 Members and State officials good morning, we begin parliamentary business with general questions. Question number one from Claudia Beamish. To us, Scottish Government, what further action it will take to stop illegal scallop dredging? Cabinet Secretary for Education, Training and Health, Ffyrwsgrif, Pwg for Scotland, UK I can assure all members that the Scottish Government takes the enforcement of fisheries management and protection of the marine environment seriously. Marine Scotland deploys a wide range of assets to achieve that, including ships, aircraft and officers around the coast to help ensure high levels of compliance with fisheries and environmental regulations. Looking ahead, I am clear that new and innovative technologies deployed on vessels will help to improve fisheries management and, importantly, protect the marine environment. That is why, at the inshore fisheries conference in Inverness on 5 October, I announced £1.5 million investment in fishing, vessel tracking and monitoring technology. Claudia Beamish I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, and I hope that the cabinet secretary will agree with me that incidents in Loch Karan last year and in Gailoch and then, as reported today, another alleged incident in the furt of Lawn SAC, as highlighted by the BBC, are a serious cause for concern. While I welcome what the cabinet secretary says about monitoring, does he agree that we also need to establish robust monitoring on the entire scallop-dredging fleet and not just on the smaller vessels? Cabinet secretary? Well, I do agree that we need to be vigilant and take seriously, as we indeed do, the obligations to manage and protect the marine environment. Actually, vessels over 12 metres already have, as I understand it, technology, tracking and monitoring technology. The £1.5 million investment is intended so that we can work in partnership with the fishing industry so that all vessels can be covered by tracking to show where the vessel is and monitoring to show what is taking place on the vessels. I think that that is for everybody's interests, including the vessel owners. Of course, there are around 400 jobs supported by scallop-dredgers at sea and a further 300 full-time equivalent jobs, and those are vital for many rural communities. It is important that fishing for scallops is sustainable, it is legal, and I am afraid that I cannot comment on matters that are subject to an investigation, as Claudia Beamish well understands. Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its position on legislating to ensure that all new-build social housing has working spunker systems installed. The Scottish Government confirmed on 20 June this year that it will take forward Mr Stewart's proposal for a member's bill in the current parliamentary session to require new-build social housing to be fitted with automatic fire suppression systems. Considerations are on-going to scope a legislative timeline and how best to take that forward. I have, of course, met Mr Stewart previously on this issue, and I would be happy to meet him again to update him personally in the coming weeks. The minister will be well aware that, in Scotland, where a working spunker has been in place, there has never been multiple fire deaths. My member's bill, as Parliament will know, received support from five political parties and nearly 60 members, and I also acknowledge the support of the minister in this process. Will legislation be in place in time to legislate so that new social housing by 2021 will have this crucial safety technology installed? I am grateful to Mr Stewart for his co-operation throughout all of our discussions. The commitment that I gave to him at that time was to ensure that we would have legislation in place to ensure that new build beyond 2021 in the social sector was fitted with automatic fire suppression systems. As I said previously, I am more than happy to meet Mr Stewart to update him on where we are at and how we will deal with that timeline. As the minister will know, sprinkler systems can save lives as can defibrillators. Does the minister agree with me that consideration should be given to adding defibrillators into new housing developments at appropriate locations, notwithstanding some of the challenges that will need to be overcome? I will give you a slightly unrelated topic. The Scottish Government supports all efforts to make defibrillators more accessible. Scottish Ambulance Services is developing a register of defibrillators and we encourage people to ensure that DFIBs are on that register. If Mr McMillan wants to write to me or to colleagues around about his proposal, I am more than happy to look at that. Both ministers and Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the leadership of all NHS boards, including NHS Borders, the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Well-being, and NHS Borders' annual review on Friday 16 November. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. NHS Borders, as the cabinet secretary, will know, was escalated to stage 4 last week. It cannot make enough savings to balance the books and there is a significant risk to delivery, quality, financial performance and safety as a result. For several years, I have been urging the SNP to take action to address staff recruitment issues, cancellations of operations and failure to meet key targets. Will the cabinet secretary listen to those concerns? Is she confident that NHS Borders will see an improvement? I am grateful to Ms Hamilton for that follow-up question. The reason why the board was moved further in the escalation ladder was precisely to assist them directly with their financial planning. I need to make the point that, when boards are asked to make efficiency savings, those boards keep that money in order to contribute to the redesign and improvement of services. We need NHS Borders, as we do other health boards, to look at how they make best use of the increase in resources that they have received in order to redesign and improve their services. With that escalation and increased support from central Government, from Scottish Government, I am confident that NHS Borders will produce a workable financial plan going forward, which is what we need them to do, that they will make best use of the increased resources that we have given them, as with other boards, and that they will successfully make further use of the waiting times improvement plan, which has already begun to see actions taken across our health service. To ask the Scottish Government whether we will provide an update on its work to tackle the illegal puppy trade. Under the commitment in our programme for government, we are currently investing £300,000 to work with charities and enforcement agencies on a communications campaign on the risks of buying puppies advertised online and rehoming dogs that have been supplied from abroad. I suppose that I would like to take the opportunity today to reinforce that message, which is pretty much if there is no mum and no paperwork walk away. Cinema and media advertisements will run until 8 December this year, and the effectiveness of the campaign in reducing public demand for illegally traded puppies will then be evaluated. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Emma Harper for all the work that I know that she has done on this particular issue, because I know that it is something that she has continued to raise and highlight, and campaign on. Emma Harper? I thank the minister for that response, and I am pleased to hear her acknowledge my work in tackling the illegal puppy trade over the past two years. Can I ask the minister whether the Scottish Government has carried out any assessment on the impact of Brexit on the illegal puppy trade, particularly through the Port of Cairnryan in my South Scotland region? I know that all members across the chamber will be acutely aware that Brexit is potentially only a few months away, and there is still so much uncertainty as to what that is going to mean. I am right across our society and our different businesses and organisations, including our ports. However, I can say that the Scottish Government will continue to be vigilant when it comes to any illegal activity, including the illegal puppy trade, and we will continue in our work and all our efforts to try and tackle this trade. There is an ever-increasing awareness of the link between puppy farming and organised crime. Today, a criminal, instead of perhaps having £20,000 worth of drugs in their van, may have £20,000 worth of puppies. A drug seizure of this kind could result in a lengthy jail sentence, but a puppy seizure in this case would not. Will the minister advise me if the Government has any plans to increase the length of jail sentences and or expedite court hearings in cases of animal welfare, in particular instances of puppy breeding and smuggling? Thank you. There were a number of measures that were announced as part of the programme for government this year, and I can confirm to Findlay Carson that those are all measures that we will actively be considering. Christine Grahame Thank you, Presiding Officer. The minister will be aware that my consultation on responsible dog ownership for a member's bill has concluded. Can I ask if the minister will meet me to discuss how that proposed bill may curtail the cruel activities of those puppy factory farms? Absolutely, and I would be more than happy to meet the member to discuss that. To ask the Scottish Government, further to the pilots at Burnbank and New York Hill GP practices, on whether it plans to promote greater use of occupational therapies within other GP practices to improve earlier intervention and preventative care. A critical element of the new GP contract is the requirement for a shift in the way primary care services are delivered through enhanced and expanded multidisciplinary care teams, made up of a variety of professionals, each contributing their unique skills towards delivering person-centred care and improving outcomes for individuals in local communities. There is no defined structure for a multidisciplinary team, but a significant degree of flexibility is encouraged to ensure that services provided meet local needs, which is central to the work of the health and social care partnerships. Margaret Mitchell Is the cabinet secretary aware that the Lanarkshire GP pilot deployment of OTs in primary care has reduced GP visits by up to 72 per cent? It has also resulted in patients with mental health issues being seen by the occupational therapists immediately with more severe cases than being referred to appropriate service. In view of that, has the Scottish Government any plans to promote the recruitment of more occupational therapists? I am grateful to Ms Mitchell for that additional question. I am aware of the success of that particular initiative in Lanarkshire, and part of the new GP contract, the idea of cluster-based GP practices working together is precisely to encourage that spread of good practice across the work that they do, and it will be tailored to the identification of what is best suited to the local needs of their population. In some instances that will be about increased physiotherapy work, in all of our GP practices that will be about pharmacology, and already we have recruited to make sure that 50 per cent of our GP practices have access to that particular service. The work that they do will inform then what we need to do in terms of our workforce planning. We already have steps in place in terms of physiotherapy training, pharmacist training and occupational therapists, but we will continue to review what comes forward from that local identification of need and demand in order to ensure that our workforce planning can match that as best as possible. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Highlands and Islands airports limited and what was discussed. The Minister for Energy, Connectivity and Islands met the interim chair and managing director of Highlands and Islands airport limited on 27 November this year. A number of issues were discussed, including High All's air traffic management 2020-30 strategy and High All's wider strategy work. John Finnie I thank the cabinet secretary for that lapai. When his airport has received a very poor environmental compliance rating from SEPA for four years in that row, air traffic controllers may be about to go and strike over pay and plans to centralise air traffic control operations. High All has repeatedly failed to consult the remote and rural and island communities that it is supposed to serve on behalf of ministers on important issues, including the introduction of parking charges. What action is the minister taking to ensure that High All is up to its obligations and can the minister tell the chamber if he has full confidence in the ability of High All's management team? Michael Matheson Ibsine, the member has raised a number of different issues and I am aware that High All is trying to take action on the environmental impact issues at Inverness airport. One of the issues that you are looking at is the issue of greater rail links to the airport, which is something that we are looking to make progress on when it comes to Cp6 of the rail investment programme. In relation to the potential industrial action with staff, the member will be aware that High All has a programme of work that they are taking forward in order to help to modernise the air traffic control system, which is to reflect the ever-increasingly complex regulatory structure in which they operate and that they will continue to engage with the trade unions and the staff within the service in order to try to take those plans forward. On a constructive basis, in order to make sure that the air traffic control system, which they are operating across all their airports, is fit for purpose in the new regulatory system. There are three supplementaries on this issue. Tavish Scott, first of all. Thank you. The cabinet secretary will be aware that Highlands Islands Airport is limited to introduce car parking charges at Sumbra airport on Saturday without any consultation, no impact assessment and, indeed, without any reference to the islands act. Could he explain what public transport links there are between Sumbra and Lerwick, which is 25 miles away, and what will be introduced following this measure? Cabinet secretary, I have got a responsibility to make sure that they are able to balance their budget. They have to look at opportunities in which to do that, which is part of the reason as to why the car parking charges have been introduced. We have also encouraged Highale to engage with local authority to look at how they could improve public transport links to the airport, and we will continue to encourage them to do so. Rhoda Grant Centralising air traffic control is both damaging to the workers and to the local economy. Surely the technology could be used to provide resilience in those airports rather than centralising those jobs to Inverness. If you can provide the service in Inverness for islands such as Bimbecula, surely you can provide the service in Bimbecula for Inverness. Can I ask if the policy has been island-proofed? Has an economic impact assessment been done, and will he reverse the damaging decision? Cabinet secretary, Highlands and Islands airports have to meet the ever-increasing regulatory nature of air traffic control and to look at the challenges that that creates in order to make sure that they can also meet the necessary safety standards at all of their airports on our islands and also on the mainland, which is why they need to invest in the right technology in order to be able to deliver that with the new regular regime that it will face. That plan is at an early stage, and it will continue to engage with all of the parties who have an interest in the matter. I am sure that the member will recognise that it is important that the air traffic control system that High Isle is operating is one that is safe and fit for purpose and meets the needs of the new regular regime that has been applied to air traffic control. Jamie Halcro Johnston The cabinet secretary is perhaps aware that, due to the range of discounts and differential charges that exist, there can be occasions where airport charges are higher for flights to the islands. Indeed, at airports like in Vanessa, it can be the case that the island flights are the only ones that play full fare. Can I ask the cabinet secretary whether he believes that this is fair and what assessment his Government has done on the impact of the higher charges on fare from our islands? Cabinet secretary. Jamie Halcro Johnston We provide a range of discount provisions within the flight network at the present time, within the domestic setting in Scotland. We do that in order to recognise the lifeline nature of some of those airport links. We are reviewing some aspects of that at the present time, but we intend to continue to make sure that we prioritise those areas where there is a need for discounts to be provided for lifeline services. Mary Fee To ask the Scottish Government how it will fund local authorities in the West Scotland region to help to ensure that communities are kept clean and tidy. Under section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have a duty to keep roads clean and land within their authority clear of litter, and that is funded as part of the 2018-19 local government finance settlement of £10.7 billion. It is then for local authorities to decide on their own spending priorities, taking account of their statutory obligations. I thank the minister for that answer. Between 2007 and 2011, when the cabinet secretary for finance was leader of Renfrewshire council, he cut over 300 staff in environmental services. Then from 2011 until March of this year, an additional 80 members of staff who cleaned the communities of Renfrewshire were axed. Does the minister agree with me that if such cuts around one in six staff had not been made, it would not be down to volunteers who selflessly give up their time to clean up after SNP cuts? This year, the Scottish Government has protected local government budgets and by reversing the real-terms reductions to Scotland's resource budget, by providing a real-terms increase in capital and revenue funding for local government. I imagine that the leader of Renfrewshire council had a long and difficult job in cleaning up the previous administrator's mess. The Scottish Government does not just leave it to local government to tackle littering, and we have published our litter-free Scotland agenda, which is a five-year plan in order to set out how we can reduce litter. We also have other agendas such as introducing single-use carrier bag charges, which is a highly visible form of litter in order to support local authorities in dealing with the blight of littering.