 The next item of business is First Minister's Questions, and at question 1 I call Douglas Ross. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. The Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly called for John Swinney to come to this Parliament and face scrutiny on the crucial role that he has played in the shambolic ferry contracts. Every time we've requested—I mean, S&P-backed Ni ni dim rwy yr ysgolwg yw til, Practice Dしま? discussionion ddewis. Sada Morning, ddewis? Maewr duell g Incды, mwyn rhraiatio bod pythonigau trifaradu ar yr ond mewn ddiogelu, sedw selective i'r rhan iawn mae'r rhyw fawr am y gwyllgor. Felly ein bhwyl ar y quotid Ар HDRS i mi wneud gwyltr Donald黴ai a John Swinney hi yn gyserlei ganustaeth mor ynghylch mewn oed minister y ddisgrifennidau i'r ysgolwyddiadol yn ei rhanfod o'r piliad yn gweithio. Dwi'n olygiad fod y gallangswyddiadol yn olygiad pob ddweud ei ddweud, ac yn olygiad ei ddweud o'i rhanfodol i'n olygiad i'n olygio voyll sydd yn ei ddweud. Felly mae ddeteilwyr perthynauaniaeth ffurio yn ei ddweud i'r ysgolwyddiadol i'r ddweud yr ocefnwyr? First of all, can I say that I'm answering questions today because the First Minister is still unwell with Covid and for many, many obvious reasons I wish her a very speedy recovery. I don't really think Douglas Ross is in the strongest position to question my engagement with Parliament on key issues because I gave a statement earlier this week, I answered questions last week and I handled a bill the week before. Unlike some Tory MSPs, you won't find me skiving off to the football for a few days when Parliament is sitting. Members, we will have quiet please. As a minister, I carry collective responsibilities for the actions of the Scottish Government. The responsibility for agreeing contracts lies in this case with individual portfolios, which in this particular scenario is transport. My role was to provide the necessary budget for building the ferries. After the final decision was taken, officials briefed me about the contract being awarded and assured me on the basis of the contract, the budget that I had approved in August of 2015 did not require to be changed. I know that the Deputy First Minister doesn't do this very often, but he spoke about a statement that he gave to Parliament. He spoke about a bill that he has taken through Parliament, none of which has anything to do with ferries, which this Parliament has asked to hear from the Deputy First Minister about. On every occasion, John Swinney has not just refused, he has voted against it. He has voted to stop himself from giving a statement to Parliament. Of course, John Swinney's fingerprints are all over this deal. Emails show that the Deputy First Minister confirmed that there were no banana skins. He was on calls with finance officials who said that Mr Swinney, and I quote, now understands the background. His approval was essential. The contract was only clear to award after he signed it off, according to Scottish Government emails. John Swinney charged ahead, despite ferry experts warning against the contracts, despite legal advice that the SNP originally tried to cover up but could not redact properly, warning of the high risk of the contract being challenged and ruled ineffective. The SNP charged ahead, despite the contract missing a key safeguard that is an industry standard. Despite the fact that jobs at Ferguson were already safe, the yard had other options for work. Members, we simply are not going to be shouting from a sedentary position. Mr Ross, please continue. It just shows how they want to push this under the carpet, but it is all to go away that they do not want scrutiny over a quarter of £1 billion, a quarter of £1 billion that has been spent and not a single ferry for the islanders that they were promised. I go back. It was despite there being no agreed design for the ferries and despite the fact that the Ferguson bid was the most expensive of them all. Can the Deputy First Minister explain to people across Scotland why he approved those deals, despite all the evidence that he is suggesting otherwise? I have made clear in my first answer that I carry collective responsibility for the actions of the Government. I accept that those decisions were taken by Government, but they were taken individually by the transport minister. If I can just give Douglas Ross the benefit of the note that he is quoting from a senior finance official into the system, which says, just finished my call with the Deputy First Minister, he now understands the background and that Mr Mackay has cleared the proposal. That is the complete sentence that Douglas Ross is missing. The decision had been taken and I was briefed that there was no change to the financial budget that I had already sanctioned. Why is that answer not good enough for Douglas Ross to understand, because he has been given that answer on countless occasions? As for his points about the Government not wishing to have scrutiny about this issue, this has been an issue that has been looked at by a parliamentary committee. It has been looked at by Audit Scotland. It has been looked at again by another parliamentary committee. It has been the subject of a range of questions here at question time. I would say to Douglas Ross that, when he looks at all the papers, what the contract arrangement demonstrates is that this Government was taking actions to deliver ferries for island communities that were required. We were taking decisions to protect employment on the lower cloud. That is a record that this Government is determined to defend. Douglas Ross will have to be pretty determined to defend a record that has not built those ferries, that has left islanders without the ferries. Honest John has missed the second sentence in the email. Mr Ross, we will desist from nicknames in the chamber and we will call people by their first name. John Swinney read out a sentence of an email, but refused to read the second sentence. I wonder why. The second sentence says, so the way is clear to award. That is the conclusion of the email that reveals the Deputy First Minister's involvement. It was escalated to the Deputy First Minister on 9 October 2015 at 17.15. If SNP members do not want to hear this, the email was sent that the way to award was clear only after it went to John Swinney. Why did the SNP sign off this deal? It was not to save jobs because we know that the jobs were safe. It was not the cheapest deal for taxpayers. It was the most expensive. It was not the most secure contract. It was the most risky. It was not backed by experts. They warned against it. They told the Deputy First Minister and others. Against overwhelming evidence, John Swinney signed off the deal anyway. It seems obvious to everyone what happened here. The SNP wanted the political praise for keeping the yard open ahead of an election, so they ignored all of the alarm bells. It looks an awful lot like the SNP made a dodgy deal, and now they are trying to cover it up. Can the Deputy First Minister— Can we please hear Mr Ross' question? I am grateful that the Deputy First Minister is trying to listen despite some of the content behind him. Can he really tell the public that there was no political motive behind the award of this contract? The objective of the Government was to ensure that ferries that were required are built, and that is what we are concentrating on achieving. We are also determined to ensure that employment in the lower Clyde was supported with contracts coming from the CalMac network. For Mr Ross to say that, somehow, the yard could stay open without any contracts is just to deny physical reality about the way in which a yard would be run. I would point out to Mr Ross that Audit Scotland went through the procurement process and indicated that the procurement process was entirely standard, resulting in ferdysons becoming the preferred bidder. On that basis, the Transport Minister took the decision to award the contract, as the note says. He now understands the background and that Mr Mackay has cleared the proposal. Mr Ross is trying to invent something else. He is trying to. I have explained what I have explained to Parliament. We are having a continuation of quite a lot of heckling, and I would be very grateful if Members could resist the temptation and very much like to hear the Deputy First Minister. Consistent with my obligations under the ministerial code to give truthful answers to Parliament, I am making it clear to Parliament that the memo that Mr Ross has quoted from is simply recording the fact that I have been briefed about a decision that another minister has taken. Therefore, the way is clear to award the contract because I have been briefed that budget is in place and Mr Mackay's decision can stand. Mr Ross can go around smearing and inventing all the information that he wants, but the people of Scotland will see through his grubby tactics today. Mr Ross, what the people of Scotland can see is a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers' money that has been spent on two ferries that have so far not sailed, that were promised to islanders who need these, that desperately need these for their connectivity, that were promised them by this Government. I think that the Deputy First Minister to respond in that way undermines what these communities need right now, because it seems that this was the best deal for the SNP, not the best deal for Scotland, and ScotRail is going the same way for commuters as the ferry deal has gone for islanders. One in three train services has been cut just a month after the Deputy First Minister's SNP Government took control of our railways. Earlier this week, in a rare move, business groups, including the Scottish Tourism Alliance, the Scottish Financial Enterprise, the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, the Scottish Retail Consortium and the Institute of Directors united to warn of the harsh impact that their members are facing as a result of the ScotRail cuts. Delays, last-minute cancellations and reduced services are causing real problems for passengers right across the country. Last week, our national men's team are playing their biggest match for over two decades. The Tartan army will need to get to and from Hamden on ScotRail. Will your Government have got a grip of this situation by then? If not, when can people expect the real service that they need? When we look at the specific questions that Douglas Ross has put to me this afternoon on the Ferguson's issue, it is abundantly clear why a statement by me to this Parliament was unnecessary, because he had nothing of substance to put to me whatsoever. I have been around this chamber for a long, long time. An assessment has often been made that when a political leader changes the topic of their question in the run of First Minister's questions, it is an indication that they are in trouble. That is exactly where Douglas Ross is. Mr Ross knows full well that there are negotiations under way between the employers, ScotRail and the trade unions to resolve the industrial dispute that is disrupting, that is limited services just now. That dialogue is under way as it properly should be. He asked me about the Ukraine match. Obviously, we want to see more services in place to deal with the Ukraine match. I am very confident that ScotRail will have in place additional services to ensure that the specific requirements of accessing Hamden will be addressed as part of that process. There will be announcements made in due course. I suspect the degree of agitation that we are getting from Mr Ross today is an indication of the depth of trouble that Mr Ross is in just now. I do not think that there is anything that I am going to be able to say today that will satisfy Mr Ross. It is going to doubt what I say and question my integrity. I am giving honest answers to Parliament. That is more than can be said for the Prime Minister Boris Johnson that Douglas Ross is prepared to support. Across the country, thousands of people have been left out of pocket and struggling with real chaos this week. There are countless examples, but let me give the Deputy First Minister one. Lianne lives in Dunbarton. She works at a service station in Helensborough. She takes the train to and from work. There is now no service after 8 p.m. and she finishes her shift at 10.30 p.m. She is unable to drive and there is no public transport available. How does the Deputy First Minister expect Lianne and countless others to get home? I sympathise entirely with the position that Lianne finds herself in. That is why the discussions that are going on just now, or will be taking place this afternoon between the rail trade unions and with ScotRail, are so important to resolve the issue. We have got to operate a safe railway and we can only do that with fully and properly trained drivers. The network relies on resty working by ScotRail train drivers. That is a process that we are trying to work out to eliminate. The training of drivers for properly understandable reasons was interrupted by Covid. We are trying to make as much progress on boosting the driver numbers. Of course, there are more drivers available now than there have been in the past to try to resolve that, but we have to resolve the dispute, which is what the discussions are all about. I encourage ScotRail and the trade unions to reach a conclusion as part of that process, so that individuals such as Lianne can have access to the type of rail service that they should have access to. The Deputy First Minister did not answer the question. Unlike the Deputy First Minister, Lianne does not have a ministerial car to get her home. In the middle of a cost, you can hum and ho, you like. This is real lived experience for your constituents too. Hear about your constituents. In the middle of a cost of living crisis, Lianne has to spend £20 on a taxi. That means that she has to work two hours just to pay to get home. That is the reality for thousands of people across the country. Let's look at the facts. At the start of 2020, there were 2,400 services a day. In February, the Scottish Government made a permanent cut of 250 services a day. The latest chaos sees that number increase to almost 1,000 services cut a day. The message from ScotRail and the Scottish Government is simply to make your own arrangements. Normally, when there is a significant disruption on rail services, a replacement bus service is provided. Can the Deputy First Minister tell us, of the 1,000 services cut a day, how many have a replacement bus service? Mr Sauer asked me some points about the capacity of our rail services, and I want to address those points. If we look back at the situation just in 2015, there were 1,086 drivers on the ScotRail network. That December was 1,168, so there has been growth in the number of drivers. ScotRail would have trained a further 130 drivers had the process not been paused during the pandemic, for I think we all accept understandable reasons. There is now a pool of almost 900 pending driver applications, which gives us a supply of candidates coming into driver training that will allow us to expand the availability of driving personnel. Indeed, the ScotRail board gave authority for the recruitment of a further 135 drivers to move forward to the next stage. I put those points on the record to address the capacity of the rail services and to show the investment that has been made in ensuring that we have adequate numbers of drivers in the future. We are in a period of difficulty just now because drivers are exercising their voluntary right not to undertake rest day working. We are trying to resolve those issues by the negotiation that is taking place, and we have put in place through ScotRail an amended timetable that gives more certainty about the availability of services rather than last-minute cancellations. That was the feedback that we got from transport focus, as being the most important issue that should be addressed for the travelling public, so that it had certainty about the transport that was available. The Deputy First Minister spoke, but he did not answer the question. I watched up the ScotRail business account this morning to ask about how many replacement bus services it had, and the answer is, hi there, no, there is not any. There is not any replacement services across the country. In the middle of a cost of living and climate crisis, the SNP Green Government is leaving people stranded with no public transport and asking them to use gas-guzzling vehicles instead. What that failure means in practice is tens of thousands of people struggling to get to and from work, more people out of pocket and made poorer, millions lost for local businesses and the industries that suffered so much during Covid taking another hit. While the Deputy First Minister and his colleagues have 28 chauffeur-driven cars costing over £1 million to get them to and from their work, the SNP Green Government is cutting a thousand real services a day, offering no replacement bus services and forcing people to work hours just to pay for a taxi home. Shouldn't he and every other minister hand back the keys to the ministerial chauffeur cars until they get this sorted and get Scotland moving again? What this Government is doing is providing practical help to people with the cost of living. For example, the Scottish Government has doubled the child payment in Scotland from to £20 per week. It will go up to £25 per week, and none of that support is available in any other part of the United Kingdom, including in Labour-run Wales. In addition to that, the Scottish Government has assisted individuals with councillor support, assisted individuals with direct support through carers allowance, for example, and other measures. While we are doing all that to support the cost of living crisis that has been faced by members of the public, what is the Labour Party doing? The Labour Party is getting into bed with a Tory party in council administrations around the country. When Anna Sauer told the country on 5 May, do not reward the toxic out-of-touch corrupt Tory party with your vote, what is the Labour Party now doing? The Labour Party is rewarding the toxic out-of-touch corrupt Tory party with jobs at West Lothian Council and the Edinburgh City Council. The Labour Party and the Tory Party are working together to vote Labour, get Tory. We will now move to general and constituency supplementaries. I call Graeme Dey. The Deputy First Minister will be aware that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Falkwinds war, a conflict that claimed the lives of members of the Scots guards and four or five commando-based in my constituency. I wonder if he shares my disappointment that the UK Government's Falkwind veterans concessionary flight scheme remains suspended, denying holders of the South Atlantic medal and Nixifkin their only realistic chance of visiting the islands at this point in time. I understand that the scheme was paused because of the pandemic and that there have been indications that it might resume at some point later this year. Will the Deputy First Minister join me in calling on the UK Government to restart it as a matter of urgency, so that those for whom this anniversary means so much can, if they wish, visit the Falkwinds and pay their respects to fallen comrades? It is understandable that non-essential travel to the Falkwinds was suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 restrictions. I very much agree with Mr Dey, who pursued many of these issues as the veterans minister for some time. It is extremely important that the flights resume at the earliest possible and practicable time, especially in this 40th anniversary year, which I appreciate is also the subject of a member's debate in Parliament on this topic. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has written to the Secretary of State for Defence to seek clarity on the projected timeline for resumption of the flights and to impress on the Secretary of State the importance of continuing to provide this critical support to veterans of the 1982 conflict. Tess White A week before the census deadline, National Records of Scotland announced that only 84.8 per cent of households had filled in the census. In Dundee, almost a fifth of households hadn't completed it. In Glasgow, it was close to a quarter. Last year, the return rate in England and Wales was 97 per cent. Just five days ago, does the Deputy First Minister agree that the census has been a disaster from start to finish, and that it was a mistake to separate the Scottish census from the wider UK census? No, I do not agree with that point. There is obviously a lot of very hard work going on to ensure that the census is completed. The final returns will be disclosed by National Records of Scotland in due course. There is, of course, some way in the analysis that has got to be undertaken by National Records of Scotland. Arising from that, obviously, the Parliament will be updated by Angus Robertson on the progress of the census and the strength of the information that is available for us to use in future developments of public policy in Scotland. Julie Lamberth, chair of the Royal College of Nursing, said on Monday that fair pay is needed to stem an exodus of staff and retain younger nurses in our NHS. She also made clear that the two priorities for dedicated nursing staff right now are pay and safe staffing. Nursing in midwifery vacancies climbed by a shocking 170 per cent between 2020 and 2021, and I have heard first hand from nurses who have made it clear that the current normalisation of staffing gaps is taking its toll on their mental and physical health. Those are some of the most dedicated and hard-working staff in our NHS, leaving the profession that they love to be broken. When is the Government going to get a grip and engage with the RCN on safe staffing and fair pay and meaningful workforce planning that has been so desperately lacking? Those are serious issues that Mr O'Kane raises and the negotiations are under way on both of those questions, on pay and safe staffing, so the Government is engaged in that process as we speak. We are working to ensure, within the significant constraints in which we are operating, that we can address the issues that are of concern to members of the Royal College of Nursing. I would point out to Mr O'Kane, of course, that nursing and staffing levels in the national health service are higher than they were when we came to office and are at record levels. We will continue to support nursing staff in the excellent outstanding work that they do upon which all of us depend. Christine Grahame Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Deputy First Minister, a vulnerable constituent, a young man with Aspergers and my constituency, rents a small cottage on a farm in Peebles. His predicted electricity bills were £35 per month, but he's actually been billed £1,500 a month. Technicians appear in advice that he's probably receiving bills from the farm, so he's now sitting with a so-called debt of nearly £4,000. Despite efforts of my office to get Aon to respond and even get in touch with the chief executive, we've had radio silence. Does the First Minister agree with all the bad publicity surrounding profits that Aon has and recommendations that customers should get in touch with their financial difficulties? Due to their costs, that does not inspire confidence. Based on the information that Christine Grahame has put to me, that is a very serious situation. I know Christine Grahame well. She is an assidious constituency member of parliament, and I'm absolutely certain that she will pursue Aon with tremendous energy to get answers and engagement. I would encourage Aon to engage, and if there is anything that Government officials can do to assist, I would be happy to arrange for that to be provided. The case that Christine Grahame raises is an illustration of the severity of the situation that some individuals will be facing in our society. They need the support of their members of parliament in the circumstances, but the Government also funds advice direct to Scotland to provide free advice, support and assistance to households, and I would encourage anybody who needs that assistance to secure that assistance. Obviously, the scale of energy bills is a significant problem for individuals in the period that lies ahead. Sandesh Gulhane 1 in 25 Scots is severely obese, but the backlog of waiting times pre-pandemic has led to Scots in desperation flying overseas and increasing numbers for bariatric surgery. With one medical tourism organiser flying around 60 people per month from Scotland to Turkey, however, we are seeing an alarming number of patients returning from overseas surgery with no effective aftercare plan, as I was told by someone who recently returned from Turkey, or complications such as leaking of stomach contents or having a hernia. Will the Deputy First Minister join me in asking patients not to seek weight loss surgery overseas, but instead wait to be treated in the UK, where we have the best bariatric surgeons in the world, including the essential follow-up that is vital for their safety? I am happy to associate myself with the call that has been made by Dr Gulhane. I saw some media reports on this subject this morning that highlighted the point that he makes that, although travelling overseas may secure initial treatment at a faster pace, the complications and implications of that are then carried by the national health service and that can be a significant burden for the health service and for individuals as a consequence. Therefore, I wholeheartedly endorse the point that has been made by Dr Gulhane and encourage individuals to follow the advice that he has given to Parliament today. Today, my constituent, Marian Reed, along with other survivors of Farnethy House residential school have come to Parliament to highlight their plight. So far more than 200 brave women have come forward, and I suspect that that is the tip of the iceberg and shared a traumatic awful experience of physical, mental and sexual abuse at the hands of staff at Farnethy in the 1960s, where the young vulnerable children were sent, suspected supposedly to help them recover from illness. Those women understandably feel that no one is listening to them. The Deputy First Minister has said that he will meet them. Can I ask him to ensure that this meeting takes place urgently, but more importantly that he and the Government will listen and ensure that no stone is left unturned to get answers for those women and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice? There are a couple of different issues in there. On Mr Smith's last point about every effort being made to ensure that perpetrators of abuse are brought to justice, that is properly a matter for Police Scotland and the Crown. Obviously, I endorse the points that Mr Smith has made about the importance of an approach that has been taken to bring any perpetrator of abuse to justice, but he will understand that that is an independent process of government. On the substance of the issues around Farnethy, this is a very sensitive issue, and I have agreed to meet with a group of survivors in response to a parliamentary question from Monica Lennon. I will do that as soon as it is possible to do so. I applaud the courage of individuals who have come forward. I know their concern is that the redress arrangements that Parliament has put in place do not automatically include individuals who were in Farnethy for a short period of time, whereas our redress scheme is essentially focused on long-term care placements that individuals will have been placed on and abused in that circumstance. What I would say to Mr Smith and his constituent is that there is obviously scope for individuals to apply to redress Scotland for a redress payment given that each individual circumstance will be individually addressed and assessed. It is not a case that there is, in a sense, a prohibition on applications from Farnethy survivors. It is that each individual case will be assessed on its merits, but I will happily see the group and I will do that as soon as I possibly can do it. To ask the Deputy First Minister how the Scottish Government is celebrating Scotland's bus week. Presiding Officer, I am pleased to support the first ever Scottish bus week and to celebrate the many environmental, economic and social benefits that buses provide to our communities. This Government has put buses at the heart of Scotland's just transition, funding over 500 low-carbon buses across Scotland, providing free bus travel for people under 22 and for older and disabled people, and investing over half a billion pounds in bus priority infrastructure. I urge all members to join us in supporting Scottish bus week and encourage more people to travel by bus. Thank you, Deputy First Minister. Thanks to the introduction of free bus travel for under 22s delivered with greens in government over 300,000 young people across Scotland, including 20,000 in highlands and islands, are now enjoying free low-carbon travel. Here in the capital, the proposed SNP green council coalition agreement included significant measures to increase bus patronage. Is the Deputy First Minister as shocked as I am that rather than embracing progressive politics, Labour has put those positive measures at risk by colluding with the Tories to cobble together an administration? Can the Deputy First Minister outline how the Government will work collaboratively to provide quality bus services across Scotland? As a consequence of the partnership that has been agreed between the Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Government, young people rightly travel for free under the age of 22 as a consequence of that agreement. Because of that agreement, there was an opportunity in other parts of the country to go further in relation to that type of collaboration. I am only sorry that, in the city of Edinburgh, the Labour Party's collaboration with the Conservative Party has thwarted further ambitious proposals being dropped forward. We know that all those grubby deals at local level have been approved by Jackie Baillie. Frankly, it explains a lot that particular agreement, but I very much regret that there was not the opportunity to take forward some of those proposals and to advance the interests of people in Scotland by the collaboration that we have seen in this Parliament. I like to ask the Deputy First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is regarding the impact on Scotland to comments by Ian Wright of the Food and Drink Sector Council regarding the UK's preparedness for increasing food prices and shortages. So we've seen through Brexit, Covid and now the illegal war in Ukraine how resilient the food sector is despite all the challenges that they have faced. Food supply continues to be strong. The Scottish Government, however, takes seriously the food security of Scotland and in response to the war in Ukraine, Scottish ministers established a short life food security and supply task force together with industry. The task force is currently considering a range of issues and will recommend actions that can be taken to strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. I expect the task force to report in due course. The UK Government holds many of the levers to address the on-going pressures, but we will continue to use all of the powers that we have available to support people in Scotland. I'd like to thank the Deputy First Minister for that answer. Scotland's Food and Drink Sector has been on a journey marked by numerous successes, not least by providing a constant supply of world-class foods, employing more than 115,000 people and a high-value export mark. It's clear to me that this totemic industry is in grave danger from the incompetence and intransigence of the UK Government as highlighted by Mr Wright. It doesn't just endanger our food industry, it threatens the ability of people being able to source the high-quality food that we want them to have. Does the Deputy First Minister agree with me that the only way that we can protect that industry and all our industries is through an independent Scotland? I do agree with Mr Fairlie on that point. The food and drink industry is currently facing numerous significant challenging impacts as a result of the UK Government's mishandling of Brexit at a time of a pandemic, and now those issues are being added to by the challenges that come from the cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine. On all of those issues, whether it's cost of living or whether it's the implications of Brexit, the barriers to trade, the obstacles about free movement of individuals, all of those issues can be addressed by independence, which is why Mr Fairlie is absolutely right to put that point to Parliament. To ask the Deputy First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is when whether burning waste is good for the environment. When considering the treatment of Scotland's unavoidable and unrecyclable residual waste, there are no options that are good for the environment. That is why we are taking actions to reduce the amount of waste that we produce, increase the proportion that we recycle and minimise the impact of treating any remaining residual waste. We recently published an independent review of the role of incineration in Scotland's waste hierarchy to ensure that how we treat residual waste is aligned with our net zero ambitions. A key finding of the review was that while incineration can be less climate damaging than landfill, incineration capacity could outstrip supply of residual waste if most of the facilities in the pipeline of developments are built. We will set out our initial response to the review in June. Residents of Auckland are rightly upset by proposals to construct a new incinerator there. Now a report commissioned by one of the First Minister's own ministers, Lorna Slater, who herself pledged to end new incinerators in her party's manifesto, says that there isn't even enough demand for new facilities. The local SNP has been embarrassingly silent on the issue, but local residents, politicians and community groups are united in their opposition to the plans. Can the Deputy First Minister tell me, while the First Minister brings in a moratorium on new incinerators and how does this facility fit into our plans to reach net zero? There are two points that I would make there. The first is that the individual application that Sharon Dowey is referring to is a live planning application, so it would be completely inappropriate for me to comment on that. Indeed, it is a live planning application with East Ayrshire Council that might explain why local politicians are silent on the issue as well, because if they weren't silent, they would be in breach of their code of conduct. I think that we should all be mindful of the rules under which we are all supposed to operate here. The second point is in relation to the strategic question of incineration. In my earlier answer, I indicated that we have sought expert advice on this question. We have received that. We are very grateful to Dr Colin Church for that review. It has been considered within Government and Ministers will give a response in June. The point that I made in my original answer is about the risk that, if all of the developments that are being proposed were consented, we would end up with more capacity than would be justifiable with the level of residual waste is obviously a factor that has to be considered as part of the exercise in reviewing the whole question of incineration, which Ministers will respond to Parliament about in advance of the summer recess. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's responses to comments by Citizens Advice Scotland that one in five people are running out of money before PDE. The UK cost of living crisis is impacting all households, with those on the lowest incomes being hardest hit. It is shocking and shameful that, week after week, the UK Government has refused to take the direct and bold action that is needed to support households in need, and we obviously await the statements that have been made in the House of Commons today. We have repeatedly urged the United Kingdom Government to use the levers that it has, including introducing a windfall tax, cutting VET on energy bills, increasing the warm home discount and following our lead in upgrading benefits. That contrast to the actions of this Government, we are investing almost £770 million this year through a package of cost of living measures and social security support, not available anywhere else in the United Kingdom and investing £12 million to support free advice services. Pauline McNeill So that means that 20 per cent of people cannot make it till PDE and with energy cap set to soar this October to almost £3,000 and exorbitant inflation, even more people are facing impossible demands on household budgets, and the mental health toll will be huge. One of the Scottish Government's response was to give £150 council tax discount to Scottish households, but Chris Burt of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said recently that £150 will barely touch the sides of the gaping hole in many low-income households. He said that there was no perfect solution to the finance secretary, but this is not a good one. In addition to what the chancellor will announce today, and I agree with John Swinney something that the Tories have been forced into, I must ask this Government what steps will they take to be bolder? What new plans will they have to play their part in ensuring the struggling households can look to this Government for the support that they need? One of the measures that this Government has taken is that we have doubled the Scottish child payment to £20 per child per week and we are increasing it to £25 from the end of the year and we will extend it to under 16s too. That is not provided in any other part of the United Kingdom. I also remind the Parliament that it was voted against by the Labour Party because it voted against the budget. Much as I respect Pauline McNeill, I have to say to the Labour Party that if you are going to come to Parliament and demand we do things, the nice and decent thing would be to vote for them when we put them to Parliament. The second thing that I will say is that, yes, we will await what the chancellor has said or is saying—I am not sure if he is doing it at this precise moment—but rather than complaining about what the UK Government is or is doing, why do we not have the powers in this Parliament to take the actions that will remedy the situation? Lastly, it all comes down to the decisions that are also taken by individual public authorities in Scotland. Yesterday, in my own council area in Perth and Kinross, we removed the Conservatives from power and an SNP administration was appointed, and their first policy was to apply £700,000 of new money in cost-of-living measures to support my vulnerable constituents. What were the actions of some Labour authorities around the country? Their first act was to give new jobs to the Tories. That is a disgrace from the Labour party. That concludes First Minister's questions. There will be a brief pause before we move to Members' Business.