 1. Jackson Carlaw How would the First Minister characterise her legal guarantee to treat people within 12 weeks being missed in a quarter of all cases? First Minister. As Jackson Carlaw is well aware, he certainly should be aware of it, this Government is investing record sums in the national health service. We also see record numbers of people working in the national health service, but the demand for our national health service is rising. Rising demand is ensuring pressure on waiting times. That is exactly why we have in place the waiting times improvement plan, which is backed by £850 million of dedicated resources, and the first resources of that have already been allocated by the health secretary. I regret the fact that there are people who are not being treated within the treatment time guarantee, but I would also remind Jackson Carlaw that, since that guarantee was introduced, over 1.7 million patients received their treatment within the required time frame. Patients who perhaps would not have been treated within the 12-week time frame had that guarantee not been in place. Jackson Carlaw Frankly, the First Minister, missing her legal guarantee in one in every four cases, is surely an unqualified failure. The First Minister talks about the efforts being made now, but let's look at her record in reducing waiting times. For example, last year, the previous health secretary launched a big new campaign to recruit much-needed radiologists into Scotland vital if we are to reduce waiting times. We now learned that this campaign resulted in the recruitment of just five staff. No wonder we saw a 38 per cent rise in the number of us waiting for over six weeks for diagnostic tests in just the last year. Why should we have any faith in this Government's promises now, when we know that previous much-height promises have flopped? The First Minister Well, in terms of radiology, as I hope Jackson Carlaw is aware, radiology is actually experiencing acute shortages worldwide, not just in Scotland. That is why we have increased training places in Scotland and why we are acting to improve recruitment. It is also worth noting that, since the Government took office, consultant radiologists have increased by 45.4 per cent. By 2022, we will have increased specialty training places in radiology by approximately 75 per cent from 2014 levels. The international radiology recruitment campaign launched in 2018 generated interest from clinicians around the globe, and health boards are now finalising a number of offers of appointment. I hope that Jackson Carlaw will have the good grace to welcome some of that. Before I finish this answer, I want to draw attention to the chamber and, indeed, to Jackson Carlaw in particular, to a letter that is in today's Times newspaper, signed by 24 medical professionals across Scotland. I just want to quote it to Jackson Carlaw, that, as doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals from Scotland, we see the damage Brexit is already inflicting on our treasured national health service. The loss of thousands of European staff has led to crippling staff shortages. I take my responsibilities seriously. When are the Tories going to take their responsibility for the damage that they are doing to our national health service? The acute shortage in radiologists was identified in 2014 by the First Minister's logic. It was clearly the uncertainty caused by Scottish independence that was responsible for that. Of course, it is not just the waits to get into hospital. It is the safety and cleanliness of the hospitals in which doctors and nurses have to work and in which patients are treated. As the health secretary rightly said earlier this week, public confidence has been shaken by the infection outbreaks that we have seen reported in recent weeks. How many safety and cleanliness inspections have taken place in Scotland's hospitals in each of the last five years? I do not have that precise information to hand, but I will ensure that it is provided to Jackson Carlaw. I do know that, over recent years, this trend started when I was health secretary. Before I say that, I am not in any way underplaying the experiences that have been seen at the Queen Elizabeth in recent times, but infection rates in our hospitals have reduced dramatically. For some infections, the reductions have been more than 80 per cent. That is down to the dedicated work that is done by cleaners and others in our hospitals. I hope that Jackson Carlaw would recognise that. We continue to take those responsibilities seriously. I go back to the point that I made earlier. Jackson Carlaw referred to it as my logic. The words that I quoted are not the health secretary's words. They are the words of health professionals across Scotland. I repeat them and ask Jackson Carlaw to respond to them. The loss of thousands of European staff has led to crippling staff shortages. The UK Government's Brexit deal would be terrible for Britain and for patients' health. We cannot allow Brexit to cause more damage than it already has. That is why we urge MPs to stop this harmful Brexit. Those are the words of health professionals. Will Jackson Carlaw respect them? If Jackson Carlaw is keen to establish an Opposition leader's question time each week for 45 minutes, I am very happy to answer questions to him. However, this is First Minister's question time. What we have all become used to is Nicola Sturgeon referring back to her ever-bigger book of excuses, which, like Pinocchius knows, has grown much bigger since the start of this year. The figures to the question that I asked were answered in a parliamentary question last night. From a high of 38 safety and cleanliness inspections in 2014-15 to just 19 in 2017-18, and only 14 over the last 11 months, less than half the number of just five years ago, whatever excuses are given by the First Minister, I think that most people will conclude that that is also a failure and that it is unacceptable. Can I suggest that, when this Government legislates to set a guarantee, it meets it? When people lack confidence in the cleanliness of hospitals, the record under the Scottish Government is not to cut the number of inspections by half. Does the First Minister not agree? First Minister. First of all, Jackson Carlaw's response is that he does not really fancy addressing the point. It is no comfort to health professionals worried about Brexit, the length and breadth of this country. I would suggest that Jackson Carlaw does a bit more delving into how the healthcare environment inspectorate does its work. It decides on the inspections that it carries out. It decides on the schedule of those inspections, as we discussed just a couple of weeks ago, are risk-based. That is a point that perhaps Jackson Carlaw does not know. In addition to cleanliness inspections, the HEI now does thematic inspections, which look at the broader patient experience and will often include cleanliness and infection rates in hospitals. Perhaps a little bit more research on Jackson Carlaw's part here would pay dividends. I come back to the point here. We have had some experiences that Jackson Carlaw and I have discussed in recent weeks about infection outbreaks at the Queen Elizabeth and Glasgow royal infirmary. Those are serious and they are taken seriously. However, the overall trend in infection rates is downward in Scotland's hospitals. When I was health secretary in the early days of my time as health secretary, CDIF, MRSA, big, big concerns in our hospitals, 80 plus percent reductions in those infections. For Jackson Carlaw not to recognise that, it does not do a disservice to me or to the health secretary. It does an enormous disservice to staff right across our national health service. 2. Richard Leonard The 45-day consultation to decide the future of the Caledonia railway works in Glasgow ends in just four days' time. Time is running out to save this critical part of Scotland's railway infrastructure and to save these 200 highly skilled jobs. Can the First Minister update the chamber on what steps her Government has taken to safeguard those jobs and to retain this site? The First Minister As Richard Leonard knows, the minister involved has taken a very close interest in this. Unions has spoken to the company, has encouraged the company to extend the consultation in order to allow other options to be properly investigated, including options that would involve Transport Scotland. We continue—the consultation has not yet closed—and we will continue to apply as much pressure as we possibly can on the company, because the jobs are important and I think the way the workforce is being treated is unacceptable. Richard Leonard It is a good decision and I am glad that we have reached this outcome, because it allows us to protect not just the asset but the jobs that directly and indirectly depend on it. That is what Nicola Sturgeon said after she took Prestwick Airport into public ownership in 2013. If it was good enough for an airport then, why is it not good enough for our railways now? The First Minister Richard Leonard should understand and appreciate, I hope, that before we can take a decision like the one that we took around Prestwick Airport, which I think was a good decision at the time, we have to undertake due diligence. We have to look at all the different aspects. That is why we have encouraged this company, Gemini Rail, to extend the consultation, because the current consultation period is too short to allow any serious exploration of alternative options. I hope that Richard Leonard will join me now, even at this late stage, in asking the company to extend that, because we are prepared to look at all options for this and we will continue to do that. As Richard Leonard has just demonstrated there, we have a good record and an interventionist record when it comes to saving industrial jobs across the country. Richard Leonard But First Minister, this consultation ends in just four days' time. I wrote to you almost four weeks ago, stressing the urgency of the situation. You have said nothing in response. The workers and their unions are awaiting a proper response as well. Out there in the real world, what is at stake are people's livelihoods and their national transport asset. Will you take decisive action? Will you step in? Will you bring the Caledonia railway works back into public ownership? First Minister In terms of saying nothing, Michael Matheson has led two parliamentary debates in this. There has been ministerial discussion and engagement on this. We will continue to look at and consider all options, but I say to Richard Leonard in all seriousness that the consultation timescale is not within my gift. It is not me that has set that, it is not the Government that has set that. We continue to call on the company to extend that timescale. It is worth noting that the works has an order book for ScotRail train refurbishment that runs until July, so there is absolutely no need to proceed so quickly and as quickly as the company is doing. Scottish Enterprise is working towards having a rail engineering hub at one or more locations across Scotland, where heavy maintenance or innovation can take place. Work on that is under way, and Scottish Enterprise has been carrying out discussions with the site owner on how those works could fit into that strategic hub idea. We will continue to look positively at all options. I ask Richard Leonard to join with me in calling on the company to extend the consultation. If he has one more question, perhaps he can take the opportunity now to do so, but, as we have done at Presswick, in a range of other cases, we will always act in the best interests of workers and jobs across the country. We have a few constituency supplementary questions. The first is from Claire Adamson. First Minister, I would like to raise a constituency case of a young woman with whom I met recently. In 2015, at the age of 17, and after the tragic death of her mother, my constituent took on the responsibility for caring for two of her younger siblings. North Lanarkshire Council's social work department would, in full knowledge of our circumstances, indeed visited my constituent's home to assess its sustainability prior to our siblings moving in. However, since 2015, and despite verbally seeking support on a number of occasions, my constituent has never been able to access additional financial support as a kinship carer. Does the First Minister agree with me that this case raises serious concerns that vulnerable families may be failing to access the support to which they are entitled? I thank Claire Adamson for raising the tragic case. It is indeed a sad and tragic situation for all three siblings. I know that everyone here will recognise the circumstances that Claire Adamson has shared with us. I know from speaking to kinship families that the impact that bereavement has on children and carers. It is really important that everyone involved is able to access the support that they are entitled to. We would expect a local authority to carefully assess the needs of a carer and children in a situation such as this, and to consider what support financial or otherwise is appropriate. The Scottish Government funds Citizens Advice Scotland to provide a specialised advice service, including information on financial and legal matters. We continue to work with social security colleagues, including those at Westminster, to ensure that kinship carers can access a range of benefits to alleviate the additional costs of caring. I would be happy to ask the minister to speak with Claire Adamson to see if there is any further assistance and help that the Scottish Government can offer in this particularly tragic case. Peter Chapman, to be filled by Claire Baker. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recent figures showing that more than 9,000 people were waiting beyond the 12-week target for in-patient or day-case admissions within NHS Grampian. Does the First Minister recognise that this figure has been rising every year, and it is now eight times higher than it was in 2013, that the NHS Grampian is a worst-funded health board in Scotland, with a short haul of £239 million over the past decade, based on your own official figures? Does the First Minister agree that the people of the north-east deserve much better? As I said in response to Jackson Carlaw, waiting times are not as good as we want them to be, or as good right now as patients deserve them to be. That is why we have the waiting times improvement plan in place, backed by the £850 million of dedicated resources that I have already spoken about today. The health secretary will continue to work with health boards to ensure that we see the improvements that need to be made. We know that there are record resources going into the health service and all health boards. We know that there are record numbers of people working in our health service, but the rising demand is creating that pressure, and we must respond to that pressure. Finally, as I have done frequently in this chamber, I simply remind the Tories again that, had we followed their advice in budget decisions this year and last year, we would be grappling with a situation right now where we had £550 million less to invest in our public services and our national health services in particular. I know that the Tories do not like that, but it is a fact, and it is one that I think it is about time that they started to face up to. Claire Baker, to be followed by Oliver Mundell. Thank you. This week, the awarding of contracts for the Murray East and the Concardant offshore wind projects were announced, and so far BiFab have received no work. It is over a year since the yards, which were on the brink of closure, were purchased by DF Barnes with support from the Scottish Government, and there has been no employment at the five yards or contracts since then. GMB and United are warning that the five yards could end up with nothing, as we see Scottish renewable projects being awarded to overseas companies, and the Scottish supply chain being squeezed out. Could the First Minister provide her response to the situation and give an update on expectations for the future of the yards in Fife? I thank Claire Baker for raising the issue, which is extremely important and one very close to my heart. Of course, it is important to note that BiFab have secured a contract to fabricate 150 pinpiles for the Murray East project. That contract will be at their Arnish yard and provide work for 90 people, which will start next month in March. Beyond that, we continue to work extremely hard. I note that the unions have been clear that they think that both DF Barnes and the Scottish Government are fighting hard to secure contracts. We will continue to do that. I share the frustrations of the unions and I share the frustrations that Claire Baker has just articulated. We will discuss with the unions some of the concerns that they have. I will quote Pat Rafferty and Gary Smith here when they talk about BiFab competing against established supply chains of preference. There are concerns that BiFab is not operating on a level playing field, and it is important that those concerns are addressed. In the short term, we will continue to work as hard as we can to secure work for BiFab. We have supported BiFab throughout, and, in the medium to longer term, we will work with the trade unions and others to try to address any underlying issues that are there that might be getting in the way of a successful operation such as BiFab winning those contracts. Does the First Minister agree that it is totally unacceptable for 1,000 patients to be transferred to a different GP practice in another town due to GP shortages? Following the closure of another GP practice, will the Scottish Government commit to reviewing GP provision in upper Anandale? In terms of the particular local issue, I will ask the health secretary to look into that and to respond to the member. Of course, health boards have a duty to ensure that there is GP provision for all the patients that they serve. As the member will be aware, the Scottish Government is taking a range of actions from increasing places at medical schools to increasing GP training places to incentive schemes to increase the GP workforce and will continue to invest in those initiatives to address some of the shortages that do occur. Question 3, Patrick Harvie. The Government this week published its transport figures and they make for grim reading. We are all aware of the urgency of our environmental crisis and the impatience that people are expressing from school strikes to climate scientists. Nobody has looked at the February heat wave without recognising that that is not normal. We need to change the way that we live and do it urgently. Transport is one of the areas where the Scottish Government has been repeatedly told that it needs to do better. Yet we are seeing more road traffic, more air traffic, less bike use and less public transport use. Transport emissions have gone up 5 per cent in the last five years when they should be going down. What is the Government getting wrong on transport and what is it going to change? First Minister. I agree with the broad thrust of Patrick Harvie's question so I want to come on to where I agree in a second but just a couple of points to note which I think give better context to this. There have been increases in traffic volumes and I will return to that but it is worth noting that greenhouse gas emissions from road transport are lower now than they were in 2007. In terms of aviation, while we are seeing also an increase in aviation, aviation currently accounts for less than 5 per cent of total Scottish emissions and of course we are one of the few countries anywhere in the world that include aviation emissions in the calculation of our overall climate change targets. Generally speaking, I agree that it is important to encourage people to look at different modes of transport. That is good not just for the climate but for public health as well. That is why we are investing more than £1 billion a year in public and sustainable transport to try to encourage people on to public transport and active travel. That includes £250 million a year to support our bus industry. We will continue to make those interventions and look for improvements where we can. The Transport Bill aims to give local transport authorities more flexibility around bus services. The final thing that I would say is that it should make all parties across the chamber think long and hard about the kind of knee-jerk opposition that we see every time that we do as much as contemplate anything that is designed to encourage people out of their cars. Those statistics should be a wake-up call to all of us. The First Minister says that the Government is encouraging public transport use but we are still seeing a shift away from public transport use and toward car use, so it is not working. The First Minister also says that we are counting our aviation emissions. Yes, we are counting them but we are not cutting them. Counting them is only any use if it helps us to cut them. The reality is that transport emissions as a whole have not been going down, they have been going up. There has been no reduction at all since the long-term 30-year trajectory around which we have been supposed to be cutting our emissions right across the economy, so we are still shifting away from public transport and active transport and toward car use when we should be going the other way. When will the Government address the fundamental lack of any attempt at traffic demand reduction in its transport and climate change plans? The First Minister said that we have doubled our funding for active travel. We have taken that from £40 million to £80 million a year. We did that in the previous year and we are maintaining that in this year. We are also supporting low-emission zones and, of course, working with the Greens, we are proposing extra powers for councils to do more around that if they so choose as well. We are taking a number of actions in which Patrick Harvie is right and we should continue to look for ways in which we can do more and go further. Patrick Harvie seemed to take issue with my use of the term encouraging people. People have choices around that. We cannot force people to use one form of transport over another. What we can do is invest in the alternatives that we are doing and to make it as attractive as possible for people to use methods of transport other than cars. We will continue to do that. I hope that we will continue to have the support of the Greens. I think that there is a challenge to other parties here whose knee-jerk opposition to initiatives sometimes get in the way of all of us trying to do the right thing. In June 2017, I asked the First Minister about treating waiting times in her hospitals. She told me that she was making targeted investment and was making sure improvements happened, but it got worse. In October 2018, I asked again—this time the First Minister told me that she had a funded plan—that it would substantially reduce waiting times. On Tuesday, was the First Minister surprised that waiting time performance fell yet again? No, I was not. If Willie Rennie had read the waiting times improvement plan, he would not have been surprised at that either. It is regrettable that we are where we are with waiting times, but we set out very frankly the challenge and trajectory that waiting times improvement would take. It is all set out there in black and white in the waiting times improvement plan. We are making targeted investment. I have referred twice now to the £850 million of investment to back that plan. Just last week, the health secretary announced almost £30 million, including, for example, extra money to Forth Valley hospital to deliver two new theatres by October this year, which will bring additional capacity for 1500 more joint replacements. By June this year, the hospital will have a second MRI scanner to allow 8,000 more diagnostic examinations to take place per year. The Golden Jubilee will purchase an additional CT scanner, which will be operational by next month, in March, which will provide an additional 10,500 images annually. Those are the targeted investments that will deliver the improvements in waiting times that the improvement plan set out very clearly. It has been eight years since the law was passed, and it has been eight years of excuses just like that. It seems the longer that people have to wait, the bigger the excuses from the First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon told us that her patient rights law was the way to cut waiting times, but it is just flim flam. Tricking patients does not get them treated any quicker. The law is broken 200 times every day. 13,000 were waiting. Now it is 18,000. What are the consequences for the First Minister if she breaks her own law next time, the time after that and the time after that? Will the First Minister pay any price for that, or is it only the patients who are going to suffer? We will continue to focus on doing the job that we are elected to do as a Government, which is to deliver the improvements that are set out in that plan. We will back that with record investment, record numbers of people working in our national health service. We know that demand is rising, so health services across the world are having to deal with that challenge. Scotland is actually doing it better than any other health service across the United Kingdom right now. However, in terms of the record of this Government overall, in terms of people waiting longer than 12 weeks for treatment, it is worth noting that, since the Government took office in 2007, the numbers waiting longer than 12 weeks is reduced by 21 per cent. That is not good enough. That has to go down further. It was 104,867 in 2006-07. It is 82,660 now. That is not good enough, but we will continue to target the investments to make sure that we see the improvements that patients have a right to expect. Some further supplementary is the first from Bob Doris, worldwide, Jenny Marra. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The Caledonian railway works previously referred to as in my constituency. Can I draw the First Minister's attention to a live tender? The company, Porterbrook, will determine on about which company gets the work to refurbish around 100 class 70, 170 carriages, which will be run on the ScotRail network. That could, if it goes to Springburn, secure around 40 jobs for around three years. I have written to Porterbrook commending the skills and dedication of that workforce at the Caledonian railway station. I very much hope that it will secure that work. Although I appreciate the First Minister, I cannot directly interfere in a tender process, does she agree with me that Gemini has got an absolute responsibility to bid for that work, to seek to bring to Springburn yard, to hope the 45-day notices and threats of redundancy and to offer hope to my constituents, not redundancies? Yes. I agree 100 per cent with Bob Dorris, and I commend him highly on the way that he has defended the jobs and interests of his constituents in this particular case. Gemini should remove the threat of redundancy, it should extend the consultation, it should certainly be prepared to bid for any work that is going and give all of his time to look at all options to secure those jobs for the future. Jenny Marra has been followed by Jenny Gilruth. The First Minister will be aware of NHS Tayside asking her Government for £12 million for repairs to an outdated electrical system at Ninewell hospital and a huge backlog of maintenance. It is not, I believe, in the public financial interest for boards to come back asking for more money and millions to be spent on piecemeal repairs to our hospitals. Glasgow has a new hospital, Edinburgh and new facilities in Aberdeen. If the business case adds up and is sustainable, will the First Minister commit to replacing the oldest acute hospital in Scotland and support a new hospital in Dundee? Business cases are looked at robustly and properly, as are all requests for funding by health boards for backlog maintenance, which is the situation in this case. The Scottish Government's capital investment group is tasked with doing that, and that is the process that is in accordance with capital projects of this scale. I would encourage the health board to continue to talk to the Government and to the capital investment group so that proper decisions can be taken in these matters in the proper way. Jenny Gilruth Last night at Westminster, all parties had the chance to rule out a no-deal Brexit, but instead the Tories chose to put 100,000 Scottish jobs at even greater risk. With just 29 days until Brexit, what is the First Minister's message to Theresa May? It is scandalous that we are now just 29 days from Brexit catastrophe being inflicted upon Scotland by the Tories. Last night, all parties, including Scotland's Tory MPs, had the opportunity to vote for Ian Blackford's amendment and removed the risk of no-deal, not just at the end of March, but removed the risk of no-deal forever. It is absolutely disgraceful that the Scottish Tory MPs refused to do that. I have to say that watching David Mundell, the so-called Secretary of State for Scotland, squirming in an interview last night, trying to explain why he did not vote for that amendment, was quite mind-boggling. The Tories are no longer standing up—they never were, but they certainly are not now standing up for Scotland's interests, and if that Brexit catastrophe hits, then every single one of them will bear the responsibility. Question 5, Christine Grahame. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government is confident that it will end traditional black bag waste and a range of recyclable materials being buried in the ground by its target of 2021. Since 2012, there has been a statutory duty to recycle in Scotland, so recyclable materials should not be going to landfill nor to energy from waste. Scotland has already met relevant EU targets. However, our forthcoming ban on biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from January 2021 deliberately goes further and sets a marker for our environmental ambitions. As such, it is disappointing that there is uncertainty around the readiness of some councils to deliver that. We are aware of the significant challenges associated with delivering the ban and are working with public and private sector partners to tackle those challenges. Our focus now is on working with authorities who do not have a solution in place to identify ways that they can comply with the ban as soon as possible. Christine Grahame. I thank the First Minister for her answer on challenges. Can I advise the First Minister that having recently purchased a small musical toy torch with whirly coloured lights for granddaughter age one, it took me at least 20 minutes to remove it from its packaging with the aid of a Phillips screwdriver, I would add? Illustrating yet again that fighting packaging seems a losing battle, even the humble turnip is now pre-wrapped for goodness sake. What can the Scottish Government do to reduce idiotic and wasteful packaging, perhaps starting with toys and turnips, which would certainly help to reduce its targets by 2021? I should perhaps begin by saying that I am relieved to hear that the toy torch with whirly coloured lights was for Christine Grahame's granddaughter. On the serious issue, I agree that plastic packing is something that we all need to tackle. The Government is committed to substantially reducing unnecessary and difficult to recycle packaging to increase recycling rates. Earlier this month, we, along with other UK Administrations, commenced a consultation on reform of packaging producer responsibility across the UK, ensuring that business meets the full cost of managing packaging at the end of life. That consultation will run until 13 May. In the meantime, we will continue to explore how any new arrangements might best be given effect, including how they align with our plans to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers in Scotland. I declare an interest with respect to my previous work in the environment sector. Presiding Officer, there is genuine cross-party concern that many environmental targets will not be met, in part due to a failure to take an evidence-based approach when setting targets and, indeed, subsequent weak implementation plans. For example, banning plastic straws without knowing their weight and volume, cutting food waste by a third without knowing how much food waste there was, and now, the 2021 waste to landfill ban. Will the First Minister accept that our environment targets and implementation require a robust, evidence-based approach? It is a bit rich for any Tory to stand up and talk about evidence, spaces and the importance of environmental action, given the knee-jerk opposition to workplace parking and discretionary powers for councils that we have seen in the last couple of weeks. On that, we will always act in an evidence-based way. In terms of the 2021 ban, I think that that is right, because it sets a level of ambition that we should all be working towards. Of course, 14 local authorities already have a long-term solution in place, and that includes our major authorities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, so our focus now will be working with those authorities who do not have a solution in place so that we can identify ways for them to meet that target as quickly as possible. To ask the First Minister what engagement the Scottish Government plans with the SQA to prevent possible strike action during the forthcoming summer exams. I urge the SQA and unions to continue constructive discussion to reach a resolution. The Deputy First Minister met the SQA's chief examiner just yesterday and sought assurances that the SQA is taking all appropriate measures to ensure that the exam diet is not disrupted and we will continue to monitor the situation closely. I thank the First Minister for that response. Parents and pupils across Scotland are already quite rightly very worried about the possibility of strike action with some teachers and now they have this additional worry that there could be strike action at SQA. What I think the chamber would agree would be quite the worst time in the school year. Six days ago in the Herald newspaper, a member of the SQA was quoted as saying that they have in place robust contingency plans. So could the First Minister tell parents and pupils exactly what the Scottish Government believes those contingency plans to be? There is an annually updated contingency plan in place to respond to any scenario that might pose a risk to the qualification system, and the Deputy First Minister will be happy to write to Liz Smith with more detail of that. Of course, we want to ensure that the contingency plan here is not required and that that should be our focus. It should be noted that the proposed ballot at the SQA is of a relatively small number of staff, around one in 10 of their roughly 1,000 staff. That said, industrial action would not be in the interests of young people. That is why I urge the SQA and the unions to continue the discussions to reach a resolution, and we will remain in touch with the SQA on that matter. On the wider issue of teachers, the offer that has been made to teachers in terms of pay is the best offer that has been made to any group of public sector workers, not just in Scotland but anywhere in the UK. It would see teachers' salaries in April of this year increase by a minimum of 9 per cent compared with current salaries. I hope that we can reach a resolution of that dispute in the near future as well, because it is not in anybody's interest to see industrial action in any part of our education system. Jackie Baillie The First Minister will be aware that pay talks between colleges Scotland and the EIS have broken up less than an hour ago, with no improved offer from the employers on the table. There is now the very real prospect of further strike action over the coming weeks, affecting colleges across Scotland, including West College Scotland, that covers my constituency. Will the First Minister agree that the pay claim that is made by college lecturers is entirely in keeping with the Government's public sector pay policy, and will she instruct the Cabinet Secretary for Education to perhaps take a less passive role to make sure that there is a reasonable settlement, reach soon something that he has done in the past? The First Minister Well, the Government does not take a passive role in any of these things, but we do respect negotiations. As somebody who, I am sure, would describe themselves as a trade unionist or a trade union supporter, I would hope that that is something that Jackie Baillie would also do, respect collective bargaining and on-going negotiations in any particular sector. In terms of college lecturers, I would certainly hope that we get people back around the table and that a resolution can be reached. This dispute, just to remind the chamber, is about a cost-of-living pay uplift over and above the harmonisation increase, which on average saw 9 per cent pay increases over three years for college lecturers. In the EIS Fela, view that as distinct from the cost-of-living uplift as distinct from the harmonisation deal, employers take a different view of that. Again, I encourage them to get back around the table and to reach a resolution that is in the interests of lecturers but also in the interests of students across the country. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on a ban on live animal exports. The Government is committed to the highest possible welfare standards for animals and to ensuring that livestock in Scotland are transported where that is necessary humanely and with respect and dignity. We recognise there are complexities and, certainly, we recognise the concerns around transportation. Our position is that, ideally, the process of quality meat production should take place close to where animals are born and reared. We are also working with the farming sector to explore ways of rearing more male dairy calves productively and profitably rather than exporting them. Colin Smyth I thank the First Minister for that answer, but does the First Minister agree that the scenes of weeks-old unwanted calves being transported hundreds of miles for hours on end from Scotland to Ramsgate to then be shipped abroad purely for slaughter, potentially in countries whose animal welfare conditions are inferior to our own? Does nothing enhance the reputation of Scotland and our vital agriculture industry? Is the First Minister really satisfied with the conditions that those calves are being transported in? Will the First Minister show leadership on that issue? Send a clear signal that the Scottish Government will bring an end to live animal exports for slaughter, and if the rest of the UK introduces such a ban, state now that Scotland will not seek an opt-out. The First Minister Firstly, there is currently no transport of livestock from Scotland to continental Europe for immediate slaughter. There is transport for rearing, which is where, as I said in my initial answer, we are exploring alternatives to that so that more male dairy calves can productively and profitably be reared here rather than being exported. It is also important to point out that there are very high standards of welfare in place, and we expect all legislation and rules on the transport of livestock to be adhered to. The Animal and Plant Health Agency approves export journey plans on behalf of Scottish ministers, and it investigates any non-compliance with those plans. We recognise the concerns that have been raised, and we are committed to working with the sector to explore alternatives to live exports. In terms of the possibility of a ban, the Scottish Government consented to the UK Government's call for evidence on proposals to ban export to slaughter, and we await the result of that review before deciding on what further action should be taken. We will move on shortly to members' business in the name of Alexander Stewart on world hearing day and hearing awareness week 2019, but before then we will have a short suspension to allow the gallery to clear to allow members and ministers to change seats.