 Gwennifrede Llywodraeth transitions i'u gwirio ff Greifryd yw mewn cyfan. Fy fyddai'r cyfan maelio'r ddefan i ymddianiau cynnwys fod oeddennod llawer, a mae'r ddechrau i gyfoeddau mor mewn cyfiddoriaeth i gyffredean, ond dwi'n yn gweithio gyda'r ysgrifesau i gwybodaeth. Yn eu gwirio'r cyfan, cyfan maelio ddechrau i gael cyfaithan i gyffredean, is in relation to employment-based routes to teacher training. Minister Graham Day, Il-Faith Cymprif Weinidog. The Scottish Government is in support of a range of university-based routes into teaching and we are open to working with our university providers to consider alternative routes that lead to an appropriate teaching qualification. The member will be aware that we offer bus search for career changes, wishing to become teachers, and a most hard to full subject. However, the general teaching council for Scotland that determines what constitutes a recognized teaching qualification. I'm asking the question because of concerns that have been expressed to me amongst those who've been working with the University of Buckingham as mentors to PGCE students, that this may be the last year that the University of Buckingham offers its very highly regarded and rigorous training course in Scotland, and allegedly that's because of changes to Scottish Government policy on employment-based routes into teacher training. Can I ask the Minister for some verification on this, and if he could provide me with details about what's actually happened here? The University of Buckingham offering was at no time an employment route into teaching as such. It was a transitional arrangement which followed the requirement for teachers working in the independent school sector to be registered with the GTCS, which was introduced in 2017. The University of Buckingham delivered a top-up programme to enable that to happen, but it was only accredited for a small category of teachers with a limited timescale in which to complete that. I hope that that provides the list myth with sufficient clarity, but if it doesn't, I haven't quite captured the essence of our question, I'm more than happy to engage with her further on that. I'm very grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can the Minister confirm that the Scottish Government is still committed to a graduate teaching profession? I would say to the member that the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to the teaching profession full stop, but it will always engage with opportunities to universities to see how we enhance that further. A supplementary from Willie Rennie, who is joining us online. The minister will know that I'm concerned about the high levels of unemployment but also short-term contracts in the teaching profession. That won't be particularly attractive to those who are looking to switch career into teaching. What is the minister doing about recruiting the 3,500 extra teachers promised but also the reduction in teacher contact time that will be essential to recruit those extra teachers? As Mr Rennie knows, this is not my area of responsibility, but I'm more than happy to write back to him in full detail on that, although I do know he had an exchange with the Cabinet Secretary in the chamber not so long ago, where I think she answered this quite fully. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities to ensure that any subsidised bus routes are maintained. Local authorities receive funding from the Scottish Government via the general revenue grant and have a duty to consider supporting socially necessary services that are otherwise not commercially viable. In 2021-22, local authorities spent £55 million supporting bus services in this way. Stirling Council has recently launched its budget consultation, which includes three options for public transport, all of which would seek cuts to the subsidised X10 and C60 service, vital in linking Stirling's rural communities. To ask the Scottish Government what conversations take place with local authorities to ensure that there is an awareness of the importance of the provision of bus services in rural areas. Under the Transport Act 1985, local authorities have a duty to identify whether there is a social need for particular bus services and can subsidise them at their discretion. That means that local transport authorities can provide subsidy for services that are not provided on a commercial basis, but that is entirely a matter for local authorities to determine and the Scottish Government has no powers to intervene in these matters. Under the Transport Act 2019, local transport authorities now have powers enabling them to run their own services. Those powers sit alongside their existing powers to subsidise local services. However, it is not for local transport authorities to decide if they want to use those powers. It is for them to decide whether they want to use those powers to improve services. I discussed rural transport bus issues with the regional transport partnerships only this week. The M2 bus that runs from Tory Glen to Castle milk in my region is an hourly service regularly used by older people and the only bus that serves the bottom of Spittle and Dunure Drive. For the past month, it has reduced to an hourly service and recently to no service at all due to repairs, because it has taken over a month for that and no replacement. What can the minister do to establish why that has gone on so long and what mechanism can she put in place to ensure that replacement services are there now and in the future? I am sure that the member will be aware that bus services are either run by commercial operators in the deregulated market or, as we have just discussed, subsidised by the local authority but again run by private companies. I do appreciate and this is general across all transport areas that repairs and replacement of parts is having pressure on all transport issues, but these are best placed by her as MSP making representations on behalf of our constituents directly with the bus company. If she is not met with the bus company, I strongly encourage her to do so. Can I ask the minister about the importance of local political leadership here? My understanding is that Stirling council have had money from the community bus fund to develop new local rural services and that Lachlow and the Trossach national park are also committed to establishing new routes working with the council and that is going to be included in the forthcoming park plan. It seems that all the ingredients are there to restore rural bus services. What is lacking is the local political leadership to pull it all together and use the new powers in the transport act. It is disappointing to hear that bus services are deteriorating in the Stirling area. It is a matter for local political leadership, just as it is a matter for national political leadership to put transport front and centre in terms of priorities. Anybody who has any concerns about private operators can, obviously, approach the traffic commissioner as well. In terms of providing tools for enabling, we have the 2019 act. A whole suite of different regulations coming into force are already in force, giving more powers and responsibilities for local authorities to use. The community bus fund is intended to support local transport authorities in considering the act powers and to improve local services. To ask the Scottish Government what its priorities are for COP28. In summary, our principal objectives for COP28 are that our leadership on loss and damage builds momentum for urgent funding, that our co-chairmanship of the under 2 coalition supports action and commitments, that our commitment to low carbon energy under a just transition to net zero, particularly around offshore wind and hydrogen, can influence others to do more to achieve net zero, and that we will advance international relationships, attract investment in Scotland and enhance Scotland's global reputation, particularly on renewable energy. We will also continue using our platform to platform the voices of women, young people and the global south in COP28 debate in action. Monica Lennon. I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. Now that the European Union has decided to criminalise offences comparable to ecocide, will the Scottish Government take the opportunity at COP28 to meet with Governments and campaigners who are advancing ecocide law in light of the Government's commitment to maintain alignment with the EU on environmental protection? I welcome Monica Lennon's question. I have a very full programme indeed at COP28, which includes the number of meetings centering on that twin crisis of nature loss. The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to protecting Scotland's environment. Monica Lennon is right to recognise the progress at EU level. We will assess the final revised EU environmental crime directive against our own policy to seek to maintain alignment where we can with EU law. I will, of course, take this important matter into a number of the conversations that I will be having at COP28. The climate credentials of the current UK Government are in absolute tatters, and the only thing that the Labour Government in waiting seems capable of is flip-flopping and U-turns. How can Scotland work with the international community at COP28 to try and affect a positive outcome and show the world that our views and ambitions for the future of the planet are not represented by Westminster? Karen Adams is absolutely right to point out how much of a leader Scotland is already recognised as in the climate space, not only in our own commitments and our actions, particularly on renewables and nature-based solutions, but equally on our pursuit of climate justice. We will be using our platform at COP. The First Minister is already there. I will follow as he returns home. The point is that no nation has all the answers or the means to respond at the scale that is required. That is why national leadership and representation at four, I like COP28, is so important and Scotland will use its role to our full potential. To ask the Scottish Government what funding it is providing for regeneration and economic renewal projects in the south of Scotland. Our place-based investment programme has directly provided over £18 million to councils in the south of Scotland region since 2021, and the area has received over £48 million from other Scottish Government regeneration funding programmes. The Scottish Government is also investing £85 million in the Borderlands deal and £300 million in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland deal, supporting a wide range of projects and programmes designed to stimulate economic growth. In addition, we have allocated over £34 million to the south of Scotland enterprise agency in 2023-24 to support economic and community development across the region. I recognise that funding in the UK Government's levelling up fund has brought to projects like the Georgetown and Stranraer. The cabinet secretary may be aware that, in April 2016, the Scottish Government committed to invest £6 million towards the regeneration of Stranraer when the ferry port closed. Unfortunately, previous SNP Labour administrations at Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Scottish Government have failed to deliver a process to draw down this money. Despite knowing that the investment could bring transformational change, jobs and opportunities for local people, what discussions he has had with the current administration and what progress has been made to draw down this money? We have been in constant dialogue with Dumfries and Galloway Council and made it clear that we cannot release funds in the space in the absence of detailed proposals. Officials met with the council representatives on 13 November to discuss Stranraer's place plan and underlined the need for them to develop and submit detailed investment proposals for us to consider. Stranraer has already benefited from £2.8 million from the regeneration capital grant fund. We have also committed £16 million through the Borderlands growth deals to support the redevelopment of Stranraer Marina, focused on creating new jobs and drawing in new visitors to the area. I hope that that gives Mr Carson some reassurance. I have previously raised regeneration and economic renewal in addressing the many vacant, abandoned and derelict sites across South Scotland, such as the Arches in Stranraer and the Interflore factory in Dumfries. Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is crucial that funding to address derelict sites ensures that rural areas, such as D&G, are included? Will he agree to meet me to discuss how those sites can be better addressed? I thank Emma Harper for that question. I am happy to meet Emma Harper to discuss that and to discuss the fact that the vacant and derelict land investment programme is open to all local authorities, including those in South Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway, to apply and to assist them in being able to tackle the persistence of vacant and derelict land in the areas that they are covering. To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to increase the use of buses across Scotland. Earlier this year, we co-funded a successful national marketing campaign with bus operators encouraging people to return to bus or use it for the first time. The campaign reached an audience of millions, prompted over 32,000 visits to the Tews, the Bus.Scot website, an increased order and disabled persons concessionary journeys by 5.8 per cent during the campaign period. Additionally, our concessionary travel schemes provide access to free bus travel to over 2 million people in Scotland, including around 170,000 people in Fife, with over 3 million journeys every week. Those schemes help people to cut costs, making sustainable travel a more attractive option. I have repeatedly welcomed the under-22 bus pass scheme in this chamber. I have also repeatedly raised the issue of unaffordable and ever-increasing bus fares for those without the benefit of a concessionary scheme. The UK Government has introduced a blanket cap of £2 to all bus fares in England to help tackle the issue during the cost of living crisis. Will the minister examine the case and cost for a similar fare card in Scotland that would benefit all bus users? The rest of the UK does not have the generous concessionary bus scheme that Scotland has, with over 2 million of our population benefiting from it. However, the member makes an important point about working people who cannot afford the bus fares that would not be eligible for the concessionary schemes. That is why our fair fares review, which is due to report shortly, is looking at the balance of this. How do we ensure that if we are tackling poverty, one of the biggest blights that we see as a result of successive Westminster Governments is in work poverty? Anything that this Government can do to help to leave it, we can. However, let us be realistic. The budget that we are facing is very serious indeed if we want to achieve what he and I want to do is tackle poverty properly in Scotland. Just to follow up on that point, the minister is perhaps missing an opportunity here because we could have a Scottish bus fare cap if she chose to examine it. Is she prepared to at least look at the proposal and look at what it might cost? The member makes an important point, but he also fails to reflect that Scotland does not have a centralised system in terms of what can be done in local authority areas. We are in the process of bringing through the regulations that will give more powers, for example, over franchising and powers over running services are already there. Unless he wants to centralise all decision making on transport, that would be problematic in our context. However, I met the regional transport partnership, which includes transport partnerships from across Scotland. I think that all of us, whether it is in local authorities, regional transport partnerships or indeed in the national government, are thinking about how we can do things in a better way. However, I do not think that centralising everything that he is suggesting may be the route forward that our councils and local authorities would want. I am very grateful to ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with East Lothian Council regarding the feature of local public service provision in the area, including in relation to the lock centre in Trinett. The Scottish Government places great importance on community sports and leisure facilities. The Deputy First Minister met representatives of East Lothian Council on 23 August. We are fully aware that local councils, like all public authorities, are facing challenging financial circumstances. That is why we increased the resources available to local government by £793 million in 2023-24. East Lothian Council will receive £21.5 million to fund local services, which equates to an extra £8.1 million to support vital day-to-day services, or an additional 3.8 per cent compared to 2022-23. I am very grateful for the response. The IPSAH's sixth priority of the eight investments that work for physical activity states that sport and recreation opportunities must target audiences where the need may be greatest or participation rates are at their lowest. The Scottish Government agrees with that. The lock centre in Trinett does exactly that. Does the Minister agree with me that, while it is right and proper that local authorities decide how local funding is distributed to its communities and in turn decide how to provide and maintain community and sporting facilities, they must have the political and practical support from the Government to meet this need properly? I think that the member makes a very strong point. The benefits of physical activity and sport as part of that is huge across our continent. It is really important that we all work together so local authorities, Scottish Government, Sport Scotland, working hand in hand. We absolutely understand the particular challenges that we face in terms of the estate. That is why Sport Scotland has been tasked with doing a piece of work to look at facilities across Scotland in terms of how they can be sustainable in the long term. It is also why the Government's programme for government mentioned a working group working with our partners in COSLA and Sport Scotland to look at how we can better use all of that estate, particularly the school's estate, where we can see in many occasions the best facility located in a community. It is often inaccessible to members of that community. We need to do more, but we need to do it in partnership. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life regarding the future provision of public services and facilities in the region, including the Glasgow National Parking Centre. The Scottish Government is fully aware that local authorities are facing challenging financial circumstances, particularly in maintaining and operation of facilities, largely due to energy costs and other costs of living pressures. The Scottish Government will continue to meet with COSLA and individual local authorities on a regular basis to cover a range of topics, including current and future budget processes. It is vital that all avenues are explored to ensure where possible that local clubs and communities have access to sport and leisure facilities. I'm sure the Minister will be aware that the Hockey Centre in Glasgow is a 2014 Commonwealth Games legacy venue, and a question mark now hands over the future of the viability of the facility. Scottish Hockey has a potential investor, but I'm told that progress has been slowed due to inactivity on the part of Glasgow Life. No one wants to lose potential investment in a valuable sporting venue in Glasgow. Will the Minister intervene to ensure the future of the facility and the many clubs that use it? I'm sure the member will be well aware that other local authorities are democratically elected institutions. It is absolutely important that this Parliament respects the democratic mandates of our local councillors across Scotland. I know that Scottish Hockey has written to the Minister for Sport and a response will be coming to Scottish Hockey in due course. That concludes General Questions. We will now move on to the next item of business, which is First Minister's Questions.