 the people and the government of Ukraine in their fight against this evil dictator. Since we were last in this chamber, the First Minister has announced her resignation, and the front-runner to succeed her is Hamza Yousaf. But during his time as health secretary, Scotland's NHS has lurched further and further into crisis. The Scottish Conservatives have received a freedom of information request, and it's uncovered just how awful things have got at accident and emergency departments over the last few months. This new information, which we are publishing today, reveals that a patient in the Borders waited 49 hours to be treated in accident and emergency. Someone in Lanarkshire waited 54 hours, and a patient in Ayrshire waited 60 hours at accident and emergency. First Minister, that is two and a half days in accident and emergency. Surely no one can defend that, so doesn't this confirm that Hamza Yousaf isn't even up to the job he's got at the moment? First Minister, can I also take the opportunity to mark what will be tomorrow the first anniversary of Russia's illegal and provoked invasion of Ukraine and to express my solidarity—the Scottish Government's continuing solidarity, and I'm sure the solidarity of everyone in Scotland with the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend and protect their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and their independence. Parliament this afternoon will debate this issue this evening. I will host a reception in bute house for Ukrainians in Scotland, and our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time for them and their country. On the issues of the national health service, I should say that it is, of course, for the members of my party to elect a new leader of the SNP and effectively a new First Minister for Scotland subject to approval of this Parliament. However, in relation to the health secretary, he is the only health secretary anywhere in the UK that has managed to avoid a single day of strikes in the national health service over this period. Secondly, notwithstanding the very significant challenges in accident and emergency, I would be grateful, members, if we could hear the First Minister. Thank you. I can understand why the Conservatives are feeling uncomfortable. The Conservative Government in England has not managed to avoid strikes in the national health service there. They also get uncomfortable when the hearing might point out again that, despite the very significant challenges in our national health service, which I will come on to in a moment, Scotland's accident and emergency departments remain the best performing anywhere in the UK. If I may say to the health secretary, that is not down to him, that is down to the hard work of staff across our national health service each and every single day. However, our health service faces significant issues. We see that in the Audit Scotland report published today. However, we also see in that Audit Scotland report important context that, of course, Douglas Ross always seeks to deny. Let me quote from page 7. The pandemic continues to affect the delivery of NHS services. To listen to Douglas Ross and others, you would be forgiven for thinking that the pandemic had not even happened. Secondly, Scotland's NHS is not alone in facing those issues. Many of the factors contributing to the extremely difficult situation facing the NHS in Scotland are not specific to health services and many are not within the control of the Scottish Government. Notwithstanding that, we continue to support our health service to ensure record funding, record staffing and record pay deal for agenda for change staff in Scotland and progress in reducing the longest waits in our national health service. Douglas Ross Shameful. Shameful is the only way you could describe that answer from the First Minister, because not a mention of a patient who waited in Ayrshire at the tail end of last year for two and a half days in accident and emergency. The clue is in the name. They went there for emergency treatment and they sat for two and a half days. The First Minister's answer to them is, well, it's the best performing anywhere in the United Kingdom. That is little comfort for people who are waiting hours and days for treatment. The First Minister might not have noticed, but when I sat down raising these shocking statistics, Humza Yousaf smiled and smirked. The Health Secretary thinks it's funny that people are waiting for days to be seen in A&E in Scotland. The First Minister mentioned and quoted from the NHS audit Scotland report into NHS. Let's remember, BMA Scotland said of the report this morning, it is damming of the state of the NHS currently. The report outlines that Nicola Sturgeon's chosen successor won't meet NHS job targets. It says that performance declined further in 2022. The number of people experiencing extremely long waits increased in 2022 and performance on cancer waiting times is getting worse. Every part of Scotland's NHS is in crisis because of Humza Yousaf. Can the First Minister tell us, is this useless health secretary really the best the SNP have to offer? In relation to individual cases, it is always unacceptable if someone waits too long for treatment in the national health service. At the tail end of last year, which was Douglas Ross' phrase, that was during the winter peak of pressures. Since then, in accident emergencies, there is still considerable progress to be made. Let me stress that, but we have seen eight-hour and twelve-hour waits reduced, and we continue to support our accident emergency departments in further progress. We are also seeing, as Douglas Ross mentioned, recruitment. We have record numbers of staff in our NHS right now. Since this Government took office, we have increased NHS staffing by 28,800 people within the national health service. We have got higher staffing per head of population than in England or other parts of the UK. We have got funding that has doubled in our national health service. We have got higher funding proportionately than anywhere else in the UK, to the tune proportionately of about £1.8 billion, equivalent to 44,000 nurses in our national health service. Yes, we have significant work to do to reduce waiting times. We are focused firstly on the longest waits, and we have seen significant progress in reducing the longest waits. The reason I did make the comparison and do make the comparison with other parts of the UK is because Douglas Ross stands here and tells us and asks people to believe that those problems are unique to Scotland and somehow down to the health secretary in Scotland. That is where the Audit Scotland report is instructive, because it says that those issues are not unique to Scotland. I am quoting from page 7. Scotland's NHS is not alone in facing those issues, and many of the factors are out with the control of the Scottish Government. We will continue to do our job, working with and supporting the national health service. We will do that, despite Douglas Ross's determination to turn it into a political weapon, which we have just seen all too clearly. Douglas Ross. Opposition MSPs raising cases of people waiting two and a half days in A&E in Scotland is somehow a political weapon. No, it is not. It is the reality of people across Scotland just now. The First Minister loves to make this comparison between Scotland and the rest of the UK. Let us just remember that the UK statistics authority said public health Scotland's figures and the statistics Nicola Sturgeon uses for the comparison can be misleading for patients. Misleading is what the UK statistics authority said. We know that Humza Yousaf released a recovery plan that everybody could see was just a flimsy pamphlet. The First Minister has now quoted page 7 twice of the Audit Scotland report. Let us go a bit further. I have looked through the whole report. The Audit Scotland report says of Humza Yousaf's recovery plan that lacked detailed actions. It said that it did not do detailed and robust modelling. It did not engage fully with NHS boards. Information on key patient aims is missing. Humza Yousaf has made the crisis in Scotland's health service much worse. Why should a health secretary who has failed our NHS now get to fail the whole of Scotland? First Minister, I did not suggest that any MSP-raising patient experience was using it as a political weapon. What I said and what I will say again is that it is trying to suggest that these issues are unique to Scotland's NHS and is seeking to use our NHS as a political weapon and to coin a phrase of Douglas Ross. I do think that that is shameful on the part of the Conservatives. On the recovery plan, let us look at the progress. It is the case that we have considerable work still to do. Let us take eight and 12-hour A&E weights. I said earlier on that they have dropped significantly since the peak over the winter period. Eight-hour weights are down by 54.9 per cent and 12-hour weights down by 61.6 per cent. That is because of the support that we are giving to the NHS and the work of staff on the front line. Let us look at waiting times targets more generally. The numbers waiting the longest for treatment have reduced by almost a quarter for both in-patient and day-case treatment and for out-patient treatment. There are significant challenges, more significant than in any point in the history of the NHS, but we are supporting our NHS with record funding, record staffing and the wider support that it needs to address those challenges. That is what this Government will continue to do. Eight years ago, a failed SNP health secretary became First Minister. Now history looks like it is repeating itself. Why would anybody risk Scotland's future by giving a man with Hamza Yousaf's record more power? Let us just look at his time in office while the First Minister gets more intel from the Deputy First Minister. I do not know what is coming there. Let us look at what Hamza Yousaf has done in office. He was transport minister who drove without a licence. He delayed the dualling of the A9 and he clapped like a seal when Nicola Sturgeon launched a ferry with painted on windows. He was just a secretary who did nothing while violent crime roles got duped by a hoax video into calling on the police to investigate rangers players and damage free speech with his hate crime act. Now Hamza Yousaf is the worst health secretary since devolution, but it looks like he is going to fail upwards. In any other line of work, Hamza Yousaf would have been sacked, not promoted. Forget being SNP leader, why is he even still in government? I do not know about anybody else, Presiding Officer, but Douglas Ross is sounding pretty scared of Hamza Yousaf. As I am sure, he will be scared of whoever is elected to succeed me as SNP leader. He also referred to the fact that I was health secretary before becoming First Minister, as I am extremely proud of. Let me reflect on this fact. In the eight years that I have been First Minister, the people of Scotland have had no fewer than eight opportunities to cast a verdict on me, my party and my government. In every single one of those eight opportunities, the people of Scotland have rejected the Conservatives and put their trust in me, my party and my government. I have every confidence, Presiding Officer, that whoever succeeds me as leader of the SNP will continue that record of success. I start by echoing the comments of both Douglas Ross and Nicola Sturgeon on the ongoing war in Ukraine and sending the solidarity of everyone in my party with the people of Ukraine against the tyranny of Vladimir Putin. Nicola Sturgeon and I disagree on many things. It is fair to say that we have had our fair share of issues over the years, and I am sure that we will have many more in the years to come. It is important to note that she has been at the forefront of Scottish politics for 20 years. She has served in government for 15 years and has been First Minister for eight years. In that time, she led our country through a global pandemic—a challenge for any leader anywhere in the world. For that, she deserves our recognition and our respect. The Audit Scotland report on NHS published today makes grim reading for the Government. It supports what patients and staff have been saying about waiting times and concludes that, before the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS boards were already struggling to meet waiting-time standards for planned care and performance has degraded further since. That report confirms that Covid did not cause the problems that they were there before Covid but exacerbated by Covid. After nearly 16 years of SNP government, what went wrong? I thank Anna Starworth for his generous comments. I fear that it might be damming him with faint praise to say that he has more grace in his wee finger than all the Tories combined. Although I am sure that he will balance it out over the course of those exchanges. Finally, on that point, I am definitely showing my age here when I reflect on the fact that one of my earlier election contests was when I stood against Anna Starworth's father. Of course, my most recent electoral contest was against Anna Starworth himself. I am going to spare his blushies by not pointing out the result of the latter one, even though his father beat me fairly and squarely back in the day. Turning to the important matter of the NHS, our NHS faces the most significant challenges that it has at any point in its history. That is largely because of the pandemic, but, as I have reflected before, pre-pandemic, there were challenges in our health service, changing demographics and ever-increasing expectations of what health services can deliver in themselves positive trends but ones that nevertheless pose challenges for the health service. What has changed over the years that we have been in government while funding for the national health service has doubled? It is higher proportionately than it is in any other part of the UK. Staffing in our health service has increased significantly. The Auditor General, in his report this morning, recognises this. We are seeing the signs of reform and innovation so that we can equip our health service to cope with those challenges. I do not deny the challenges, but what the NHS needs and has is a Government that will continue to support it and focus on addressing those challenges. That is the responsibility of Government, and that is what I believe the people of Scotland deserve and want to see continue. I should say, likely, that the Nicola Sturgeon's need to remind me of the difference in the 1997 result and the 2021 result. My dad does that often enough for both of us. The truth of this Government took its eye off the ball when it came to the NHS, and it did not prioritise the NHS like it should have done. It was not prepared and it still has not caught up. The health secretary launched his NHS recovery plan in August 2021, but, according to Audit Scotland, current activity is running well below NHS recovery plan targets. More people have been added to waiting lists that are being removed from them, and people are waiting longer for treatment. Performance against cancer waiting time standards is getting worse. Longer waiting times are negatively impacting people's health, and finally, the number of people dying each year is still higher than average. Things are getting worse, not better. The report is damming, and it is clear that Humza Yousaf has failed. He published a recovery plan that was more about spin than substance, and, as a result, patient outcomes are getting worse, staff are burnt out and the NHS is going backwards. Does the First Minister finally accept the conclusions in Audit Scotland's report? I accept the conclusions in Audit Scotland's report. The challenges on our national health service are significant. The recommendations in that report are important, and we will seriously consider each and every single one of them. Staff have been working incredibly hard, and I recognise the description of burnout that many NHS staff will feel. That is why it has been so important to give them the fairest possible pay increase and ensure that, unlike the situation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, NHS staff have not had to go on strike in Scotland to get that decent pay offer that has now been made. As an aside on that issue, to bring NHS staff agenda for change nurses in England up to the level of those in Scotland, the UK Government would have to offer a 14 per cent pay increase to them. That is the gap that now exists. However, in terms of our focus on the national health service, we have doubled funding for the national health services coming to office. The budget passed this week in Parliament increases NHS funding by a further billion pounds. Frontline spending in Scotland is 10 per cent higher than in England. We have more staff per head of population in other parts of the UK. On waiting times, yes, there is much there to do, but we have seen a reduction in the longest waits. We have a number of national treatment centres opening this year, which will see an additional 12,000 procedures able to be undertaken in the national health service. Although cancer waiting times are challenged, as all waiting times are, we are seeing more patients being treated on the key cancer pathways. So much work to do, but a real focus on this Government in supporting our national health service because that is our responsibility. Anna Sarwar It is important that we look at the facts. The number of people waiting for over a year for inpatient treatment when Humza Yousaf became health secretary was 22,000, already too high. According to Audit Scotland, that number now stands over 35,000 people. When he took charge of the NHS, 84.1 per cent of people were seen within the 62-day cancer standard. Now that is just 74.7 per cent. More than one in four cancer patients are not being seen in time. The week when Humza Yousaf was appointed health secretary, 3,448 people waited more than four hours in A&E. This week, that number is 7,572. It is more than doubled, even though fewer people are going to A&E. On every single measure, this health secretary has failed to get the NHS back on track. In fact, this is the worst it has ever been. Does the First Minister really believe that the man responsible for failing Scotland's NHS should be responsible for our country? A decision for members in my party. Since Humza Yousaf became health secretary, this is what Anna Sarwar never wants to mention. There have been three further waves of a global pandemic that have affected health services all across the UK, Europe and the world. That is not something that can just be ignored. We in common with other countries have also just come through one of the most challenging winters that any of us can remember. That is the context for the challenges in our national health service, a context that is recognised and indeed pointed out by the Audit Scotland report today. I repeat that the pandemic continues to affect the delivery of NHS services. Scotland's NHS is not alone in facing these issues, and many of the factors are not within the control of the Scottish Government. We continue to support the NHS in the ways that I have set out—record funding, record staffing, record pay rise for agenda for change staff, reform and innovation—to change how patients go through the national health service and action to reduce waiting times. That is something that is going to take time to properly recover the NHS from the pandemic. That is true in Scotland and in other countries, but the focus of this Government will not waver, it never will waver in supporting our national health service and all those who depend upon it. First Minister, will the Scottish Government provide an update on how it is responding to the climate change committee's report on progress in reducing emissions in Scotland? Scotland is taking action to secure a net zero and climate resilient future and doing so in a way that is fair and just for everyone. Our focus remains very firmly on delivering the updated climate change plan, delivering on our adaptation outcomes through the 2019 adaptation programme and planning for a just transition across the economy. We are also carefully considering the climate change committee's latest advice and plan to respond in the spring. In recent years, Scotland has shown real climate leadership on the global stage. I am proud that the Scottish Government is currently consulting on a position that would see a presumption against exploration for yet more oil and gas in the North Sea while taking real action to build more solar, wind and marine renewables. That action must adapt to a plan that delivers on our climate commitments and delivers a just transition for our communities. Does the First Minister agree that Scotland's new climate plan will be one of the most important plans that this Government will ever produce? Will she join me in calling on all parties to rise to the challenge, come together and take the climate emergency seriously? Yes, I agree. I think that addressing the climate emergency for the sake of this generation but also generations to come is a massive obligation. It is a moral obligation for all of us, and I hope that everybody across the chamber would have the same conviction in tackling climate change as I do and as the Government does. Gillian Mackay is right to point out the need for all countries to move away from fossil fuels to accelerate the move away from fossil fuels. There is an added reason why we need to do that in Scotland because of the maturity of the North Sea basin. Even if there was not a climate emergency at which there is, we would have the need to make that just transition. So investing in the transition, investing in the alternative sources of energy is really important. Of course, we are blessed in Scotland that we have an abundance of those alternative sources of energy. That is why Scotland is so important. It is why our green hydrogen ambitions are so important, because they allow us to make the transition for energy needs but in a way that is just and fair and supports those who currently work in oil and gas into alternative employment. That just transition is one of the most important obligations of Government and why the updated climate change plan will be one of the most important documents published over the period ahead. Creating a circular economy is a key component in reducing emissions. A series of reports by circular economy assess the circularity metric of different countries. The Netherlands scored almost 25 per cent, Northern Ireland almost 8 per cent and, after 16 years of SNP rule, Scotland came last with just 1.3 per cent. Why? There are many initiatives that we are taking to make our economy more circular, to reduce waste as well, and it is important that we continue with those, but we have much, much more to do. That is why we are committed to a circular economy bill. The Conservatives would be more credible on those issues if they did not, in a very kneejerk way, oppose everything that we bring forward to try to improve performance around the circular economy, such as the deposit return scheme, for example. So, let us focus on what we need to do better, but let us try and find a bit of consensus in order that the country can do exactly that and live up to that obligation that all of us have. Question 4, Fiona Hyslop. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government— Excuse me a moment, Ms Hyslop. Can we have Ms Hyslop's microphone? Thank you. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the future role of women in driving entrepreneurial activity and economic growth in light of the publication of the report, Pathways, a new approach for women in entrepreneurship. On Monday, I had the pleasure of visiting the Roslyn Innovation Centre and was able to welcome Anna Stewart and Mark Logan's outstanding report. The report sets out a range of detailed and very ambitious recommendations looking at how we close the gender gap for women in enterprise, how we do that across the Government education system, enterprise support networks and wider society. That is an issue first and foremost of fairness. There are clear barriers facing women in realising business ambitions, including access to start-up and growth finance, but it is also important for our economy. If women started up businesses at anything like the rate that men do, that would deliver a significant boost to our economy as well. So, that is an important piece of work, and I look forward to seeing its recommendations implemented. I would also like to thank the First Minister for the strong leadership that she has shown to women throughout her tenure. The report is an important milestone for women in business. It notes that only 2 per cent of institutional investment goes to women-led companies in Scotland. Does the First Minister agree that we must increase the support for women entrepreneurs as tapping into the latent pull of talent is not only the right thing to do, but it also has the potential to significantly boost Scotland's economic activity and growth? I completely agree with that, and I thank Fiona Hyslop for that question. Supporting women into enterprise and closing that gender gap is, as I said in my initial answer, more than an issue of fairness. It is important, though that is. It is also one of economic necessity. Women, of course, are slightly more than half the population, but only around one in five businesses in Scotland right now are led by women. We need to change that, and the recommendations in the report, which span a whole range of factors from some of the cultural barriers that women face to the systemic barriers to things like access to finance, will all be important in helping us to do so. I am standing in right now and look forward to continuing to support in this Parliament the full implementation of the recommendations. Again, I thank Anna Stewart and Mark Logan for all the work that they have done to produce the report. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's responses to research by the Royal College of General Practitioners, reportedly showing a third of Scotland's GP staff who were surveyed, said that their practice was at risk of closing in the next few months. I understand the difficulties that general practice is facing right now, particularly during what has been and continues in some respects to be a challenging winter period. Let me put on record my thanks to GPs and their teams across the country. A record number of GPs are working in Scotland. We have also recruited more than 3,000 healthcare professionals since 2018 as part of the wider primary care multidisciplinary teams. I very much value the work of the Royal College of General Practitioners. They are a very important partner. The survey is important, albeit I should point out that the survey sample is relatively small, just 181 Scottish respondents from many thousands of general practice staff. Nevertheless, of course we pay close attention to the findings of it. We must encourage more trainee doctors and healthcare professionals to work in general practice and we will keep working with the RCGP and others to ensure that this is an attractive proposition. This week, GPs in the north-east have sounded the alarm that general practice will become an extinct profession. They point the finger at a blatant and shameful lack of support from the Scottish Government. That is a direct quote. Freikham Medical Centre, Invergarry Medical Centre, Wallis Town Health Centre, Berghead and Hopeman GP surgeries and 5E Old Meldrum Medical Group in the north-east. They have closed, will close or have handed back their contract. Audit Scotland has warned again today that the key target to increase the GP workforce by 2027 is not on track. Can the First Minister explain why the action her Government is taking to address GP recruitment and retention is failing miserably and is putting patient safety at risk? First Minister, general practice is a really important part of primary care. Primary care is an increasingly important part of our entire national health service. We will continue to support general practice as part of that wider team. I said earlier on that we have recruited since 2018 more than 3,000 healthcare professionals to work in wider multidisciplinary teams and we will continue to do that. On the GP recruitment target—that is a target for 2027—I believe that we are on track, although, as Audit Scotland rightly says, that will be challenging, but we will continue to focus on that so that we meet that target and continue to ensure that we are making general practice an attractive proposition for those wishing to pursue medical careers. Those are extremely important issues and these times are very challenging for all parts of our national health service. The hypocrisy of Conservatives in this chamber really is breathtaking at times. Let me just end this answer, Presiding Officer, with this statistic. The number of GPs per 100,000 of the population in Scotland is 95 where the SNP is in office. Where the Conservatives are in office in England, it is not 95, it is just 78. Yes, those are challenging times, but this Government is showing and can evidence how we are showing support for general practice and for the NHS as a whole. Jackie Baillie I am afraid that the First Minister's Government is not on track and, indeed, Audit Scotland has said that it will miss the target of increasing GP headcount to 800, but it is worse than that because whole-time equivalent GP numbers have decreased by 200 since 2013, and that poses a serious threat to the recovery of primary care. At the same time, the number of patients registered with GPs has risen by over 300,000, yet the SNP have this year cut £75 million from primary care and GP budgets. Does the First Minister not agree that, by slashing funding and failing to increase the number of GPs, the SNP are compounding the crisis in primary care and ultimately failing GPs and their patients? The First Minister No, I do not agree with that. I do agree that those are extremely challenging times for GPs and for everybody who works in our national health service. The target in terms of GP recruitment is a target for 2027. Of course, we will have to focus and work to meet that. With the greatest respect to Audit Scotland and I take everything they say very seriously, I am not sure that anybody can look to 2027 and predict what is going to happen. They rightly point out that it will be challenging, but it is important that we remain on track. In terms of GPs, we have seen GP headcount increasing already by 277. We have seen the wider multidisciplinary teams increase by more than 3,000. Of course, that is increasingly important because GPs rely on other health professionals to help them to do the excellent job that they do. I come back to the last point that I made in response to the previous question. We have more GPs proportionately than other parts of the UK. I mentioned England earlier on. We have also got more than Labour-run Wales per head of population and more than in Northern Ireland, so much work to do, but we do it in Scotland from a position of relative strength. Question 6, Martin Whitfield. Very grateful, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister what recent action the Scottish Government has been taking to keep the promise to young people in care. First Minister, is the ambition of this Government that every child in Scotland grows up loved, safe and respected so that they have the opportunity to reach their full potential regardless of the circumstances in which they are born? That is the commitment of this Government and it is a personal commitment of mine that I will take with me as I leave this Government over the next few weeks. The budget that was passed on Tuesday commits almost £80 million to the promise and £50 million to the whole family wellbeing fund. Back in December, we introduced the Children's Care and Justice Bill, which seeks to put an end to under-18s in young offenders' institutions and ensured that children who commit to contact with the care and justice system are treated with trauma-informed and aged-appropriate support. Last Friday, I was delighted to visit East Renfrewshire to celebrate care day. I always value the opportunity to hear what matters directly from children and young people across Scotland as we work together to keep the promise, which, as I say, is a commitment that I hold personally, as well as for the time being, as First Minister. Martin Whitfield. I am very grateful to the First Minister for that answer. However, as she remits her office, many in the care sector are deeply concerned as to whether the Government will follow through with its pledge to uphold the promise, and I absolutely welcome the First Minister's personal assurance that this for her will be a lifelong commitment. However, after nearly two years since the launch and with only three years to go, there are serious questions about progress. So would the First Minister agree that any failure to deliver the promise will be nothing less than an abject betrayal of some of the most vulnerable children in our society? Will it be herself as First Minister or her successor who would be held responsible for that? I will always feel responsibility for the promise, whether I am in Government in this Parliament or wherever I happen to be in future stages of my life. I have absolute confidence that whoever succeeds me as First Minister will share my commitment to keeping the promise and delivering on that, but let me make this promise of my own. If I at any point think that this Government or any future Government is not doing that, then there will be somebody up there in the back benches being very loud and very vocal about it and you can hold me to that. I welcome the Scottish Government's on-going commitment to keeping the promise to our care experienced young people. Can I ask the First Minister how next year's budget allocation of the £50 million that she mentioned for the whole family wellbeing programme will indeed support families that are in need? The whole family wellbeing fund is really important and something I am extremely committed to and will want to see delivered and continue to be delivered. We talk about young people and care and it is really important that any young person in care is loved and supported and is safe and secure and nurtured, but one of our biggest responsibilities is to try to prevent the need for young people to go into care by supporting families and keeping families together where we can. That is the purpose and the objective of the whole family wellbeing fund to transform services so that families can access support they need when they need it and in the way that they need it. When I was in Eastern Frisian Friday, I spoke to one mother in particular who told me about the importance of that early intervention approach in ensuring that her daughter was able to stay with her and did not have to go into care. It is going to focus on the system changes that are required to shift investment towards early intervention and prevention, which is a critical part of how we keep the promise in practice. The £50 million investment in this year's budget includes £32 million provided directly to children's service planning partnerships to support work at a local level and further details of the programme proposals will be confirmed in due course. Many things have been important to me over my years as First Minister and I am sure I will get opportunity to speak about some of that over the next few weeks. Few, if anything, of these things has been more important to me than the promise to care experience young people. Our society should be judged on how we care for and love the most vulnerable children that we have. I think that this Parliament as a whole, not just this Government, should be committed to ensuring that every young person is loved and nurtured. If we do that, then we will have something genuinely to be really proud of. I note the First Minister's personal commitment. Fiona McLean of the promise said, I quote, For so many care experienced children, young people and care experienced adults, their lives won't have improved over the last two years and things will have been really, really hard and may have even gotten worse. It's heartbreaking and shameful and it shouldn't be the case. Does the First Minister agree that two years into the promise it is simply unacceptable that the lives of care experienced people are still no better? I thank the member for a question. I'm not sure if she was referring to Fiona Duncan of the promise. Fiona has said that many things have done fantastic work with the care review and now with the promise. I know that there will be somebody who seeks to hold all policy makers and Government ministers to account on that. Of course there is much to do. The experience of the pandemic has been tough for everybody but for those who are already vulnerable and already marginalised it has been particularly tough. There will be many respects in which for young people in care that has been the experience of the last two years. We talk about the promise and I have been talking about it today in the abstract. We have already done so many things to improve the experience of young people in care. When I speak to young people it is often those things that they cite to me. The care experience bursary, for example. I have spoken to so many care-experienced young people who have had the opportunity to go to university only because of that bursary we introduced, taking some of the other costs away, whether that is dental charges or council tax burden. Those practical measures are important because they are about levelling the playing field and they are about giving opportunity. Do we have more to do? Absolutely we've got more to do and we will absolutely have to rise to the challenge of keeping the promise. I hope that everybody across this chamber is as committed to that as I am. I will continue to be a very loud and powerful advocate for care experience young people as we do collectively as a society to keep the promise that came much later than it should have done for them but which we now have all of us have a responsibility to deliver We move to general and constituency supplementaries and I call Rona Mackay Thank you, Presiding Officer. We know the Scottish Government's commitment to the excellent research and science that takes place in universities across Scotland and the impact that this has on patients and communities most in need. Given Cancer Research UK's decision to withdraw funding from the administrative base of Scotland's only clinical trial unit, the Beatson Institute in my constituency, can I ask the First Minister whether the new cancer strategy will reflect the importance of place-based research in addressing regional inequality in Cancer in Scotland, particularly in the west of Scotland? The cancer strategy will be published in the spring and it will set out our 10-year vision for Cancer in Scotland, including building on the significance that Rem Scotland has in research. We've recently published an independent report on improving equity of access to cancer clinical trials and we'll be working with the Cancer Research community to prioritise the recommendations in that report and to take forward as many as feasible. Can I take the opportunity to recognise absolutely the very high quality of research in the west of Scotland through collaboration between the Beatson Institute, University of Glasgow and the NHS? To support that, we have recently increased our contributions to Glasgow's experimental cancer medicine centre, which will receive over £2.25 million this year. We're also committed to supporting the NHS Research Scotland cancer research network in running innovative, high-quality research studies across Scotland. First Minister, paediatric audiology services in NHS Lothian have well-documented issues. Constituents of mine have a four-year-old daughter who suffers from progressive hearing loss and has been waiting over 20 weeks for an assessment at the paediatric audiology service at Edinburgh Sick Kids. To my dismay, the family have now been told that they must wait a further 11 months for any assessment with their daughter currently 778th on the waiting list. I hope that that is not too uncomfortable for either the First Minister or the Cabinet Secretary to hear. With progressive hearing loss, a quicker assessment can mean a much better outcome and life for Annika and other children like her. What will the First Minister say to Annika and her family while they wait and wait for what would be almost one-quarter of Annika's life? In relation to Annika's case, I would be, of course, very willing to look into the particular circumstances of that. I don't want to see any child waiting that length of time for access to care and treatment that the member is right to say is so important to their quality of life. More generally, there have been, as alluded to, issues with the service in Lothian. The recommendations that came from some of those issues, the vast majority of those, have already been accepted and completed. I will continue to work with NHS Lothian to ensure the quality of service that everybody who relies on it has a right to expect. On the individual case, of course, I will be willing to look into that if the details can be provided to my office. The First Minister will be aware of reports today that the projected costs of the new Edinburgh eye pavilion have jumped by £10.5 million to £123 million. Given her Government's shaky commitment to this vital project in the past, can she reassure patients across the Lothians and South East Scotland today that Edinburgh's new eye pavilion will be a priority for the Scottish Government and that our new eye pavilion will be delivered by 2027? I gave that commitment during the last Scottish election and I am happy to repeat it today. The commitment of this Government is not shaky, it is rock solid. In terms of construction costs right now, the business case for that will be interrogated as is normal for all business cases. We are seeing inflation in the costs of construction right now, which is impacting on the costs of many capital projects, but we have a strong capital programme in the NHS in more generally and we are committed to delivering it. Strike action across the Highlands and Islands Network has seen airports, including Sumbra, closed since Tuesday. Shetland patients with hospital appointments on the Scottish mainland this week have had to have those rearranged, resulting in delays to treatment and using up precious time and resource within the NHS. High all is wholly owned by Scottish ministers, so what is the First Minister going to do to secure a resolution and end this disruption to what our lifeline air service is? First Minister, I can answer that question briefly in two parts. First, in relation to patients whose treatment has been delayed because of this industrial action, I know that health boards will be working to ensure that any delays are minimised. Secondly, there is dialogue on going to resolve the underlying issue, and I would expect high all to do everything possible to reach a resolution to ensure that any further disruption is hopefully avoided completely but certainly minimised. Thank you. That concludes First Minister's questions. The next item of business is a member's business debate in the name of Alex Cole-Hamilton, and there will be a short suspension now to allow those leaving the chamber and public gallery to do so before the debate begins.