary Scanlon gave a thorough critique of the lack of progress in the mental health strategy, but it is supporting the Government's motion today, which I believe, of course, does not go far enough. Today's debate is a welcome step, but it is a small step. I think that we must keep working to improve that situation. I am happy to do so in a consensual manner. I just want to finish by stating my whole heart in support and thanks to those who are working in the NHS across local authorities and the third sector to provide mental health treatment. We know without them that individuals would be lost, and the picture as a whole would be a lot darker. However, those individuals are calling for real action now, and we must listen to that call and act on that. I address a couple of points raised by Jim Hume. We are supporting the Government's motion today, and the reason is that we welcome the level of interest and commitment. I rightly went through the commitments that were made in the mental health strategy. Although they have not been achieved, I look forward to achieving them. I am reminding the minister of what we are looking for, but I welcome the progress that has been made. I also look forward to further progress in improving mental health. It was not a huge motion, but I do not think that we are in a position to be charlish. We have a new minister. It is his first outing, and I think that much more work can be done. The second point that Jim Hume made about the parity between mental and physical health is that I refer him to a statement by Earl Howe at Westminster on 19 December, which sets out various new waiting targets. I do not want to use my time to talk about what Westminster is doing, but rather what we are doing here. It is a very short debate, and if I have not covered everything that Jim Hume would expect, it is not because I am not committed to it. It is due to the shortage of time. It has been a very short but important debate. I found Linda Fabiani—I thought that Linda made very good points—on the joined-up approach. I like what John Mason was saying about other therapies than antidepressants. That really takes me to my next point. As others have said, 40 per cent of GPs told the Scottish Association of Mental Health that they have not referred anyone for psychological therapies recently because waiting times are too long. We, in fact, have a huge hidden waiting list with enormous unmet need, as the appropriate treatment or therapy for their condition is ruled out due to long waiting times. As Malcolm Chisholm said, given that one in three GP appointments relates to mental health, yet 85 per cent of GPs told Samwich that there are gaps in the service provision and 90 per cent of GPs in the same survey wanted more information on local social prescribing opportunities. If the GPs do not know about social prescribing, the patient cannot possibly be referred to the service, so there is certainly work to be done on that issue. On criminal justice, Commitment 32 undertakes to increase the effective use of community payback orders, which were introduced in 2010, to help prevent people going to prison when what they needed was mental health treatment and support. We all supported that. Yet only 74 out of 10,000 community payback orders issued in 2011-12 included a mental health requirement, so 70 out of 10,000 we need to do an awful lot more there. Access to CAMHS, only half of health boards achieved the 26-week waiting time target and only five of the 14 health boards currently achieved the 18-week target. The only main land board achieving this target is Dumfries and Galloway. It is quite concerning that Grampian only 54 per cent meet the target in Tayside only 50 per cent, but just as worryingly is the increase in referrals to CAMHS. The focus on recruitment of psychologists and psychiatrists is an issue, given that there were eight vacancies last year for learning disabilities and none were filled. More to do, but that is me finished. I now call on Jenny Marra to wind up the labour part of six minutes, Ms Marra. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also welcome the new minister to his post. I say this afternoon that I am new to my post as well in the health brief. I hope that we can start together on this brief and put mental health right at the centre of our health agenda in Scotland. I hope that for the minister that mental health will be his personal passion and something that he will drive. I think that everyone across this chamber would agree that it is one of the biggest health challenges facing Scotland at the moment. I think that this is a problem not just specific to Scotland. I was doing quite a lot of reading over Christmas and comparing our health record to that of Finland. Of course, they are seeing mental health problems increasing as well. I think that we must be really bold about the challenges ahead of us. We need to look internationally and we need to be bold and ambitious. I really hope that the minister will rise to that occasion. I wanted to make the personal pledge to him today that there is so much that we need to look at on the mental health agenda. It is disappointing that the Scottish Government has only taken the opportunity in its own debating time since 2007 twice to debate mental health. I hope that working with the minister we can turn this around. I want to pledge to him today that if he would like to debate mental health in detail in different aspects of how our services and communities are coping with mental health and trying to prevent it, if he would like to debate this every time we return from recess, Labour would wholeheartedly welcome that and meet that challenge. I would also like to pledge to him today to work hand in hand with him on initiatives to make sure that we can put prevention of mental health right at the centre of our health agenda in Scotland. If I can touch specifically on one aspect of prevention that I do not think has been covered yet this afternoon, educational psychology has been highlighted by the Scottish Children's Services Coalition. It has asked the Scottish Government in its briefing today to urgently address funding issues for training educational psychologists. It would surprise me if members across the chamber have not experienced in their surgeries families coming to them asking about the waiting lists for educational psychologists for their children to be seen in their schools and assessed by an educational psychologist. The waiting lists are long and if we are truly going to tackle a preventative agenda on this, minister, we must look seriously at this. Training, if I can tell you minister for educational psychologists, is an issue. The bursaries were withdrawn in 2012 and it is now a postgraduate course in Scotland that is not funded. I have had people at my own surgery looking to put their immense talents into educational psychology but not actually being able to afford to do so. I asked Mike Russell, when he was education secretary, if he could readress this funding and actually provide funding to pay the fees of students that are going to dedicate their skills to the health service on not greatly increased salaries. Educational psychologist earns roughly £30,000 a year and I would be happy to work hand in hand with the minister if he would make this a priority to address. If I can turn to some of the contributions this afternoon, I thought Mary Scanlon made an excellent contribution. She talked about the Government's report card on this. She highlighted the positive day of debates and called for an annual update but I hope that she might back my call to look really seriously at this on a more regular than annual basis. She talked about the importance of measuring mental health outcomes and she raised a point that the minister will have taken note of, of the number of children that are being treated in adult psychiatric wards has actually increased over the last year and I hope again that this is one of the urgent points of action that the minister will take away from today's debate. Both Jim Huckum and Malcolm Chisholm raised the points of the lack of the organisations and GPs not making referrals because the waiting lists are so long. I would also like to hear an early indication from the minister on what can be done about that and the mass of unmet need on non-referrals. This is an issue particularly close to my heart. I have visited organisations in Dundee that provide opportunities for young people to come together, young people that have been affected and friends with other young people in our communities that have taken their own lives and I hope that the minister will commit this afternoon to make his whole time in government to focus very strictly on prevention and see what we can do here in Scotland about mental health. Presiding Officer, if I can turn to the motion and amendments. You have got 30 seconds. Yes, we will be supporting the government motion this afternoon and there is much in the Conservative and Liberal amendments that we do support but I understand that if our amendment passes tonight and the minister has indicated the Government's support for the Labour amendment that actually the Conservative and Liberal amendments would delete our amendments. Although we agree with the content of them, we will not be able to support them. I hope that that strikes that note of consensus. Thank you. I now call on Jamie Hepburn to wind up the debate. Minister, you have told 5.30. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I say that Jenny Marra said that she hopes that mental health will be my passion. I hope that she and members will recognise hopefully that the fact that the first debate I have brought to the chamber is on this topic gives at least some indication of the priority in which I place in ensuring that we tackle mental health disorders and improve Scotland's mental health. This debate has been a useful one, Presiding Officer. Paul Martin felt that it had been robust and Mark McDonald felt that it had been constructive. That might at first glance seem to be mutually exclusive concepts. I think that both have been true. I think that the debate has benefited accordingly. I know that Richard Simpson, Jenny Marra and Mary Scanlon feel that this is a subject that we should debate more regularly given that this has been a constructive process. I am certainly happy to look at bringing the subject back on a more regular basis. A lot has been said over the course of the debate. It is unlikely that I will be able to respond to every point. If there is any particular issue that a member has raised that I am not able to refer to, they should feel free to contact me directly. I want to start by referring to Mary Scanlon's opening contribution, because she raised some concerns about the mental health strategy. I am happy to provide an update in relation to some of the areas that she referred to. I have not even got to update you yet, but absolutely. I have submitted about eight or nine questions on it. Most of the ones that I raised today are putting written questions, so I look forward to seeing them. I think that, for the benefit of the chamber, I will still mention them anyway. Commitment 1 in relation to Sandra Grant. I can inform the chamber that the report will be published later this year. Mary Scanlon was concerned that technology has not featured as part of the mental health strategy. I can inform her and the rest of the chamber that, in fact, the NHS 24 is project managing a technology-based process. It is mastermind. It will not go through the full title, but it is essential that it is to do with telehealth, and it is piloting that in four health board regions, Shetland, Grampian, Lanarkshire and Ffaisal Technology, which is featuring as part of the process. Commitment 26 to audit the in-patient estate. I can say that. It took place in October 2014 and findings will be published later this year. Commitment 30 in relation to women in the criminal justice system with borderline personality disorder. I recognise that that is an important area. Work is on-going to improve mental health services to address those challenges through building on the work under way at HMP Cortenvale testing the effectiveness of training prison staff in a mentalisation approach to working with women with borderline personality disorder and women who have experienced trauma. Dennis Robertson raised an issue that I know is very close to him and his family in relation to eating disorders. I say to Mr Robertson that if he has specific suggestions as how we can focus our efforts better in this area, I am always willing to discuss that particular issue with him. Sandra White and John Mason raised between them a variety of local issues in relation to the Charlie Reid Centre to Gammage and the closure of Daycentre. I know that my colleague Bob Doris has campaigned. One moment, minister. There is far too much talking from those coming into the chamber. I am sure that you are all pleased to see your colleagues, but could we save the happy new years and the handshakes for outside? What I should say in relation to the local changes is that ultimately they are a matter for local authorities. However, I appreciate that the removal of services or the reduction can impact on services. It reminds us that decision makers have to carefully think through any decision. Linda Fabiani spoke of the unique nature of Newtown. She will understand that this is something that I readily recognise too, as indeed you will as well. I should say that she has talked of the idea of cross portfolio working to better deliver services in the community, particularly in relation to where people are in their community. Of course, that is always a good thing to do and where we can do that in this area, we will. I turn to the amendments. First, I recognise the points that Mary Scanlon makes. I particularly pick up what she says about young people being placed in an adult bed, something that Jenny Marra said. I accept that that should not happen. I am disappointed to see that the number of young people being admitted to adult wards has increased. Of course, we expect that that should be reduced. I should point out briefly— I thank the minister for taking the intervention at this point. Does the minister then agree that there is a transition period that we need to look at moving children from children's services into adult services, and that transitional period could be extended so that young people, if appropriate, could stay within the CAMHS service rather than moving on to adults? I think that that is the edge of the flip side of the point that I was about to make, because in the circumstances that we are talking about here, most of those admissions are among young people aged 16 or 17, where an adult facility might, in certain cases, be clinically judged to be a more appropriate setting. Nevertheless, I expect that almost all children and young people who are admitted to adult wards to be discharged quickly and transferred to CAMHS settings instead. I should point out that we are increasing bed numbers in the north of Scotland for children and adolescents, and that new unit will be ready later this year. I cannot accept the Tory amendment because the quality of mental health services is not measured and nationally set in numbers of beds or staff numbers, although, as I have alluded to, they are important parts of a well-functioning system. It is the quality of outcomes, clinical outcomes and social and personal outcomes that matter. I do not accept Mr Hume's amendment. I agree that we need to ensure that mental and physical health have equal recognition. I was somewhat perplexed when Mr Hume responded to me to say that the difference here in Scotland, as opposed to England, is that it has put it in legislation in England. When I had already said to him that it is section 1 of the National Health Service Scotland Act 1978, it makes the same commitment here in Scotland. To be clear, Mr Hume, the National Health Service Scotland Act 1978 is legislation. I think that we take the concerns about parity rather more seriously from the Liberal Democrats. If they had not in March 2014 overseen funding to the decision made by NHS England imposing a proposed greater funding cut, 20 per cent more for mental health services than acute hospitals, which was, of course, widely criticised by mental health organisations— The minister is in his last 15 seconds. I cannot accept the Lib Dem amendment. I am very happy to accept the Labour one. I think that it is constructively made. I think that this has been a useful debate, Presiding Officer, and I look forward to bringing back mental health to this chamber as an important issue for us to continue to debate. Thank you. That concludes the debate on mental health. The next item of business is consideration of motion number 11986, in the name of Michael Matheson, on the Serious Crime Bill UK legislation. I call Michael Matheson to move the motion. Thank you. The question this motion will be put in decision time to which we now come. There are eight questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is amendment number 11976.2, in the name of Claire Baker, which seeks to amend motion number 11976, in the name of Fiona Hyslop on winter festivals be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The amendment is therefore agreed to. The next question is amendment number 11976.1, in the name of Liz Smith, which seeks to amend motion number 11976, in the name of Fiona Hyslop, on winter festivals be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. We move to vote. Members should cast votes now. The result of the vote is amendment number 11976.1, in the name of Liz Smith, is as follows. Yes, 20, no, 61. There were 33 abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed to. The next question is motion number 11976, in the name of Fiona Hyslop, as amended on winter festivals be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed to. The next question is amendment number 11975.2, in the name of Richard Simpson, which seeks to amend motion number 11975, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, on mental health be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. We move to vote. Members should cast votes now. The result of the vote is amendment number 11975.2, in the name of Richard Simpson, is as follows. Yes, 109, no, 5. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore agreed to. The next question is amendment number 11975.3, in the name of Mary Scanlon, which seeks to amend motion number 11975, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, on mental health be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. We move to vote. Members should cast votes now. The result of the vote on amendment number 11975.3, in the name of Mary Scanlon, is as follows. Yes, 15. No, 99. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed to. The next question is amendment number 11975.1, in the name of Jim Hume, which seeks to amend motion number 11975, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, on mental health be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. We move to vote. Members should cast votes now. The result of the vote on amendment number 11975.1, in the name of Jim Hume, is as follows. Yes, 18. No, 96. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed to. The next question is that motion number 11975, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, as amended on mental health be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. We move to vote. Members should cast their votes now. The result of the vote on motion number 11975, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, as amended, is as follows. Yes, 109. No, 5. There were no abstentions. The motion as amended is therefore agreed to. The next question is that motion number 11986, in the name of Michael Matheson, on the Serious Crime Bill UK legislation, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed to. That concludes decision time. We now move to members' business. Members should leave the chamber, should do so quickly and quietly.