 maes dylech i fiwn i'r McLeod gan cyfrasgoedd y rinnydd. Rwy'n amen i gael eu chyfnodd. Yn y first minister y cwestiynau threed ar gyfer, Kezia Dugdale. Gofio cyda'r first minister y byddau'r gwneud-dwyllion i'r ddod o'r drwy'r ddechrau? First Minister. Can I take the opportunity to congratulate Kezia Dugdale on her election as deputy leader of Scottish Labour? Warmly welcome her to her place today, and I wish everybody a very merry Christmas. On a more somber note, at the end of a week in which we have witnessed horrific acts of terror around the world, can I take the opportunity, I am sure, on behalf of all of us to send condolences to the people of Australia and, of course, to the people of Pakistan, our thoughts are very much with them at this time. Later today I will have meetings to take forward the Government's programme for Scotland. Kezia Dugdale, can I associate myself with the First Minister's remarks and I think the whole chamber would share those, and our condolences go to the people of Pakistan and all those with family here in Scotland who are feeling the pain at this time. Presiding Officer, there is a crisis in the oil industry. The union says so, the company says so, the wood group, Shell, BP, Petrofac are all cutting wages. A thousand jobs have gone and thousands more are on the line. What is the Scottish Government going to do? First Minister? First Lady, can I thank Kezia Dugdale for raising an issue that is very important and an issue that is of great concern to those who work in our oil and gas industry? I will answer the question briefly in two parts. First, the Scottish Government, in terms of our responsibilities, will continue to do what we are doing to support innovation, for example, through our £10 million of funding for the oil and gas innovation centre. We will continue to support skills in the industry. We have invested an additional £6.5 million to support skills. Of course, we have published the energy skills investment plan and we will look to refresh that and make sure that that is fit for purpose as we continue to ring fence 500 modern apprenticeships for the energy sector in each year of the current Parliament. The second part of my answer, Presiding Officer, and I hope that we can strike some unity in this chamber today, is to support the industry in their calls to the UK Government for more action. I would highlight three things. First, bolder action on reducing the supplementary charge. Secondly, urgent action on the proposed new investment allowance. Thirdly, support for exploration. That is what the industry wants and I hope that we can all get behind it. Presiding Officer, the First Minister will have Labour's support when she goes to the UK Government with her calls, but she must be reminded by the fact that she has at least six responsibilities to the oil and gas industry here in Scotland. She mentioned skills and innovation, but she also has responsibility for onshore business taxes, to find new markets, supporting infrastructure and indeed diversifying the industry. The same old answer is about looking to Westminster for solutions, just do not stack up. This is one of Scotland's key industries and yesterday, Jake Malloy of the RMT said that we are on the brink of meltdown. Robin Allen of Premier oil said that the North Sea oil industry is close to collapse. Of course, the UK Government should respond and quickly, but the Scottish Government has to work with unions and the industry to find ways to maintain employment levels right now. What assurances can the First Minister give oil workers and their families that their jobs, 300,000 jobs across Scotland and across the UK, are reliant on this? What security do they have this Christmas from this Government? First Minister, I hope that the words that we have been hearing from Kezia Dugdale and her colleagues in recent days about a new consensual approach can survive beyond the First Minister's questions. I have said in every FMQ session that I am keen to work across party boundaries. Kezia Dugdale is correct that this is an important issue. She has asked me specifically about actions that we will take. I have given her some of the specifics and we will continue to support the industry in every way that we can. I will be meeting Malcolm Webb of Oil and Gas UK on 14 January. Some of what I called on the UK Government to do was not the Scottish Government or the SNP simply calling on the UK Government to do. I was quoting some of the things in a letter to me from Oil and Gas UK. I should also say that the Oil and Gas UK talks in that same letter about their good relationship with ministers in the Scottish Government. That good relationship and that determination to support the industry will continue very strongly in my time as First Minister. I am in the interests of the consensus approach that I am genuinely keen to build. If there are specific proposals that any other party wants to bring forward, then do so, but make them specific so that we can give them the serious consideration that we would want to. Kezia Dugdale The First Minister mentions Oil and Gas UK. Oil and Gas UK told her that the production was falling and told her that prices were falling too, yet she persisted with her predictions around oil prices. This week, oil dropped below $60 a barrel. In today's papers, John Swinney says that it will be back up to $110 a barrel by next year, while Professor Ronald McDonald says that a fall to $40 is not unreasonable. Can you imagine that the world-leading economist, Ronald McDonald—just imagine for a second that a world-leading economist knows more about this than John Swinney does? That would be catastrophic for the North Sea oil industry. Angela Constance Hansa Scottish Government has done an assessment of the long-term impact of a falling oil price, and will they publish it? We will continue to work with the industry doing the work that is required to support them. Order, Ms Marra. There is not a weak goes-by probably that Fergus Ewing is not meeting with companies active in the North Sea. Perhaps fairly early in her tenure as deputy leader of Scottish Labour at Kezia Dugdale will also take some time to meet with those companies. I am glad to hear it. Then we can try to build some consensus around the things that they want us to do. Just in terms of John Swinney and our comments about oil experts, I point out to Kezia Dugdale that the $110 a barrel is OPEC in their recently published world oil outlook that projects a nominal price of $110 until the year 2020. That is where that prediction comes from. Can I repeat the point? We can have, and I am pretty sure that we will have in the weeks, months, perhaps years to come vigorous political debates about this and other issues across this chamber. Kezia Dugdale, I thought, started in the right tone today when she put the focus rightly on jobs and on the future of an important industry. I want to work with that industry and with others across the chamber if they are willing to support the industry. I invite others to be part of that effort. Kezia Dugdale, this is the First Minister who is so in touch with the oil industry. She was in Shetland four months ago promising a second oil boom. Four days ago, her energy minister was in Aberdeen rightly pleading with oil companies not to pay their workers off this Christmas. I was in Aberdeen two weeks ago talking to the oil and training gas academy and they are desperate for support from this Government to invest in skills to make sure that, if the oil price rises again, they still have the people to make the most from that. Isn't that the truth that the Scottish Government just did not see the crisis coming in because they believed in their own wishful thinking about oil prices? Surely we cannot have a First Minister so unprepared, so unsighted on such a key industry. Will she initiate an inquiry into why her Government was so wrong in the past so that we can get this right in the future? First Minister, there are tens of thousands of children. You need to be able to tell them that they are going to be in the future. You need to be able to tell the Scottish public why you got it so wrong in the past so that you can get it right in the future. Do you not? I think that it was at least two years ago that we re-established the energy skills academy, so determined were we to support skills in the sector. I think that my first answer to Kezia Dugdale outlined the support that we are giving to skills development in the sector. The industry will get the support that it needs from the Scottish Government for skills development, as it will do for innovation. Let me come back to what is the central issue here. I will keep trying to find this note of consensus. The industry wants us to unite to call on the UK Government to accelerate action around the new investment allowance. It wants us to unite to call on the UK Government to increase support for exploration. I think that we should call on the UK Government to take more action around reducing the supplementary charge. We heard a couple of weeks ago that Danny Alexander talked about reducing it from 32 per cent to 30 per cent, which is welcome. What he did not quite talk so much about was the fact that he increased it from 20 per cent to 32 per cent in the first place. Let us come together to call for the sensible action that those in the industry want. I think that those whose jobs are under threat right now will look at us and want to see us coming together in that way, not having a party political ding dong. Ruth Davidson, I add the thoughts and prayers of myself and my party to those who have been affected by the horrific events in Australia and Pakistan. I know that there are those who are affected in Scotland, too, and they are in all of our thoughts. I also welcome Labour's new deputy leader on her election. I ask the First Minister when she will next meet the Secretary of State for Scotland. No plans in the immediate future. When he unveiled his plans to reform stamp duty on house buying in October, John Swinney said that he did not intend to take more money from people than was currently collected. His exact words were, I have decided that the taxes raised should be revenue neutral, raising no more or less than the taxes they replace. Since then, stamp duty rates have been cut across the UK by 800 million and by 80 million in Scotland. People buying houses now are getting a better deal, yet the SNP's position is to take that deal away. It is, in fact, an £80 million tax grab on Scotland's homeowners. Order. Two months ago, the SNP Government said quite clearly that property taxes should raise no more or less than the taxes that they replace. Has the First Minister changed her mind? I have looked at the proposals that Ruth Davidson and her party have put forward today. A couple of weeks ago, when we talked about this issue, I invited her to bring forward proposals, and I said that I would consider them carefully. I will keep that promise and I will consider those proposals with the Deputy First Minister very carefully. I noticed that, in the press release around those proposals, Ruth Davidson said that they would cost £90 million and that they are affordable because of a benefit to the Scottish Government budget. I am not quite clear how she can yet arrive at that conclusion, because we have not got to a final agreement on the block grant adjustment. The direction of travel that we think that we are headed in would not take us anywhere near £90 million. When we get a final agreement on block grant adjustment, we will then be able to assess whether our proposals are revenue-neutral, revenue-positive or revenue-negative. At that point, we will be able to consider further proposals of our own if we want to bring any forward and consider further proposals of the Conservative Party. That is the spirit in which I approach the issue. It is in the spirit of the consensus that I have offered. To be fair to Ruth Davidson, she has brought forward specific proposals and they will get serious consideration by this Government. Ruth Davidson? I absolutely welcome the First Minister's conversion to the cause. I am glad that she is going to consider our proposals. Let me press my case because there are some simple facts here. From midnight on 3 December, thanks to the UK Government, homeowners in Scotland are paying £80 million less in tax. The proposals that were published this morning by the Scottish Government are fully costed, not just from the Scottish Conservatives. I hope that the Scottish Government will soon adopt, given that she is so consensual on it. They are fully costed, not just from the £80 million tax cut that will be passed on, but also from all the other unallocated Barnett consequentials from the 2014 autumn statement. The proposals that we have put forward, and I am glad that the First Minister is going to consider them, gives a tax cut for ordinary people wanting to get on the property ladder, a tax cut for ordinary people wanting to climb the property ladder and at the lower end it will take more people out of the house altogether. Compared with the published SNP plans, they constitute a better deal for every single home buyer. First Minister, again, this week, the same as last week, the week before that, claims that she wants to be consensual, so far she has not actually moved on any issue. We have shown how it can be done, so please work with me to make sure it is done. We give home buyers an early Christmas present. When can we meet to make these proposals become a reality? First Minister. First Minister, for the avoidance of doubt, my approach to consensus does not extend as far as to allow the Scottish Conservatives to call themselves the Scottish Government. I have to draw a line in the sand. I know old with Davidson likes lines in the sand, so I am going to draw one quite firmly there. The finance secretary has already offered to meet with Gavin Brown to discuss this, and that offer of a meeting is still there. Let me just make two points briefly. It is worth reminding the chamber that, under our proposals, compared to the UK Government proposals, 80 per cent of transactions would leave people better off or no worse off, and 5,000 more people would be lifted out of tax altogether and pay nothing. I have said I will consider the Conservative proposals, but let me tell her one aspect of them that I want to consider carefully. Under the proposal that she has put forward today, 80 per cent of people who buy houses under £250,000 would be £100 better off than they would be under our proposal. The 2 per cent of people who buy houses over £500,000 would be £12,600 better off. One of the things that I want to consider is simply, is that fair? I wonder if the First Minister will let us know what she thinks of the Supreme Court judgment in relation to the two midwives on participation in abortion and where that leaves individual workers' rights in relation to conscientious objection. The ruling yesterday confirms that midwives' right to conscientious objection from taking part in abortions remains protected. Lady Hale clarified in her opinion that midwives could not be compelled to participate in an, I quote, actually performing the tasks involved in the course of treatment. Is the First Minister aware that a number of Scottish businesses, including in my constituency, have difficulty trading with Cuba due to the US blockade? Will she therefore join me in welcoming President Obama's historic statement yesterday announcing moves to normalise diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba, which included the immediate release of the remaining three members of the so-called Miami Five? Yes, I do very much welcome the announcement from President Obama yesterday about normalising relations between the United States and Cuba. I would go further and say that if that assists Scottish businesses in increasing their exports, then that is very much to be welcomed. Questions 3, Willie Rennie. Can I associate myself with the remarks about the suffering in Pakistan and Australia and also welcome Kezia Dugdale to her position? To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the cabinet. First Minister. Matters of importance to the people of Scotland. Willie Rennie. Yesterday, we learned from the Public Audit Committee that the person appointed by ministers to head up Revenue Scotland has no accounting or taxation qualifications. Was this really a wise appointment? First Minister. The director general of finance in the Scottish Government is a chartered accountant. That is the first part of my answer to Willie Rennie. In addition to that, I read some comments issued by Willie Rennie at the weekend criticising the head of Revenue Scotland. That context was not able to answer back. Yesterday, when she was before the committee and would have been able to answer directly the points that Willie Rennie wanted to put to her, he did not bother turning up to the committee to put those points directly to her. I have to say that in the relationship between politicians and civil servants that was rather a poor show. Willie Rennie. Willie Rennie. When she was asked a question by Tavish Scott yesterday in the Public Audit Committee, she soundly failed to answer any question at all. Yesterday, Caroline Gardner stood by her report. She said that there was absolutely clear evidence. I am surprised that the First Minister continues to stand by this position. Ministers boasted. They boasted that this would be the most efficient tax agency in the world, but it is already 25 per cent over budget. We have the prospect of an old-fashioned paper-based system in the 21st century, and now we discover the head of the tax agency has no tax qualification. It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago, the head of Revenue Scotland said that there was nothing negative to report. What confidence can we have that the First Minister will tell us if anything negative happens again? First Minister. Willie Rennie accused the civil servant at the weekend of potentially misleading Parliament and did not have the courtesy to go to the committee to put that allegation to her directly and allow her the opportunity to answer. More substantively on this issue. I did not criticise the report of Audit Scotland. What I gave in answer to Willie Rennie last week was substantial facts about the progress that Revenue Scotland is making on the employment of staff, on the implementation of its IT system, on the testing of those IT systems. I think that all of us should be supporting and getting behind the Revenue Scotland as they make the progress that we need to make to implement and deliver the devolved taxis from 1 April. The Deputy First Minister and I will be overseeing this very closely. The member, or any member, is entitled, as they have done in the past, to ask the officials to go before parliamentary committees. Maybe in future Willie Rennie will turn up to one and ask some questions himself. This is a matter of the utmost seriousness. I said to him in perfectly good faith last week that this Government takes it seriously, and I am happy to discuss it in this chamber or anywhere else with Willie Rennie at any time. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on a judicial inquiry being held regarding any part that Scotland might have had in respect of possible UK involvement with rendition flights at Scottish airports. The Scottish Government strongly opposes so-called rendition flights. Scotland has always been a country that respects the rights and responsibilities of all its citizens and the rule of law. The Scottish Government has not, and we will not, approve a policy of facilitating the transfer of individuals through Scottish territory or airspace to places where there are substantial grounds to believe that they would face a real risk of torture. There is already an on-going Police Scotland investigation directed by the Lord Advocate into the alleged use of Scottish airports called rendition flights. I hope that everybody in the chamber will agree that that must be allowed to run its course. Christine Grahame. Can I thank the First Minister for her answer? However, in 2005, following reports that, in Teralia, there had been allegedly seven rendition flights by the CIA through WIC and Inverness airports, that led to the Danish Government denying the use of their airspace to the CIA, yet the UK Government and the then Scottish Executive which incidentally owned both airports did nothing. It was treated, I repeat for the Tory press office, treated not with similar seriousness. Does she agree with me that there must be a fully independent judicial and not a UK Parliament inquiry and that the Crown Office already referred to plays its full part as it seems there may very well have been crimes committed on Scottish soil? First Minister. I certainly agree with Christine Grahame that these issues raised by rendition flights should be fully and thoroughly investigated, not least where there has been any act of criminality. I do support Christine Grahame's call for the UK Government to open an independent judge-led inquiry into these matters. As indicated in my earlier answer, there is an on-going criminal investigation into the alleged use of Scottish airports for rendition flights. I am very sure that arrangements could be made to ensure a judge-led inquiry and the Police Scotland investigation can take place in parallel and scrutinised fully, as they deserve to be. Question 5, David Stewart. To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the Ministry of Defence regarding the closure of the Kinlos Rescue Coordination Centre. First Minister. Let me start. Government absolutely does not support the closure of the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre at Kinlos. The relocation of the centre represents the potential and MOD civilian staff in Scotland. It also follows previous UK Government cuts to the coast card service, which this Government also strongly opposed. I am disappointed to say that the Scottish Government was not alerted to and so held no discussions with the MOD in advance of their announcement. Following that announcement, the Government contacted the MOD for urgent assurances that this will have no detrimental impact on search and rescue provision, tasking or co-ordination in Scotland and subsequently the infrastructure into the Secretary of State for Defence to confirm that the Scottish Government does not support this decision and to note our disappointment that we were neither consulted on or notified in advance of this announcement despite the very significant devolved interests that are involved. David Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the First Minister for her answer. Christmas is a little more than 10 years ago. I was on the observer on the RAF search and rescue helicopter at the centre to save a Swiss tourist who had fallen off the mountain at Glencoe. So I know firsthand the experience, the expertise and the excellence of the staff at Kingloss. I don't believe that closing the centre defies the military maxim that if it ain't broke, quite fix it. Will the First Minister join with all the party leaders today to make an 11th hour bid to save the Kingloss centre and provide some Christmas cheer for the civilian and military staff who were acknowledged by mountaineers and officer workers alike as a beacon of light on the hill? First Minister. I thank Dave Stewart for his question and the tone in which he asked it. I can also acknowledge his longstanding interest and his expertise in this area. I couldn't agree more with the sentiments of his question or indeed the substance of his question. I would be delighted to convene a cross-party campaign from this chamber to seek to persuade the UK Government to change its mind, and I'd be happy to have further discussions with Dave Stewart and his colleagues on that very matter. Question 6. Patrick Harvie. Thank you. May I associate the green and independent group of MSPs with the comments made regarding the terrible crimes in Pakistan and Australia and also offer a congratulation to Kezburg Dale on her election. Can I ask the First Minister what the Government's position is on the agreement reached that the climate change talks in Lima? A call for climate action has kept the international negotiations moving forward, although with very important issues, principally the overall level of global ambition yet to be resolved. Scotland has already unilaterally set challenging targets, both pre- and post-2020, with a world-leading target of at least a 42 per cent emissions cut by 2020, 58 per cent by 2027, and that's in line with what the climate science tells us we have to do. Scotland's targets, of course, are not easy, but they are at the level that the international community needs to match. If the new universal climate treaty in Paris next year is to stand a good chance of limiting global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius as the international community has already agreed to do. Patrick Harvie. If we're ever going to see a meaningful, robust and legally binding agreement come out of this process, it is vital that wealthy developed countries, particularly those which are still precariously dependent on the production of the very fossil fuels that have brought the climate into such global peril, are able to make commitments of the kind the First Minister refers to. So the Scottish Government is right to attend these talks and to demonstrate that commitment, but that commitment is only credible if we start meeting the targets rather than just setting them. What policy changes does the First Minister think are necessary from the Scottish Government to start meeting those targets and rebuilding our credibility on climate change? First Minister. Firstly, I agree wholeheartedly with Patrick Harvie. There's no point setting targets if your determination is not to meet them. We will continue through the RPP and further iterations of that document to look very critically at the policy interventions we are making, where we're not succeeding in some of those interventions where we need to do more, and we will continue as we have done in the past to seek to involve the entire chamber in that. I think that in the context of this question it is worth noting that figures out just this morning show that for the first time ever in Scotland, generation from renewables accounts for the same proportion of total generation as fossil fuels. So yes, there's much for us still to do, but we are making good progress and we do have the ambition to do more and I would hope that everybody would be able to welcome that progress. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the First Minister advise what assistance the Scottish Government can provide to developing countries to help them reduce emissions? First Minister. We will seek to make sure that everything we do through our international aid programme as well as the other objectives of that helps with reducing emissions and I know that Humza Yousaf, the external affairs minister, would be happy to talk to Rod Campbell in greater detail. Perhaps the greatest thing that we can continue to do not just in terms of developing countries but overall is to continue to challenge ourselves to lead by example because actions in so many areas speak louder than words. So let's keep doing the right things and in doing that we can encourage others to follow our example. What particular policy does the First Minister think we need to put on the agenda in Scotland given that we have missed our targets three years in a row of housing and agriculture where we need to make urgent progress? First Minister. Let me congratulate her on our new shadow cabinet post. Sarah Boyack knows what the specific policies we think we need to achieve are because they are laid out in some considerable detail in the RPP right across the whole spectrum of our responsibilities on housing, on transport, on agriculture. Some of those are challenging and difficult to meet but we need to continue to challenge ourselves to do more. If those targets were easy to meet then they wouldn't be ambitious enough so let's all resolve to keep doing what we need to do and there's a lesson here for all of us as politicians because in my experience in government which now stretches over seven years what we get from the opposition is calls to do things until those things become controversial and then they oppose us doing it. Let's all be determined not just to have warm words around this but be prepared to follow through with the brave action we need as well. First Minister's questions we are moving to members' business so members who leave the chamber should do so quickly and quietly.