 Thank you very much.ен Question 1 Finlay Carson So on p receipt, y Scottish Government is preparing to promote economic growth in the South of Scotland. Governing imitate The Scottish Government is committed to promoting economic growth in the South of Scotland. Our substantial investment in infrastructure, regeneration and business support helps to deliver inclusive growth and economic resilience, creating and retaining jobs and communities across We are building on our commitment to the area by establishing a new enterprise and skills vehicle for the south of Scotland, which will drive economic growth. Finlay Carson. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. My colleagues and I have long campaigned for a south of Scotland enterprise agency, and this must be well-resourced, robust and autonomous agency. Only with a fully autonomous board like that of the Highlands and Islands enterprise will my constituents of Galloway and West of Rees fully benefit from the opportunities that such an organisation would present. Unlike the SNP Government's obsession with centralisation, the Scottish Conservatives will always make the case that decision making should be made as close to the source as possible. The Conservatives manifesto has made a commitment to bring forward a Borderlands growth deal, including councils on both sides of the border, to help to secure prosperity in southern Scotland. Does the cabinet secretary welcome such a proposal that would bring much-needed growth and investment to the south-west of Scotland? I find it ironic that a party that is closing job centres across the country and closing military bases talks about other parties being centralising. It is also true to say that the Borderlands initiative was first proposed by the SNP Government in 2013. It is also true to say that its constituents can rely on the fact that the Tories might talk about doing this. It is the SNP Government that will establish a vehicle for the south of Scotland through economic enterprise and skills review. As we have taken other actions, such as the establishment of the border trail and as we have taken action in relation to regeneration, it is our view that the agency that is established in the south of Scotland should be one that is autonomous, as Finlay Carson describes. I have given that commitment previously that it will be analogous to that for the Highlands and Islands enterprise, but it is quite clear in this area, as in many others. It is the SNP that is delivering in those areas, where all the Tories have done over many years. Colin Smyth The cabinet secretary will be aware that the Borderlands initiative has been taken forward by Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders councils in Scotland, working with Carlyll, Cumbria and Northumberland councils in England. However, today, there has not been a single penny from either the UK Government or the Scottish Government, and it has been left to local authorities to pick up the bill, despite both Governments claiming to support the Borderlands initiative. The cabinet secretary therefore tells us exactly what support the Scottish Government intends to provide for the development of a Borderlands growth deal, and is he aware of any funding that is coming from the UK Government for this initiative? Colin Smyth No, I am not aware of any funding coming directly from the UK Government, although it is true to say that the Edinburgh city region deal will include Scottish Borders councils, so money will come both from the UK Government and the Scottish Government in relation to that. Yes, we did establish the Borderlands initiative, and it was for local authorities to take these things forward. We would just be falling into the trap of being told that we are centralising if we were to decide exactly what initiatives should be taken forward. We will rely upon the representations made to us and the proposals made to us by local authorities, and we will seek to support those. It will depend exactly on what those proposals are, but whether it is in terms of the Scottish Borders council and the support that they have had in terms of the Borderlands rail, or in the other infrastructure and regeneration investments that we have made across the south of Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Government will be supporting local communities across this area, and we urge the UK Government to do likewise. Neil Findlay To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it does not keep minutes of all meetings between stakeholders and ministers. I can confirm that the Scottish Government proactively publishes all ministerial engagements with information on the date, purpose and attendees and the subject of the engagement. Formal minutes are taking where there are discussions on substantive government business, where policy decisions arise or where there are significant action points. Neil Findlay Why does the First Minister and other cabinet ministers meet with corporate lobbyists, including representatives of Charlotte Street partners, such as someone who chairs the SNP's growth commission, Mr Andrew Wilson, but fails to publish any agenda or any record of this meeting and others? Does that not breach the ministerial code or does it breach the civil service code? Neil Findlay To be clear, the Government takes minutes as appropriate in line with the ministerial code and in line with the civil service guidance, and that is what we have always done. It is also worth saying that this Government is far more transparent than previous Governments and that this Government proactively publishes when those meetings are happening and where our meetings are happening. That is not something that happened under previous Administrations. Alexander Stewart The lack of minute recording of key meetings, combined with journalists from across Scotland signing an open letter raising concerns about information requests being repeatedly delayed, emails asking for updates on answer requests repeatedly ignored, that surely gives rise to the Scottish Government having a transparency problem? Neil Findlay The Scottish Government takes our responsibility under FOI very seriously. In fact, the Scottish Government has a far better record than the UK Government at releasing information. Where in 2016 85 per cent of valid responses requests resulted in information being released by the Scottish Government on a similar basis in the UK, only 63 per cent of requests resulted in information being released. The Scottish FOI regime is far more robust than the regime that reflects elsewhere in the UK. If the member wants to look at how we can provide more information to journalists than perhaps he should be speaking to his colleagues down south who, rather than looking at how they can improve the FOI regime, are looking at how they can tighten up and make it more difficult for journalists and others members of the public to receive information. Johann Lamont Can I ask if the minister has read the letter from the journalist criticising the Government on FOI? If not, maybe you can get back to me with a minute that proves that it was handed to you. That is really serious. It is unprecedented for journalists to feel obliged to produce such a letter. Will the minister come back and give a more serious response to the challenges that that presents to us all? Johann Lamont I can confirm that I have read the letter and we are looking at the matters. One of the issues that journalists have raised was our timeliness. We are working with the Information Commissioner to improve our response times in response to that. It is worth looking at the facts of the matter. The facts of the matter is that we have a massively increasing number of FOIs that are being answered, more being answered on time than ever before. In 2016, prior to this Government, there were only 684 FOI responses answered on time. Last year, the last full year, this Government answered 1,557 responses on time. That is going from 61 per cent of responses under the Labour-Liberal Administration up to 76 per cent under this Administration. That said, we are determined to continue to improve our performance and look at how we can make this Government, which is already one of the most transparent Governments in the world, even better. Liz Smith To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage young people to study medicine at university. Young people at school are provided with experiences and careers advice to raise awareness of a range of degree opportunities available. There are also targeted schools programmes to encourage young people into careers in health and medicine in particular. We provide additional funding through the Scottish Funding Council to universities to help to improve access to high-demand professions. There is a reach programme linked to each medical school in Scotland to support young people from low-progression schools who wish to study medicine. In March this year, we also announced funding of £330,000 to deliver pre-entry courses to medicine that will be used to support secondary school students from socially deprived backgrounds to better prepare themselves for undergraduate medical education. Liz Smith With regard to medical undergraduates, the Scottish Government announced for this academic session an increase in 50 places. I understand that there will be another 40 places for academic session 2018-19, but that still does not make up for the reductions over the previous 10 years, nor does it match the 25 per cent increase that has been announced for south of the border. Given the current chronic shortage of GPs in Scotland, will the Minister tell Parliament what advice she has received from the medical undergraduate group? Does she believe that the capping system on places for domicile Scots is really working? Liz Smith is correct to point to the increase of 50 medical undergraduate places targeted at students from the most deprived areas. She will also be very well aware of the workforce planning requirements that go into the analysis before any decisions on medical places are taken for universities. I have to correct her about this cap for a university places for domiciled Scots. There is no cap on places. The setting of medical student places is based on the workforce planning needs of NHS Scotland, which I have previously mentioned. While we set the annual intake into medicine, the selection and recruitment of individual students admitted to study medicine is, of course, a matter for individual universities, which Liz Smith correctly points out to me on every occasion that universities are independent organisations and it is not for the Government to decide which places are given to students within each year. Clare Haughey To ask the Scottish Government what support and encouragement it is given to universities to offer places to study medicine to students from less affluent backgrounds. I have already mentioned and replied to Liz Smith around the 50 medical undergraduate places for the 2016 intake, which universities will use to support the widening access aims of the Government. We also have the pre-medical entry programme, which will be used to support secondary school students from socially deprived backgrounds to better prepare themselves for undergraduate medical education. The reach programme, which is established to link with each medical school in Scotland, will ensure that, once again, we go out through this outreach programme to aim the S4 to S6 pupils, including Edinburgh and the Lothians. We have a slow progression into higher education in medical careers to give them a greater insight and encourage them to offer support in their application process. Mark Ruskell To ask the Scottish Government how many professional veterinary bodies have indicated support for its legislative proposal to allow the amputation of tails in healthy puppies. Only one response from professional veterinary bodies was received to the public consultation held between 10 February and 3 May 2016. That was a combined response from the British Veterinary Association and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. Those organisations were not in favour of the proposal to permit the shortening of the tails of spaniel and hunt-point retriever puppies, where a vet believes that they are likely to be used as a working dog and risk serious tail injury in later life. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons did not tender a response to the consultation. Mark Ruskell I thank the cabinet secretary for that very straight and revealing answer. The reason, cabinet secretary, that organisations such as the British Veterinary Association are not supporting the statutory instrument is because it is fundamentally anti-science. Why does it make sense to amputate the tails of hundreds and hundreds of puppies at under five days old, just to avoid the amputation of one tail in an adult working dog? Mark Ruskell I look forward to appearing before the committee next Tuesday morning. The Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee is in the progress of dealing with this particular statutory instrument. While the veterinary organisations that I named do not agree with the proposal, it is of course the situation that prevails south of the border. The member is probably very well aware that not all vets are of exactly the same opinion on this matter. We did do research, there was research published in 2014, which persuaded us that in limited circumstances covering only two breeds of dogs and dealing only with the one-third tail tip of the animals, this was an appropriate way forward. As I said, I look forward to appearing before the committee on Tuesday morning. Jamie Greene To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect low and middle-income earners from negative growth. Derek Mackay The Scottish economy has been resilient in 2016, growing 0.4 per cent, despite continued headwinds from the North Sea industry and the uncertainty caused by the European Union referendum vote. Scotland's economic fundamentals are strong, unemployment is down and employment is up in 2016. We secured more foreign direct investment projects in any other part of the UK outside London for the fifth year in a row, and independent forecasters are predicting growth in the Scottish economy in 2017 and 2018. As well as our actions to support economic growth, we are continuing to help low and middle-income earners. For instance, we have frozen the basic rate of income tax in the current tax year and are committed to no increases in the basic rate subject to parliamentary approval for this term of this Parliament. We have also capped increases to the council tax, 3 per cent, and we have made it a requirement in our public sector pay policy for employers to pay the living wage. We are continuing with our policy of no compulsory redundancies in the public sector, so the real risk to Scotland's economy comes from a hard Brexit and the continuation of Westminster's austerity agenda. Jamie Greene I am sure that the cabinet secretary will be pleased to know that it is the Conservative Government that has taken 113,000 Scots out of tax altogether at the lower end. We are finding out just yesterday that Ernst and Young's Scottish item club report is quoted as saying that the Scottish economy is stuck in the slow lane. Last quarter's GDP figures show that we are ready halfway to a recession and we are shortly to find out if that is the case. Given that all of this has happened under this SNP's watch, will the cabinet secretary take personal responsibility for the stagnation in the Scottish economy? Will he today apologise to the people of Scotland for it? Jamie Greene I think that I should apologise for once again talking down Scotland and undermining. As do all Conservatives undermining Scotland when it comes to trying to attract foreign direct investment and other investors to live, work and invest in Scotland in which we have had a great track record. Jamie Greene also mentions taxation. It is really interesting that the Tory party manifesto, or what is left of it, lasts the eye check. It does not refer to tax rates and we all know that the Tories propose tax cuts for the richest while hammering the poorest in our society. That is what the Tories are all about. Scotland's economic fundamentals are strong. We are saying that employment is going up and that unemployment is going down and that improved performance on productivity is better in comparative terms than the rest of the UK. More registered businesses, more investment, research and development and record achievement on our exports. We have an economic strategy that will support the Scottish economy at the same time as the UK Government through the Tories and the Scottish Tories are trying to undermine it, and they should take their responsibility seriously as being part of the current governance of Scotland and the economic strategy. Maybe that will change shortly, but the Tories should take some responsibility for their inaction to support the Scottish economy since their time in office. 6. Johann Lamont To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to third sector organisations to tackle homelessness in Glasgow since 2007. Since 2007, the Scottish Government has funded a range of third sector homelessness organisations through the housing voluntary grant scheme and other schemes, with more than £11 million made available to homelessness projects across Scotland, including Glasgow. In 2017-18, that includes continued funding for a Glasgow homelessness network, provided since 2008 to help to improve the involvement of homeless people in the delivery of services across Scotland. The vast majority of funding provided by the Scottish Government to tackle homelessness is through a block grant to each local authority who have the statutory obligation to address homelessness in their area and who will use those resources to fund third sector organisations involved in tackling homelessness. Despite on-going cuts to the Scottish budget by the UK Government, Glasgow City Council continued to receive a fair share of this overall funding of more than £10.4 billion in 2017-18, which means that Glasgow will receive £1,369 million. Johann Lamont I do not know what the minister's definition of fair is, but it is certainly not fair to Glasgow what has happened over the past period at the hands of your Government. I am sure that the minister will acknowledge that the scourge of homelessness in modern Scotland shames us all and trusts that he recognises that it is important to tackle homelessness not just by building more houses and sustainable houses, but by understanding the causes of homelessness, whether that be abuse, addiction or family breakdown. Would the minister agree with me that the role of charities in homeless organisations is absolutely crucial in ensuring the right support for those vulnerable to homelessness and to help to sustain them in tenancies? Can he ask what assessment he has made of the impact of sustained cuts to local government on the ability of those organisations to deliver the services that homeless people so desperately need and deserve? Johann Lamont Thank you, Presiding Officer. I note that Ms Lamont has not taken cognisance of part of my question, but the fact that the Scottish Government's budget has been cut year-on-year by the UK Government. We have done our very best to ensure that we provide moneys for front-line services to local authorities. We have strong rights to housing for homeless households. Our recent focus on the prevention of homelessness through the housing options approach has led to consistent falls in homelessness applications in Glasgow, including from those who have been rough sleeping. I recognise the value of third sector organisations in delivering services. The council, which receives funding to address homelessness from the Scottish Government, is best placed working in partnership with local third sector organisations and other partners such as Health to make decisions on the appropriate level of funding to organisations based on the local profile of homelessness. I welcome the fact that the new SNP administration in the council has recently stated its intention to hold a homelessness summit in the city, including with partners from the third sector and housing associations, to agree a joint approach to tackling the issue. I only wish that Glasgow had done that previously under the previous Labour administration. Dean Lockhart To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the findings of phase 2 of the enterprise and skills review. The final report on phase 2 of the enterprise and skills review is to be published in late June. Detail regarding the new strategic board, which will co-ordinate the work of the agencies—Scotland Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council—was announced on 30 March. Significant progress has also been made across all other work streams, including recommendations regarding the new data and analytical function, an improved approach to the development of regional partnerships, multiple actions pertaining to enterprise and business support, innovation and internationalisation, the latter linked to the trade and investment strategy. Specific plans for the alignment of skills planning and a full programme are under way regarding the 15 to 24 learner journey. The review will now enter its implementation phase with the report outlining initial delivery plans for projects. Dean Lockhart I thank the cabinet secretary for his response and I look forward to the publication of phase 2. With the Scottish economy heading towards recession, enterprise policy will play an increasingly important part in turning the economy around. Can the cabinet secretary therefore confirm how many businesses in Scotland have received assistance under the growth scheme that was announced by the Scottish Government last September as a central part of their programme for government, and what level of financial assistance has been granted to businesses so far under the scheme? I note first of all the increasing willingness of the Tories to try to talk up a recession in Scotland. That is beyond being an opposition party. That is their liberty of trying to undermine. I have heard this from the CBI and other business organisations saying that they are psyched to the back teeth of Conservatives talking down the economy in Scotland. In relation to the Scottish growth scheme announcement, we made on that imminently before recess and full details are made known at that time. It is also important to recognise that, in the Scottish economy, the Tories are boasted about holding most of the major tools in which to influence the economy. Why do they never ask themselves if they think that the economy is doing so badly what the culpability is of the Tory Government did at Westminster? Who can control the majority of functions? Despite the neglect of the Tory Government at Westminster, we have seen record FDI investment once again this year. We have seen lower unemployment in Scotland than we have in the rest of the UK. The UK Government has an increasing balance of payments deficit, and it has a £1.8 trillion debt, adding £100 billion every year since the Tories came into power. I know whose record is more impressive in terms of the Scottish economy, and it is not the UK Government. That concludes general questions. We turn now to culture, tourism and external affairs.