 Felly, edrych yn ideal i'r pryd ac mae'n ddysgu bod eich cychwyn o'rolydd gynnig ar gyfer eich ddod anodol oherwydd y clywed o'r virus pob ddaeth i gyfnodol. Felly mae'n ddysgu bod eich ddod y cychwyn o'r parrydd ar gyfer eich cychwyn o ddod o'r cases a i rwyf wedi gwneud i'w ddym 말을on ar gyfer eich cychwyn o'r cases y tîm. 951 cases were reported yesterday. 45.4 per cent of cases now show the estrogen dropout indicative of Omicron. It therefore seems likely that by tomorrow Omicron will be the dominant strain circulating in Scotland and because of its much higher transmissibility, this will drive an even more rapid increase in cases. Omicron is spreading exceptionally fast, much faster than anything that is experienced so far in the pandemic. I am profoundly concerned by the scale and the immediacy of the challenge that it poses. In response, we are already rapidly accelerating delivery of boosters and we will continue to do so. 59,437 booster or third doses were administered yesterday, a further increase on the day before. We must understand that Omicron is currently running faster than even the fastest roll-out of vaccines. It is also a key point that the immune protection from vaccination is not immediate, it takes a few days. As we speed up vaccines, we must also act to slow this virus down. If we do not, the consequences will be significant. Even if Omicron's impact on individual health is milder than other variants—let me stress, we have no evidence of that yet—many will still become severely unwell and die, and the sheer number of people infected will present a massive challenge. Indeed, in London, where transmission of Omicron is currently the highest in the UK, hospital admissions are now rising sharply. If we do not act now, what we have feared all along but so far avoided the overwhelming of the NHS could happen. However, let me be clear that this is not a choice between protecting health and protecting the economy. A surge in infections is already causing staff absences that will also cripple the economy and other critical services. This is a really serious situation, and we must respond accordingly. I therefore want to strongly underline the advice that I gave on Tuesday. Please reduce your contact with people from households other than your own, as much as you possibly can. For now, please stay at home much more than you normally would, and as much as is feasible. Right now, the risk of getting Covid from interactions with others is high and it is rising. Before doing anything that you might have planned over the coming days, is it as safe as it needs to be, and is it vital enough to you to justify that risk? I suspect that what is most important to most of us over the next couple of weeks is having time with our families at Christmas. Every interaction that we have before then increases the risk of us getting Covid and so possibly losing it. More generally, I suspect what matters most to us, and I know that this is strongly my view, is protecting children's education. By acting to reduce community transmission, we will also be helping to keep schools open and open safely. Given what I am being advised about, the risk Omicron poses to health and the economy, I would not be fulfilling my duty if I failed to give that advice. I would not be acting in good conscience. However, I am acutely aware of and deeply concerned about the considerable impact of that advice on businesses, although let me repeat that businesses will also suffer if we do not act to slow the virus. The fact is, business now needs the type and scale of financial support that was available earlier in the pandemic. However, there are simply no mechanisms available to the devolved administrations to trigger the scale of finance that is needed to support such schemes. We need the UK Government to act urgently and, in the same way that some other countries are already doing. I made this point again at a Cobra meeting yesterday, chaired by Michael Gove and attended by the chief secretary to the Treasury. However, that now needs the urgent engagement of the Prime Minister and the chancellor. We must not sleepwalk into an emergency that for both health and business will be much greater as a result of inaction than it will be if we act firmly and strongly now. I have therefore written to the Prime Minister this morning appealing to him to put the necessary support schemes in place, such as the urgency that I have asked to speak to him directly later today. None of us want to be in this position, but Omicron presents a renewed and very real challenge for the whole world. The World Health Organization could not be clearer about that. Once again, the duty to protect the NHS, lives and livelihoods must be upper most in our minds and it must drive our actions. All of us, Governments and citizens must do what is required. I am asking everybody across the country to please play your part again by following the advice that we are giving. Thank you. We now turn to First Minister's questions. In light of the First Minister's update, I will take all constituency and general supplementaries after question 7. Members wishing to ask such a supplementary questions, please press your request-to-speak buttons during question 2. Members wishing to ask supplementaries on questions 3 to 7, please press during the relevant question. Question 1, Douglas Ross. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I listened to the First Minister's statement and she was right to look at what we can do on a UK-wide approach. I will be focusing today on what we can do here in Scotland right now. Scotland's vaccination scheme has already delivered a booster to more than half of all over 18-year-olds. That is down to everyone in our NHS, our armed forces and all our volunteers. I want to thank you for making that happen, but we still need to vaccinate far more people to get ahead in this race against a new variant. For weeks, we have been calling for the reintroduction of mass vaccination centres. Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly refused until, on Tuesday, she accepted and agreed the need for them. We have learned today that the EICC in Edinburgh and Hamden Park in Glasgow will open as mass vaccination centres. That is exactly what we have been calling for for weeks. There is no mention of it in the First Minister's statement, so perhaps she can tell us now how many other new centres will open, where will they be and when will they start vaccinating people? I want to come on to that, because Douglas Ross is absolutely right to raise the critical importance of vaccination and the speed of vaccination. I want to underline a point that I did make in my opening remarks. That is that, in the context of the race between the virus and the vaccines, of course we are going as fast as we can and we will continue to pick up pace in the vaccines, but I just want to make this point. If somebody is vaccinated with a booster today, it does not immediately get the immune protection from that. It will be some days before that is the case. We have a variant of this virus right now that is doubling every two or so days. We are in a situation right now that, no matter how fast we go with vaccines, this variant of the virus is at the moment running faster. Therefore, yes, we need to speed up vaccinations, but, while we are doing that, we must act to slow down the virus. That is a simple statement of fact and the protection of health, lives but also the economy and businesses depends on us doing that. We, currently, and Douglas Ross rightly mentioned this, became the first part of the UK yesterday to pass 50 per cent of over 18s vaccinated with a booster. We still have the fastest vaccination programme in the UK. We are picking up pace every day. The figures that I gave today demonstrate that one of the things we are doing, which is the most important thing right now, and there is still capacity to be got from this, is shifting focus from the remainder of the flu vaccination campaign into boosters. We administered in the last two days each day more than 70,000 vaccinations each day, but some of them, I think yesterday 14,000 of those were still flu vaccinations, so we are shifting that focus. Yes, we are also opening up extra facilities. In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Hamden Park and Glasgow Central Mosque are already available as a mass large vaccination centre in NHS Lothian, Lowland Hall and Ingolston. They are already operating as a large-scale vaccination centre in NHS Lanarkshire, the Ravenscraig facilities. We are also seeking to bring on additional facilities. The Edinburgh International Conference Centre, for example, and the Edinburgh Corn Exchange are all under active preparation to come on stream. I am confident that we can get to, even just from what I have said about switching flu, to the around 70,000 a day that we want to get to, and everything has been done to do that. Please do not lose sight of that first point that I made, no matter how fast we go. This virus is running so fast that we must also take action to slow it down. I certainly will not lose sight of the first point that the First Minister made, because she was right to say that people who are vaccinated today are not immediately protected against the virus. That is why, on those benches, we have been calling for the reintroduction of these mass vaccination centres for weeks. If the Scottish Government had acted when we first called for them twice in Covid statements in November, at FMQs two weeks ago, we would be further along the road than we are at the moment. Although the new variant has meant necessary changes to guidance, it is not right that, once again, businesses are still waiting to hear what they need to do to comply with the First Minister's statement from Tuesday. She was right to say earlier on that that will have a massive impact on businesses, but businesses have told us that they heard earlier this week from Scottish Government officials, and the officials told them that new rules could come into effect on Saturday. They were then told that it could be Monday. They were then told to prepare for 5pm on Friday. Remember that this is from Scottish Government officials, so can the First Minister give the answer that her officials seem unable to and tell us when will those laws actually begin? Yes, I will. I will come on to that in a second, but let me complete the point on vaccination. I understand my Douglas Ross and everybody, and I include myself in this, wants to see this programme go as fast as possible. I repeat, because I think that it is important to give the credit, as Douglas Ross rightly did, to the vaccination teams across the country. Currently we have the fastest programme in the UK. I want to see that speed up even more. That says to me that what we have been doing, the mix of facilities, has been right, but we have got to now go faster. It is not the case for reasons of staffing, for reasons of do not attend mass clinics where the geography does not support them, and many members have raised in this chamber before. The difficulty some people have in travelling to mass vaccination clinics is not the case that, had we had more mass clinics rather than the several smaller ones, we would have vaccinated more people. That is not how it works. It is not straightforward. We need to have the right mix, and that is what we continue to have. However, let us be clear. I hope that every member across the chamber will continue to scrutinise our progress. I absolutely welcome that. I think that it is really important, but please accept the assurance that nothing is more important to me, to the health secretary and to the entire Government right now than getting boosters into people's arms as quickly as is feasible. On the point about guidance and regulations, the regulations come into effect at 1 minute past midnight tomorrow morning Friday the 17th. In actual fact, high-level central guidance on the announcements made on Tuesday was published immediately after my statement on Tuesday. I said in Parliament on Tuesday that more detailed guidance would follow this week. That guidance will be available online from today. In fact, I suspect that it will, because I have just cleared it before coming here. I suspect that it will be online during this session of First Minister's Questions. We have been engaging with business organisations throughout this week on those issues and the guidance for those sectors. This is difficult for businesses. That is part of what I was stressing in the remarks that I made earlier on. However, I come back to the central point. We are now facing, two years into this pandemic, a variant of the virus that is spreading faster than anything that we have experienced so far. Omicron is doubling every two to three days in Scotland. In parts of the UK, the doubling time is currently less than two days. It will be the dominant strain by tomorrow, I expect, in Scotland. It has an R number that some assessments say is above four. We do not have time to waste. We do not have time to waste on vaccination, but we do not have time to waste on putting in place the protective measures that will help to slow that down. Lives again are at risk here. Lieslihoods are at risk, and the NHS is at risk. That is why, yes, the Government has got to speed up vaccination, but all of us have to come together to do what is required to slow that down, and the UK Government has to step up and provide the financial support that businesses need. Douglas Ross, again, I agree with the First Minister. Livelyhoods are at risk, which is why we need clarity from the Government to the businesses who are seeking it. This morning, the health secretary, Hamza Yousaf, was asked when the guidance would be published, and he said, and I quote, that today it should be published today. At the other side of the First Minister is the Deputy First Minister, who appeared before the Covid Committee this morning, and I am going to quote what he said at the time. He said that the guidance will be published in the course of Friday. The Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery and the Deputy First Minister also said that it was still being written, as he spoke to the committee less than an hour ago. I understand that he is now tweeted an apology. The Deputy First Minister is asking me to move on. He has had to apologise and is going to write to the committee, but those businesses are looking to the Government. They are trying to get the clarity, and we cannot get it between the health secretary, the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister. We have officials telling businesses three different dates when the law will come into force. The First Minister has now had to confirm that in the chamber. The men sitting on the side of the First Minister have given confusing and inaccurate advice to businesses in the course of today, so can the First Minister accept that this is, at the very least, unfortunate? It is causing confusion and what the businesses need is clarity to apply this guidance in just over 24 hours' time. The guidance will be published, I expect, before we are out of the chamber. Businesses have been communicated with business organisations throughout the week. Much of what we are asking businesses to do now is what they have done at previous stages in the pandemic. Many of the businesses' supermarkets, for example, still have some of those measures in place. The Deputy First Minister accidentally said tomorrow, instead of today in guidance, because tomorrow the regulations come into force. He immediately corrected that. For goodness sake, we have a virus raging around this country. We are trying to act at speed to protect people as much as possible because that is our duty. I take that duty whether people across the chamber in the country agree or disagree with me. I hope that nobody doubts how seriously I in this Government take the duty to protect people and the country from this virus. I think that what businesses want and what businesses need more than anything right now is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, act his desk, putting the financial support schemes in place that will stop them going to the wall. The fact is that, right now, if we act, that has implications for businesses. They must be compensated, but if we do not act, that possibly has even bigger implications for businesses. I take my responsibilities really seriously. I hope to speak to the Prime Minister this afternoon, if he makes himself available, so that we can work together, as we did previously in this pandemic, to put in place the support for businesses, so that all of us can make sure that we are doing everything that we can to protect human health and life. Douglas Ross. I said it in my opening remarks that it is right that we look at what we can do across the United Kingdom, but it is also right in this chamber that we can do what we can to scrutinise and try to help the Government. Because the First Minister said that the First Minister accidentally spoke, did he also accidentally speak? When he said to the committee that guidance was still being written, so he was also incorrect with that. Can the First Minister… Members, I would very much like to hear Mr Ross' question. I am grateful, Presiding Officer, because I am just trying to get some clarity. We also need a little clarity, because I just want to check. The BBC is saying that they have it in writing from the Scottish Government that the regulations behind the new protections for retail and hospitality would take effect from 1 minute past midnight on Saturday, but the First Minister has just said that it is 1 minute past midnight on Friday. Which is it? Because that was the Scottish Government telling the BBC on Tuesday, why has that changed? With the big changes that should not just be in response to a question from the Opposition, that should be put out to businesses straight away, and it is not. The First Minister will also understand that businesses need some measure of good news. This week, she agreed to our demands for emergency cancellation compensation, but businesses currently do not know when the funds are coming and how much money they will get. This is about people's jobs. I am sorry, Presiding Officer, but when SNP members say that I am shameless, I am trying to make sure that money that has been made available gets to the businesses who need it, will the First Minister simply guarantee that businesses will receive that £100 million of support before Christmas? First Minister, let me deal directly with all the points. The regulations come into force at 1 minute past midnight tomorrow morning. That is Friday. Why are we trying to do this as quickly as possible and perhaps even more quickly than we first thought we would need to do? Let me come back to a central point. Omicron is currently raging around this country. It is doubling every two to three days, every 24 hours matters in terms of saving people's lives and protecting the health service. That is why we are going really fast and we are communicating with business organisations as we go. Secondly, the Deputy First Minister was right to say that the guidance was still being finalised. I said in my first answer to Douglas Ross that I had just signed off the guidance before I came to the chamber so that it can be issued before we leave the chamber today. All of those things—yes, of course—Douglas Ross is entitled to scrutinise me over anything he wants, but whether guidance is going to be—whether the Deputy First Minister accidentally said tomorrow and said of today—I have now clarified it is today, I am not sure that that is the most important thing that we face right now. Lastly, we will get the £100 million that, with great difficulty, we have managed to find from other budgets as quickly as we can. When I was asked in this chamber, as we know, because for many of the exchanges, we had the Treasury was going to give us additional money. Douglas Ross seemed to think that that was a great wheeze. I will leave others to think whether it is wheezes that we should be focusing on right now. What we now know is that we are poorer after that Treasury announcement than we thought we were before. We will get the money as quickly as possible, but £100 million is not enough for those businesses, which is why we need the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to do their jobs and to get proper financial support in place for businesses as quickly as possible. I urge the public to wear a mask wherever you can to follow the guidance, and please, if you have not had your first or second dose, please book your appointment. If you have not had your booster but are eligible to do so, please book your booster appointment. It is about protecting yourself, your family and those around about you. I also say that there are businesses across the country who are anxious about what can happen to their business, what can happen to their employees and what they will not appreciate is politics or bickering. What they will expect is both the Scottish and the UK Government to work together in the national interest to protect people, their lives and their livelihoods. The Omicron variant is causing anxiety across the country and we know that Covid still poses a risk to our society. It is right that we remobilise our NHS to confront the virus, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that cancer remains Scotland's biggest killer. Since the start of the pandemic, almost 30,000 of our fellow Scots have died from cancer. Every one of those deaths, just like Covid, is a tragedy. Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK have both expressed concerns this week over fears of cancer patients waiting to be diagnosed and waiting to start treatment. They have said that swift action is needed from Government and NHS leaders. What action is the First Minister taking in cancer research UK's words to prevent a cancer catastrophe? First Minister, can I start by thanking Anna Sarwart for repeating the advice to the public at the start of his question? We have many differences in this chamber and, of course, this session is about scrutiny. I hope that, as we did at the start of the pandemic, we can also come together to communicate with one voice to the public. It is really important, so I am grateful to Douglas Ross for doing that. I agree that businesses are terribly anxious right now and I understand why. I also agree that this is not about politics. In a different context, the comments that I am making here about funding would be political. They are not. I have to make these comments because they are statements of fact. I would ask Anna Sarwart to reflect on the fact that what I am saying here today about funding support for business from the UK Government is exactly the same as his Labour colleagues are saying in the House of Commons right now. It is not about politics. It is about all of us, within our own responsibilities, doing everything that we can to meet this challenge. I will do everything that is within my responsibility, but I need to urge the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to do more within theirs. On the point about cancer, it is absolutely the case that every death from cancer at all times is a tragedy. Anyone, whether with cancer or any other condition that has had treatment delayed over the course of this pandemic, is obviously tragic. We are working through investments, particularly into early diagnosis, through the early cancer diagnostic centres to make sure that there is speedy timeous treatment for cancer. The NHS remains under sustained pressure and that pressure will grow in the weeks to come. Within the most recent quarter, more patients were treated within the 62-day waiting time standard compared to pre-Covid. That is an indication that we are starting to catch up on some of the backlogs. We must keep a focus on that, but if we are to protect the ability of the NHS to do that, we must absolutely bear down on the pressure that has been put on it because of Covid. Be a no doubt—I expect the Scottish Government and the UK Government, which includes the Wishesunac and the Treasury, to be at their desk doing everything that they can to work together to support businesses across the country. I recognise what the First Minister says, but figures published this week show that there have already been over 400 more cancer deaths than were expected this year. That is higher than the 293 last year. That is getting worse, not better. First Minister, in March, long before Omicron, you said that we are now focused on getting the NHS back to normal, but there are plenty of examples of people having to wait too long for treatment. Here is just one. A 71-year-old man who has previously had skin cancer contacted his GP in the summer, feeding it and returned. His GP confirmed that and referred him to a consultant. Months later, he is still waiting for an appointment. We know that the earlier you are diagnosed and the earlier you start treatment, the higher your chance of survival. Why has more progress not been made since March? I think that progress has been made since March, but, of course, since March, not just Omicron says March, we have had the Delta variant that is set back the ability of the NHS to recover. We are now dealing with Omicron. Health services all over the world are struggling to get back to normal because of the continued and increasing at times pressure that the virus is placing on us. We have continued to invest early in the detect cancer early programme. I absolutely agree with the fact that, earlier we detect cancer, the more able the NHS is to save lives. We have also established in recent times the first three early cancer diagnostic centres in NHS Asher and Arran, NHS Fife and NHS Dumfries and Galloway. They are about providing a referral route for patients who do not have standard symptoms of cancer. We are making significant investments in other parts of the cancer journey to speed up the time for diagnosis and then speed up the time for diagnosis into treatment. All of that has continued. It will continue, but we will get the NHS for cancer care and other care more firmly onto the road to recovery the more able we are to bear down on the Covid cases. That comes back to the central messages that we all have to communicate. Please cut down your contacts so that we are avoiding any opportunity that we can for this virus to spread. I know what the First Minister says, but statistics published this week show that almost one in five of the most urgent cancer cases are not starting treatment on time. Between July and September, just three months, 677 cases waited longer than the Government's own target. However, that is a problem that predates the pandemic. The Government has not met its cancer treatment target for almost a decade. As we enter into the new phase of the pandemic, we must learn the lessons of the last year. We know that, for Bill Cancer alone, there is a backlog of over half a million screening kits. There is still no breast cancer screening for women over 70, and operations are being cancelled. Can the First Minister commit that, as part of any redeployment, cancer services will be protected? That means no pause to screening programmes, genuine accelerations so that we can catch up, and no cancelled cancer operations, because we cannot have an NHS that chooses between treating a virus or treating cancer. Cancer services have rightly been prioritised throughout the pandemic, and that will continue. That does not mean that there has been no impact whatsoever. The decision that I remember vividly is one of the early days in the pandemic to pause cancer screening programmes was one of the most difficult decisions that our clinical advisers had to take. Screening programmes have restarted and have resumed. The issue with older women for breast cancer is correct, and we want to get that back to normal as quickly as possible. We have two cancer targets. The 31-day target has consistently been met now for some considerable time. The 62-day target, which is a whole journey target, is not being met. I am not saying that that is good enough, but more than 80 per cent or 83 per cent are seen within that 62-day target. We continue to prioritise diagnosis and treatment, and we will continue to take all appropriate steps to do so. I dearly wish that I could stand here and say that we can somehow protect the NHS generally and cancer services in particular from all the impact of this pandemic. I cannot do that no matter how hard we work to try. The only thing that will protect the NHS from the pandemic is getting the pandemic under control and driving those cases down. I know that Anasarwar agrees with that and accepts that, but that is why, right now, yet again, the most important thing that we need to do is get vaccines into people's arms as quickly as possible but appeal to the public to behave in a way that stops this omicron variant in its tracks. That is the best thing that we can do right now for ourselves, our loved ones, but also for the national health service. To ask the First Minister how a just transition can be secured for the Highlands and Islands. We are determined to leave no one individual or community behind as we move to a net zero economy. Our national just transition planning framework, which was published in September, sets out how we will develop just transition plans with different sectors and regions. It is critical that those build on existing skills and expertise and create good green jobs. We need bold action to do that. I saw for myself a prime example where, with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the port of Nig has been transformed into the largest offshore wind tower manufacturer in the UK. Our first just transition plan will be published next year with a focus on energy, and that will help to set out how the transition is managed, ensuring fairness for all communities, including the Highlands and Islands. Ariane Burgess The pausing of CAMBO shows that the need for secure and sustainable jobs in our Highlands and Islands communities is greater than ever. I was delighted to see the potential for 400 renewable jobs at Nig. Scotland has a quarter of Europe's offshore renewable potential. That includes tidal power. I am pleased that the island centre for net zero, based in Orkney, is included as a national development in the new draft national planning framework. Can the First Minister outline what else the Scottish Government can do to realise that potential, create and sustain new jobs in the Highlands and Islands and elsewhere in Scotland as part of a just transition away from fossil fuels? First, we have to make sure that we fully exploit our renewable energy resources. Offshore wind is one of the greatest assets that we have, but secondly, we need to ensure—as I have said candidly before, I do not think that for many, many years we have done this well enough—we need to capture all of the economic benefits of that right throughout the supply chain. There is much that the Government is doing to achieve that right now. I will give one other example, which is the Scotland leasing round, which recently closed, but applicants there need to supply a supply chain development statement, which sends a signal of how important we take the imperative of creating jobs from our renewable energy developments. Marine energy is another massive opportunity for the Highlands and Islands and indeed for all of Scotland, so we will continue to focus very much as we make this transition on ensuring that it is a transition that brings the jobs and the economic benefit that is so necessary to ensure that the industries that we are transitioning from are not left behind. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the latest household waste statistics from SEPA, which show a small reduction in household recycling in 2020 compared to 2019. It is obviously disappointing to see the 2020 household recycling rate fall back, but we must acknowledge the unprecedented and challenging year for everyone, including local authorities, as a result of Covid. SEPA believes that the Covid lockdowns and unavoidable disruption to recycling services, including the closure of recycling centres for a period of time, had an impact on local recycling rates. However, despite challenges, curbside recycling actually increased during 2020, and I know that local authorities worked really hard to keep priority services going throughout the pandemic, and I want to thank staff for all of their efforts. We are determined to accelerate progress to meet our waste reduction and recycling targets, and the Minister for Circular Economy recently announced a £20.3 million worth of landmark investments from the Recycling Improvement Fund to help to deliver a step change in our recycling. One way is that we can reduce our impact on the planet, and it is obvious that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on local authorities, including Mawr and Emberclyde, and its recycling activities, which now makes it even more important that we need to try to reuse our upcycle items even before recycling. Can the First Minister indicate what assistance is available to local authorities to help them to improve their recycling capabilities, including any funding to help with capital investments? What can the Scottish Government do to assist businesses, including small businesses such as Enverico in my constituency, that want to adopt a circular approach to their products so that they remain in use for longer? As I said in my original answer, the £20 million worth of investments from the Recycling Improvement Fund marks the beginning of one of the biggest investments in recycling seen in Scotland in a generation. That will support local authorities and, by extension, businesses, including small businesses, will make it easier for households to recycle more and drive up rates of recycling. It is estimated that the investment has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 21,400 tonnes a year, which is the equivalent of taking more than 11,000 cars off the road. Zeroway Scotland also provides a range of support to businesses to help them to develop circular economy approaches. That includes support for design, remanufacturing and skills development, supporting innovative projects that deliver carbon savings, leverage investment and create jobs. I think that, while it is disappointing that we saw the recycling rate fall back during Covid, I would repeat again that we did see an increase in curbside recycling. Also, in 2020, the amount of waste going to landfill was at its lowest level since records began. So there are reasons there to be encouraged, but we need to do more to maintain progress. Stephen Kerr The recycling rate has fallen two years in a row, and it is simply part of a catalogue of Scottish Government climate change target failures. When will the 2013 recycling target be made? If the Scottish Government is failing on climate change, I am not sure what that says about the UK Government, since we are further ahead in them. Those are serious issues. It is the case that the recycling rate did fall back. That is why, although it is not something that we are happy about, it is understandable for a part of last year that recycling centres were closed for a period. We need to get back on track and improve that. The fact that we still saw curbside recycling increase is that we have the lowest amount of waste going to landfill since records began. Those are things that should encourage us to press forward and make sure that we build that momentum. The Minister for the Circular Economy also set out how we intend to progress towards implementation of the deposit return scheme in Parliament earlier this week. It is interesting that the Conservatives complained that they wanted us to delay it further the last time that we were talking about it. Those are serious issues. There is serious investment and serious action on the part of the Scottish Government, and we will continue to ensure that that is the case. I remind members of my register of interest that it shows that I am a councillor at Aberdeen City Council. To ask the First Minister what discussion she has had with COSLA regarding the local government funding settlement for 2022-23. Ministers meet COSLA and individual local authorities on a regular basis to cover a range of issues, including the local government funding settlement. The finance secretary met COSLA on 27 October, 11 November and 25 November, and again on 8 December to discuss the local government settlement and the spending review. I thank the First Minister for her reply. However, it is obvious to us all that not only has the First Minister turned her back on the oil and gas industry, meaning that thousands of jobs will be lost, but now the First Minister has turned her back on local government. COSLA has shown us that, when you compare light for light between years, it is a savage cut to their budget this year. When will the First Minister pick up the phone to COSLA, apologise and provide them with the settlement that local government deserves, given all the work that they have done over the past two years? First Minister, I do not need to pick up the phone to the member. I can say directly to him across the chamber that, if the Conservatives want to propose more money for local government in the next stage of the budget, they can come forward and point to the part of the budget where we should take that money from. That is open to them, and I am sure that the finance secretary will be prepared to listen. Secondly, if we are talking about savage cuts, let us get some facts on the table. In the period between 2013 and 2020, we have delivered a cash terms revenue budget increase to Scotland's local authorities. Over the same period, local authorities in England, where the member's party is in government, have faced a cash terms revenue budget cut of 14.7 per cent. The point that I am making is that all governments face difficult issues here. We have to make choices, but the choices that we make are protecting local government in Scotland more than is the case elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and we will continue to make those choices with public services very much to our hearts. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will require large retail stores to close on New Year's Day 2022 so that retail workers can spend a day with their loved ones. I wholeheartedly appreciate the efforts of retail workers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. As members will have heard me articulate before in the chamber, I have been very sympathetic to calls for large stores to close on New Year's Day. We have looked very carefully at that, and the minister set out our conclusions to Parliament not that long ago. The Christmas and New Year's Day trading act does not ensure that all retail employees would get a day off or, crucially, that they would be paid for that day off. We want to go further than the legislation currently allows us to through focusing on wider fair work principles across the retail sector. We will do that through the forthcoming retail strategy. I set out in a statement by the minister, as I said, on 26 October. Mark Griffin. The First Minister will know herself that, despite what she says, there is deep disappointment with the Government's decision not to use existing powers to close large retail stores on New Year's Day, and that they have done so against the overwhelming response from workers who are in favour of that, and a Government report that states that it is unlikely to have a significant negative effect on the economy. As the First Minister alluded to, rightly before she said that shop workers deserve a festive break such as the rest of us get the benefit of, but the Government has not enacted legislation that would do just that for the vast majority of Scottish shop workers. What would the First Minister say to retail workers who again cannot spend New Year's Day safely with their families, and what Government plans are to deliver a decent break for shop workers over the festive period after they have worked so hard during the course of the pandemic? I really do feel, as the member does, quite strongly about this issue. I want to set out clearly why the current law is not sufficient to allow us to achieve what Mark Griffin is asking for. I would encourage particularly large retail employers to give their staff appropriate time off. I know that some retailers—Morrisons, M&S, Sainsbury's, Aldi—have already announced plans to close for an additional day over the festive period. The current law allows us to restrict trading in certain premises. It allows us to insist that stores are closed. What it does not allow us to do is insist that employees get a day off, so stores could have workers in stocking shelves, for example. Crucially, it does not allow us to insist that, if workers do get a day off, it is a paid day off. It is simply not possible to achieve the outcome. That is why, as the Minister said to Parliament, we want to look through our retail strategy at how we get to a situation in which the ends that Mark Griffin and I agree with can be achieved in a way that benefits workers and does not inadvertently penalise them. I hope that Mark Griffin would accept those points and perhaps work with us to try to get that outcome in the months ahead. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will set up a commission on preventing violence against women and girls in light of reports that one in five teenage girls have been sexually assaulted. I know that all of us across this chamber and most across society will be shocked and appalled that women and girls are still facing assault and violence in our society today. During the recent 16 days of activism, the chamber highlighted that we must all stand together against gender-based violence. The Scottish Government has taken and will continue to take robust action by improving our laws and providing funding to services supporting anyone who has experienced domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault. We are delivering our long-standing and very well-respected, equally safe strategy in collaboration with a wide range of partners. We think that that is the best route to tackle and challenge the attitudes that underpin violence against women and girls and ultimately prevent it from taking place, but, of course, we will continue to listen to views from across the chamber to make sure that we are doing all that is necessary. I thank the First Minister for that answer. It is recognised and welcomed that the Scottish Government has done work such as the First Minister has just outlined to address violence against women and girls and change attitudes. We have gold-plated legislation to tackle domestic abuse, but, as the Sunday Post report highlighted last week, 80 per cent of school girls have suffered abuse or harassment or know someone who has. Sadly, that finding is one of many similar situations. Domestic abuse rates up, rape convictions woefully low, two thirds of women do not feel safe on our streets and three in five suffer street harassment. The culture of violence against women and girls needs to be tackled with a holistic approach. Scottish Liberal Democrats have proposed a commission to look across all aspects of life in order to make societal change. This is about more than justice, more than policing, more than education. It is about women and girls being and feeling safe at home, school, work, everywhere. Would the First Minister see the value in a fundamentally new approach? Given the situation that we face, I think that it would be wrong for anyone, and certainly wrong for me, to rule out new approaches, fundamental or otherwise. I take very seriously the call that has been made for a commission. I want to assure the member that that is something that we continue to give consideration to. I am not sure in my own mind whether establishing a commission is necessarily the right thing to do that will make a difference. It is really important that we continue with the equally safe strategy, with the increased investment for the organisations working at the front line of that. I do not close my mind to anything that might help us to make a more significant fundamental step change in that. I am also mindful of the fact that we are in the process of refreshing it at the moment that I have my own advisory council on women and girls that has done a lot of good work around many of the issues that women and girls face in our society. It may be something that it, in its refreshed form, can look at on that more holistic and fundamental basis. I will undertake to continue to update Beatrice Wishart on our considerations around that and give her an assurance that we will consider in good faith any suggestions that are made. I hope that she will accept the absolute determination of me and the Government to tackle those issues, which are so fundamentally and utterly unacceptable in modern day society. Prevention and eradication of violence against women is or shared goal, but while abuse persists, information support and refuge for survivors remains vital. The joint cause in Scottish Women's Aid guidance is a good practice in commissioning, specialist domestic abuse services stipulate that it is not a statutory requirement to put domestic abuse services out to tender. Will the Scottish Government consider taking action to strengthen local government guidance to ensure that core funding is secure for this specialist support services, such as provided by Women's Aid, as so many survivors rely on these essential specialist services? I will certainly undertake to consider that. I think that that is an important point. We are extremely fortunate in this country and, of course, not alone, we have excellent support and advocacy services for women and girls in the form of rape crisis centres, rape crisis Scotland and, of course, Women's Aid across the country. There are obviously many other organisations that do fantastic work there. Our focus, working with local authorities, is to ensure that they have the support that they need to provide those services to women. We have increased the funding and are increasing over this Parliament the funding that is available, but ensuring that that gets to the services that have the experience and the expertise to help women is important. The point about putting services out to tender in the way in which services are funded and the guidance that underpins that is a very valid one. I will certainly undertake to have a look at that and write to Clare Adamson when I have had the opportunity to do so. I welcome the First Minister's comments to Beatrice Wishart about the commitment of this Government and, indeed, this Parliament towards our young people, particularly girls. Given the announcements in the Sunday post at the weekend based on the work of Somisara, what is the Scottish Government doing about the responsibility of our local authorities over whose wi-fi in the schools those bullying, messages and assaults are taking place? I would expect local authorities to take that very seriously, as the Scottish Government would take that very seriously. I am happy to come back to the member in more detail having had the opportunity to consider the answer to his question more fully. However, there is a really important general point underpinning that question, which is that the ways in which young people communicate are radically different to what was the case when we were at school and therefore our responses to that and the ways in which young people can be subjected to bullying has to keep pace with that. Clearly, the internet and technology is absolutely at the heart of that, so that puts an added onus on all of us to make sure that our responses are fit for purpose. However, in terms of the particular technical points there, I will come back to the member as soon as possible. I will now take supplementary questions. I advise members that there is a lot of interest, so that the more succinct the questions and responses, the more members will be able to include, and I call Kenneth Gibson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. NHS Ayrshirenan has suspended all but what they deem essential hospital visits such as nearing the end of life or a terminal illness diagnosis. That is despite the First Minister's statement on Tuesday that it is really important that visiting goes ahead, albeit with a sensible limit of two visitors per patient. No attempt is being made to ascertain the Covid status of visitors, and that confused situation is causing a lot of upset to my constituents and across Ayrshire. What steps will the First Minister take to ensure that patients in Ayrshire will be able to receive visitors this Christmas? We have been made aware of NHS Ayrshirenan's decision, and I can advise Kenneth Gibson that officials have this morning been in discussion with the health board. I appreciate that these are exceptionally difficult circumstances for health boards, but we have been very clear what our expectations around visiting are. Those are, as I set out in my statement and question and answers on Tuesday. Scottish Government officials have been assured by Ayrshirenan that the decision will be urgently reviewed and that they are very mindful of the need to ensure that no one is isolated in hospital over Christmas. We are being assured that the board is supporting all essential visiting. Obviously, Covid status is really important, and we all need to be aware of that, so I would take the opportunity to remind everyone who is visiting a loved one in hospital how vital it is to take a lateral flow test ahead of every single visit. Gullhane, we cannot hear you in the chamber. Can I just make any adjustment and see if that makes any difference to us here? Is that best, Presiding Officer? It is indeed. Please begin again. Thank you. The Omicron variant affects people differently, especially if they are double vaccinated. The Zoi app is showing, along with a classic triad of cough, fever and loss of taste or smell, whom, on the other hand, gives people headaches, runny noses, scratchy throats, extreme tiredness, muscle aches and night sweats. Knowing that this is also part of having a cold or a flu, would the First Minister raise this with the CMOs across the four nations and consider adding those symptoms to the list that require a PCR test? It is a very good point, but can I assure the member that those things are kept under on-going review by the four chief medical officers? It is something that I and the health secretary discussed with our chief medical officer on a regular basis. I know the reports. I have read the reports about the fact or the suggestion that the symptoms of Omicron are presenting differently to the symptoms of previous variants, and that is something that the chief medical officers want to bear in mind and to consider, whether they update the case definition advice that has been in place. My advice to people, if you have worries about perhaps having Covid to make sure you get a PCR test and if you are showing positive on an LFD device, make sure you go and get a PCR test. We are indicated on Tuesday that I had a slight concern that perhaps people were not going for testing as we got closer to Christmas. I have to say that concern has been allayed with increased testing rates over the days since, but the point about being vigilant around symptoms is important. I am sure that the chief medical officer would be happy to discuss it directly with the member if that would be helpful. Recently, a mum and dad contacted me about the difficulty that they are having getting their daughter Emily a formal autism assessment. When my office contacted the local health board we were told that they are currently only appointing children referred in June 2019 for assessment. That is at least a two-year waiting list. Whilst Emily is left waiting for a diagnosis, her condition is getting worse, her education is suffering as she is unable to access the additional support that she needs without a diagnosis and her parents are left supported. To be compliant with the UNCRPD, the Government must ensure that disabled children have the full enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with non-disabled children. Can the First Minister set out what the Scottish Government intends to do to address such lengthy waiting times and make sure that children such as Emily are not left waiting years for an autism assessment? It is really important to make the points that Pam Duncan-Glancy has just made. Obviously, all services are under considerable pressure right now and I, unfortunately, expect that that is going to increase, not decrease in the immediate weeks that lie ahead. The points about the priority for urgent services, the points about equity and human rights impacts of children in particular with disabilities are well made. I will look into the specific issue about waiting times for autism after I leave the chamber today and I will take the opportunity to write to Pam Duncan-Glancy with a fuller answer when I have had the opportunity to do so. Emma Harper I ask the First Minister if she will join me in thanking every member of our NHS staff, every volunteer and every person who has went along to get their booster jag for their stunning and broad efforts that have allowed Scotland to become the first UK nation to give a booster or third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to more than half of its entire adult population. I will join me in thanking everybody in every vaccination team across the country who is truly doing heroic work right now to get booster jags into people's arms as quickly as possible. I do not think that I can find the words that properly convey the depth of my appreciation and gratitude to every single member of those teams. I encourage them to keep going. We will do everything that we can to support them. As we build—this is a key point—the responsibility on government working with health boards to make sure that the capacity is there, to meet the target that we set ourselves for the end of the year is obvious, and I accept that unreservedly, but we need people to come forward as well. We need people to get on the system to book their appointments where they can as quickly as they can. Everybody over 18 can do that on the online portal now, apart from in island communities where communication is different, but across mainland Scotland that is the case. Please book your appointment. We will do what we need to do to make sure that the capacity is there. Please come forward and together, through this national mission, hopefully we can use booster jags to get us out the other end of this new challenge with Omicron. Maurice Golden Thank you, Presiding Officer. My constituent, Leslie, was admitted to Carsview following a relapse in her postpartum psychosis and was eventually moved to ICU. Leslie has been discharged, but is yet to receive occupational therapy, and it could take weeks to appoint a community psychiatric nurse. The staff are incredible, but a lack of resources means that Leslie just isn't getting the treatment that she needs. The First Minister met Leslie during the photo call when funding for perinatal mental healthcare was announced, so she has heard the promises. Will the First Minister now ensure that Leslie gets the treatment that she needs? I remember meeting Leslie and I want to send her my best wishes. I will certainly look into the particular circumstances. I think that the day I met Leslie, if memory serves me correctly, I think that it is St John's in Livingston. We were announcing significant investment in perinatal mental health, which underlines the significance and the importance that we attach to that. There are challenges across all services right now in terms of the pressure of Covid increasingly from staff absences, which are compounding some of the challenges that were there already, but the importance of getting timely care and services to people is obvious. We will continue to work with health boards to ensure that. I am happy to look into the particular circumstances around Leslie's own situation, but I come back to the point. We must all of us do what is required to get Covid cases on a downward path again. As long as they are rising, as rapidly as they are right now, those challenges are going to continue. I accept the Government's responsibility here, but all of us across the country have a part to play in ensuring that we get the NHS back on track. Jackie Baillie Yesterday, my constituents queued for up to two hours waiting to get their booster jabs. They understand the need to get vaccinated, so they waited patiently. But at about 7 pm, they were told that they should go home as they would not be vaccinated that day. Some 200 of them were turned away and they had appointments for 7.30 that evening. They have since been unable to rebook their vaccinations. I think that we can all accept that there will be glitches, but people in my constituency want to be vaccinated and they want to be vaccinated quickly. Will the First Minister investigate, but better still, will she ask Greater Glasgow and Clyde to put extra clinics on in Dumbarton? First, for anybody who has an appointment and is not able to have that appointment fulfilled, rebooking should phone the helpline, because that is what is required. That is my advice. Yes, we are seeking to do everything to avoid such situations. It is one of the reasons why we need the balance of facility. If we just have drop-in clinics, people go and queue and it is hard to match supply and demand. We are seeking to avoid such things. I do not want people to be queuing, although, if you turn up and there is a queue, wait there and get your vaccination because it is important, but we certainly do not want people to be turned away. We are working every day to resolve those issues and to make sure that this vaccination programme continues apace. I am not minimising the impact of people who have that experience, but this programme is a massive logistical effort that has been delivered in an excellent way by staff across the country and we will continue to support it as best we can so that everybody who is eligible and comes forward gets a vaccination. I thank the First Minister for her update on Covid this morning and we have heard a lot about the impact on business, but there will be workers in customer-facing roles who will be terrified about compromising their health or going to work. If the UK Government refuses to do the right thing, could the First Minister advise of what support might be put in place to ensure that those in retail, hospitality and other customer-facing roles will not have to choose between their health and their income? I find it impossible right now to contemplate how the UK Government can fail to put in place schemes because this is not just an issue that Scotland is facing, it is an issue that the whole UK is facing. The doubling times for Omicron in parts of England are even faster than they are in Scotland right now. We are all in this together and I think that it is going to whatever the politics and whatever the sort of, you know, the maelstrom around that we have seen in recent days, it will become unavoidable I think for the UK Government to act and I hope the act sooner rather than later because that is the issue here. The sooner we act, the less of an emergency we get ourselves into. We have maximised the financial support that we can give to businesses, which is why it is important that the UK Government acts. Beyond that though, there will always be, as there was in the initial stages of the pandemic, some workers who have to go to work because they are providing critical services. That is why it is so important that we support the right mitigations. Some of the changes in guidance for supermarkets, for example, are as much about supporting staff as customers. I mentioned on Tuesday the workplace testing scheme, so employers can order test direct and support their employers to test regularly. It is really important that, where people have to go to work, not only through financial provision but also through the mitigations that are in place, we do everything that we can to protect them. Jim Fairlie. Can the First Minister update Parliament on the most recent Cobra meeting? The most recent Cobra meeting was yesterday, late afternoon, between five and six o'clock. It is the second in a week that the previous one happened last Friday. I welcome the fact that they have happened. I think that it is really important that we are discussing these things seriously. It was chaired by Michael Gove yesterday. Many things were discussed. Obviously, I, the Welsh First Minister, the Northern Irish First Minister raised the points about the need for funding support that I have reported to the chamber today. It is not just the Scottish Government who is raising those points, but those meetings are really important. I hope that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor are engaged directly in them from now on, because that is a serious situation that we are all facing. It is important that we compare our experiences, that we share what we are doing, but that we work together where we can. The Scottish Government is ready, willing and keen to do that, and I hope that we see that materialised over the period ahead. There is on-going national press coverage and significant public interest with the Edinburgh tram inquiry. That public interest continues to grow. The £500,000 allocated to the inquiry in the Scottish budget last week will bring the total provided by the Scottish Government to more than £12.5 million. Once a beleaguered project is now a much beleaguered public inquiry. Edinburgh residents deserve answers into what went wrong with the building of the trams. Will the First Minister shed light as to why an inquiry that was initiated by her predecessor seven years ago is still on-going when closing submissions concluded in 2018? The Conservative Party predecessor has voted for the trams in this Parliament, but there we go. Can I be really serious here? I am going to answer the question. This is a statutory public inquiry, convened by Lord Hardy. I am not sure if the member is genuinely asking me, as a minister, to interfere in the conduct of an independent statutory public inquiry. That would be deeply inappropriate. Let me just hazard a guess here that, if I ever did so, the Hories would be the first ones on their feet complaining about the fact that I did so. The judge will take forward the public inquiry in whatever way the judge sees fit and will provide conclusions. At that point, I am sure that Parliament will fully consider and scrutinise those conclusions.