 Fy fawr, rydw i'r ystod cyfnodd cyfnodd ymwneud o'r cwestiwn i'r ddyfodol. Rwy'n dweud wrth cwestiwn rwy'n ddyfodol yng Nghymru, Ross Greer. Aelodd, ac i ddodd gyda'r Sgoltaeth Ysgrifennidig, ydym ni'n ddwyloedd i'r FFAA ac i ddwyloeddio'r FFAA i ddwyloedd ysgrifennidig i ddwyloedd ysgrifennidig i ddwyloedd o'r prynwyll ysgoltaeth ymwneud. Ysgrifennidig, Eileen Campbell. We are absolutely determined that people from all backgrounds are involved in football and sport generally, at all levels, reflecting the diversity of modern Scotland. We want our national game to be more diverse and there is no doubt more can be done, particularly to improve representation in key roles. I want to see more BME players and coaches in the game and I want to see other groups represented too, and I've discussed with the SFA how more progress can be made so that Scottish football can be held up worldwide as a game ond weithio. I welcome and support the good work undertaken by Hala Oosta, diversity inclusion manager at the SFA. Hala is an established and well-respected campaigner for equality, diversity and sports in a number of areas, and I'll continue to work closely with her at the SFA, as well as with the SPFL clubs and all other partners to promote equality and diversity in football and all other sports. Ross Greer. I thank the minister for that answer. The first black international player played for Scotland in 1881. Since then, we have come a long way in the diversity of our football teams, but not particularly far in the diversity of football management. Where the Rooney rule has been implemented, it has been very successful, and the NFL in America has increased the proportion of black and Hispanic management from 6 per cent to 20 per cent. It doesn't require a quota, it simply requires that an opportunity for interview is given to at least one BME candidate. Could I ask the minister again if the Scottish Government supports the principle of the Rooney rule? I am aware that the English FFA recently announced that it will be introducing the Rooney rule across its national setup later this year, and I am extremely interested in the outcome of that. I know that the Scottish FFA will consider whether lessons can be learned. Nothing will be ruled out, however, we need to ensure that any measures that we introduce in Scotland are based on Scottish circumstances and what would be most effective here. Again, I would highlight the role and work of Hala Oosta, who has done an awful lot of work around the SFA to promote diversity and equality. I also want to update the member that the SFA's intention is to implement positive action measures that will build on the capacity of underrepresented coaches through relevant training and qualifications to allow them an equal opportunity to apply for roles in the future. Again, they will be happy to continue to engage with the member and to keep them updated on the areas of progress at the work that we are doing in the SFA, but also more generally. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I could refer members to my register of interest as unpaid chair of Inverness, Caledonia and Thyssal Trust. As Roscoe has made it clear, the Rooney rule originates from the American NFL, which requires teams to interview at least one ethnic minority candidate for every head coach vacancy. As we have heard, this has been adopted by the English FFA. I believe that this is an idea whose time has come and will the minister write to the SFA to encourage them to drop the principle in Scotland, not least for the international manager vacancy? I am sure that that is vexing the people at the SFA as they seek to find a new manager. I know that Dave Stewart mentioned that he has a role in the community trust, and I think that that is an area of football that is not very well reflected in the wider press. I think that the work that our clubs and trusts do to promote many of the issues that we have described today should get much more coverage and publicity because of the key role that we play in our communities. In terms of the specifics around the Rooney rule, I remain interested to see the outcomes of some of the information and research that is happening around the Rooney rule. As I said to Ross Greer, nothing will be ruled out, but we need to make sure that any measures that we introduce in Scotland are based on Scottish circumstances and what would be most effective here and are impactful and achieve the desired outcome that I think we all want to see, which is far more diversity in our game and all rungs of the ladder. Again, I would say that we continue to work closely with the SFA, the SPFL, the clubs and other partners to continue to promote equality and diversity, and that is the specific role of Hallot Oosta, who has achieved an awful lot. Again, we will cite the fact that the SFA's intention is to implement positive action measures that would build on the capacity of underrepresented coaches through relevant training and qualification. I think that there is a whole host of different areas of work that has been taken forward by the SFA and others to promote that diversity that we need to see. Again, I will continue to engage with the member on this issue and continue to keep him updated as work on this progresses. 2. Neil Findlay To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to provide care for children who experience ill health. Cabinet Secretary, Shona Robison. The Scottish Government funds NHS Scotland to provide a range of services to promote and protect the health of children. Hospital general practice and nursing services provide on-going healthcare to children with illnesses ranging from minor to more serious long-term medical problems. 2. Neil Findlay Cabinet Secretary, since July, 414 sick and seriously ill children have been transferred from St John's to the Royal hospital for sick children, with 341 admitted because their local hospital ward was closed to admissions at that time. I am hearing weekly heroin stories from parents of desperately ill children and they have had enough of excuse after excuse. 3. Neil Findlay Can I ask you to provide us with the timescale that you and NHS Lothian are working to get the word at St John's fully operational as a 24-7 service? In the interests of the children that Neil Findlay has mentioned, the timescale is as soon as possible. I want to take the opportunity to give an update. Obviously, as Neil Findlay and other members know, NHS Lothian took the step because of safety concerns, but it has been working extremely hard to address recruitment in this area. A 24-7 paediatric service at St John's hospital is the preferred option for NHS Lothian. As Neil Findlay also knows, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health report in the autumn of 2017 endorsed NHS Lothian's aim to maintain that service, but, of course, it recognised that the recruitment issues were significant. What NHS Lothian has been doing is quite extensive in terms of its recruitment campaign. It has confirmed that the medical team in paediatric and patient services at St John's is increasing. A consultant who was recruited at the end of last year has now joined the team. The sixth and most recent recruitment campaign, which ended last week, was successful, and an offer has been made to another candidate, which, when finalised, would take the total to seven. I am sure that Neil Findlay is aware that NHS Lothian is working to recruit eight additional consultants, as well as strengthening the number of advanced nurse practitioners in order to support children's services, both at St John's and the Royal hospital for sick children in Edinburgh. What I would say is that good progress has been made on the recruitment, and I would hope that Neil Findlay would welcome that. I remind the chamber and the PLO to the health secretary. A recent Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health report has shown that Scotland is ahead of the rest of the UK on progress being made in children's health. Can the cabinet secretary comment on what political commitments this Government has made to build on improvements that it has already made? Yes. I was very pleased to see that the Royal College report had cited a number of policies that have been taken forward in Scotland to ensure that children's health is at the core of the policies, not just in health but across other Government policies as well. I think that, particularly investment in health visitor numbers and in expanding that workforce ensures that, in the early years, the best start is made for children's lives. Of course, we are on track to deliver an increase in the number of health visitors in Scotland by 500 by the end of 2018, and that is an unprecedented 50 per cent increase in the number of health visitors. It was a very, very positive report as far as Scotland's concern and one that we should be proud of. Peter Chapman Around 450 infants, children and young people die in Scotland every year. Many of those deaths are entirely preventable. In light of that, I would like to ask the Scottish Government if it intends to take the advice of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health and create a system to ensure that child deaths are properly reviewed. Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Obviously, there are already systems in place to review any death through the significant adverse event review process, but there is work going on specifically around child deaths, which has been taken forward by Aileen Campbell, which is very, very important. If there are any preventable deaths—and, of course, it covers many issues such as accidents, for example—and what more could be done in the preventative arena, and if there is anything more that this Government can do around that, then, of course, those deaths will be taken happy for Aileen Campbell me to write to the member with an update of the progress being made. Yesterday, I asked the Cabinet Secretary whether she would come to Paisley to explain her decision to close the children's ward at the REH directly to parents affected. The Cabinet Secretary failed to accept that invitation. People cannot have confidence in the health secretary's decision if she does not have confidence to defend it to local parents. Can I ask the Cabinet Secretary again today whether she will come to Paisley and explain her decision directly to parents affected or whether she will snub them again? The most important thing about the decision is getting on with the implementation of that decision. What is important there is that the families that are given the reassurance by those who provide the care and treatment to their children, that the new arrangements are safer and are well supported by those clinicians who treat their children and, importantly, that they have to help to address and overcome any concerns that have been expressed by the families to ensure that, through the individual care plans that they have, that need to be in place before that change happens, that those concerns are addressed and reassurances are given. That should be the priority. I hope that Neil Bibby and other members will encourage those families to engage with their health professionals to make that happen. That is the most responsible thing that Neil Bibby could do in this situation, and I hope that that is what he will do. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that the sporting facilities at Ravens Crag in Motherwell and others by people in the South of Scotland region will be maintained in their present form. I was extremely concerned to hear about the potential reduction in facilities for sporting communities and residents in North Lanarkshire and beyond, particularly as North Lanarkshire leisure will continue to benefit from charity relief from non-domestic rates following our recent reduction of the recommendation from the external Barclay review to end this. I asked the chief executive of sport Scotland to engage directly with North Lanarkshire leisure on this matter. I can confirm that the chief executive of sport Scotland has now spoken to the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council, who has now agreed to pause on any decision-making on Ravens Crag until all relevant parties are around the table. As MSP for Clydesdale, I also maintain a constituency interest on the issue, given the number of my constituents who use this regional sporting facility, and I have made my own representations on that basis. I welcome the comments of the minister. However, the concern of law and district amateurs athletics is that a significant part of the indoor facilities at Ravens Crag centre are likely to be cut and impacting on both our communities' fitness, happiness and welfare and opportunities for developing elite athletes. The importance of the indoor training facilities will not be lost on anyone in the chamber, whether wise. If the proposed cuts in the Scottish Government's draft budget to council funding are implemented, those facilities will be jeopardised, and the legacy of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to promote athletics will be lost if the facilities are not available. Can the minister tell me what the strategy is to ensure local sporting facilities are at the centre of Scotland's health and wellbeing? Can I remind the member that it was Sports Scotland that invests over £7 million in North Lanarkshire Council in 2008? That was to provide a regional sporting facility as part of the strategy for Scotland, with the aim of developing a network of multi-sports facilities right across Scotland through that partnership approach. Again, though, I just want to reiterate that I asked and I sought the engagement of the chief executive of Sports Scotland to engage directly with North Lanarkshire Leisure. Through that action, North Lanarkshire Council has now agreed to pause on the decision-making on Ravenscraig until all relevant parties are around the table. I am very well aware, through representations made to myself by law and district athletics club about the importance in which they attach the facility that they have at Ravenscraig, to the many representations that I have received from other athletics bodies across Lanarkshire and beyond, because of that regional role that that particular facility fills in Scotland. That is the basis by which Sports Scotland will engage in all the relevant partners around the table to make sure that we can get a successful way forward. Again, I was extremely concerned to hear about the reduction of facilities for those sporting communities, particularly because of the good progress that we have made in legacy, the significant progress in legacy after the 2014 Commonwealth Games. I will continue to keep members who have an interest updated, but I am very pleased that the chief executive of Sports Scotland has managed to seek and get a pause on that decision until there is further work carried out. That is primarily a decision for the Labour-controlled Council, Alio North Lanarkshire Leisure. Does the minister agree with me that consideration going forward is absolutely vital that decisions take into account the inclusivity of activities and the impact that any decision has on the desired effect of maximising sport uptake for all? Absolutely. That is why it is positive that Sports Scotland, because of that significant investment that had gone into North Lanarkshire Council back in 2008, has managed to facilitate a meeting to convene everybody who has an interest on the issue around the table to work out a way forward. I understand that there are issues around the financial element of athletics participation in Ravenscraig, but that should not be the only driver on a regional facility like that. There should be an opportunity for all sports to be able to access those good sporting facilities that we have in Scotland because of that significant public investment that has gone in. I will continue to keep members updated with the constituency interests that she has on how those discussions progress. Given that Ravenscraig facility received significant public funds, can I ask the Scottish Government what protocols are in place to ensure that usage of the facility matches the investment application and that, at the time of the application, there was a plan in place to maximise the usage of the facility for the purpose for which it was designed? Sport Scotland continues to take a real interest in the operation of the regional facilities that are around the country, and that is why, in that particular instance, Sport Scotland has engaged so thoroughly on the issue to ensure that we can secure access for all sports of the regional facility because of that significant interest that investment that they have put in nearly 10 years ago. Given that we took the decision that we did to reject that particular recommendation from the Barclay review, it is disappointing and concerning to hear of North Lanarkshire Leisure's particular proposals and the real feeling from so many of the local athletics clubs that they do not feel that they have been properly engaged in this process. That is why it is important that we await the progression of the meeting that will be convened by Sport Scotland to engage all the relevant partners. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding introducing a safe injection room for drug users in Glasgow. Following advice from the Lord Advocate on Glasgow's proposals, I wrote to the UK Government's parliamentary undersecretary of state for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability on 9 November last year, requesting a meeting to discuss devolving powers to the Scottish Parliament that would allow Glasgow to progress its proposal for a safer injecting facility. I await a response to that request. However, at the end of a Westminster debate last week, the UK Government said that it had no intention of supporting this proposal or devolving the necessary powers. I urge it to reconsider, particularly in light of the specific public health needs in Glasgow. Rona Mackay Thank the minister for that answer. Given that those projects have proved successful elsewhere in reducing harm, such as preventing increases in HIV infection rates, does she agree with me that if and when those powers come to Scotland, we should introduce safe rooms for addicts as quickly as is practicable? I agree that there is absolutely evidence that safer injecting facilities are successful in reducing harm for people who inject drugs. Importantly, they also offer a real opportunity to engage with a specific population who may not ordinarily use existing treatment and support services. If we had the relevant powers, we could consider any business case to introduce such a facility based on its merits, particularly in areas where there is a clear public health need. Gillian Martin To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support women's football and rugby. The Scottish Government is a strong supporter of women and girls' football and rugby and recognises the strong contribution that it makes to encouraging women and girls' participation as well as raising Scotland's profile on the international stage. We work closely with the SFA, Scottish Women's Football, Scottish Rugby and many other partners to raise the profile of the women's game and provide support investment throughout and through Sport Scotland. Both sports are represented on the Women and Girls Sport advisory board that I established in September last year. Gillian Martin Thank you, minister. For that answer, I must declare family interest, as my niece Ellis Martin is an under-19 Scotland 7s international, and I asked her to ask her teammates what issue they would like me to raise with them. They wanted to ask, with women's rugby and football becoming more popular, it makes sense that the women's games are able to reach a wider audience. Given that a new BBC Scotland television channel is due to be launched, has the minister had any discussions with them about how women's rugby and football will be better represented on television? Thank you. I am sure that everybody wishes her niece very well in her rugby career. It is a game that I have recently taken up, so if she has any hints and tips to give to me, I would be very welcome of them. Given that she has raised that particular issue, I think that it is a very important issue around raising the profile, I absolutely agree with the member on that issue and would warmly welcome more television coverage for women's rugby and football. We are absolutely determined to raise the profile of women's sport to help to increase participation, and any steps by broadcasters to support that would be warmly welcomed. I will explore that issue directly, along with my colleague the cabinet secretary Fiona Hyslop, and consider what steps could be taken. However, the member may wish to know that I met recently with the director of strategy and partnership at MG Alaba last year, and we discussed the channel's strong commitment to women's football. BBC Alaba currently supports both women's football and rugby, and I hope that support continues into the new BBC Scotland television channel. The Scottish Borders has a rich and strong rugby history. Would the cabinet secretary agree that efforts to help more women, such as Scotland player Lisa Thompson from Hoyt, to take up rugby as part of a healthy and active lifestyle, would be welcome, and to support schools and clubs at the grass-roots level to break down barriers and overcome the challenges in order to promote rugby as a game for young girls as well as boys is essential? Of course, the whole of the country recognises the real strong link that the Borders has with rugby. As we prepare to look at the six nations with a very optimistic looking Scotland team, I am sure that that will again inspire more people to take up the sport. Also, what it should do is because the six nations women's tournament will also be happening. That again should give an opportunity to raise the profile for girls in a sport that is really fast growing. It was one of the sports that we highlighted in our Women and Girls sports week last year as a real key area of strength. I am certainly not sure if the member was at the SRU reception last week in Parliament. We heard many stories about how important the club structure for rugby is in terms of promoting the game. I am sure that she will be well aware of many of the clubs that she represents in her region. Certainly, I know in my own area how important that club structure is, the real nurturing, the care, the attention that they provide to young sports stars of the future, both girls and boys, to ensure that in the future we will have a structure and a number of players to continue the sense of optimism that we have in our current rugby squads. Mary Fee. Only one woman sits on the SFA board of directors and only one woman sits on the SRU board of directors. I am sure that the minister is aware that positive role models can have a significant impact. What will the minister do to improve and promote female participation at board level, which would have the knock-on effect of improving sporting participation? I thank the member for the question. I think that, linking back to the question that Ross Greer asked earlier, she recognises and articulates a real area that is needing improvement, particularly in the SFA. I think that there is opportunity in the SRU with the vice president, Dee Bradbury, who will be president of the SRU later this year, who will be the first woman in that tier of rugby to be a pulled-up presidential position. I think that she certainly realises the real opportunity that she has in that position to be greater strife forward in terms of increasing the participation of girls and women playing rugby but also being involved in the set-up and the structures of rugby. I think that there is opportunity to potentially push forward the same agenda in football as well. Dee Bradbury, for the member's interests, sits on our women and girls advisory board because of that significant role that she plays in rugby to help advise us on what more we can do to ensure that women and girls participate in sport but also get those opportunities to establish themselves within the operating structures of sport. Regardless of whether it is football or rugby, I think that there is a real need for us to do far more to have women represented in all runs of sport. 6. General Ruth To ask the Scottish Government what proposals it has to reduce waiting times in hospitals next winter. I thank health and social care staff for the tremendous contribution that they are making to maintain safe patient care this winter. Although we have seen exceptional pressures on A and E services across Scotland, eight out of 10 patients were seen treated and discharged or admitted within the four-hour target. Performance in the latest week ending 14 January was 85.8 per cent. We routinely review winter each year so that we can learn lessons from what went well and identify areas for improvement. I should also add that NHS Fife received £1.36 million from the £22.4 million allocated to NHS boards this year to help prepare for winter. 6. General Ruth I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. The latest figures from NHS Fife show that only 81.4 per cent of planned operations were seen within the 18-week initial referral to treatment time guidelines. Can the cabinet secretary confirm what guidance she will provide to NHS Fife to ensure that this issue is addressed? I have made £15 million available to NHS Scotland specifically to reduce waiting times for hospital planned care in the current financial year, with NHS Fife receiving £3.4 million of the funding. That funding will reduce waits across the whole patient pathway, outpatient diagnostics and for inpatient and day-case treatment, and expect Fife and all other boards to make improvements by the spring of this year. The funding and the work of the access collaborative, which is being led by Professor Derek Bell, should support significant improvement in delivering the 18-week referral to treatment time in NHS Fife during this year and elsewhere in Scotland. Short staffing was the root cause of a lot of the problems that we saw in hospitals across Scotland this winter. There are currently 3,000 vacant nursing posts in Scotland, a shortfall that I believe can be directly linked to Nicola Sturgeon's decision to cut nurse training places in 2012. Can the cabinet secretary tell Parliament how she will ensure that shortfall is reduced by next winter? First of all, I remind Miles Briggs that we have a huge expansion programme of nurse training, 2,600 training places over the course of this Parliament, which will be important in expanding the workforce. Of course, we are recruiting more nurses. We also recognise that some of the measures that we have taken have put us in a very strong position. For example, we have retained the bursary and support for student nurses in midwives. If he looks at what has happened south of the border because of the loss of both of those funding... Miles Briggs has parties in charge of the board and has made decisions that has shown a huge reduction in nurses. If he had watched the BBC over the last few weeks, he would have seen the crisis in nursing south of the border, so he cannot be in charge in one part of the UK where nurse recruitment is in crisis and has come here and accused the Scottish Government of not doing enough to recruit and retain nurses. I have laid out the plans for the recruitment and retention of nurses, 2,600 extra places for training nurses and midwives. That is a huge investment, and more than £40 million of investment will go a long way to making sure that we can reduce reliance on agency nurses and to make sure that we can recruit to those substantive posts. Back in Scotland and back in the real world, Presiding Officer, I join in the cabinet secretary in thanking all our NHS staff who have been going above and beyond over the winter period. The reality is that this is not just a challenge during winter. We have problems meeting our waiting times all year round and those challenges are put under the microscope over the winter period. There are three ways to reduce our waiting times. One is to adequately fund our NHS, and the reality is that over the next four years there are £1.5 billion of cuts that health boards will be making. It is adequately staffing our wards, but we currently have three and a half thousand nursing and midwifery vacancies and it is also having appropriate local services, meaning saving services such as the RE-8 paediatric ward, and instead transferring those to an already overstretched Queen Elizabeth university hospital. Does the cabinet secretary recognise that her rhetoric does not meet with her decisions and what action will she take? Anas Sarwar seems to have forgotten the fact that we are talking about the brand new royal hospital for children, not the Queen Elizabeth hospital, but the royal hospital for children, a brand new state of the art hospital. I thought that we would have known that that now exists as a brand new state of the art hospital for children that we would expect. The performance of that hospital is fantastic. If you look at its A and E performance, I think that it was around 98 per cent over the last published figures. It has the capacity. There are no issues with the capacity of that hospital. It has adequate beds and is able to provide a first-class service. I would have thought that Anas Sarwar is saying that a new state of the art children's hospital does not provide a first-class service. That is absolutely outrageous that you will be talking down. Our state of the art first-class hospital has been absolutely held up as one of the best children's hospitals in the United Kingdom. Instead of talking down that hospital, you should be talking up the hospital. Given that it is one of your local hospitals, Anas Sarwar, I find that quite shocking. In terms of funding, let me address funding. £2 billion more funding over the course of this Parliament for the NHS is far more than the Labour Party offered in your manifesto. There are no budget proposals coming from your party to put more money into the NHS for 1819. If Anas Sarwar wants to come forward with a budget amendment that puts more money than we are going to put into the NHS, we would be interested to see that, but you have brought forward nothing. You come to this place and argue for more money, but you are not prepared to come forward with budget amendments that deliver that money, so we will continue to fund the NHS to record levels. There are more staff than ever before working in the NHS, so we will continue to put the resources into the NHS and we will leave Labour just to snipe from the sidelines. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to correct the £165 million discrepancy in NHS Grampian's funding, which the Scottish Parliament Information Centre has suggested has arisen, because the board's NRAC funding targets have not been met since 2009. NHS Grampian will receive a resource budget uplift of 2.1 per cent in 2018-19. The highest percentage uplift of any territorial board includes a £5 million share of additional NRAC parity funding and takes the board's annual resource budget to £921 million. The Scottish Government has invested significantly in supporting boards that are behind parity, and over a seven-year period has committed an additional £1.2 billion to those boards that are below their NRAC parity levels. In 2018-19, all boards will be within 0.8 per cent of NRAC parity. NHS Grampian will have received additional funding of £52 million since 2015-16 for the specific purpose of accelerating NRAC parity. Cabinet Secretary, over the past nine years, a self and her predecessor have consistently underfunded NHS Grampian health board in their own targets. NHS Grampian health board is already the lowest funded health board in the country by the Scottish Government's targets, and therefore to underfund it again—and in this year it is underfunded by £12 million—is not satisfactory. Does the cabinet secretary feel that she is satisfied with the level of funding for NHS Grampian health board? Will she like to explain, if she is satisfied with it, to all those people who are waiting for planned operations that have been cancelled and those people who are accidentally in an emergency who have to wait over eight hours and twelve hours to be seen? What I would encourage Mike Rumbles to do is to perhaps occasionally turn up to the briefings that are provided by NHS Grampian to local members, because at those briefings important information about funding to NHS Grampian, as was given at the last meeting, as I understand it, would have helped Mike Rumbles to better understand the funding position of NHS Grampian. I will let me just say this as well. Given that year-to-year movements in the NRAC target allocations would have not been appropriate or possible to move NHS Grampian or any other board below parity to absolute parity, because that would require an equivalent reduction in funding for those boards such as NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Western Isles that are above parity. If Mike Rumbles is saying that money should have been stripped out of those boards and given to Grampian over a single year, that would not have been fair or appropriate, that would not have been a responsible thing to do. The NRAC formula works by bringing about a gradual movement in the funding of those boards that are below parity. The Scottish Government is supporting all boards behind parity. As I said in my initial answer, we have committed an additional £1.2 billion, over a seven-year period, to those boards below their NRAC parity levels. Importantly, they are all now within 0.8 per cent of parity. That is the closest to parity that we have ever been, and I would have thought that Mike Rumbles might have welcomed that. Question 8, Peter Chapman. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made to add malignant melanoma to the detect cancer early programme. The Scottish Government's detect cancer early programme is supporting five pilot projects focusing on improvements in the early diagnosis of malignant melanoma across five NHS boards. Those pilots are due to report at the end of March 2018, when the detect cancer early programme board will consider those reports and the potential to scale up any projects for regional and national activity. The Scottish Government has reinforced its commitment to earlier diagnosis and treatment outlined in beating cancer ambition and action. This cancer strategy, in accompanying £100 million of investment, serves as a blueprint for the future of cancer services in Scotland and aims to improve the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare for people who may be suspected to have or have a confirmed diagnosis of cancer of any type. Peter Chapman. The detect cancer early programme was launched in 2012, focusing on long breast and colorectal cancers. Between 2012 and 2016, there were 882 recorded mortalities from malignant melanoma in Scotland, and the Grampian Health Board covered my constituency with the fourth highest rate with 79. Cancer early diagnosis rates have failed to increase enough to meet the Government target, so can the cabinet secretary commit to adding malignant melanoma to the programme and raise its early detection targets and, therefore, hope to reduce mortalities? The member raises an important point. We have seen an increase in the instances of malignant melanoma since 2015. There were 1,363 diagnoses of melanoma, which is a 36.6 per cent increase on incidents over the past 10 years. We know a lot of the reasons for that, as I am sure that the member will appreciate what is important and what we do about it. The detect cancer early programme board, as I indicated in my first answer, agreed at an options appraisal process to look at the potential to include additional tumour groups into the DCE programme. Following the process, it was agreed to consider malignant melanoma as the next tumour type of interest in the programme. Clinical consensus was that a large-scale public awareness campaign would not be beneficial and that funding should focus on improvements in the existing diagnostic pathways to ensure that those who are most at risk were prioritised as requiring urgent assessment. Boards were invited to bid for funding to develop those local tests of change projects for delivery, and, as I said, that will be reporting in March 2018. Once that reports, I can write to the member with what that says and then we will take action thereafter, depending on what the report tells us. To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the performance of NHS boards to ensure that they deliver the highest-quality services for the populations that they serve. NHS board performance is measured using a broad range of measures, including those contained in the local delivery plan standards, the hospital scorecard and the winter NHS service weekly suite. Measures include important areas such as healthcare-associated infections, waiting times, activity, delayed discharge, patient safety and flu consultations. I would be happy to provide a comprehensive list of the measures that we currently use if the member finds that helpful. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The Scottish Government entrusts health boards with more than £13 billion of public money each year, and, more important than that, we entrust them with serving the health needs of the people of Scotland. Can I ask what processes are in place to ensure that any performance gaps at health boards are identified and managed? We do that in a number of ways. On an on-going basis, the officials in the Scottish Government work with their counterparts and local boards and, indeed, in the health and social care partnerships. For example, our financial official director of finance will work with the director of finances in the local boards to ensure that, on financial performance, the boards are setting out their plans, meeting key milestones and achieving their targets. Likewise, on performance, work is laid out in terms of the plans that we would expect boards to deliver, not least for the funding that we have put in specifically for the £50 million for reducing waiting times. In addition to all that on-going monocing, we would have the annual appraisal, which is either led by officials or by ministers, to ensure that there is public accountability on an annual basis for the money that the public puts into funding on NHS. I think that they are entitled to know how that is spent. I thank the ministers and members for their contributions. That concludes portfolio questions.