 ond ar gyfer y gwahoddiant ym Mh Strannhaven ac yn gallu ei fod yn cael eu cyfnod i gwybodaethau'r yn iawn. Fel hwn nesaf, mae nid i'n newid eu ddechrau, Cezair Daghdael. Gael i'n gael ei ddych chi'n siaradau chacol i'n mynd i chi ddigonw'r amser yigafell i chi eu gwybod iddopeth i chi'r gweithio llawr, yn wirio gwir yw gyffredinatwy a fyddai sydd ei wneud i chi ddigonw'r gweithio'r gweithio'r fyddai aillant pan oes mewn gwahoddiad i chi fyddai ar gweithfyaeth o'r I know that everyone in this chamber is acutely aware of the devastating impact that cancer has on people here at home and across the world. Therefore, I think that it is important for all of us to mark World Cancer Day 2016. Later today I have engagements to take forward the Government's programme for Scotland. I start by associating myself with the First Minister's remarks in their entirety. Last night, the First Minister voted against Labour's plans to use the powers of this Parliament to stop cuts to education and to vital local public services. The SNP and the Tory stood shoulder to shoulder to impose hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts on schools and communities. It goes against everything that the First Minister has ever told us that she stands for. Last year, she said, We will use the powers that we have in the Scottish Parliament to pursue a different approach. She promised to halt the deeply misguided march to further austerity. Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon had the chance to stop school budgets being slashed and thousands of people losing their jobs. Why didn't she take it? First Minister, we have a Labour Party that wants to increase taxes for the low and middle income earners. We have a Tory Party that wants to cut taxes for high earners. They are both wrong and they are as bad as each other. My colleagues voted against a proposal that it would have seen every single person in Scotland earning above £11,000 a year pay more tax. That is a fact whether Labour likes it or not. In doing so, you could argue that I was only following the advice of Kezia Dugdale herself, who stood up at her party conference last October and said this, A fairer Scotland is not one where everyone pays more tax. We must stop tax rises on working families. I will concentrate on protecting our vital public services and delivering pay rises for people across Scotland. I will leave the Labour Party to defend why somebody on £11,000 a year should be paying more tax. Of course, it was not just shoulder to shoulder in the chamber that she stood with the Tories yesterday. It was in the newspapers this week using phrases such as tax grab and punitive tax rises and punitive service cuts. What about punitive job losses? She imposed £500 million of cuts on local communities across Scotland yesterday. It is always the same with the SNP. It cannot be done. We do not have the power. It is the same pathetic excuses that we heard when they were pressed on tax credits. The reality is that it can be done and we do have the power. The budget process has a long way to go. We can still stop the SNP cuts to schools. At the stroke of a pen, the First Minister could stop hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts and thousands of job losses. She says that education has been protected, but it was revealed this week that spending on children in our primary schools has been cut by £561 per child since she was re-elected. That is before the latest round of cuts. If she will not stop cuts to local school budgets, how on earth can she claim that education is her priority? Just in point of fact, total revenue spending on schools has risen under the SNP Government by at least £208 million, or 4.5 per cent. That is the reality. Let us hear the First Minister. Kezia Dugdale is proposing. Local authorities in the next financial year are facing a reduction of £350 million offset by an investment in social care of £250 million. Instead of saying to local authorities, let us work together to find 1 per cent reduction in a budget of £15 billion, Labour wants to increase tax for every single person in Scotland earning above £11,000. Let me spell it out to Kezia Dugdale. What that means to a public sector worker? Everybody working in our NHS right now earning £21,000 is looking forward to a £100 increase in their minimum pay rise as a result of John Swinney's decision. That minimum pay rise will go up from £300 to £400 in April. Every single penny of that extra £100 will be taken away by Labour's proposal. As Gordon Brown once said, there is hardly a nurse, teacher, policeman or council worker who will not be hit hard by an increase in the basic rate of tax. We will continue to take the decisions, even though the Tories are cutting our budget to protect our NHS, to invest in social care, to pay a living wage to every social care worker in our country, to maintain teachers in our schools and to invest in attainment and to protect household budgets. I will leave Labour to defend why low-paid workers in this country should pay Labour's extra tax. Every one of those arguments that she deployed were the words from David Cameron at Prime Minister's questions yesterday. Every one of them. She stands there and says that Labour's plans are unfair and unworkable. She should explain why union after union has come out over the past few days to say that they are fair and council leader after council leader has come out and said that they are workable. In the limelight of the general election, Nicola Sturgeon sent a reassuring message to voters in England. She said, we will demand an alternative to slash and burn austerity. Let's take a look at what one of her old advisers had to say about that today. Alex Bell said, Order! One of their own, because I know who's there. Let's hear Mr Dail, Mr Dail. Alex Bell said, If you spend your life shouting fire fire, at some point you have to use the extinguisher. If not, then you just look like an arsonist. The First Minister, who built her celebrity on being the anti-asterity alternative, is now leading the attack on the only alternative to austerity. Faced with the choice, faced with the choice between using the powers of this Parliament and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts, why did the First Minister choose austerity? Tax rises on the lowest paid in our society is not taxing. Sit down. There's far, far too much shouting across the chamber. Please let us hear the First Minister and please let us hear Mr Dail. First Minister. Tax rises on the lowest paid in our society is not standing up to Tory austerity. It is transferring the burden of Tory austerity onto the shoulders who can least afford it. Now, Kezia Dugdale wants to trade advisers. Let me give her one. I was struck by the comment earlier this week by an economist commenting directly on Kezia Dugdale's proposal when she said that she disagreed with him. She said that tax rises is just another name for austerity. That economist was Ann Pettifor. She is a member of Jeremy Corbyn's Economic Advisory Committee. That is her view. Labour is not proposing an alternative to Tory austerity but transferring the burden and proposing austerity by another name. We wouldn't... Our death! ...the reality here. This is the reality that Scottish Labour cannot and never will escape. We would not be facing Tory cuts right now if they had not campaigned with the Tories to keep us locked in to Tory cuts. I see Ian Gray sitting next to Kezia Dugdale. Let me remind Scotland what Ian Gray told the people of Scotland before the referendum. If Scotland was independent, then John Swinney would have to increase taxes. Well, thanks to Labour, the Tories are in charge of our budget and now we've got Labour proposing an increase in taxes. They are an utter disgrace. Experts from Stirling University, the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the House of Commons Library, Spice, they all say that Labour's policy is fair because the purists are protected and the richest pay the most. This matters because Nicola Sturgeon has built her career telling us that more powers would mean fewer cuts yet she refuses to use the powers when it really matters. She has staked her reputation on improving education yet she cuts school budgets rather than using those powers. She has sold herself as the radical alternative to Tory austerity but yesterday she sold out the people who needed her the most. This was the week that Nicola Sturgeon was found out. People across Scotland are left asking with all her power why couldn't the First Minister just do the right thing? There is a difference here. Clearly, Kezia Dugdale thinks that making somebody earn £11,000 a year, pay the price of Tory austerity is the right thing to do. I don't think that giving people like that a pay rise, getting them on to the living wage, that's the right thing to do. Kezia Dugdale says that her proposals are fair. She can't explain any of the detail of her proposals as we saw very clearly from Jackie Baillie. Apparently, the rebate, which is a total con, has all been worked out. I don't even know if Kezia Dugdale knows how much it costs to administer, housing and council tax benefit schemes every year, £41 million for a scheme that caters for half a million applicants. We are expected to believe from Labour that a scheme that would have to deal with a million applicants is going to be done for a million. It is absolute incompetence. Lastly, she says that her proposals are fair. Under Labour's proposals, the amount of tax that I paid would go up by 2.7 per cent. The amount of tax that a nurse, a teacher, a care worker would pay would go up by 5 per cent. That is not fair in the slightest. I will leave Labour to argue for tax rises for the low-paid to compensate for the Tory cuts that they kept us locked into. I will continue to argue for fairness, for pay rises, for protection for our public services. That is the difference between us. To ask the First Minister when she will next meet the Prime Minister. Let's try this from a different angle. The new powers that are coming to this Parliament have already changed the debate in Scotland. The Labour Party is going into this election threatening to put up taxes for every worker in Scotland. The Lib Dems are also going into this election threatening to put up taxes for every worker in Scotland. The Scottish Conservatives want to protect people's paychecks and believe that workers in Scotland should not have to pay more than those in the rest of the UK and will also try to lower taxes when it is affordable to do so. However, the Scottish National Party alone keeps us guessing that no tax rises this year, but who knows after that. Can I ask the First Minister for a straight answer? Does she believe that Scottish workers, no matter which end of the pay scale they are on, should never have to pay more tax here than they would do elsewhere in the UK? Just for completeness, the Tories are actually going into this election also arguing for more tax on low-paid people, because they are going to bring back prescription charges for people on low-pay. They are going to make people pay for their education, so let us not pretend that the Tories are not proposing some pretty hefty tax rises as well. The difference, of course, is that they also want to cut taxes for people at the highest end of the income scale, so I will continue to argue for fairness. We will put forward in advance of this election the sensible policies that protect our public services and protect household incomes. We reject the approach of Labour, we reject the approach of Tories, and you know what? Probably so will Scotland. Ruth Davidson looks like we are going to have to wait a wee while for a proper answer, Presiding Officer. Of course, a lot of the decisions that we are talking about here do hang on a successful conclusion of the talks between our two Governments on the sustainable fiscal framework. I believe that there is an agreement to reach, and I believe that it is in the interests of both Governments and, more importantly, on the interests of the people of Scotland. The Secretary of State for Scotland has made it clear that no arbitrary deadline should be set to cut those discussions short. People need to know ahead of the election what they are voting for. The talks should continue beyond the artificial February deadline if extra time is needed to hammer out a deal. Does not the First Minister agree? It is up to this Parliament to decide at the amount of time that this Parliament needs to scrutinise any deal that is agreed. I want to see a deal agreed as quickly as possible, and we will do everything that we can to reach that deal, because I want those new powers. However limited they might be, I want to have them. Let me tell you this, Presiding Officer, and maybe this is the difference between me and Ruth Davidson. I am going to stand up for Scotland in those talks. I will not accept a deal that gives Scotland more powers, but only at a big cost to our budget. So, if Ruth Davidson wants a deal as well, can I suggest that she gets on to the phone to her colleagues today and tells them to stop arguing for a deal that would strip billions of pounds out of Scotland's budget? The First Minister should be aware of the anger and dismay that she felt this morning by five businesses on being told that it will now be mid-March before the fourth road bridge will fully reopen to HGVs. She will recall that we were promised full reopening of the bridge first in early January, then in mid-Febru, now we are being told in mid-March. What confidence can we have that this new date will in fact be met, given the two previous deadlines were not met, and given the on-going losses being suffered by five businesses, what more assistance can the Scottish Government offer them? Obviously, as Murdo Fraser and everybody else knows, the bridge is open and has been open since before Christmas to 90 per cent of all traffic. What was announced this morning is that there will now be a partial reopening of the bridge to HGVs so that weather permitting overnight at a limited number, but nevertheless some HGVs will be allowed to cross the bridge. There has been a delay to the full completion of the works, partly down to what I hope everybody would recognise the weather conditions, particularly the high winds that we have been facing, but also the need to do some further strengthening to particular parts of the bridge. That is why the mid-March date has been given by the transport minister today. There is some contingency built into that to take account for possible bad weather conditions over the next few weeks. We are working hard to get the bridge fully reopened to all HGVs, but also to facilitate as much traffic across the bridge as we can, and we will continue, as we have been doing, to work with the haulage industry to support them as much as we possibly can during this period. To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the cabinet. Matters of importance to the people of Scotland. Can I start on a rare point of consensus? She is right about the Conservatives. They have £140 million worth of stealth taxes planned, as the whole and their budget plans quite revealed, but the point with the First Minister is that she has choices, but the SNP is imposing cuts on schools and council services. She has strong-armed councils into making the cuts with fines if they fail to obey her, and she is refusing to use the income tax powers that she now has. No longer leading frozen to the spot incapable of protecting our once proud Scottish education system. Instead of blaming everyone else, will she step up and use the powers that she has now got? I am really surprised that Willie Rennie can bring himself to look a single Scottish voter in the eye. I am just going to remind Willie Rennie of what he was telling people in Scotland just a year or so ago. This is a direct quote. The Liberal Democrats in the UK Government are building a stronger economy here in Scotland with lower taxes. This is what the broad UK shoulders enable us to deliver. Having misled the Scottish people that the only way to avoid tax rises was to vote no, he now turns round and tells people that they have to pay higher taxes anyway, to pay for the cuts that his party has helped the Tories impose on us for the last five years. Willie Rennie should be utterly ashamed of himself. He should be begging the Scottish people for forgiveness, not handing out sanctimonious lectures to the rest of us and how to deal with Tory cuts that he bears so much responsibility for. Willie Rennie goes again, blaming absolutely everyone else. Can I remind her that the Liberal Democrats that cut taxes for those on low and middle incomes tax cuts that she opposed in Westminster, she is not interested in those on low and middle incomes, it is all about posturing and it is all about blaming everyone else and never accepting responsibility herself. The First Minister has not grasped this properly. We can choose to invest £475 million to have a transformational effect on our education system. We can stop the cuts to schools, repair the cuts that the SNP has opposed on our colleges, expand nursery education and invest in a pupil premium. With a penny for education, we can give every child the chance to get on, provide the skills for our economic progress and get Scotland's education back to the world's best. Does she not see the opportunity in any of that? First Minister, we are protecting our national health service. We are investing in social care, we are paying a living wage to every social care worker in our country, we are maintaining the number of teachers in our schools, we are investing in improving attainment and we are protecting household budgets. Unlike Willie Rennie, I do not think that people on incomes as low as £11,000 a year should be paying more tax to compensate for the Tory cuts that he helped the Tories impose on us in the first place. I know that Willie Rennie is desperate to forget the five years when he and his party propped up the Conservatives in government, but do you know what? The Scottish people are not going to forget the Tory Liberal Democrat coalition. If it is possible for Willie Rennie to sink any lower in the coming election, he is sure that his hell is going to do it. Mr MacArthur and Mr Hume, that is just enough. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the review of NHS drug assessments. First Minister. I am pleased that Dr Brian Montgomery has agreed to undertake an independent review of the Scottish Medicines Consortium's assessment processes. Dr Montgomery's review will help us to take forward further reforms in the access to new medicines, building on the positive progress achieved already. While the SMC's reforms in 2014, together with other reforms and our £90 million new medicines fund, have already benefitted more than 1,000 families through access to life-saving and life-extending drugs, we want to ensure that the assessment system continues to evolve to deliver effectively for patients in the NHS. I thank the First Minister for that answer. I welcome this review and I also welcome the 26 new medicines that have been approved under the new system. However, in 2014, the then Cabinet Secretary when announcing the proposals indicated that it was anticipated that new medicines would be made available quicker. Can the First Minister advise whether the review will evaluate that and consider how timescales could be improved further for the many patients for whom these drugs are a lifeline? The overarching aim of the review is about providing safe and timely access to clinically effective medicines at a fair price. We think that there are improvements that can still be made such as working with the pharmaceutical industry to get their best offering on price earlier than sometimes happens at the moment, so that will be one of the issues that the review takes account of. All of that is about making sure that those often very difficult decisions about access to drugs are taken as fairly as possible and that we get as many people as possible accessing life-saving and life-extending drugs. First Minister, what action the Scottish Government is taking to stop deaths from breast cancer? We recently announced a £450,000 joint partnership with breast cancer now, which will allow for more Scottish-led research into breast cancer development to take place, helping to further enhance our knowledge and treatment of the disease. In addition, our £39 million detect cancer early programme is focused on diagnosing cancer at an earlier stage when chances of survival are higher and helping to save more lives every year. Currently, the number of people in Scotland living for at least five years after a cancer diagnosis has reached a record high. We are also committed to publishing a new cancer strategy to ensure real improvements are made to services, and we are currently working with stakeholders and patients to develop that by spring of this year. That will include further investment in cancer services. I thank the First Minister for that answer. The First Minister will be aware that the 2050 challenge campaign launched this week by breast cancer now. As a breast cancer survivor myself, I know how crucial this campaign is, but I am one of the lucky ones. The First Minister will have seen earlier this week Colin Leslie's heartbreaking account of the loss of his fiancee Sharon from breast cancer. No-one should have to go through what he has, but thousands will and for years to come if we do not act now. Will the First Minister agree to meet me, Colin and other campaigners to discuss how the Scottish Government can further support efforts to stop women and men from dying from breast cancer by 2050? I thank Patricia Ferguson for her question and, obviously, I acknowledge the personal experience that she brings to bear to this issue. I am happy to meet her and campaigners. This is something that we have to work together on. If we are going to tackle not just breast cancer but all cancers and improve survival rates, we need to do more, as we are seeking to do, to detect cancer earlier. My colleague Richard Lochhead's wife has been very bravely in the last few weeks and months raising the issue of checking and acting on early signs. That is important, but it is also important that we have the best cancer services to treat people as effectively as possible and to go back to the previous question that we give people access to life-saving or life-extending drugs as often as possible. We all desperately want to see real progress on. I am sure that not a single one of us in this chamber who has, in some way, shape or form experienced the devastation of cancer. I am committed to making sure that we do everything that we can to make progress. I would be delighted to have the expertise of Patricia Ferguson to help us with that. To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the fiscal framework. The First Minister met the chief secretary to the Treasury on Monday to continue negotiations and they will meet again on Monday coming. My position on that remains the same and remains, as it was, in my answer to Ruth Davidson. I want Scotland to get additional powers, the additional powers that we were promised, but they should not come at a cost to Scotland's budget. I will not, as First Minister, sign up to a deal that is detrimental to Scotland, nor will I ask the Parliament to approve the Scotland Bill if a fair fiscal framework has not been agreed. There remain significant differences in our views, but the Scottish Government is determined to ensure that we secure a deal that is consistent with the intentions of the Smith commission and delivers fairness for Scotland now and in the future. The First Minister will be aware that the Smith commission and the Devolution Further Powers Committee of this Parliament both agreed that the fiscal framework that will underpin the new powers coming to Parliament must not be to Scotland's detriment. Therefore, will the First Minister give a clear commitment that any Government that she leads will never shortchange the people of Scotland and certainly not to the tune of £3.5 billion over the next decade, as is currently being proposed by the UK Treasury? The whole point of the Smith commission proposals was to give us powers and for us then to bear the risk and indeed reap the benefits of our decisions to use those powers. There should be no detriment to Scotland now or in the future simply from the transfer of those powers, and that is at the heart of the discussions about the block grant adjustment. I should say that there are still other issues to be resolved in those discussions, but that is at the heart of the block grant adjustment. We will not sign up to any agreement or any deal that would see billions of pounds or any money for that matter taken out of Scotland's budget, regardless of the decisions that this Government takes. We will not sell Scotland short, but we will continue to work as hard as we possibly can to get a deal that is fair for everyone. Thank you. Before I end First Minister's questions, I say this to all members. Some of the behaviour in the chamber today has been quite unacceptable. Can I suggest? Can I suggest that members review the footage of First Minister's questions and consider whether they showed themselves in this Parliament in the best light? That ends First Minister's questions. We now move to members' business. Members who leave the chamber should do so quickly and quietly.