 I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place, and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. The first item of business is general questions. In order to get in as many people as possible, I would prefer short and succinct questions and answers to match. I call at question 1 Pam Duncan Glancy. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the 20 metre rule within eligibility criteria for disability benefits is dignified, fair, respectful and consistent with the values of social security Scotland. Minister Ben Macpherson, from the launch of our replacement benefit, we will be significantly improving how eligibility for adult disability payment will be decided with dignity, fairness and respect at the heart of our approach. We have also rightly prioritised the safe and secure transfer of disability assistance to social security Scotland. Fundamental changes to the eligibility criteria during this period of transition would put the transfer of nearly 300,000 clients at risk—something that no responsible Government would do. We have committed to a full-scale review of adult disability payment, which will explore how further changes could be implemented following safe and secure transfer. Pam Duncan Glancy, I thank the minister for his reply. No evidence yet exists that people who can walk over 20 metres have lower levels of need for mobility support or that the 20 metre rule is an effective way to measure mobility. The rule does not take into account the fluctuating nature of many conditions. I, like the MS Society and others, believe that changing that rule to a 50 metre rule until policy experts can look at it again for the qualifying criteria would not impact on passported benefits. Will the Government replace the 20 metre rule with the old DLA 50 metre rule in the interim, which is far from perfect but a better measure than 20 metres? As I set out in my first answer, the safe and secure transfer of benefits is critical in the period ahead. Disabled people have repeatedly told us that protecting their payments is a key priority because of safe and secure transfer and passporting issues. However, our approach will be different, as I emphasised also. We will ensure that the impact of a disability or health condition on an individual, including the impact of fluctuating conditions, is fully taken into account, which we know is not the case under the current system. We are introducing a password-centred way of making decisions on entitlement. We are removing degrading and inaccurate functional examinations and we are putting an end to decisions being made on the basis of uncontested observations by PIP assessors. The approach of Social Security Scotland will be significantly different, and I know that the cabinet secretary laid that out to Pam Duncan Glancy in a letter on 5 November. Mairi McNair. The minister will be aware that Tory Labour Government's favourite private sector assessments that lined the pockets of rich while letting disabled people down, does the minister agree with me that this inhumane approach, causing great misery, will have no part to play in our system in Scotland that is dignity, fairness and respect at its heart? Important point raised, because we know that PIP assessments carried out by the private sector often cause a great deal of stress and anxiety to those who are required to go through them. They also fail to produce accurate decisions, prolonging stress for clients and costing the public more in appeals. We are scrapping that approach and removing degrading examinations, and instead of snapshot judgments, we will base entitlement decisions on a range of supporting information. In-house, person-centre consultations will only happen where absolutely necessary, and in contrast to PIP, choice and flexibility will be embedded in our system. We do need quicker questions and responses, and I go to Jeremy Balfour. I thank the minister for his answer. His call that will be a review. Is he willing to commit that any review decisions will then be implemented in this Parliament and not have to wait for a future Parliament to implement and make people with disabilities wait even longer to get the benefits that they are due? Will he commit to a full implementation of any review? I have already talked about the importance of safe and secure transfer, and it would be wrong for any Government to commit to implementing findings of an independent review before the review has even commenced. However, we will take the decisions and recommendations of the review extremely seriously, but we will also have to consider concerns around budgeting and making sure that any changes are accounted for. The minister has put a lot of store in this different approach to eradicate potentially all the 20-metre rule downsides. Will he think that it will eradicate all the problems and if not, can he quantify what the issue will be? I would be happy to meet Mr Rennie to talk about that in more detail, given the time constraints. However, it is important that we are making the changes to the approach of how we deliver Social Security Scotland, while undertaking the safe and secure transfer of existing cases and making sure that we protect people's passported benefits. That is a crucial time, and we need to take all the different considerations into balance. To ask the Scottish Government what reassurances it can give to any veterans facing challenges in relation to their local healthcare, housing and accessibility needs. Last year, we published a response to the veteran strategy that set out our commitments through to 2028 to improve service delivery and support. Progress against that is reported through our annual update to Parliament, which I delivered last week. Furthermore, Scotland was first within the UK to establish an independent veterans commissioner whose recommendations continue to assist and occasionally challenge our work and ensure that wider policies are developed with views of the veterans sector represented. I continue to explore what additional measures might be appropriate to provide further reassurance to veterans on those important concerns. I am sure that many of us were touched in some way last week during the Remembrance events. I often think about my grandfather in particular and how grateful I am to have known him and heard his witness of war before he passed. However, as we remember that past, we must not also forget those who we need help in the present. In constituencies like mine of Bansher and Buckingham Coast, there is a large armed forces community who have specific housing needs. Will the cabinet secretary outline how the Scottish Government will ensure that the armed forces will continue to be taken into consideration as a housing sector deals with the challenges caused by the on-going disruption in supply chains, as that could undoubtedly impact those veterans disproportionately? I associate myself with Karen Adams's remarks about her grandfather and those that have previously served and the need for us to continue to remember them. Through our affordable housing supply programme, funding continues to be available to the Liverpool home specifically for veterans, and I should say veterans. The responsibility for housing for the armed forces rests. It is a reserve function with the UK Government, although we will look to work with them. Where local authorities identify that as a strategic priority, we will work with them in relation to veterans. We are aware of the current shortages of both materials and labour that are facing parts of the construction sector and continue to be advised of developments in that regard, as well as any impact being seen on the affordable housing supply programme going forward. We are working closely with the construction sector through the construction leadership forum to understand and to address the factors behind that. To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to reported calls or licences to be required to provide alcohol sales data to the local licensing boards. Data on alcohol sales in Scotland is available through the Public Health Scotland annual publication, monitoring and evaluating Scotland's alcohol strategy. That data in 2020 shows that the amount of alcohol sold per adult drinker in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level in the last 20 years. The day-to-day administration of the alcohol licensing system in Scotland, of course, is the responsibility of the independent licensing boards. Operational decisions about specific requirements falling on licences premises, such as what data should be in-gathered to help inform the development of each licensing board's statement of licensing policies, is a matter for each individual licensing board to take a view on based on the needs of their own locality. I thank the minister for that answer. Alcohol-focused Scotland has expressed to me that it believes that alcohol sales data is critical in assessing and developing effective policies to reduce the harms caused by alcohol, but boards cannot directly get real-time data from licence holders. They are particularly concerned about receiving data from off-sales, particularly given the impact that we have seen in relation to increase in off-sales around the Covid restrictions. I wonder whether the Scottish Government could look at what options there might be to compare licence holders by that data directly to licence boards, whether that be through legislation or other options. I respect the view of alcohol-focused Scotland. I am not sure that the level of data is necessary to help us to assess the effectiveness of minimum unit pricing. We have the data gathering in place to allow for minimum unit pricing to be monitored and evaluated. More generally, the information on alcohol sales is available across Scotland. I take the member's point, and there are likely to be some commercial sensitivities in obtaining the information that he has described at that more local level. However, I would be happy to write to the member once I have looked into the information further and provide him with some further information. Question 4 has been withdrawn. Question 5, David Torrance. I ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to emphasise the harmful effects of tobacco as part of its aim to reduce smoking and protect public health. Our 2018 action plan commits us to interventions and campaigns aimed at discouraging smoking. We aim to make the practice less acceptable and protect others from the damaging effect of second-hand smoke. However, we are not complacent. We will introduce an offence for smoking near hospital buildings in 2022. We will also continue to promote our free stop smoking services and other targeted media and social media campaigns. We have also committed to a refreshed tobacco action plan. This will include several new actions and interventions continuing towards our goal of raising Scotland's tobacco free generation by 2034. David Torrance. The number of smokers across the country has almost half over the past 20 years. However, despite the drop, smoking continues to kill 10,000 Scots a year and creates 35,000 possible admissions. Those living in the most deprived areas are free times more likely to be smokers. Across my constituency and the wider fife, the smoking rate is currently 13.6 per cent. Can I ask the minister what further action the Scottish Government can take to further raise awareness for the harms of the impacts of smoking as we continue to work towards our target of tobacco free generation by 2034? I thank the member for the question. He is absolutely correct to highlight that smoking prevalence in Scotland continues to fall, but we have more work to do. That work is particularly needing to be focused in more deprived communities. There is a real health inequality about smoking, and there is a real health inequality relating to the impacts of smoking. We are determined to pick that up, as I have read right throughout our work around smoking. Like the member, I am keen to highlight the impact of smoking. 180 people a week still die of smoking in Scotland. It is the fifth most common contributor to preventable deaths. It is something that we will tackle, and I am more than happy to work with the member to ensure that whatever programmes that we bring forward work in his constituency, as well as across all of Scotland. As we have heard, the Scottish Government's own 2019 Scottish Health Survey reported that more than five times the number of people in the most deprived areas in Scotland smoke regularly compared to the least deprived areas. Given that there is a direct link between that and those from deprived areas being more likely to experience ill health or early death, does the Government think that it is doing enough to specifically look at reducing smoking in the most vulnerable communities? I absolutely am aware of those statistics, and I agree with Karen Mulholland that we need to do as much as we possibly can. We need to focus our attention with smoking on the most deprived communities. I have to say, as I have the opportunity, that stopping smoking is one of the most important steps that anyone can take to improve their health, and that free smoking cessation service is available right across Scotland. I am keen that people take those steps towards stopping smoking in all of our communities in Scotland. I would be grateful if members could pick up the pace, please, and I call question number six, Neil Bibby. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with trade unions regarding the impact of winter pressures on the NHS. The Scottish Government continues to have regular and extensive engagement with trade unions in relation to the £300 million winter package that I met with trade union representatives on 5 October, the day of the announcement of that package. I also met them most recently at a round table earlier this month. Our partnership models are designed so that decisions are informed by health and social care partners and, of course, in the best interests of patients and indeed staff. The trade union and staff representative organisations are key players in that decision making for us. Neil Bibby. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Last month I met with unison reps at the RAH in Paisley who described in detail serious concerns about staffing and disruption to local services, not just concern for the workforce but for the people they care for too. I shared those concerns with the health secretary in writing on 8 October, and I have yet to receive a response. Will the health secretary today agree to meet with those front-line workers who can see the human impact of delayed screenings, appalling weights and ANA, and explain to them why his recovery plan is not working? I apologise to Neil Bibby if there has been a delay in the response. I should say that I met unison just last week—or forgive me, I might have been earlier this week—so I am more than happy to always meet staff side representatives. I look forward to visiting the RAH when it is appropriate, so I would be happy to do that. As I said, I will get a full response, but I would say that the feedback to the £300 million winter package announced is that it can make a substantial difference if we, of course, are able to get those who are clinically safe to discharge out into our community and care settings. In response to his question, I will be happy to visit the RAH when it is appropriate. Question 7, Jeremy Balfour. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Two officers of government recognise Long Covid as a disability. A person is disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities. If Long Covid has the effect on an individual, they would likely be considered disabled in terms of the Equality Act. The Scottish Government encourages all employers to apply fair work principles and a flexible approach to dealing with the impacts of Covid-19 in order to protect the health and wellbeing of their workforce. I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer. Can I ask him what conversations he had with his colleagues in Social Security Scotland to make sure that the appropriate benefits will be paid to those who have the condition? Can he also outline in regard to going forward what will be defined within any guidance so that tribunals and others, when making decisions, will be able to recognise the condition? I will get the cabinet secretary who has responsibility for social security to write or ask her to write to Jeremy Balfour on those specific issues. What I would say is that we meet regularly. Much of that work is done through the role and responsibility that the DFM has. We want to ensure that our social security system is one that is based on dignity and respect. I would say to Jeremy Balfour that he and I will have many constituents who suffer the long-term effects of Covid coming to us, and for the first time they will be out of work. Some of the benefits that they will look to try to help them in that safety net is universal credit. We, on this side of the chamber, join with other members across the Parliament to ask the UK Government and demand the UK Government that they reverse the universal credit cut. It is still not too late for them to re-establish that additional £20, which can make a big, big difference to those who have disabilities but also those who suffer the long-term effects of Covid. To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be the underlying strengths of any economic growth in Scotland. Minister Ivan McKee Despite the damage and impacts of Brexit across many vital sectors, Scotland's economy has significant strengths. We have a thriving tech ecosystem and a renewable energy sector that provides quality jobs and opportunities for innovation. We have strengths in food and drink, life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing and a strong skills and entrepreneurial base, all of which has made Scotland the top destination for foreign direct investment in the UK anywhere outside of London. We are pushing forward with an ambitious 10-year agenda of economic transformation to ease Scotland's potential and deliver a more prosperous, fairer and greener wellbeing economy. Our national strategy for economic transformation will set out that we will deliver a green economic recovery and support new, good, green jobs, businesses and industries for the future. James Dornan I thank the minister for that answer and note that he mentioned the damaging impact of Brexit on our economy. The chairman of the office of budget responsibility recently indicated that the impact of Brexit in the UK economy will be worse in the long run compared to the coronavirus pandemic. Does the minister agree that his high-time UK Government provided the additional funding promise to Scotland to mitigate the impacts of this hard Brexit that people in Scotland did not vote for in the first place? The UK Government's Brexit deal has removed Scotland from a market worth over £16 billion to Scottish exporters and our companies are now facing additional costs, delays and barriers. Indeed, as Mr Dornan has highlighted, the latest forecasts from the OBR show that leaving the EU will reduce the UK's potential productivity by 4 per cent in the long run compared to 2 per cent as a result of the pandemic. We also know that Scottish goods exports fell by 24 per cent in the latest year to June 2021 compared to the equivalent period in 2019. I would agree that the UK Government must provide the additional funding promise to Scotland to mitigate the harmful impacts of a hard Brexit that people in Scotland did not vote for.