 Felly, na i mi, cmoelwch iaith gan i grantio'r pr Queens encourage o'ricsr! Be详, mae'r pr Red 53,465 bwysig. The next quarterly update showing affordable housing completions for the whole of 2017-18 will be published on 12 June. Over the course of this Parliament, we fully expect to deliver our ambitious target of delivering over 50,000 affordable homes, 35,000 of which will be for social rent. Kate Forbes. I wholeheartedly welcome that commitment because the minister will know how important affordable housing is in my constituency to everything else—jobs, education and even healthcare, and those figures are very impressive. Would the minister accept an invitation to my constituency to meet with key stakeholders to discuss how the Government's target and how their previous successful building has enabled rural areas to grow? Minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Local authority, of course, has the statutory requirement to produce a local housing strategy, which I know that Ms Forbes will be aware of, and they need to set out their priorities on that. Over the course of the next few years, Highland Council will have been allocated over £184 million to affordable homes. I would be absolutely delighted to accept Ms Forbes's invitation to visit our constituency. I made a promise to visit Tlachy MacDonald of Skye and Lochal, a housing association that I met recently in Concardin and Fife. We will arrange that, and I will be pleased to visit Ms Forbes's beautiful constituency. Graham Simpson. In that spirit, I wonder whether the minister would like to visit my region with me and meet some of the stakeholders there. The actual question is—he cannot answer that— what analysis the Government has done on whether the money for affordable homes is being spent in areas of Scotland that are most in need of affordable homes, and what analysis has been done on the type of homes that has been built? Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am more than happy to visit any part of Scotland to see our affordable homes programme delivering for every part of Scotland. Mr Simpson has asked a pretty comprehensive question around about analysis. He very well knows that I keep a very close eye on what is being delivered across the country. If he wants to write to me with more specific questions around about analysis, I will happily answer his points in that regard. As I have made it very clear in this chamber on many occasions, I want our affordable housing programme to deliver for all of Scotland. I want local authorities to look at the areas where there are most needs and to deliver for communities across the board. Elaine Smith In terms of people in need of affordable homes, the minister is aware that almost 10,000 disabled people are stuck on a waiting list for suitable affordable housing. With demand set to rise by 80 per cent over the next five years, will the Government reconsider setting targets for how many of the 50,000 new affordable homes must be disabled accessible? I thank Ms Smith for the question. It gives me the opportunity, as I did last week, to reiterate the fact that the Government has stated that, in terms of subsidy for wheelchair accessible and specialist housing, we will be flexible so that local authorities' housing associations can build to meet the needs of people in their area. I do not want to set an arbitrary target. It is up to local authorities to look at the needs and demands in their area. Some local authorities, like Angus, if I remember rightly, have set a target of 16 per cent of the housing that they are delivering, being wheelchair accessible or specialist homes. I want all local authorities not only to look at their housing needs and demands assessment but also to interrogate their waiting lists, to see who is waiting for those kinds of homes and to get on with the job of delivering those homes in their areas. Now is the time to do that. The subsidy is there, the flexibility is there and they must go and work and meet the needs of people right across the country. Andy Wightman In light of the fact that many of the homes in Kate Forbes constituency are second and holiday homes, and in light of a report that I published yesterday showing 26,000 of those across Scotland, does the minister agree that secondary holiday homes should be subject to planning consent? I think that we need to look closely at some areas where there is a difficulty with second homes and holiday homes. We must remember that those holiday homes bring income into areas such as the likes of Skye and other parts of Scotland. What we need to do is to increase the amount of homes that we are delivering in those places so that people who choose to live and work there have the right accommodation. Mr Wightman will be aware that local authorities have flexibilities around council tax for holiday homes and second homes, and I would urge councils to use those powers. It is their responsibility to do so. Question 2, David Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the findings of the 50-mile per hour speed limit pilot for HDVs on the A9. Minister, I am so use of it. We plan to publish the findings of the A9 HDV pilot later on this summer. The research into the performance of the A9 with the higher HDV limit in place is currently being evaluated and, as I say, will be published later in the summer. There is also, of course, as the member is probably aware, some data coming from DFT in terms of the uplift in speed limits in Highways England. We will be looking forward to receiving that in coming months also. David Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the minister share my view that the pilot for HDVs on the A9 has been a success? Is this not the time to extend the speed limit for HDVs to 50 for all single-carageways in Scotland, which should be good news for the haulage industry, good news for safety campaigners and good news for the climate as HDVs at 50 miles per hour are less polluting? Is it good enough for the A9? Why is it not good enough for all of Scotland? Can I say that I am very sympathetic to the points that David Stewart makes? I will just make a couple of other points just to ensure that we are putting this conversation in the context that it should be in. Of course, we know that every safety campaign will tell you that any uplift in speed is the biggest contributor to potentially fatal and, indeed, serious casualties on a truncular network, so we have to be mindful of that. Of course, the uplift in the speed is also being done in conjunction with the fact that we have average speed cameras there as well, so we have to look at other parts of the truncular network single or dual-carageways that do not have average speed cameras. I am sympathetic, so we have the data coming from the A9 pilot, which I will publish in the coming weeks. We also have the data coming from the Department for Transport, which I think is towards the end of summer autumn that we are expecting into their uplift in speed limit. If the data shows that we can do that in a way that does not compromise safety on our trunk roads and is not counterproductive to our climate agenda, then it is something that I am very sympathetic to. I know that David Stewart will appreciate those points, so I will ensure that he is kept up-to-date with them. I appreciate hearing that response from the minister to ask the Scottish Government whether any assessments have been made or consideration given to increasing speed limits for HGVs from 40 to 50 on some parts of the A75? We are looking at the trunk road network as a whole. I think that looking at the A9, we would have to probably look at other areas that have average speed camera measures on them as well, such as the A77, perhaps the A90 Dundee to Stonehaven. However, if there is a compelling case and the Department for Transport data will be important in that, if there is a compelling case to do that right across the trunk road network, the A75 would be included in that. As I said, the research that is coming that we will be analysing, I will ensure, is also made available to Emma Harper as well. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce waiting times for children's health services in the highlands. There are a number of initiatives under way to improve waiting times for children's health services in the highlands, including improved workforce planning, staff development, caseload management and better use of technology. However, recruitment to some specialties continues to be a challenge. A total of 151 children and young people in highland are waiting more than 18 weeks for services such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and dietetics, due to staffing difficulties. There is also a shortage of school nurses with more than seven vacancies and, in addition, two have retired last month. The risk to health visiting is reported as high and the shortage of health visitors means that children are not receiving many of the visits laid down on the health visitor's home visiting pathway. What is the cabinet secretary going to do to make sure that those children get the best start in life? I thank Rhoda Grant for her question. Highland council has advised that staffing continues to be an issue, particularly for speech and language therapy, but it has recruited to a number of occupational therapy posts recently, so they expect waiting times to decrease. The HPE workforce that Rhoda Grant refers to is crucial here and is expanding, and of course is providing that important support to early years. Highlands have tried some quite innovative ways of improving services. For example, Rhoda Grant may be aware of the telephone consultation and triage that is being developed to give people quicker access to advice and support and building greater universal resources for parents and professionals to support self-management for those children with perhaps lower levels of needs in line with the national model for children's health services. Of course, the health visiting services are expanding and we are on track to deliver the additional 500 health visitors that we have committed to, and of course Highland is getting its share of that. To ask the Scottish Government what its role is in maintaining the school of state, and I remind members that I am the PLO to the cabinet secretary. Under the Education 1980 act, it is the responsibility of all local authorities to maintain the school of state. However, the Scottish Government's £1.8 billion school building programme is helping to replace the schools in the worst condition across Scotland. Jenny Gilruth I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. What the young people of Glenrothes really need in the town's 70th year are school buildings fit for learning, yet both Glenrothes and Glenwood high school buildings have a poor rating according to the most recent Scottish Government data published in 2016. Will the Scottish Government work with Fife Council to ensure that Glenrothes' schools are prioritised to allow for improvements to be made? John Swinney First of all, let me record my good wishes to Glenrothes on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the new town. Fife Council was awarded significant funding of over £57 million towards the construction of a number of schools, one of which was in Glenrothes, Ocumuty High School, which was opened in August 2013 under our schools for the future programme. I have committed to announcing further details on the enhancement of the learning estate later on this year, and the development work is under way for that. Of course, we will discuss this matter with local authorities in due course. Stuart McMillan I thank the cabinet secretary for the number of schools that have been renovated and removed asbestos from the building, as well as the number of school buildings that still contain asbestos. John Swinney The Government does not hold that information because, in my original answer to Jenny Gilruth, I made the point that local authorities are responsible for the maintenance and management of the school estate. We expect local authorities to handle issues in relation to asbestos to take those issues very seriously, and we expect local authorities to follow the very strict guidelines and recommendations from the health and safety executive in their respect to ensure that they maintain an asbestos register at local authority level and to ensure that all risks that are inherent in the handling of asbestos are fully assessed as part of the management responsibility of local authorities. Daniel Johnson The Deputy First Minister knows my personal interests in the school estate in my constituency, where Liberty High School is in desperate need of replacing. For the whole of devolution, the Scottish Government has had a critical role to play in financing new schools, and the Government keeps saying that the new scheme is coming. Does the cabinet secretary not accept that, given the many years that it takes to plan, design and build new schools, there is now the Scottish Government who is holding back vital improvements to the school estate, including at Liberty High School? The rumour up the road is that there will be no Scottish Government money for the way for schools in Edinburgh. Can he confirm or deny that? John Swinney Fundamentally, I do not accept the premise of Mr Johnson's question. The Government has fully committed the schools for the future programme up until 2021, so that is three years away in terms of long-term planning. I have always said that the revised programme, the next stage of the programme, will be announced later this year, so that will give plenty of planning time to local authorities to adjust their plans. In terms of the actions of this Government, I remind Mr Johnson that, when this Government came to office, we inherited a legacy from the Labour Party, where only 61 per cent of schools were in a satisfactory condition. That is now 86 per cent under our investment, so Mr Johnson has no grounds for complaints. Question 5, Bill Bowman. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to reduce the number of people who have never been in employment. The Scottish Government's employment programme, Fair Start Scotland, launched in April and will support at least 38,000 people over a three-year referral period. The programme is targeted towards those who are facing barriers to enter employment, including people with disabilities in the long-term unemployed. In March, I announced the publication of A No Man Left Behind, which sets out the next steps that the Scottish Government will take to deliver a more effective and joined-up employability support across Scotland. That starts a wider discussion with our partners on how we do that. It contains a range of activity that will develop and implement collaboratively with our partners with a specific focus on integrating employability provision with health, justice and housing support, and serves to help those people who are further from the labour market. Bill Bowman. Thank you for that answer. Of course, there are many reasons why some people cannot work, but that can only partly explain why more than one in 10 Dondonians have never had a job of any sort. Given that this figure has arisen for a decade under both an SNP Government and an SNP-run council, can the minister explain what he will do about it? What we will be doing is taking forward our Fair Start Scotland programme, which, unlike the UK Government's approach to employability, will not threaten them with sanctions. As we know, through the economic and social research council that was published last May—the paper that it published last May—it shows that it is doing little to enhance people's motivation to prepare for, seek or to enter paid work. It leads to recurrent short-term movements between various insecure jobs that are interspersed with periods of unemployment that are described as being routine. We will be taking a different approach, supporting people in Dundee and across Scotland into employment. Ivan McKee. Does the minister agree that the Scottish Government's approach to helping those fellows to move from the labour market to return to work is more effective than the action that is being taken by the UK Government? Indeed, I do. I refer back to the point that I just made a moment ago. We see again in that report from the economic and social research council that it says that welfare conditionality within the social security system is largely ineffective in facilitating pupils' entry into a progression within the paid labour market over time. Not my words, not the Scottish Government words, but the words of the economic and social research council through a study that is assisted by the University of Glasgow in Herri at Watt University. So, yes, I think that our approach is much better than the UK Government's. Question 6, Dean Lockhart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to prevent further business closures in Stirling city centre. The Scottish Government is supporting inclusive economic growth across Scotland, including in Stirling. Just last week, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, Keith Brown, signed heads of terms for the Stirling and Clapmanager city region deal, committing £45.1 million over 10 years to a range of projects that will benefit Stirling and the entire region. The overall investment package in the city region is expected to deliver over 5,000 new jobs across the region and leverage additional private sector investment worth over £600 million. That is alongside an additional £5 million for the Kildein business park and infrastructure at Calender, taking this Government's funding to £50.1 million. The Scottish Government, since 2017, has also supported the successful establishment of Stirling city centre business improvement district. That will run for five years, enabling local businesses to invest through a levy to improve economic opportunities for business, agree and deliver improvements and take charge of regeneration needs of their area. Dean Lockhart I thank the minister for that response, notwithstanding the steps that he has outlined, a number of businesses in Stirling have been forced to close in the past year, with five closing in the last two weeks alone. On top of that, there are 1,600 businesses across Stirling that have rate appeals outstanding for more than a year. Those businesses employ thousands of people, and for many of them, the decision on the rate appeal will be the difference between staying in business or being forced to close. What steps will the minister take to urgently address the situation and obtain clarity for the future of those businesses? I think that the member should recognise that we are already committing a £720 million package of non-domestic rates relief, covering more than 100,000 premises across Scotland, including 2,868 in the Stirling constituents area. We know that Federation of Small Business Survey explains that 18.9 per cent of businesses that they sampled in receipt of small business bonus might close their business in the absence of that small business bonus. 19.9 per cent would have prevented investment in their business, and 18.3 per cent would have amended their plans for growth. It would be good to see Mr Lockhart recognising the contribution that this Government is making to sustaining businesses that are existing. Mr Lockhart might also reflect on the chaos that is caused by his own Government through Brexit, which we know Mark Carney—he might want to listen to this. Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has already said that £900 per household has been lost across the UK before we have even left the European Union. How about Mr Lockhart recognising that and the contribution to destroying our high streets?