 Felly, mae gennych gwestiwn a gwneud hwnnw gwneud gymryd Gwlydydd Tafish Scott? Fel bod gennymwywyr gwaith i gweithio'r cyfeirwyr gyda'r gwiswyr yng Ngogol Rhaglen, mae'n gwych ar y diwrnod cael ei siarad gyntaf yw ei pryd ar gyfer gael gwybrithu Scottish ar y 2016 olympics i parrylympics. Ar rheodau Llywodraeth yng Ngogol Rhaglen, wrth gael, y ffordd iawn y Llywodraeth a'r Parrylympics i gael i ychydig i gweithio'r gwymysgig games and real bringing back a total of 38 medals. To build on this, Sport Scotland will continue to use its investment from the Scottish Government and the national lottery to develop its world-class sporting system, including investment in sports facilities for use by communities and performance athletes alike. Those facilities are being further enhanced with the addition of our new national sports performance centre, ORIOM, and the purpose built fully inclusive national centre, Inverclyde opening in spring next year. I'm also delighted that Hub Sport Scotland has exceeded its aim of creating 150 community sports hubs across Scotland. To date, 155 have been created with a further 6 million investment, creating a total of 200 hubs by 2020. Thank you. I thank the minister for that reply and share his sentiments about the performance of our athletes in Brazil. Would you agree with me that the legacy that is important is about our future athletes, particularly our young future athletes? Is she aware that this weekend in Glasgow district hockey players are there from across Scotland competing and training for the future? Do you recognise that, for island competitors, that means that the additional two nights away and the flight cost of getting to Glasgow for the weekend, which of course in itself will be wonderful? Do you recognise that the need for an island's travel fund, which I have been asking Sport Scotland to push and to introduce, is paramount? Do you agree to take that forward? I thank Tavish Scott for raising this issue. I know that this has been an issue that he has pursued, and I know through my own family connections the challenges and barriers that island life can face for young competitors. I hope that whoever is going from Shetland to the district hockey event in Glasgow will do well. The issue around funding for travel is something that has been an on-going discussion between Sport Scotland, COSLA and ourselves, and I will give the commitment to Tavish Scott to update him on the progress of those discussions and make sure that we meet to work out further what further action can be taken to help island competitors. Brian Whittle Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thanks to Tavish Scott for tabling the question of legacy. I attended the Team Scotland sports awards last night, and those of us lucky enough to be there cannot fail to be inspired by the incredible achievements of Scotland's sportsmen and women in 2016. On the back of the huge success of the Scottish contingent in the Team GB and Paralympic Team GB, our children have been eager to find ways to get involved only to find clubs with ever-growing waiting lists. When discussing legacy, we often talk of increased participation without recognising that requires increased capacity. In short, we need more coaches and destinations to participate. Investment in our army of volunteers and PE teachers would be a fantastic legacy from recent games. Will the Scottish Government undertake to remove barriers to attaining coaching qualifications and look at opening up schools after hours enabling easy access to facilities? I am well aware of the barriers that many coaches might experience when they are trying to produce opportunities for young people. That is something that we have worked on for some time. That is why in my original answer to Tavish Scott we have invested heavily to create and exceed our target of community sports hubs across the country, with a further £6 million investment created under 200 hubs by 2020. I am working with the governing bodies and others alike with an interest in sporting opportunities and providing those opportunities for young people. We have a great commitment to making sure that young people have an opportunity to participate in sport, and we will do all that we can to ensure that that happens. Our record today is an impressive one. Our further investment in facilities across the country shows the direction that this Government wants to take, which is to increase participation and activity for all across the country. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many local authorities have outstanding equal pay claims. The Scottish Government believes that it is completely unacceptable for any equal pay claims against local authorities to remain outstanding. Local authorities are responsible for the employment of their staff and the Scottish Government is therefore unable to provide details of outstanding claims. However, the Accounts Commission has indicated that councils estimate that about 30,000 equal pay cases remain outstanding and Audit Scotland plans to look equal pay issues across local government in more detail during 2016-17. Rona Mackay Thank you for that answer. In relation to that, can the cabinet secretary give an update on what action the Government is taking to ensure equality for women in the workplace? Over and above our work to support and promote equal pay, the Scottish Government is involved in a wide range of actions to tackle inequality for women in the workplace. Actions include promoting family-friendly, flexible work-in, high-quality and flexible childcare, and we fund organisations such as Equate, CareerWise and Close the Gap. As well as our programme for government commitments on women returners, the new advisory council on women and girls and pregnancy and maternity discrimination working group, which will be chaired by Jamie Hepburn, all of that work is to help to ensure that we remove the barriers faced by women in the workplace over and on top of the work that we will do to tackle under representation of women in public boards. Stuart McMillan Thank you, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, that issue of equal pay is being raised in the chamber on numerous occasions certainly in November 2015 and also February of this year. The First Minister has encouraged local authorities who have not yet dealt with outstanding claims to deal with them quickly. However, I know that the Scottish Government has done that before, but I consider writing to local authorities, including Inverclyde Council, who have not yet dealt with outstanding equal pay claims. Mr McMillan raises a valid point. The issue of outstanding equal pay claims has been raised in the chamber many times. Earlier this morning, I met my constituent Rose Jackson, who is with the Scottish Pensioners Forum, who is outside Parliament today. Rose was telling me how, prior to her retirement, she was fortunate enough that her own equal pay claim was settled. However, we know that that is not the case for tens of thousands of women at the length and breadth of Scotland. Of course, I and the Scottish Government will consider what more can be done, including our manifesto commitment, which speaks of a system of penalties for local Government for those who have not settled by April 2017. Of course, we can write again to our colleagues in local government and follow matters up, but there is other action that the Scottish Government has already taken, indeed allowing flexibility for local government to use capital receipts to settle and other action in terms of abolishing fees for employment tribunals when that power comes our way. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of high street banks that have retail operations in Scotland and what was discussed. Minister Paul Wheelhouse, details of all ministerial engagements are published in arrears on the Scottish Government website. The data includes references to ministerial engagements with representatives of retail and high street banks from September 2015 to April 2016. Details of subsequent engagements will, of course, be published in due course. At those meetings, we discussed our mutual interest in supporting Scotland's economic growth. I will next meet representatives from across the financial services sector, including the high street banks, at the financial services advisory board on 4 October. I thank the minister for that answer. The minister may be aware of research that shows that Scotland is losing more than 140 bank branches over an 18-month period, beginning in July 2015. More than 20 of them are in Edinburgh, including a Currie branch, which is one of the branches that are commonly referred to as the last branch in town. Whilst I appreciate that retail operations may be the prerogative of the bank in question to be considered in the context of their overall operations, branches play a wider role in society, particularly for the elderly or those in remote areas who are often unable to bank in other ways. Has the minister relayed any concerns to banks operating in Scotland about the ever-increasing number of branch closures and the effect that those closures can have on local communities? I thank the member for his question. He raises a very important point, particularly in reference to those who are elderly, who are less able to use digital services or less equipped with the skills and confidence to do that. I recognise the concerns of his constituents and members across the chamber who will have similar concerns in their own constituencies. Those concerns will, of course, be worrying times for any branch staff who are directly affected by branch closures. I appreciate the bank as Scotlanders has indicated must make commercial decisions. The way that people carry out their day-to-day banking is changing as people increasingly move to digital services. However, I share his concerns. Banking services must consider the needs of all in our society, and there is a continuing need for face-to-face provision of banking. I made that point very clearly in my remarks on the debate that was led by Iain Gray in respect of a closure in East Lothian. We were certainly welcome to those points, such as the points that were made by Mr Leonard's being born in mind whenever high-street banks consider closures, especially where a branch is the last one in the community and especially where elderly customers may be affected. To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that housing developments do not have a negative impact on the character and infrastructure of villages. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is for local authorities through their development plans to direct the right development to the right place. Scottish planning policy provides a framework of guidance to support authorities in terms of promoting high-quality development and a sustainable pattern of development. Tom Arthur. I thank the minister for that answer and welcome that approach. However, many of my constituents in Brookfield, Howwood and Colbarcon have raised concerns with me over the scale of housing developments in their communities. I therefore ask what further action could possibly be taking so that we preserve the individual character of villages, while of course ensuring that there is a sufficient supply of new homes. Thank you. Planning authorities have responsibility for that development plan and decisions on planning applications in their area. Renfrewshire Council has published Renfrewshire's Place residential design guidance, which sets out the objectives for sustainable placemaking within the area. Throughout the planning system, opportunities are available for everyone to engage in the development decisions that affect them. All those involved in the planning system have a responsibility to engage and work together with communities and all stakeholders to achieve quality places. There are huge concerns in parts of East Lothian that housing developments will have a negative impact to health services, schools, public transport and so forth. Can the Scottish Government commit to an improvement in infrastructure before housing developments commence? The Scottish Government recognises that there is a need to improve the alignment of housing and infrastructure delivery and for that to be addressed in development plans. That is a significant issue that is being considered in the on-going work reviewing the planning system. We are working with a wide range of stakeholders to consider the options for implementing the recommendations of the independent panel that reported in May. The output from that will inform a planning white paper that will be published around the end of this year. Local authorities have responsibility for drawing up and bringing forward local development plans. It is for the Scottish Government to sign those plans off. Is the minister aware that there is major delays in many areas in getting those plans signed off? In the case of Fife, for example, £400 a day is what it costs the council. It is now running £20,000. Will the minister agree to look at that? I am aware of the Fife situation. The deputy leader of Fife Council has written to me about that and I will respond accordingly. There are some issues with the Fife plan. Our officials have written back, saying that there are about 200 questions that need to be answered, but I can assure Mr Riley that I will respond to the deputy leader of Fife Council and I will let him know how we progress with this matter. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Police Scotland regarding tackling hate crime. Scottish Government officials and Police Scotland are in regular touch to discuss tackling hate crime. Police Scotland takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously and monitors the level and type of incidents that are being reported on a daily basis in order to provide the most effective and robust response to safeguard victims and community groups. At this time, they have not seen any significant increase in the level of reports being received since the EU referendum in June. We would encourage anyone who believes that they may have been a victim of hate crime to report it to the police either directly or through their network of third-party reporting centres. Sandra White I thank the minister for that reply. The minister may be aware of the recent incident outside the St Union's Centre in Glasgow, where a far-right group calling on itself national action organised a food bank collection for whites only. Can the minister indicate what steps Police Scotland can and will do to ensure that this discriminatory and racist action is stamped out? I would say to the member to Sandra White that that kind of behaviour to which she referred is, of course, completely unacceptable. We, as a Government, are committed to doing all that we can to stamp it out. Police Scotland are closely monitoring the situation and will not hesitate to take action against hate crime. 6. Liam Kerr To ask the Scottish Government what steps the Government has taken since January this year to improve air quality in Aberdeen. The Scottish Government continues to provide practical and financial assistance to Aberdeen City Council in implementing its air quality action plan, which has been in place since 2006 and was updated in 2011. Liam Kerr I thank the minister for that answer. In January of this year, Market Street, Union Street and Wellington Road in Aberdeen all failed to comply with the Scottish Standards for Air Quality. That month, the Scottish Government said that, although there was still much to be done to deliver benefits for human and environmental health, where areas of poor quality remain. To date, there have been no Scottish Government-led initiatives in Aberdeen this entire year that focus on improving air quality. When will the Scottish Government stop taking Aberdeen and its citizens for granted and deal with the pollution in air quality, which seriously affects the quality of life of its citizens? I think that the member might have taken the small hint from my initial answer that it is the council that has drawn up an air quality action plan. It is the council who is taking the actions in connection with that, and that is the appropriate way in which to do it. He will discover that Aberdeen Council is not the only council who is doing the job that is required of them. We do believe that Aberdeen Council has got a good plan. It has been revised. It is taking the appropriate action where necessary to declare where necessary management areas, and we will continue to support them both practically and financially to do the work that they have set out to do. I ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that the Scottish Ambulance Service supports the co-responding of emergency services to road traffic accidents. The Scottish Government and the Scottish Ambulance Service understand the importance of a combined response from the emergency services to road traffic accidents. The Scottish Ambulance Service, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continue to work collaboratively to deliver a joint response to emergencies, and public safety remains a key priority for all of our emergency services. My constituents are Mrs McCandy, who tragically lost her son Kieran in a road traffic accident in March when he was cycling, has highlighted that the ambulance control rooms do not routinely alert the fire service of such incidents, even though their appliances are able to get incidents more quickly with their life-saving equipment. That is despite the emergency services in Grampian sending a memorandum of understanding on such issues in 2010. Will the minister, the cabinet secretary, take action to support my constituents' campaign, which sees a legacy to their late son Kieran, to ensure that all emergency services are properly co-ordinating the responses? Richard Lochhead, I met Mrs McCandy in the summer, and I was very moved by her desire to create a legacy in Kieran's name and to improve the response of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. I said that I would do what I could to support their campaign. It is important that all of our emergency services take a joint approach in responding to emergencies. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will always attend a road traffic accident where there are additional risks, such as entrapment of a patient fire or spillage. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service are already conducting trials of a joint response in several parts of Scotland as part of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy. I have asked the fire service and the Scottish Ambulance Service to consider how the evaluation and roll-out of those trials can be accelerated. If there is more, though we can do, I would want to do that. I am happy to keep Richard Lochhead and the McCandys informed of the progress that is being made. Before we move to the next item of business, members may wish to join me in welcoming a number of visitors to the gallery this afternoon, including his excellency, Mr Lubomir Rahack, the ambassador to the Slovak Republic.