 Mae'r next item of business is topical questions. In order to get in as many members as possible, short and succinct questions and answers to match, it would be helpful. At question number one, I call Liam Kerr. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a report by WWF Scotland that states that Scotland will fall significantly short of its target for decarbonising heating in homes. Minister, Patrick Harvie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. That report is both welcome and challenging. It supports the main policies in our heating building strategy, which are designed to meet our objective for emissions reduction by 2045. Since that strategy was published, we have been developing more detailed proposals on supply chain capacity, delivery programmes, advice and funding. On the key issue of regulation, identified by the report, we will consult very soon on proposals for a heating building's bill, designed to give a very clear signal on how and when climate friendly heating systems and improved energy efficiency measures will need to be installed. Liam Kerr. I thank the minister for that answer, which is an oddly positive response on the Scottish Government's role given that a recent FOI revealed that this Government has only one heat pump in its entire estate and has no idea how many it might need to install. However, in any event, the CITB reported in March 2021 that an additional 4,300 plumbers and HVAC workers will be required in Scotland, primarily in the installation of heat pumps by 2028. What did the minister do in response to that now two-year-old report? Will we have 4,300 by 2028? Minister. What we have done, as I said in my first answer, is continue to develop an ambitious programme of work, including on the supply chain delivery plan and working with stakeholders, including businesses, right across the sector. There is incredible innovation happening in the area of heat decarbonisation, as well as strong enthusiasm from the sector to retrain and reskill so that we have the capacity that we need. We've been at a few thousand installations a year in recent years. We need to be significantly more than that. Perhaps 100,000 installations are more by the end of this decade. That's an extraordinary scale of expansion that's required. We are very clear that the ambition is matched by the actions that we're taking. I think that I would also just question whether the Conservatives are being entirely consistent on some of these issues, because, as net zero spokesperson for his party, Mr Kerr told the Daily Mail, that notable champion of climate action that the Government stated in attention to ban the replacement of fossil fuel boilers from 2025 is unrealistic, will alarm people. It's irresponsible to impose huge demands, so the Conservatives do need to make up their minds. Are we doing too much or too little here? Liam Kerr. I thank the minister for that answer. I'm not sure I heard a commitment to the 4,300, but in any event he questioned the commitment and the ambition, this weekend saw huge swathes of Aberdeen City and Shire without electricity for extended periods due to the storms. If the minister were to be successful in moving everyone onto heat pumps, how does he suggest that the people of the north-east would heat their homes during a power cut? Does he concede therefore that putting all his eggs in the electricity basket with a one-size-fits-all approach is as naive as it is misguided? Well, I'm sure Mr Kerr is aware that combi boilers also require an electrical power supply in order to operate. So power cuts are going to be disruptive whatever heating systems we use, but the opportunity to scale up our ambition on zero emissions heating is not only a positive opportunity for jobs, for skills in this country and to support businesses that are innovating, but it's also a challenge that is simply unavoidable. There is no path toward Scotland's emission reduction targets without decarbonising heating, including a million homes in this decade. The Scottish Government has expanded capacity, for example, through Warm Home Scotland, the support for the SMEs through Business Energy Scotland and a host of other programmes. It's really encouraging to see the innovation that's happening, for example, from much more affordable low-cost heat pumps being produced by British Gas and by Octopus and supported by the flexible grant and loan systems that Scotland has available. Colin Smyth. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The WDF report is clear that the Government will fall short of its target for decarbonising a million homes by 2030, but there are also remains concerns at the cost of households of making the changes that we do need to see happen. Does the minister accept that if we are serious about a just transition that more does need to be done to ensure that the cost of those changes doesn't land on the shoulders of those who can least afford it, not least given the fact that we are still facing that cost of living crisis? Minister. Unlike others, Mr Smyth is serious about wanting to see this transition happening and wanting to see it happen fairly. I mentioned the innovations happening from more affordable lower-cost heat pumps coming onto the market from the likes of British Gas and Octopus. We're going to see more of that continue to happen. That fits so well with the Scottish Government's more generous and more flexible grant and loan package, £7,500 on both the energy efficiency and on the zero-emission heating systems with additional uplifts for rural and remote areas. That means that the installations that we need to see both of energy efficiency and of zero-emission heating will gradually and continually become more affordable. We need to make sure that we also put pressure on the current UK Government if there's any hope of it, but Mr Smyth may have colleagues in the UK Government before too long as well, so he will need to put pressure on them as well to do what they have not done and rebalance energy prices so that electricity is more affordable and zero-emission heating systems are more affordable for people to run. I'm sure he'll have that ambition shared with the Scottish Government on that point. Question 2, Willie Rennie. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on pay negotiations between teaching unions and COSLA in light of EIS rejecting the most recent offer and reports that industrial action is set to continue. Cabinet Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville. It is very disappointing that the EIS has rejected outright the latest pay offer without consulting their members. That is the fifth offer to the unions that would have meant an 11.5 per cent increase or £5,000 in April for most teachers and an accumulative increase of almost 30 per cent since January 2018. We will continue to work closely with our union and local government partners to resolve this dispute and deliver a fair and sustainable settlement for teachers. It is deeply regrettable that the EIS is pressing ahead with industrial action while further discussions are taking place this week. I continue to urge the unions to suspend industrial action while these talks are on going. Willie Rennie. After the pandemic, young people just can't afford any more lost days of education. I want to understand what went wrong in this circumstance. I assume that a new offer was only made to teachers when the cabinet secretary was confident that it would be accepted. The cabinet secretary had waited weeks for that moment. Can the cabinet secretary explain what went wrong and why the situation was so badly misjudged? Cabinet secretary. What the Government has tried to do, along with our colleagues in local government, is to work to find a new offer that is fair and sustainable. It needs to be fair, but it needs to be sustainable and affordable for government. We set ourselves a challenge and set everybody else a challenge that we needed to find a compromise and a new way forward. That is what we have tried to do, to improve the offer for 2022-23 and to suggest a way of working over a two-year period. I am very disappointed that that was not taken to members at least. I recognise that some of the other unions have done that, and I await with interest to see what happens when that result comes back. I think that it is deeply disappointing that when we have all got to compromise in a situation like this in the pay dispute, the Government has attempted to do so. It is unfortunate that we will not hear the voice of the EIS members at this time. Willie Rennie. The relationship with the trade union EIS does seem to be deteriorating. There is no doubt that when the revised pay offer was made to the EIS, the BBC were told first. Why was that allowed to have happened? Secondly, the Cabinet Secretary criticised the EIS for not putting the latest pay offer to members. Is it the job of the Cabinet Secretary to tell union leaders how to do their job? Cabinet Secretary. When it comes to members of the media knowing about what is happening in disputes, I think that it is very difficult if we are getting to the point where it is not just the Scottish Government, but local government, COSLA, and particularly then all of council leaders starting to know what is happening and a negotiation that some of that material comes into the public domain. That is deeply disappointing. I do not think that that helped anybody that came into the public domain or that it did. We will continue to try and work very carefully with the trade unions. I would not dream of telling trade union leadership or indeed trade union members what to do. I highly respect the mandate that the unions have and the right of a trade union to carry out industrial action. I simply say that at this point when it has gone on for as long as it has and when it is impacting on children and young people, particularly in the run-up to exams, it is disappointing that they have taken that decision. Is their right to take that decision? I think that it is disappointing because I think that it would have helped everyone to gauge the feeling of that. They have made that decision. As I said within my original reply, the talks are on going this week to see if we can come to a resolution. Stephen Kerr. It is impacting pupils and their families, this industrial action. Isn't it funny that when the EIS targeted the constituencies of Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and Shirley-Anne Somerville, that more money appeared because in this chamber, four times on the 7th of February, once on the 17th of January, twice on the 10th of January, twice on the 22nd of February, eight times in less than three months, the Cabinet Secretary said there was no new money that could be found for teachers' pay, yet here we are, £153 million of new money on the table for a new pay deal. So where did the Cabinet Secretary and why had it taken so long for any offer to put on the table for negotiation? Cabinet Secretary. Once again, not for the first time, Mr Kerr seems to not grasp some of the detail on this. The decisions that we've taken are because we did rise to the challenge and the fact that we did need to compromise. That is not without its consequences, not without its consequences that we have done so, but we have tried exceptionally hard and we have done that for the 22-23 offer. The money that Mr Kerr refers to is, of course, over two years, and we have again tried exceptionally hard in 23-24 to find funding to have a fair and additional settlement. I'm not aware, I could be wrong, but I'm not aware that Mr Kerr or anyone else has approached the Deputy First Minister, he's went through the budget process, to suggest another way forward for the money that could be found. If he hasn't done that, I would suggest that this is yet another vacuous attempt by Mr Kerr and not raising the debate whatsoever. Michael Marra. With this year's exam diet due to beginning in just two months, will the cabinet secretary intervene on behalf of pupils who are set to miss an additional six days at this crucial point in the academic year? Will the cabinet secretary ensure that SQA makes adequate provisions for these young people to be adversely affected by strike action and to be blunt? What is the cabinet secretary doing to ensure that she helps rather than harms the education of young people, particularly in targeted constituencies like Dumfermwann? Mr Marra is a very important point about the build-up to exams. I hope that we can all agree on all parts of this dispute that we need to resolve this. Clearly, the SQA has already made modifications to the national qualifications for 23. That is very important. They are clearly working as well on exam support but more importantly as well. In addition to the work through Education Scotland, the national Lee earning offer and the work that goes on with the regional improvement collaboratives is all there to assist young people in the build-up to their exams and during the exam diet. We will ensure that all that information is there for pupils so that they know that the support is out there for them. I do absolutely recognise that that must be an exceptionally worrying time, particularly when we are seeing learning further disrupted. That is why support has been put in place not just through the SQA, not just through Education Scotland but also the regional collaboratives and the local authorities as well as the Scottish Government working together to support the IAS union have exposed the extent to which many teachers no longer find the job rewarding. Some teachers report they are using food banks working second jobs and considering leaving the profession for supermarket rolls paying just £50 an hour less. Does the cabinet secretary accept that there is no sustainable plan for teacher retention and that there is an urgent need for a real-terms increase in pay? Cabinet secretary. That is why we are working very hard to try and find a solution to this. I make the point that I made to Mr Kerr unless colleagues in the Labour Party came forward during this budget process and suggested where that new money would come from to support that real-terms increase, then again we are seeing grandstanding but no solutions. In terms of what happens to actual teachers in terms of a pay offer we did work with local government to suggest a differentiated offer that would help those on the lowest grades and yes that did mean slightly less for those at the highest grades. That has been roundly rejected by all unions. We want to see a flat rate increase right across the board regardless of grades. We would have liked to have worked on a progressive differentiated offer but that is not what the unions want and if that is not what the unions want we will need to try and find a way through that. That concludes topical questions. The point of order Patrick Harvie. In my answer to question 1 I intended to refer to a figure of 200,000 installations per year by the end of the decade. I believe that I may have used the wrong figure and I just wanted to very quickly draw attention to what was an inadvertent slip of the tongue.