 We will start with question number one from Liam McArthur. To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to people from island communities who want to access university medical courses. Minister Shirley-Anne Syrran, sorry. I should give you a few more minutes there. Minister Shirley-Anne Syrran Will. The Scottish Government supports a number of initiatives to encourage island communities to access high demand professions such as medicine. In March this year, we also announced funding of £330,000 to deliver pre-entry courses to medicine, which remote and rurality criterion being a key component of the Aberdeen university programme's target group. The Scottish Funding Council provides additional funding to universities to help to improve access to Heidsman professions. There is a reach programme linked to each medical school in Scotland to get pupils from low-progression schools who wish to access medical courses. I think that my apologies, I thought that the Cabinet Secretary was about to answer that. Liam McArthur. Thank you. I thank the minister for that response. She will recognise that recruiting and training staff to island health services does present specific challenges. All the evidence does show, however, that students with an island connection are more likely to work in island areas. Still getting to medical school is difficult and school pupils need to believe they can do that, otherwise they will not apply. Work experience is essential but not easy when students may know many of the students giving rise to confidentiality issues. Travelling for work experience in interviews can cost £1,000 or more and take students out of school for two or three days at a time when they need to be focused on getting the five grade A's that they need. Does the minister accept that island students are facing specific disadvantage? Does she believe that there are further steps that can be taken to level the playing field, ensure that island students have the same opportunities to access medical courses and, in turn, improve the likelihood of island health boards being able to recruit and retain the staff that they need? I would readily agree with Liam McArthur's point and discuss this very challenge when I was at Glasgow University recently and the efforts that it is making to encourage those from rural, remote and island communities to access courses such as medicine. As I mentioned in my original answer, the pre-medical entry programme does specifically look at rurality and remote communities. We also have a graduate entry medical programme that again ensures that remote and rural focus is given to those people going through that course. I am aware of other collaborations that continue with the NHS to ensure that important career events and other events are taking place in school to ensure that those in rural, remote and island communities can access all the information and encouragement that we would expect in any of our schools. I am happy to carry on the dialogue with Liam McArthur if he thinks that there are particular aspects in his constituency that the Government needs to look at. Kate Forbes. How does UHI's campus model aid islanders and the rural west coast that shares characteristics with the islands to train as healthcare professionals? We know that making it easier to recruit healthcare professionals from the islands and island areas will make it easier to bring them back. With UHI as a key partner, we are taking action to enhance the access to medical education and training for remote and rural areas. As I mentioned to Liam McArthur, the graduate entry programme called SCOTGEM was announced in June 2016 and that will be delivered by the medical schools in St Andrews and Dundee in collaboration with the University of Highlands and Islands. It will provide students with exposure to careers in primary care in remote and rural areas and will help to deliver a more sustainable health workforce for Scotland and its local communities. With regard to nursing and midwifery, the University of Stirling will transfer 100 pre-registration nursing places to the UHI from the 17-18 academic year and I look forward to visiting the campus in Inverness to see that work when I go up to Inverness in October. To ask the Scottish Government when the 2014 guidance in school meals will be reviewed. There are currently no plans to review the 2014 better eating better learning guidance. However, the 2008 guidance, healthy eating in schools, which provides guidance on food standards in schools, will be updated following any changes coming out of the review of the nutritional requirements for food and drink in schools Scotland regulations 2008. Better eating better learning, which supports local authorities in driving forward further improvement to school food provision and food education more broadly, is unlikely to be updated in the light of the review of nutritional standards. Linda Fabiani. I welcome that use from the cabinet secretary. A concern that I have in my own area is that, very often, when parents make decisions about what they consider to be the nutritional standard of school meals, that Government guidance is quoted back almost as if it were regulation and that the local authority was hide bound in what they were able to offer. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that it can be reiterated that it is in fact guidance and not regulation? We provide guidance of the type as healthy eating in schools and better eating better learning. It is designed to support local authorities as they deliver catering services and food education in schools. Local authorities have flexibility to provide food and drink services as they deem appropriate to meet local needs and local priorities, providing that they have first fulfilled their statutory obligations in this respect. Brian Whittle. We will legislate our farmers to produce the highest quality of produce under the highest of animal welfare protocols, ensuring that they pay their living wage and we give them custodianship of the countryside. When it comes to producing produce for schools, we find that the central government procurement excel contract is importing produce to us from all over the world that can and is produced to a higher standard by our local farmers. With that in mind, will the cabinet secretary commit to ensuring that food that can be produced locally in Scotland makes it onto the plates of our school children for the sake of their health and in support of the rural economy? This is an area where my colleague Richard Lochhead, when he was the rural affairs secretary, invested a significant amount of his time and energy to work with me in my former responsibilities in procurement to ensure that we had as much effort and as much opportunity for the farming community within Scotland to be able to access procurement contracts at a general level within Scotland and, obviously, school food contracts account for a substantial proportion of that. In principle, I am in agreement with Mr Whittle of the importance of ensuring that high quality agricultural produce in Scotland can find its way into the procurement contracts in the public sector and particularly into our schools. Of course, as part of the learning experience of young people, I am also very keen that young people have an understanding of the origins and the routes by which food is produced to enable that better understanding as part of the health and wellbeing aspect of the curriculum that is undertaken in our schools. Rhoda Grant, to ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to ensure that schools can fill teacher vacancies. The Government has taken a number of actions to help to recruit teachers. We are spending £88 million this year to make sure that every school has access to the right number of teachers. We have increased student teacher intake targets for the sixth year in a row and we are setting targets to train teachers in the subjects where they are needed most. We are also supporting innovative new routes into teaching, including work with the University of the Highlands and Islands. We also launched a new teacher recruitment campaign on 8 February under the title of teaching makes people. That builds on the success of last year's inspiring teachers campaign, which helped to drive an increase in PGDE applications to Scottish universities. Rhoda Grant. Clearly none of that is working because the Cabinet Secretary will be aware that there is 700 current teacher vacancies and that is having a direct impact on children's education. Along with that, from marked increase in head teachers being asked to take more than one school, that is becoming the norm in some areas. How on earth can someone lead a school when they are not there on a daily basis? How far will our once excellent education service fall before the Government acts because children do not get a second chance of their education? Let me address a number of the points that Rhoda Grant makes. First of all, I recognise that there are shortages in the availability of teachers in certain parts of the country and in certain subjects. I have set out to Rhoda Grant a number of the steps that the Government is taking to try to rectify that. Indeed, in this year alone, we have increased the number of places available for teacher training by 370 in 2017-18 to begin to address those issues. The whole process of workforce planning is a complex and difficult process and quite clearly we have shortages that arise out of that. I also assure Rhoda Grant that I have had discussions with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, which regulates who teaches in our schools, to ensure that where there are registered teachers who are not currently active in teaching, they are being contacted to try to motivate them to become active in teaching and also to ensure that the General Teaching Council takes an efficient approach to the consideration of registration applications from teachers who are trained to teach in other jurisdictions to assess and evaluate the contribution that they can make to Scottish education if they would wish to do so. The second issue that Rhoda Grant raised was about the fact that some head teachers might be operating across more than one school. I disagree fundamentally with her about that particular point. Where we have exceptional head teachers, with the right support models in place, I think that it is perfectly possible and tangible for those head teachers to be able to deploy their skills across more than one school. For example, in the city of Glasgow, one head teacher of a large secondary school, St Andrew's secondary school in the east end of Glasgow, Gerry Lyons, who is regarded as one of the most experienced and effective head teachers in the country, has been invited by the director of education in Glasgow City Council to continue to provide leadership in St Andrew's, but also to provide leadership in Holyrood secondary school, which is a slightly smaller but still very significant secondary school. My response to that was to say that I thought that it was advantageous for pupils in as many parts of our country to experience distinguished and effective leadership in education for the enhancement of their education. It has to be properly supported, I accept that, but I think that the arrangements that have been put in place in that example by Glasgow City Council are arrangements that I fully support and endorse because I think that they are beneficial for young people in Scotland. Colin Beattie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the Cabinet Secretary outline what progress is being made to develop new routes into teaching? Presiding Officer, to my instigation, there were a number of new projects identified to encourage teachers to enter the teaching profession. The General Teaching Council is assessing 11 of those particular routes and some of that assessment is now complete, and we are able to recruit teachers on the basis of those new routes into teaching. It is an example of where the Government has responded positively to the demand for innovative approaches, and I welcome the input that we have had from the colleges of education to respond to that challenge that the Government has set. Liam Kerr. The cabinet secretary acknowledges that filling teacher in vacancies takes time. Quite often supply teachers are used when a teacher is absent, but supply teacher numbers are falling. In Angus, for example, the number has fallen from 430 to 331 since 2011. What urgent action is the Scottish Government taking to deal with the falling supply teacher numbers? The measures that I set out, particularly in relation to the work that the General Teaching Council can take on our behalf, to contact registered teachers who are not currently active in teaching but could contribute in some way towards the supply pool is one of the most significant areas where we can take action in that respect. The question that Mr Kerr raises is one of which highlights the general challenge that exists in this issue. Just before the Easter recess, I spent two days at the international summit on the teaching profession. My two predecessors took part in that summit in New Zealand and in Canada, and I took part in it in Morrison Street in Edinburgh. The chamber will understand how attractive Morrison Street is in comparison to Wellington, New Zealand and Banff Canada. One of the common themes of all the contributions of the countries that were represented at the international summit was very clear from my counterpart in England, Nick Gibb, who was there, and my counterparts in Singapore, Finland, Canada and New Zealand in very well-regarded education systems, that there is a systemic challenge about recruitment of individuals to the teaching profession, which is not just about a Scottish issue. We have got to think inventively and creatively about how we can motivate more people to come into the teaching profession. It is part of my general work to try to raise the value and credibility and the esteam of the teaching profession, because our young people need to have a good flow of individuals entering the teaching profession to deliver the education upon which they are dependent. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update to Parliament on when it will publish a new anti-bullying strategy for schools. The Government will issue its refreshed national anti-bullying guidance when the Scottish Parliament's Equality and Human Rights Committee has concluded its investigation into bullying in schools. I am very grateful to the committee for the offer that they made to consider further evidence on this matter. We will carefully consider their views and any further evidence gathered prior to the publication of our strategy. Richard Leonard. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Every good strategy needs a vision, but it needs a plan of action and the allocation of appropriate resources. While bullying is not confined to young people or even to schools alone, does the cabinet secretary consider that the cut by over 1,000 in classroom assistance and the cut by over 4,000 of teachers in Scotland's classrooms since his party took office will help or hinder the effective implementation of this delayed anti-bullying strategy? The first thing is to say that Mr Leonard puts the word delayed into the end of his comment, and maybe I am just being sensitive this afternoon, but it sounded that it was added in a rather pejorative way. The Government accepted, responded positively to our request from a parliamentary committee for further evidence to be taken on this issue by the committee. I could have published a strategy months ago, but the committee asked if I would delay it until such time as they took further evidence. I thought that that was the respectful thing for me to do, to the delay publication and hear what the committee had to say to me. I have given the convener the committee whom I am very grateful for the efforts that she has gone to engage on this subject due consideration to the issues that get raised. We recognise that the necessity of appropriate resources being in place in all of our schools to support young people. Mr Leonard can be assured that at the heart of this strategy will be an absolute intolerance of bullying of any young people in our schools or in any aspect of our society or in any situation in our society, and the Government will map out exactly how we intend to take that forward as a consequence of our engagement with many stakeholders and the parliamentary committee in this respect. To ask the Scottish Government what requirements local authorities have to provide children with the basic tools of learning at school. Education authorities have a duty under the Education Scotland Act 1980 to provide books, writing materials, stationery, mathematical instruments, practice material and other articles that are necessary to enable pupils in their area who receive free education, whether in public schools or through other arrangements made by the Education Authority to take full advantage of education. Keith Forbes. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. In light of it being the council statutory duty to provide pupils with the necessary books and materials, the cabinet secretary may be aware that due to decisions taken by the independent Highland Council for Children's Parent Council have had to fund some basic school provisions. As it is the council's statutory responsibility and in light of an election tomorrow, what is the cabinet secretary's view on this and how education can be the top priority for the next administration? Cabinet secretary. I reiterate my earlier answer to Keith Forbes in which statute could not be clearer on this, that education authorities have a duty under the Education Scotland Act to provide books, writing materials, stationery, mathematical instruments, practice material and other articles that are necessary to enable pupils to receive free education. That is the statutory duty. In relation to the resources that are available, Highland Council for 2017-18 received an increase of over 20 million pounds in the resources available to it, equating to an additional 4.4% increase on its budget in 2016-17. There will be specific decisions that Highland Council has to make about the allocation of its resources, but that backdrop indicates that a very strong settlement has been delivered to Highland Council to enable it to properly fund education. Across Highland, there has been £3,924,000 in pupil equity funding, which has been delivered to schools. For Troes academy, it has received £30,000. I would hope that the local authority working in partnership with the school would take the necessary resourcing decisions against a very strong settlement from the Government to properly fund education in Highlands. Daniel Johnson I refer the cabinet secretary to the report published by the Accounts Commission in March on the local government in Scotland performance and challenges report that set out to spend pupil figures that showed that since 2010, spending in secondary schools per pupil has fallen by over £150, and in primary schools it has fallen by almost £500 per pupil since 2010. That is almost 10 per cent. Does the cabinet secretary recognise those numbers and is sure that that reflects the overall funding levels from the Scottish Government to the local government that has been cut by £1.5 billion? John Swinney I think that the key analysis that Mr Johnson needs to look out for is the analysis that the Accounts Commission undertook, which essentially said—and I think that that must have been published just before the turn of the year, I think—that the Accounts Commission said that the funding settlement for local authorities had been largely on a par with the funding settlement received by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government has treated very fairly local government within the resources that have been available to the Scottish Government. Of course, as I just indicated as an example in response to the question that Kate Forbes raised with me, Highland Council received an additional 4.4 per cent in 2016-17, which I think in the current financial climate would be viewed as really a very strong boost to local authority funding, and the Government is delighted to have been able to make that available to Highland Council and, of course, to other authorities around the country. Monica Lennon To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to improve literacy rates. John Swinney The Scottish Government is taking a wide range of action to improve literacy rates across all age groups. That includes action in the early years through the significant expansion of early learning and childcare, the relentless focus on literacy and numeracy in schools through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, supported by pupil equity funding, the expansion of programmes such as the First Minister's reading challenge and the Read-Write Count campaign. The new literacy and English benchmarks and the introduction of national standardised assessments will support the robust assessment of young people's progress. Monica Lennon I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer, and I should have said at the beginning that I refer members to my register of interest, as I am still a councillor in South Lanarkshire. The cabinet secretary for, I know, probably for the last time I'll get to say that, the cabinet secretary may be aware that our recent report in The Times revealed that pupils are facing a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing school library services, and official Scottish Government statistics show that a third of specialist school library staff have been cut since 2010. I understand the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals recently expressed concerns to the cabinet secretary. Given that decline in professionally staffed libraries, can the cabinet secretary explain how his stated aim of closing the shameful attainment gap between the richest and poorest children in Scotland will be achieved? Michael Matheson This is a very emotional afternoon for us all, because it is the last time that Monica Lennon will share with us the fact that she is a member of South Lanarkshire Council, and I am sure that she will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. There is a consequence of that. A suspicious moment has been passed. In relation to the substance of Monica Lennon's question, I value enormously the role of school libraries. I was recently at the Public Petitions Committee, where the committee was hearing a petition of concern about the diminiation of school libraries, and I committed to taking forward a national strategy for public libraries, which I think will reinforce the view that I hold that school libraries are crucial to the development of the capability of young people. A few months ago, the member for Murray, Richard Lochhead, invited me to visit Elgin academy. When I went there, the first place that the head teacher took me was to the school library. The purpose of it became apparent to me why that was the case, because the school library had been configured and led by a very distinguished and effective librarian, had been designed in a fashion to be essentially the epicentre of the school, where many good things happened, and many contributions to the wellbeing of young people were delivered by the engagement between younger pupils and older pupils in the academy. I cite that example because it is one of choice that the school and the authority have decided to go down that route, and other authorities I know are taking a different route. I want to come down very firmly on the side of the role of libraries in our schools being of significance and of value to enhance the learning of young people and to improve literacy, which is at the heart of the Government's efforts in closing the attainment gap in Scottish education. Ross Thomson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. For the final time, I would like to declare an interest as a councillor on Aberdeen City Council. The Scottish Government's own statistics show that in Aberdeen City not even half of pupils reached the expected level of writing by primary seven. Is not it about time that the Scottish Government gets back to the day job, making sure that our children can read and write properly and admit that under this Government the implementation of CFE has resulted in children leaving primary school not properly equipped for secondary? In among the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in Aberdeen City Council at the departure of Ross Thomson and is from the council tomorrow, there will be a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth going on about some other issues that have been handled by Aberdeen City Council in a spectacularly unceremonious fashion, which has been of public note in the last few days. Oh, I am coming to the question, Mr Thomson, or Councillor Thomson, as I should perhaps paraphrase for the last time. Yes, I am coming to the question, Mr Thomson. Obviously, the Government has addressed the First Minister, commented on this and her responses to Ruth Davidson today, on some of the challenges that are experienced in Scottish education and the Government is focused entirely on addressing those. I do not think that it is bluntly good enough for Mr Thomson to come here and try to absolve himself of any responsibility or contribution to the process because Mr Thomson has been the vice convener of education in Aberdeen City Council. If the statute says that our local authorities are the ones delivering education, my question for Mr Thomson is what he has been doing about it. What has Mr Thomson in his long service in Aberdeen City Council done to try to improve educational performance? Maybe if Mr Thomson had concentrated on his day job and not tried to get other day jobs, he might have made a bit more progress in the bargain. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to ensure that all pupils can participate in extracurricular activities irrespective of background or personal circumstances. We want all children and young people to be included fully in their learning. That means ensuring that those at risk of being marginalised in education whether in the classroom or in the wider school experience are as fully engaged in their learning as they can be. For example, our 2014 guidance on planning improvements for disabled pupils' access to education clearly sets out that school clubs and activities, school trips and school sports as learning activities that may carry duties under their quality act. Brian Whittle. I thank the cabinet secretary for his response. In a recent reform Scotland report entitled after school activities another opportunity gap, it states and I quote extracurricular activities are an important part of a child's development. It can help them to socialise outside the classroom, learn and develop new skills, exercise and generally help in the development of a well-rounded individual. We also highlight, however, and again I quote sportscotland works with counsellors to deliver active schools activities which sportscotland believes should be free of charge. However, many local authorities charge. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that by charging for this type of activity the pupils' most in need of this type of opportunity are the most likely to be excluded, thus making it more difficult to close the health inequality gap and attainment gap? What can the Scottish Government do to ensure that access for all means exactly that? Cabinet secretary. I generally agree with Mr Whittle's point. I agree fundamentally that out-of-school activity can have a very profound impact on the achievement of young people and overcome many difficulties that they may face. When we get into the territory of what the Government can do about it, we get into territory that I have explored before with Mr Whittle and some of his colleagues about what is the right level of direction for government, about what goes on within local government. If I start directing local authorities must do this, must do that, I do not want to put words into the mouths of the Conservatives, but there might be some complaints that I am interfering in local government business. There is a sensitive balance to be struck about what should be the level of government direction in this respect. I certainly have no difficulty in supporting the aspirations set out by Mr Whittle in his question and I would encourage local authorities. I am working within the guidance that we have issued in 2014 to ensure that the ambitions that Mr Whittle has set out in his question can be realised by young people in our schools. I am the PLO to the cabinet secretary. The contrast is stark. In Scotland, the SNP Government is putting more money into education and investing an additional £750 million to close the attainment gap, while in England funding per pupil is shrinking in real terms with the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, warning of schools having to cut spending by £3 billion by 2019-20, directly affecting extracurricular opportunities according to headteachers in England. Would the Deputy First Minister agree that if people want to protect our children's education and Scotland's schools from Tory education cuts, then they need to vote SNP tomorrow in the local government elections? A very, very brief answer to that. I have to agree with that question. Back in the real world, Presiding Officer, can I ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has been a 62 per cent reduction in the target number of primary, postgraduate, diploma and education places between 2017-18 and 2018-19? No such reduction has taken place. That is an interesting response from the cabinet secretary. We do, of course, know that there are currently 274 vacant primary schools teaching posts across Scotland. We also know that many councils and headteachers believe that there will be additional teachers required on top of that as a result of the new pupil equity funding potentially being spent on more teachers, especially those with a specialism in additional support needs. The universities are saying that they have difficulties in relation to future planning because of a potential reduction in the number of training places. Cabinet Secretary, therefore, guarantee that not only will there be no reduction in training places available, but there will be an active increase in order to make up for the shortage in teachers to whom we currently have. Cabinet Secretary? The point that Mr Fraser makes about the employment of the recruitment of teachers for postgraduate, diploma and education is an important contribution to establishing the strength of the teaching population in Scotland. I reiterate my answer earlier on that there has been no reduction of 62 per cent in the target number of primary postgraduate places between the two years quoted. The Government has to go through an exercise with the teacher workforce planning advisory group which looks at a range of factors such as the teacher's senses, local demand, the number of teachers leaving or returning to the profession and the number of students not completing their course before making any decisions on teacher training intake targets for 2018-19. That is why the premise of Mr Fraser's question is wrong. I recognise, as I have acknowledged in my answer to Rhoda Grant, the shortages that exist in the number of teachers that are available. That is why this year I increased the intake to teacher training by 370 places. We will continue to look at those issues as we have planned for the years ahead. I am acutely aware that, as we deploy pupil equity funding around the country, there will be the possibility of more opportunities for teacher recruitment and the Government will bear that in mind as we set the target intake for postgraduate, diploma and education places. James Dornan The cabinet secretary will be aware that the First Minister put Ruth Davidson in her place when she pointed out the fact that leaflets show just how much the Conservative Party cares about education despite the fact that they go on about it all the time. Will the cabinet secretary agree with me that this disregard for education shows that Scottish Conservatives are probably not capable of, as she would say in Glasgow, running a menage than running a local authority? I urge members to be respectful to other members. I thought that the First Minister made her point extremely well at question time today and I reiterate the fact that the Government is focused on taking the necessary steps to improve and to strengthen the delivery of education in Scotland. That would be at the heart of our reform agenda. Ruth Maguire To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of school leavers in North Ayrshire in 2016 continued in education, went on to training or entered employment. Minister Jamie Hepburn In October 2016, 94.8 per cent of 2015-16 senior face school leavers in North Ayrshire were in a positive initial destination. Ruth Maguire While SNP policies help young people in North Ayrshire into work, education and training and have delivered the lowest youth unemployment rate in the UK, planned Tory cuts will hurt young people further. Does the minister agree with me that voting SNP in the upcoming local and general election is the only way to keep Theresa May in check and make the voice of Scotland's young people heard? Minister, I recommend that you stick to education advice rather than voting advice. Of course I will stick to education advice, because I think that Ruth Maguire makes a very effective point here that our Opposition members have grown, but they have all seen the figures. They will know that we have made significant progress over the last five years in terms of positive destinations across all socio-economic quintiles, but the greatest progress has been amongst the 20 per cent most deprived. We see a range of changes to social security provision by the UK Government, some of which we debated last week. We know that by 2021 some 50,000 families in Scotland could be affected by the two-child cap policy in relation to tax credits pushing more young people into poverty directly deepening the attainment challenge that we have here in Scotland. We will continue to respond as an administration. We have committed £750 million to attainment fund over these five years, including for this financial year some £4.4 million through pupil equity funding for North Ayrshire. We will do all we can, but we need a strong and effective voice in other places as well. Iain Gray. Could the minister confirm that when the positive destination statistics such as those that he just spoke about are recorded, school leavers moving into a job in a zero-hour contract are counted as positive destinations? Minister. What I would say to Mr Gray is that we do not have control of our employment law. We in Scotland are fortunate that we have the smallest proportion of the workforce on zero hours contracts of any lower than the UK level. Clearly, anyone entering employment is ending up in a positive destination, but Mr Gray will well understand our high ambitions for fair work here in Scotland. We have published our labour market strategy, and the jobs that we want to see in the future will be well remunerated and will, of course, contribute to that fair work challenge. I look forward to Mr Gray signing up to that progress. Jamie Greene. For those leaving school who choose not to go into further education, there must be other opportunities available to them, but in North Ayrshire, unemployment is significantly higher than the rest of the UK. Recent figures put it at 11.6 per cent. What confidence can the young people of North Ayrshire have in this Government that, after 10 years, the SNP is really taking the issue of unemployment seriously? Minister. They can have a lot more confidence than the UK Government who, of course, in devolving the employment programme, which will support many people into work, cut the funding that is available to the Scottish Government by some 87 per cent, resulting in us in the Administration having to leverage in some additional £20 million. We are doing a lot more to support young people in North Ayrshire and elsewhere than the UK Government is. Thank you very much. That concludes portfolio questions. The next item of business is consideration of three business motions. 5, 4, 2, 8, setting out a business programme, and motions 5, 4, 2, 9, 5, 4, 3, 0, setting out stage 2 timetables for two bills. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against any of the motions to press their request-to-speak buttons now. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick or Maff the Bureau to move the motions on block. Formally moved on block. Thank you. I therefore propose to ask a single question on those motions. If any member objects to that, please say so now. No member is objected, therefore the question is that motions 5, 4, 2, 8, 5, 4, 2, 9 and 5, 4, 3, 0 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick be agreed. Are we all agreed? We are all agreed. I therefore close this meeting of Parliament.