 I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. The first item of business is general questions and at question number one I call Rachel Hamilton. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the red meat industry. Cabinet Secretary, Mary Gougeon. The Scottish Government has a strong track record of supporting Scotland's red meat industry, a wee campaign for years for repatriation of the red meat levy, which was eventually implemented through a UK act, and this will generate around £1.5 million annually to promote our red meat sector. We recently supported QMS's Scotch lamb campaign around St Andrew's day, and in response to on-going issues in our pig sector, we have provided a hardship support scheme and also recently opened a private storage aid scheme to take pressure off the industry. And finally, unlike other parts of the UK, we continue to provide additional support for suckler beef and sheep producers with payments due to start under the latter scheme in April and May next year. Rachel Hamilton. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Presiding officer, we are now down to 26 red meat abattoirs in Scotland and shockingly only 15 female butchers. Cabinet secretary, what do you say to the Red Breed survival trust, who say that your Government has failed to address the local abattoir crisis in Scotland? Cabinet secretary. I absolutely understand the importance of local slaughter provision in the red meat sector, and we do have relatively good coverage. However, we absolutely recognise that there might be occasions where local slaughter needs aren't immediately met, and there are obviously several reasons why that might be the case, whether that is throughput or costs, because that appropriate throughput is vital for abattoirs to ensure that plants do have a viable future. Unfortunately, that is not the case with low local demand, which can sometimes make the long-term viability an on-going issue. The Scottish Government in Food Standards Scotland would be happy to discuss with any organisation who are considering operating in abattoir in Scotland. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the achievement of curriculum for excellence level statistics. I refer Michael Marra to my statement on Tuesday 14 December, the accompanying national improvement framework plan also published earlier this week, and the Government's actions on education recovery published in October. I thank the minister for that answer. This is a defining moment for Scottish education. Those statistics show the lowest attainment on record under curriculum for excellence and an increase in what was already a staggering attainment gap. In response, the minister has cut attainment challenge funding to this year to the levels of 2017 and plans to return teacher numbers to what they were when the SNP took office in 2007. There is nothing in those plans to respond now to this urgent situation. Can we really have confidence that a failing pre-pandemic plan can protect the life chances of a pandemic generation? I would point Mr Manor to the fact that before the pandemic, the year-on-year trend and the ASL data was positive. We are already taking action to ensure that we are supporting children and young people during this difficult time. For example, through the increase in the Scottish attainment challenge funding from £750 million in the last Parliament to £1 billion in that, the statistics that came out on Tuesday also pointed to an additional 2,000 teachers since 2019 and, of course, a low pupil-to-teacher ratio. That is a determination that we are continuing to carry on with, and that is exactly why we have our manifest agreement for 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff. As I said to Mr Manor, we are already on track to deliver that. Are schools went into this pandemic underprepared after the SNP cut teacher numbers to the bone? Does the new teacher numbers announced amount to a recognition that the SNP just got this wrong? What we have made absolutely clear in our work as we move towards recovery, and indeed still as we deal with the pandemic, is to ensure that we are supporting our schools and local authorities to be able to support children and young people through additional teachers. That will of course ensure that we continue to assist children and young people at this very difficult time. We will, of course, ensure that we assist those children and young people in the longer term, as with the baselining of the money for the additional teachers. We will see a greater opportunity for permanent contracts and, rightly so, for our teaching workforce. What lessons can be learned from across the UK and around the world about the impact of the pandemic on our education system? The cocapsure raises a very important point. The challenges that we are facing that were shown in the ESL statistics are not unique to Scotland. Indeed, recent reports from Offstead and the World Bank and others show that there will be an impact on many of, indeed, not most children. That is exactly why we are taking the action that we did, as I mentioned, in teacher numbers and in attainment challenge funding increasing. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had regarding the Hunterson Park development. I refer the member to questions. SW604431 and SW604432 from Jamie Greene MSP, where I sit out that Scottish Enterprise, continue to engage with pool ports and North Ayrshire Council under a memorandum of understanding to secure delivery of regional and national investment objectives at Hunterson. There have been no visits by senior Scottish Government representatives to the site since 1 January 2021. Of a Scottish Government, planning officials did attend an online meeting with pool port representatives about the Hunterson Park development in November 2020. As the minister will know, the site, now owned by Peele, was designated for industrial reuse many decades ago, but it is a beauty spot, an area of environmental importance with many biodiversity issues, a site of special scientific importance and very close to communities. Hunterson B has stopped generation and North Ayrshire Council have set up a task force, but its ambition was always that the Scottish Government should be involved with a ministerial task force to look at development of the site. Would the minister be willing to look at a ministerial task force that would also involve North Ayrshire Council, the trade unions, the landowner, employers and community representatives, in particular community councils, with a view to ensuring job creation and delivering on our environmental commitments? The member is correct to identify the importance of biodiversity and the set of special scientific interests. Of course, each planning application for the site is considered on its merits in biodiversity matters. Would we consider this part of that process? With regard to the substance of our question, I would be very happy to meet with the stakeholders she identified as the best way to move forward with the site. Given that, as I have said, the Scottish Enterprise is working with people plots on a memorandum of understanding and work is progressing in that regard, but with regard to wider stakeholder engagement, I would be, as I said, very happy to have appropriate meetings and to determine the best way to ensure ministerial engagement going forward. Does the minister agree that Hunterston Port and Resource Centre, in my constituency, is vital to the economic regeneration and green transition of North Ayrshire? Will the Scottish Government and its agencies redouble the efforts and pursuit of potential investors who bring skilled and well-remuniated employment to the area? Recognising strategic importance, Hunterston is a proposed national development in the draft national planning framework for which it has been laid in Parliament and is currently being consulted on. Hunterston has also been selected as one of the projects in the Ayrshire growth deal, the drive to sustainable inclusive growth. As I said, the Scottish Enterprise continued to be closely engaged with people plots on North Ayrshire Council under collaborating, under a memorandum of understanding, to advance and secure the delivery of national and regional investment objectives in the Scottish Government's inward investment strategy and the Ayrshire economic strategy. As I said, my answer to Katie Clark is that I am very happy to engage with other stakeholders to ensure that the work that is being done moves forward as quickly and effectively as possible. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to support town centres. We have been working with partners, including local government and Scotland's Township, to build on the success of the town centre first principle and the 2013 town centre action plan, supported by the Regeneration Capital Grant fund, the £50 million town centre fund and business improvement districts. In 2020, we commissioned an independent review of the town centre action plan to build on the strong platform and in light of the climate, emergency and the pandemic. We are working with COSLA to respond to the recommendations in the review report, a new future for Scotland's town centres. Since 2020, we have provided more than £6 million additional support to town and community partnerships and business improvement districts. Earlier this year, we launched the £10 million Scotland loves local programme to support local businesses and town centres. All of that is underpinned by our £325 million place-based investment programme over this Parliament, which builds on the town centre action plan and Regeneration Capital Grant fund to accelerate our ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods and town centre revitalisation. Before I go back to Ms Graham, I appreciate the desire to provide comprehensive responses, but I would prefer more succinct questions and answers. I am going to say that that was a very comprehensive answer, but I want to move from funding, which is welcome. I will give two examples in my constituency of Midlothian, South Tweeddale and Lauderdale of gallous hills and pericook town centres where there are far too many large empty retail stores that have been empty for years, but it is difficult to trace the owners. Can I ask if the current compulsory purchase legislation is sufficient to permit a local authority to take ownership and redevelop possibly for a mix of housing in the town centre and smaller commercial outlets, because it does not seem to be happening? I thank Christine Grahame for her further question. I will be as brief as I possibly can just to set the matter out. Acquiring authorities are expected to carry out further land referencing in order to ascertain the ownership of land that they intend to include within a compulsory purchase order. However, the inability to trace all owners is not necessarily a barrier to the use of compulsory powers, and current Scottish Government guidance covers that situation. However, we have committed to a review of compulsory purchase legislation in Scotland, which will provide an opportunity to consider whether the current procedures are fit for purpose. Siobhan Brown. That is along the same vein as Christine Grahame. To ask the Scottish Government what further action could be taken to help to improve the appearance of our town centres, with many shops lying empty and deteriorating, along with derelict land and buildings. I thank Siobhan Brown for her question and congratulate her appointment as convener of the towns and town centre cross-party group. It is vital that we repurpose and reimagine our town centres going forward for ordering their offer and ensuring diversity so that they are not over-reliant on one sector. That is supported by the independent review of the Town Centre Action Plan, which published its report in February and advocated long-term sustainable actions built upon local partnerships. We are considering the report's recommendations with our partners and a working collaborative to take forward our response. I would be happy to meet with the member and the cross-party group to discuss the outcome of that process in due course. To ask the Scottish Government what support and advice it plans to provide to enable the establishment of community heat and power networks to deliver net zero targets. As set out in the heat and buildings strategy, we will invest £400 million over this Parliament to support the development of heat networks and low-carbon heat infrastructure at scale in Scotland. We will also launch a heat network pre-capital support unit in 2022, which will help to nurture opportunities for new networks and to expand existing ones. In addition, the Scottish Government's community renewable energy scheme cares that utilises the local energy Scotland network of regionally-based development officers to provide advice and financial support to local communities who are looking to de-carbonise their energy consumption. Will the minister confirm that local authorities and community groups need advanced finance to establish those community and heat networks so that they can access expertise, risk assessment and feedback from what works with previous projects, so that the Scottish Government directly funds development work to enable those local authorities and community co-ops to get going on the new projects that we need across Scotland to deliver the low-carbon heat and power that we need and for the profits to be reinvested locally? The Scottish Government, across the whole heat and building strategy, is very clear that a huge scale of investment is needed, and that is why we will be creating a green heat finance task force to look at the wide range of options for increasing that investment. We are committed to supporting local communities as well as local government that want to maximise the deployment of heat networks, and we will work collaboratively with local government and across the political spectrum to ensure that that happens. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the proposed works at Sheriffhall roundabout as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland city region deal. As I advised the chamber on the 27th of October, we remain committed to delivering the great separation of Sheriffhall roundabout. Following publication of draft orders, a significant number of objections were received, which Transport Scotland is currently trying to resolve. However, a public local inquiry may be required if objections cannot be resolved. This area in my constituency is used heavily by my constituents and those in the surrounding areas every day and often a bottleneck situation due to the volume of traffic develops, which is frustrating to road users. What specific action the Scottish Government can take to address the delays to beginning the works at the Sheriffhall roundabout and can it provide any reassurance to my constituents that that is in hand? Let me reassure the member that Transport Scotland is very much focused on trying to resolve the significant number of objection responses received following the publication of draft orders for the scheme, with, for example, replies that have now been issued to nearly all of the objectors. However, as I said, given the number of objections received, there may need to be a public local inquiry to consider objections. That would disappoint and frustrate me almost as much as it would the member, but I am sure that Mr Beattie would recognise that having set in place the opportunity for communities and stakeholders to have a say and involvement in key decisions on infrastructure like that, it is incumbent on all of us to respect that process and engage with it to the best of our abilities. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a timeframe for the implementation of the dog control database. I am going to move on to question 9 in the meantime, and can I call Richard Leonard? Bear with me, colleagues. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Scottish National Investment Bank's investment portfolio. Cabinet Secretary, Kate Forbes. Well, the Scottish National Investment Bank is building its portfolio and asking making commercial investments in line with its missions, which of course relate to net zero place and innovation. Since its launch last year, the bank has committed to £137 million of investment and it is on track to provide £200 million to Scottish businesses this financial year. It is growing that investment pipeline in order that it can apply at least another £200 million next year, which is a huge achievement for a new body that only began operations just over 12 months ago. I know that the minister always says that these investment decisions are matters for the board, and I am all in favour of planting more trees. Does the Government not have a view on the fact that the biggest investment by far, more than a third of the money allocated by the public bank, has been handed out to a private fund manager, Gresham House, which specialises in tax avoidance schemes for wealthy millionaires to plant trees, rather than to invest in the jobs and the industries that our people and our communities need? The member is right in reminding the chamber that the investment decisions are operational matters for the bank, and those decisions are taken independently of ministers. Of course, although Opposition will call on those decisions to remain independent, it is slightly strange when members ask questions of ministers that they do not agree with. The bank has been set up very specifically to invest commercially and to generate investment returns. It needs to invest alongside the private sector in order to deliver its purpose and have the impact that is required of it. The majority of the bank's investments so far have net zero as a primary mission, and the bank's board determines how it invests. Investment independence is part of the important arrangements between the bank and the Scottish Government. The last comment that I would make is that the bank's ethical investment policy and the fair work direction issued to the bank in August informs the bank's approach and underpins the covenants that it puts in place when it makes an investment. The bank only invests in businesses or projects that meet its ethical standards or are willing to commit to adopting them. We are unable to make contact with the minister at the moment, but I am sure that our response will be provided.