 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 Neil Bibby. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the NHS recovery plan. Cabinet Secretary, Humza Yousaf. As the NHS recovery plan states, we committed to reporting progress against commitments in the plan on anio basis. The plan was published at the end of August this year, therefore we would aim to provide the first official annual update next summer. Neil Bibby Under this Government, 1,300 beds have been cut over the last 10 years. That's one in six beds at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital, one of five beds at the RAH in Paisley. Before the winter crisis struck the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that Scotland needed 1,000 extra beds. Is it this Government's intention to reverse the cuts to beds numbers that have so by? How much and when? Cabinet Secretary, I can say that this Government has an impeccable record in terms of ensuring that NHS is well resourced. Of course, we will hear more and no doubt about that in the finance secretary's budget later this afternoon. We have record staffing under this Government but also the highest-paid staff anywhere in the UK. What I would say about beds of course is that pre Covid it was very much this guidance determination and continues to be that patients and people are treated close to their home in the community as best as they possibly can. That would have meant a reduction in beds within our hospitals. What I would say to Neil Bibby in closing is that we are desperately trying to work with local authorities, health boards and HSCPs to remove people who are in our acute sites, who can be clinically safely discharged into our community and reduce that number of delayed discharges. If we do that, that frees up hospital beds. I spoke to Jane Grant, the chief executive of Greater Glasgow and Clyde this morning. She offered, if any member, including Neil Bibby, I would like to speak to her about any of the pressures in greater Glasgow's acute sites, including the RAH, that she would be happy to speak to any member at all. To ask the Scottish Government for an update on providing general practice with increasing support from a range of healthcare professionals, including pharmacists and physiotherapists. That is an incredibly important point. We know just how vital the contribution of our multidisciplinary teams are, particularly to again that point about keeping patients within our community and keeping the public within our community as opposed to having to go into hospital and acute sites. In addition to the £155 million that is provided to health and social care partnerships to recruit multidisciplinary teams this year, our winter action plan has also made additional funding available to assist the recruitment of extra pharmacists to help with patients, repeat prescriptions and medicine reviews, as well as physiotherapists to treat musculoskeletal issues in the community, thus further accelerating our aim of having board-delivered pharmacy and nursing support in all 925 Scotland's general practices. John Mason To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the resolution at the recent SNP conference reportedly calling on the Scottish Government and COSLA to work together to ensure that the pay and conditions for councillors will significantly improve. Ben Macpherson The Scottish Government is committed to fair pay and conditions for our councillors, which is why I reiterate that I am open to discussing with COSLA about how we might support them to further consider this issue, including considering making improvements that will help to increase the diversity of councillors in Scotland. For context, we introduced a new mechanism in 2017 that ensures that councillors pay is increased annually, in line with the percentage increase in the medium annual earnings of public sector workers in Scotland, and I look forward to working with COSLA further on this important issue. John Mason I thank the minister for that answer, and I accept that he has relatively recently in his post. However, the issue has been dragging on for quite some time, and I would have hoped for a little bit more urgency than, quote, open to discussing, unquote. Therefore, could he say that perhaps in April 23 there will be a serious uplift in councillors pay? Ben Macpherson For context and fairness, it is important to state that my predecessor, Mr Stewart, looked at the issue very seriously. Of course, we had the pressing issue of the pandemic in recent times, as a factor in those considerations as well. I understand that COSLA's barriers to elected office special interest group is due to publish their findings shortly. As soon as that information is available, I will consider it carefully and arrange a meeting with our partners in COSLA to jointly review and discuss what steps we can take to address the matter. Ariane Burgess A recent evidence session of the local government housing and planning committee on this issue heard that under-representative groups like women and young people are particularly affected and put off standing for local government because of low remuneration. Therefore, how can a local councillor remuneration be reviewed and will the minister please meet me to discuss the process further? Ben Macpherson It is absolutely vital that, collectively, we encourage a wider range of people to seek election, including more women and younger people, so that councils can better reflect the society that we live in. Of course, councillors pay is important, but it is not the only barrier to the lack of diversity among councillors in Scotland. However, as I have said, it is an important issue, it is a recognised issue, and that is why I am certainly open and enthusiastic about exploring this important matter further with COSLA, who, as I have said, has been reviewing the issue as part of their barriers to elected office special interest group, and I look forward to engaging with them shortly. Jenny Minto To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the views of our Gail and Butes diverse communities are taken into account in the development of its policies. Shona Robison Thank you. It is critical that we involve communities in the development of our policies, so we regularly engage with partners, including local government, community groups, third sector colleagues and young people through, for example, our young islanders network. The Scottish Government carries out all appropriate impact assessments when developing or updating policy strategies or services, including equality impact assessments and island communities impact assessments that are in line with the Island Scotland Act 2018. Jenny Minto I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Our Gail and Bute is a place of beauty and isolation but also of many diverse communities that depend on local jobs and services. Infrastructure needs investment and there has been an acceleration in the price of housing, perhaps as a result of the pandemic. Without intervention, it may become more difficult for local people to stay in their own communities. How will NPF4 reverse that? What advice does the cabinet secretary have to ensure that my constituents' voices in our Gail and Bute are heard? The cabinet secretary makes some important points. Of course, we have committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2030 to 10 per cent of which will be in remote rural and island communities. That is part of a £3.44 billion investment in this parliamentary term to deliver that. 30 million of that investment will support the continuation of the Rural and Island Housing Fund, which has been described in a Scottish Land Commission report as game changers for community-led housing development. We are also investing £30 million of capital through the island's programme. Of course, the draft national planning framework 4 supports the repopulation of rural Scotland, including an updated approach to providing quality homes and embeds an infrastructure-first approach into development planning. I encourage members to highlight to their constituents that the public consultation and engagement opportunities to help inform NPF4 will run until the end of March next year. 4. Liam McArthur Thank you to the Scottish Government for what progress is being made on the roll-out of superfast broadband in Orkney. 3. Kate Forbes Work is under way through the reaching 100 per cent north contract to bring subsea cables to ED, flota, hoi, rhause, sandy, shafnsea and strawnsea, with survey work now complete and build currently scheduled to begin next summer, whether conditions are permitting. In the meantime, the reaching 100 per cent Scottish broadband voucher scheme will ensure that anyone on Orkney can access superfast broadband. We recently announced a three-month extension to that interim voucher portion of the scheme, so that the closing date is now 31 March 2022, to ensure that everybody, particularly those in the north of Scotland and our islands, can have more time to take advantage of that scheme. 4. Liam McArthur I thank the cabinet secretary for her response, but also for her willingness to meet me, Orkney Islands Council and HIE, over the summer to discuss how 100 per cent broadband coverage might actually be achieved in the islands that I represent. Recall from those discussions concerns that the proposed fibre roll-out will leave many households and settlements in Orkney unconnected and that the voucher scheme's risk being too piecemeal to plug the gaps. Can I ask the finance secretary what progress has been made in identifying ways to allow local co-ordination of the resources needed to ensure that every household in Orkney does indeed get access to the superfast broadband promise? I thank the cabinet secretary for that question and also for his constructive engagement as part of two meetings that I have had this year with him and his officials from Orkney Islands Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The minute detail will probably take longer than you would like, but now that we have the certainty of what the R100 north contract will deliver, we are keen to work strategically with Orkney Islands Council to maximise the reach of the voucher scheme and to work with, for example, some of the suppliers. We have around 70 suppliers currently registered to deliver superfast broadband services through the scheme to ensure that we maximise the reach as far as we possibly can. Any specific issues that are raised, I am happy to look at in more detail. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that the numbers of premises that will be reached by 2026 under the lot 1 contract have fallen by more than a third? Can she further confirm, as her Government appears to be giving both dates, whether the target for delivery of lot 1 has been delayed from the end of this year to the end of the 2026 calendar year or actually to the end of the 2026-2027 financial year? That is a good opportunity to remind the member that, of course, telecoms and broadband is a reserve matter reserved to the UK Government, but the Scottish Government has stepped in to deliver the reaching 100 per cent programme because of the failure to date. As of 2 December 2021, superfast coverage in the Orkney Islands stands at 66 per cent up from 11 per cent in 2014. In terms of the figures in the £384 million R100 north contract, it is expected to deliver 59,276 connections in total with build expected to be completed by 2026-2027. 5. Maggie Chapman To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update— Sorry, Ms Chapman. I would like to hear Ms Chapman's question, please. I would be grateful for your co-operation. Maggie Chapman. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the actions under way to tackle the reported inequalities experienced by ethnic minority communities in the north-east. Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison We are determined to play our part in eradicating structural and systemic racism across Scotland, informed by the views and lived experiences of minority ethnic people. Through our immediate priorities plan for race equality, we aim to ensure an equal and anti-racist recovery from Covid-19. That is backed by our £21 million Equality and Human Rights Fund. The fund has enabled the Grampian Regional Equality Council to carry out valuable work in gathering lived experiences alongside quantitative data, providing the evidence needed to develop strong and effective anti-racist policies to improve outcomes for minority ethnic people in the north-east. I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. Grampian Regional Equality Council Grec has recently highlighted significant racial inequalities across housing, health, education, employment, justice and more. For example, ethnic minorities have suffered worse job losses during Covid, Africans have the highest percentage of degree-educated people but the highest unemployment rates. Hate crime is up 14.5 per cent in Aberdeen and 23 per cent in Aberdeenshire, and asylum seeker men recently accommodated in an Aberdeen hotel will have minimal support provided by a private company with only £8 a week to live on in the initial stage of the application process. Can the cabinet secretary outline what more we can do to ensure that vulnerable people are not further marginalised? On the issue of asylum seekers and refugees, the important issue that my chairman raises, I am happy to write to her with more information about the work that we are doing under no recourse to public funds and preventing destitution. She also mentioned hate crime and I am happy to write to her with more details. It is concerning rising hate crime, which we should all take very seriously indeed. Just finally, on support during the pandemic, we supported the development of the ethnic minority resilience network to help individuals, families and organisations during this time. We provided over £312,000 to support minority ethnic communities, and there was a particular focus on young people and older people experiencing isolation. Again, I am happy to write to her with more detail. To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve the support that is available for people who are suffering from strokes. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible. We are delivering our programme for government commitments on stroke, including the delivery of a national thrombectomy service, which to date has received over £9 million investment. A national service is expected by 2023. We are developing a progressive stroke pathway document that will set out our vision for what stroke services across Scotland should deliver across the patient pathway, including access to stroke rehabilitation and access to support for people who have experienced a stroke. I thank the minister for that response. A vision report on stroke is one thing, whereas delivery on real change on the ground is quite another. What additional funding will be attached to the progressive stroke service? Who will be held accountable for its delivery? Will the minister put in place a reporting framework to ensure that necessary improvements take place? The member is absolutely correct. We have invested a great deal of money. I already mentioned the £9 million that has gone into delivering a thrombectomy service. We have a stroke improvement programme, which delivers an annual report that describes very accurately what is happening on the ground. The key findings from the most recent report is that, despite the immense challenges that our NHS is facing, we have delivered some actual increases and improvements in delivery of care to stroke standards. We should take this opportunity in this chamber to commend all those people working on the ground to deliver improvements in services, despite the immense challenges that we face. Question 7, Mark Griffin. To ask the Scottish Government when the self-referral breast screening programme will resume for non-symptomatic women over 70 who have had breast cancer. The breast screening programme in Scotland currently routinely invites women aged 50 to 70 for screening, in line with the recommendations of the UK national screening committee. Those are based on the best available evidence by the benefits and risks of breast screening for women at different ages. The option for women aged 71 and over to self-refer into the breast screening programme is paused so that, while Covid-19 continues to impact capacity, services can prioritise appointments for women for whom the benefits of screening are already clearly established. The pause applies to women over 71 who have previously had breast cancer and who have completed the recommended period of annual surveillance. Self-referrals will resume once the time between screening rounds for eligible women is 39 months across all screening centres. We continue to emphasise that it is important for women of all ages to be breast aware and to report any possible symptoms of breast cancer to their GP as soon as possible so that those can be investigated. Mark Griffin. I have been contacted by three different women in the 70s who have all previously had breast cancer and were advised by their clinicians that they needed regular screening. Now they have been told that the only way for anyone over 70 to be screened is if they find a lump. Does the cabinet secretary understand how worried those women are at not being screened regularly? That does not go away when they turn 71. Their fears of our current breast cancer have been missed and what he plans to do to reinstate the screening programme to give those women the protection and reassurance that they deserve. Cabinet Secretary. Mark Griffin wants to write to me with the details of his constituents. He has written to me with details of one constituent, which I am due to reply back to shortly. What I would say is that for any woman who is a breast cancer survivor, she would have increased post-treatment screenings and annual screenings and annual surveillance for a period of five years post-treatment. We would expect that to continue regardless of whether they are under 70 or over 70. I would reiterate what I have said before for any woman who is concerned about any of the symptoms that should go speak to their GP and the clinical pathways should be available for them in order for those symptoms to be further investigated. As I say, if Mr Griffin wishes to write to me with the further details of the constituents that he references, I would happily look into those cases.