 The First Item of Business is general questions, and we start with question number 1, Claudia Beamish. To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is for tackling mental health issues in rural areas. Minister Clare Haughey. Through the Mental Health Strategy 2017 to 2027, Action 12 outlines our commitment to supporting the development of the national rural mental health forum. The forum was established 2017, ac ar netoedd ac i gyffrous, erbyn y byddwyr fathuol yn y ffrins. The Forum develops connections between communities across rural Scotland to reflect the unique challenges that are presented by rural isolation. Membership has grown from 16 to over 60 organisations with the Forum meeting quarterly to discuss outcomes such as how people in rural communities can overcome barriers to accessing and seeking mental health support. Claudia Beamish I thank the minister for that encouraging answer. I welcome action point 12. The forum's membership is indeed evidence of demand and need and is making a real difference in tackling mental ill health in the unique context of rural Scotland, where deprivation is hidden and around 1 million Scots live. I held an event for local employers recently in my region to highlight the support and help that the forum can give. Will the minister continue to work with the forum throughout the lifetime of this Government's mental health strategy? Government funding for the forum covers the financial year 2018-19, and the 2019-20 spending review process is on-going. I recognise the work of the forum under the chair of Jim Hulme. I think that they have done some fantastic work, and they are now the national network for driving change, really. Liam McArthur The minister will be aware of the closure of two wards at the Royal Cornhill hospital in Aberdeenshire. This is giving rise to concerns in my constituency about the capacities for dealing with patients for Orkney. Would she be able to investigate those concerns and provide some reassurances that there will indeed be the capacity to meet the needs of patients from the island? I would like to assure the member that, certainly, the Scottish Government is aware of the ward closures and is working closely with NHS Grampian to ensure that there is capacity. However, if he would like to write to me with the specific concerns, I would certainly be able to look into that and come back to him. Annie Wells Thank you. Levels of depression in the agricultural sector are thought to be increasing and suicide rates in farmers are among the highest in any occupational group. It is understood that one agricultural worker a week takes their own life in the UK. What support is being offered to farmers and agricultural workers specifically when it comes to rural mental health? I have already answered my previous question to Claudia Beamish. There is the National Rural Mental Health Forum, which is certainly doing a lot of work with farmers and the farming community. I would expect that that work will continue. We have the National Suicide Prevention Action Plan, which will look at suicide prevention measures across the country, and it will also be looking at specific occupations and reviewing suicides to see if there are lessons that we can learn there to prevent further suicides. People in rural and urban areas in my region increasingly tell me that they can only access services when they are in desperation and when they are really in a crisis. What does the minister advise me to tell people who come to me to seek help but cannot get it? The Government prioritises mental health. That is evidenced by the increased spending over the past few years. We have spent £1 billion in mental health in 2017-18. I would encourage anyone who is in mental health crisis to approach their primary care team and to seek help there. There are also online telephone services that people in crisis can use via NHS 24 and breathing space. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to tackle sectarianism. Cabinet Secretary, Humza Yousaf? We continue to work towards sectarian free Scotland by supporting a wide range of activity in formal and informal settings. That includes supporting work for organisations like Nill-by-Mouth, which is sent over sectarianism and supports us direct Scotland. The delivery of Scotland's first national education resource for tackling sectarianism, which is freely available to all, builds on a record investment of £13.5 million over the past six years, which has supported 120 projects to deliver anti-sectarian education and activity across Scotland. We continue to see a positive impact in the communities that are benefiting from this work. Cabinet Secretary, we may be aware that, on Tuesday evening last week, I convened the first meeting of the cross-party group on combating sectarianism in Scottish society. It was great to be joined by a number of fellow MSPs from the SNP, Scottish Conservatives and the Greens. As well as external members like the Church of Scotland, Nill-by-Mouth, Scottish Women's Convention, Western Scotland Regional Equality Council and others. I am encouraged by the work of the Scottish Government in addressing sectarianism and welcome last week's publication of the final report on the legal definition of sectarianism. Cabinet Secretary, I agree that the only way that we will finally end sectarianism is as a society working together and will he commit to working with the cross-party group in the future? Yes, I will, of course, commit to working with the CPG in the future. Can I just take a moment to put on record the outstanding work that James Dornan has personally done in relation to tackling sectarianism? He has taken, for any of us that are on social media, if nothing else, a huge amount of personal abuse for doing so, for standing up to sectarianism in Scotland. He should be commended for that and he has done that and dealt with it with huge amounts of dignity as well. I am really pleased that he has convened that cross-party group. I am pleased to see that there is a cross-party consensus that we have to tackle that problem and, hopefully, James Dornan and the group will get to the point of how he is best to tackle that problem. We of the Government will work closely with him on that. We are, of course, working on legislation on hate crime that will look at whether or not to bring forward a statutory aggravator on sectarian prejudice. We will keep an open mind to that as the consultation is currently under way. However, wherever we can assist in relation to the law, but as he rightly points out in terms of education, I will be willing to look at any good ideas that come forward from the CPG or, indeed, from across the chamber. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve access to air transport for disabled people who wish to travel to and from island communities. We continue to make airports across the Highlands and Islands accessible to people with reduced mobility through our subsidy of Highlands and Islands airports limited. Hial and its airline customers provide services and equipment to enable people with reduced mobility to access air services. Hial continually reviews its service provision to ensure that barriers to travel for people with reduced mobility are removed as far as possible. I thank you for that answer and draw his attention to the case of Fiona McKinnon, a resident of Tyree, who suffers from two serious health conditions, one of which requires her to fly to Glasgow to attend regular appointments at the Beatson. Due to her fluctuating weight, which comes as a result of her medication, she is sometimes deemed ineligible to fly. What action can the cabinet secretary take to ensure that Fiona McKinnon can travel with dignity and to ensure that others in her situation can do so too? I understand that Hial has been engaged in this particular issue and with this particular individual in making flights to Glasgow. The most up-to-date information that I have regarding this particular issue is that the matter has been resolved by Hial and the equipment that it has in Tyree to help to support those women to make access to air services as and when is necessary. However, if the member would find it helpful and more than happy for Hial to contact him to provide further details on that to give assurances to his constituent on this matter. 4. Mark Griffin To ask the Scottish Government whether it will rule out the delivery of personal independence payments and disability living allowance by the DWP under agency arrangements. Cabinet secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville. People who rely on disability benefits have consistently told us that what matters most to them is that they are paid the right amount of money on time. The most important consideration will be to ensure a safe and secure transition of those benefits from the DWP. The timetable and delivery schedule for disability benefits will be announced in the next year. Mark Griffin I note the cabinet secretary's answer and reminder that disabled people are desperately keen to know how and when their benefits will be fully delivered by Scotland's new social security system. They want an end to the DWP's entire involvement in their disability benefits. For carers, the Government has agreed that the DWP should continue to deliver in carers allowance for the next two years, with no changes to earner thresholds or study restrictions and payments and debts collected under Tory rules. I do not think that that would be acceptable for disability benefits. Can the cabinet secretary confirm today that there will be no DWP involvement in disability benefits? I appreciate Mark Griffin's challenge to the Government to do more and to do it faster. That is certainly something that I myself, as the cabinet secretary, bear very much in mind when I work through the programme for this. I am also conscious that members quite rightly tell the Government to learn lessons from past public sector programmes where we have taken things, particularly around universal credit, the UK Government has taken things in an ill-advised fashion and at not the correct speed. I am conscious that we do, when we are delivering this programme, which is a joint programme with the DWP, have to have a realistic timetable and delivery mechanisms in place, and they will be announced next year, as I said. The pace will be quick around this. The Social Security Act was only passed earlier this year, and the overriding priority must and always will be safe and secure transition. The member raised carers allowance supplement and the decisions that we have taken around that. That was specifically done to ensure that we got money directly into the carers. We have the lowest income to ensure that that money was given to them quickly. That is the first step on a journey for the Scottish Government looking at carers and looking very seriously at issues in the future. Stuart Stevenson Can the Government confirm that the SNP Government, who will maintain disability benefits, not cut them, will ensure that they remain universal, not means tested, will reform the disability benefit assessment process to ensure that they work for service users and that disability assessments will be carried out by the public sector in Social Security Scotland? The member is quite right to point to all those commitments that the Government has made. We are committed to maintaining the level of disability benefits paid to individuals, and he did to raise them annually by at least the rate of inflation. Protecting disability assistance also by ensuring that benefits continue to be non-means tested. We are involving people who receive those benefits in the design of our disability benefit system process, and that is why I know that they want to ensure that the assessments are undertaken in-house by the Social Security Agency, ensuring that the DWP and private sector agencies will no longer be involved in the assessment process. To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport last met the chief executive and chair of NHS Lanarkshire and what was discussed. Both ministers and Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the leadership of all our NHS boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, to discuss a range of matters. I chaired NHS Lanarkshire's annual review at the University Hospital in Heimars on Friday 2 November and went through a number of matters with both the chair and chief exec at that time. Monica Lennon. I thank the cabinet secretary for her reply. Cole-Thompson from East Kilbride is six years old. His mum, Lisa Quarrow, is desperately trying to find a cure for the crippling epileptic seizures that leave Cole, paralyzed and unable to speak. So far, Cole has not been prescribed the medicinal cannabis that could greatly help his condition. Cole has touched the heart of thousands of people already and a petition led by East Kilbride community trust is pushing for urgent action. Time is not on Cole's side. Will the cabinet secretary do everything that she can to ensure that Cole gets the medicine that he needs? I am grateful to Ms Lennon for her supplementary question and I absolutely understand the issues that she is raising and the distress and upset that is caused to the family. The issue around the prescribing of medicinal cannabis is, of course, rests on the regulatory changes from the UK Government. They came into effect on 1 November and we issued guidance to our health boards and practitioners very quickly at that time. I am happy to look further at this case and to speak with the member concerned around the particular questions that it raises and to see what further we can do as a Scottish Government and as a health service to assist in this matter. Richard Lyle Thank you, Presiding Officer. In your discussions with NHS Lanarkshire Cabinet Secretary, can I welcome your decision to review the proposed new Munklands hospital consultation resites? Can you advise the chamber when and how long the review will take? I am grateful for that supplementary question and, indeed, for the support for the decision that I took to review the process of identifying the options that should be consulted on. It is important that I make clear to the chamber that I have expressed absolutely no opinion on the location. I have made it clear to the board and I hope to the residents of the area concerned that this Government supports a replacement for the current Munklands hospital. The issue that is being reviewed is the manner in which the choices of alternative locations are reached, the manner in which those choices are taken and the manner in which the consultation is held in order to ensure that the maximum number of voices are heard before the board reaches a view on the recommendations that it wishes to make to me for my decision. That review, we are finalising now the specific terms of that and who will lead it. I hope to be able to announce that very shortly. The review that I expect to take a relatively short period of time, because that is what it is looking at. I am very conscious that we and indeed the board, and I am sure that the residents of the area want to move relatively quickly here to reach a fully informed and genuinely considered and publicly consulted view on where should be the best location the recommendations made to me for the best location for the new replacement hospital for Munklands. I will announce that shortly in terms of the review's personnel, its remit and its timetable. Brian Whittle In NHS Lanarkshire, the absenteeism rate has climbed for the fourth year in a row from 4.7 per cent to 5.7 per cent against the Scottish Government target of 4 per cent, a target that the SNP has never achieved. Arising workload due to staff shortages plays a huge part in this. The cabinet secretary recently announced an extra 2,600 nus in midwifery places, which, although very welcome, does not even cover the posts that are currently vacant. Does the cabinet secretary recognise that the workforce planning still falls short of what our NHS requires? For the eighth year in a row, I announced very recently an increase in nus in midwifery places. I also announced the continuation of the Return to Practice programme, which is a very successful programme for nurses returning to practice after some absence, and an increase in the pre-registration work that Open University Scotland undertakes, again another very successful programme. We are working in terms of nus and midwifery places to ensure that we are maintaining the increase in recruitment that is absolutely necessary. We are doing exactly the same thing in terms of medical undergraduates, looking at advanced allied health professions and a really important area of work. We are looking to ensure that we are recruiting and training in a range of different ways in order to widen access across all those professions. Our workforce plan is one that is based on the best evidence that we have available. It is a plan that continues to be refined as that evidence improves. Our safe staffing bill, which is currently the subject of discussion here in this Parliament, is about to get to its stage 1 decision making. It will assist us in providing further robust evidence in terms of our workforce planning. I do not accept Mr Whittle's assertion, and I would make the point that it is this Government in this country that has the most advanced workforce planning across the UK, and perhaps it could take some lessons on how we are doing matters further south. Tom Mason To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reports that, in 13 locations in Aberdeen, have illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution. Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Aberdeen City Council has produced an action plan containing a number of measures to improve air quality. The Scottish Government is working closely with the council as it implements the measures contained in the plan and is providing practical and financial assistance to both monitor air quality and support delivery of measures. As announced in the 2017-18 programme for government, the council will establish a low-emission zone in Aberdeen by 2020. Tom Mason I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. I remind colleagues that I am an Aberdeen city councillor. I know that the cabinet secretary will be as wired as I am at the reports in the present journal given the potential deadly consequences of this level of pollution, which in some areas is as high as 48 microgramms of gas per cubic metre, well above the E8QD limit of 40. According to research by the British Lung Foundation, one of the worst-effective streets in the city of King Street is home to the Aberdeen community health and care village, forcing patients to breathe this toxic air on the way to receive medical treatment. Can I ask therefore what consideration the Scottish Government has given either itself or through SEPA to making additional support available to local authorities so that it can take action against this now rather than simply waiting for the low-emission zone in 2020? The cabinet secretary indicated that the Government is already discussing with the local authority and has provided funding over a number of years to do the kind of work that is necessary. I agree with the member that when we see results like this, it is a real concern. There are definitely, particularly in urban areas, a number of very particular hotspots that create some significant difficulties. Work is on going with Aberdeen, and there are a number of things being taken to improve air quality. I indicated the air quality report already. We know that the AWPR will make a significant difference to air quality in Aberdeen, and there is a further citywide traffic count being proposed following the opening of the AWPR. There is work going on. Of course, there is an independently layered review of the Clean Air for Scotland that I have only just announced, which will be taking place. I hope for input from all to that, but equally we keep an eye on some of the specific problems and, as I indicated, speak directly to local councils about that.