 Os gyd ychydigosu'r rhaglennu, ond mae oedd ar ddwg byw yn gafodd i'r dysgu yng ngynhyrchu mewn gwirionedd, iawn mwy o ddflwyntgolaeth, a oedd os oedd yr Oeddennidau 29 ar y cywr cofydol? Rydwg nhw, rydw i rwyf ni'n wedi cael ei ddarluniaethu ymdangosu iawn o'u stryd? That will be Parliament next week that decides whether or not to introduce vaccine certification. I set out the reasons for the Scottish Government's view on it yesterday. Of course, all ministers, all 29 hard-working, dedicated ministers are bound by collective responsibility under the ministerial code. This is a question of how we best continue to control Covid Be'r amser yn ganahanol enthrallai ein cyfiter i rywm digadadu gael ei ddalfbwysig gyda beth y bärmarnau. Felly Ar confusion i gyfiter y cyfiter ygdeithaswn i'r gorfod nadillem ei scrace tovingo ddag arnyny. Diolch i chi'n gw transformations d92 ni ai os beakwm ni kan mae iawn dynnu 네ّ oherwydd oedd awn caeth lilydd unigag yn mae inni pen fyddcaith â bu bron fel siarad hyd dafawr o'i ddim yn ddfaen that they are not the only people in Scotland who have no idea how vaccine passports are going to work. Hospitality groups say that the lack of engagement is extremely concerning. Scottish football clubs have warned that SNP's plans are completely unworkable. Industry groups need answers about this scheme before her Government introduces it. Why haven't they had that chance? First Minister. First Lady, perhaps Douglas Ross should first and foremost concentrate on what his view on vaccine certification is, whether he supports it or opposes it, or whether he's going to continue simply to engage in the infantile opposition that characterises so much of the Conservatives' response to Covid. This is a global pandemic. Demands of politicians, particularly those of us in government, really tough decisions, and we've all got a responsibility to live up to that. Secondly, on the detail that we will, before we bring this proposal to Parliament, for Parliament to debate and decide through a vote on whether we go ahead with this, the detail of how a scheme will work. Douglas Ross, had I stood here yesterday or even today and announced as a fait accompli exactly how every single aspect of this was going to operate, Douglas Ross would be here today criticising me for taking for granted the views of Parliament and not giving Parliament its proper place. So we will do this properly, we will do this in the way that people have a right to expect of their government. Of course we see across a range of different sectors yesterday an understanding of the reasons for this. Nobody wants any form of restrictions, but while we have this virus we have to determine the least restrictive way of keeping people safe. Jeff Ellis of DF concerts, the Government are doing all they can to avoid another lockdown as an industry. We all have to support that, we all have to do our bit. We see from the Federation of Small Businesses, we don't want the prospect of stricter restrictions so we believe that the business community will accept this change. The Scottish Football Supporters Association of Covid certificates are what it takes to allow fans to keep supporting their clubs and it's better than no fans present. So a degree of understanding and pragmatism for people on the front line perhaps, Douglas Ross should take a leaf out of their book and also engage in this issue with a degree of responsibility and recognition of the severity of the situation we face. Douglas Ross. There's absolutely no responsibility from Nicola Sturgeon to have questions at First Minister's questions that she fails to answer. I was asking about engagement, I was asking about her Government and Parliament will debate these plans, but it would be nice to know exactly what we are debating. At the moment hospitality groups, football clubs and venues have no idea about what infrastructure will be in place or if they'll get any help to introduce this. It's just another example of the shambolic, last minute, major decision making of this Government. The same Government that brought you confusion over what is a cafe now brings you confusion over what is a nightclub. John Swinney, you turned on vertical drinking, now he's you turned on Covid passports. A month ago he was against them, just this morning at the Covid committee, the Deputy First Minister suggested that they could be permanent. This Government has had months to prepare to get this right. If any of this has been properly thought through, will Nicola Sturgeon tell us exactly what infrastructure will be in place, who will administer it, what financial support will be available and is the Deputy First Minister correct that these passports might be permanent? First Minister. First Lady, can I say that in the face of a global pandemic of an infectious virus the public should be, and I suspect are, very wary of politicians who suggest that any Government should take a dogmatic, unchanging position, because that is not the way you keep the public safe. In terms of looking at this, we have been considering it carefully. I could paper the walls of this chamber probably with quotes from me, expressly saying that we hadn't ruled this out, that we wanted to consider it carefully, that we were keeping our minds open. We had ruled out if we were asking for vaccine passports for essential public services, but for settings like nightclubs there was a debate to be had and a case to be made. Douglas Ross frequently, and again regular viewers of First Minister's Questions, I'm not sure how big a group that is, but regular viewers will have heard Douglas Ross say to me that this Government needs to respect Parliament. Cabinet discussed this on Tuesday. I came to Parliament to tell Parliament first yesterday that this was the Government's intention, that we would take that to Parliament next week. We are engaging with sectors across the economy. We will put the detail to Parliament to allow Parliament to decide, and then we, assuming that Parliament agrees, we will implement this. That is not just the way Government should operate. It is often, until it doesn't suit him, the way Douglas Ross demands that Government operates. This is a serious situation, a really serious situation again, not just for Scotland, for the UK, for many countries across Europe where vaccine certification in many of those countries is already operating. Is it too much to expect in these serious times that we have a leader of the opposition that can engage properly with the substance of these matters? Douglas Ross. Is it too much to expect to have our First Minister to answer First Minister's questions? Unless the First Minister has failed to notice it, Parliament is sitting at the moment, elected MSPs are asking her questions and she is unable to answer. She may be able to paper the walls with her views on Covid passports, but she has been simply failed to answer a single question about what that will mean for businesses and industries across Scotland. Now, this Government used to grandstand about its handling of the pandemic. You don't hear those boasts any more. From the display from the First Minister today, it looks like vaccine passports are going to add to a long list of failures from this Government. We heard today that thousands of long Covid sufferers in Scotland can't get referred to a support service. Yet the SNP's flimsy pamphlet on NHS recovery didn't contain a single mention of long Covid. A and E waiting times are the worst in six years. Drug deaths the worst in seven years. Alcohol deaths the worst in eight years. People can't get to see their GP and are waiting hours for an ambulance. The First Minister is losing her grip on Covid and the NHS is in crisis. This pressure is only going to build as we move towards winter. So when will she give us a real plan to get our health service back on track? We have a recovery plan. The NHS, supported by the Government, starts planning for winter much earlier in the year. Those plans are there. There is enormous pressure on our national health service right now. That is partly because of rising Covid cases, which many countries because of the delta variant are grappling with right now. I would say in passing that had it been down to Douglas Ross, we wouldn't even have in place some of the mitigations against Covid that we do have in place because he wanted us to remove all of them and have no protections against the transmission of Covid. So as a responsible Government, we will do what requires to be done to protect the public against Covid and we will do that for as long as is necessary. We will also support our NHS with £1 billion of additional targeted resource support recovery when I saw one of the Tory spokesperson commenting on this last week, the day I think the recovery plan was published. She seemed to be saying that it was bad that we committed £1 billion because the Tories had wanted us to commit to £600 million. So I wasn't entirely sure I followed that logic. On long Covid, we have invested £2.5 million on research projects. We have invested money in support services through Cheshark Stroke Scotland that are making a number of very legitimate points today about the further work we need to do to ensure support for those suffering from long Covid. So we will continue to do what needs to be done to take the decisions to support the NHS and to support the country to get through this Covid crisis. That is the responsible manner that people expect from their Government. I welcome all contributions from across this chamber to that, but perhaps Douglas Ross can raise his game a little bit from screaming about U-turns and things like that and actually be part of finding the solutions that the country needs right now. Question 2, Anna Sarwar. Presiding Officer, in the past 18 months our NHS staff have performed remarkably under pressure. I know everyone in this chamber agrees, but even before this pandemic they were undervalued, under-resourced and overworked. This week we have seen the number of people on NHS waiting lists rise to over 600,000. Does the First Minister agree that this is a humiliation for the SNP and a tragedy for the tens of thousands of patients languishing on ever-lengthening lists? It is the responsibility of the Government to support the NHS and help NHS staff to get through what is an extremely challenging situation for countries across the world. Most people recognise that we are in a global pandemic that has had a significant impact on our national health service. Anna Sarwar is right to say that there were challenges in our national health service before Covid, but as we can see from the waiting times improvement plan that was in place there, waiting times were starting to be reduced by the investment that we had made. Obviously, we all know the impact that Covid has had on the national health service. That is why the recovery plan, backed by the £1 billion of additional investment, is looking to build the capacity in our national health service this year in terms of in-patients and day cases, a 10 per cent increase in capacity over the five years in in-patients, 20 per cent and out-patients, 10 per cent over the five-year period. Also reforms to the way healthcare is delivered. I visited the Golden Jubilee just last week to look at some of the innovations around robotic procedures, around changes to how diagnostic operations are done. I will not stand here and in any way underplay the challenge, but the support for the national health service through record funding and increased funding, support for staff, the biggest agenda for change, pay rise and the history of devolution, the largest pay rise across the UK to make sure that we are delivering for patients to come out of and recover from Covid. Again, I think that that is what people look to their Government to do. Anna Sarwar. I note that the First Minister did not answer the question. The reason why she did not is because I was actually quoting Nicola Sturgeon in 2003. All I did was replace the word Labour with SNP. The difference, though, is that in 2003 Nicola Sturgeon was saying that a list of over 84,000 people was a humiliation. What we are talking about today is lists of over 600,000 compared to 84,000. I know that Nicola Sturgeon says that it is because of the pandemic, but let's look at the stats. Before the pandemic, there were 450,000 people languishing on NHS waiting lists before the pandemic even began. That is humiliation. Every one of them is an anxious human being and a worried family. Those long lists are meaning more complicated cases presenting at A and E. This month, the worst A and E waiting times since records began, 24,000 of our fellow citizens waiting more than four hours. 4,000 of our fellow citizens waiting over eight hours and almost 1,000 of our fellow citizens waiting over 12 hours while ambulances are queuing outside hospitals. If you were looking at those 24,000 patients in the eye, if you were looking at those 300,000 patients on waiting lists in the eye, what would you say to them? I say to them that my responsibility is to support the national health service to recover from a global pandemic because the difference between now and 2003 is not the difference, and as Sarwar tried to suggest, the difference is a global pandemic that has placed significant pressure on our national health service. Before the pandemic, the difference was the changing demographics of our country, that every single nation across the UK is grappling this. That's why this Government has ensured record investment in the national health service, record investment that would not have happened had Labour stayed in government, record staff numbers in our national health service, a recovery plan that targets a billion pounds to build the capacity of our national health service. What I would say to patients is that, yes, I know in opposition because I've been there, it's easy to come up with the slogans. In government, the responsibility is to deliver the investment to support the staff and to make changes for patients, and that is exactly what we're going to continue to do. Anna Sarwar. The problem that the First Minister has is she accepts that she relied on slogans in opposition. She's kept relying on slogans in government and that's the problem for people across this country. I say directly to the First Minister that she can't ignore the fact that it was 450,000 before the pandemic and she thought 84,000 was a humiliation in 2003. Doctors, nurses and patients agree that the NHS is in crisis and we need more than the thin recovery plan produced by this Government. More a slogan and PR exercise than a genuine effort to rebuild our NHS. Let's look at what the experts say. A recovery plan that the BMA called unrealistic. A workforce plan that nurses have called woefully poor. A recovery plan that means that we won't meet the 62-day cancer standard for another five years. That's on top of it not being met for the past nine years. That will mean people diagnosed late, treatment starting late and lives being lost as a result. So First Minister, will you listen to what the professionals on the front line and patients are telling you? Will you recognise that this plan isn't good enough and isn't working? Will you act before it's too late? First Minister. We'll continue to support the plan with investment, £1 billion of investment, 1,500 additional staff for the national treatment centres. So we'll continue to support the NHS in that way. If Anasarwar wants to come forward in the forthcoming budget process and point to where he thinks we should take extra money to add to that, I will be very happy to listen to that, but he has to do that with responsibility and not simply in the way that suggests he can just conjure money out of nowhere. In terms of the waiting times, we have a big responsibility to get waiting times back on track incidentally. One of the other differences between now and 2003 is our waiting times. Targets are so much more ambitious than they were under Labour because we are delivering more, more for patients. Easy to be yours. The last point, Presiding Officer, is... Excuse me. We will hear the First Minister. Thank you. The last point I think is appropriate to make right now is this one. Nobody on the Government benches in any way underplays the seriousness of the situation we face right now. Nobody underplays how difficult the challenges ahead are for the NHS in particular, but it is only a matter of months that the Scottish people had the opportunity to look at all of this and make a choice about who they trusted, who they had confidence in to lead the country through these challenges. They chose this Government and that is a responsibility that we take seriously each and every day as we continue to navigate this country through this crisis, through the crisis and into recovery. That is the responsibility that we dedicate ourselves today and every day we are in office. Thank you. I will now call constituency supplementaries and I call Douglas Lumsden. First Minister, I along with 400 others in the north-east of Scotland are taking part in the Novavax Covid vaccine trial. The NHS informed website has no record of all these volunteers being vaccinated and therefore we cannot download proof of vaccination and therefore no QR code. Will the First Minister join me in thanking those volunteers and also ensure that those volunteers are not excluded from any events that may require proof of vaccination using the QR code based system? First Minister. I thank the member for raising this issue and firstly I would take the opportunity to thank everybody who has participated in a vaccine trial because they have contributed hugely towards the safety and wellbeing of all of us. We have already made clear that nobody who took part in those trials including the member will in any way be disadvantaged. The vaccination will be recognised. We are working on ensuring that that can be evidence and I will write to the member to update on exactly how that will happen. I call Ross Greer. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The First Minister will be aware of the situation at St Indian's High School in Kirkntellic where earlier this week due to a Covid outbreak, 405 of the 850 pupils were absent from school. Can I therefore ask the First Minister what support schools like St Indian's should expect from public health teams when outbreaks such as this occur and why the deadline for school ventilation improvements was set for the October midterm rather than the start of schools term in mid-August? First Minister. On that latter point it was to allow schools and local authorities the opportunity as the schools came back to assess the ventilation right across the school estate and to make sure that they were using CO2 monitors to do that and to put in place any remedial plans that are required and that the on-going nature of that work has been closely monitored. It is incumbent on local public health teams to provide appropriate support to schools or to any other setting that is experiencing an outbreak. We did change and this was set out to Parliament the rules around contact tracing and isolation in schools to try to reduce the number of young people that were being asked to isolate and therefore have disruption to their education when they were not in reality at risk of getting Covid. So there is now a risk-based approach being taken to that led by Test and Protect in public health teams and public health teams are there in every area of Scotland to offer advice and support to schools or others who need it. Jamie Greene The First Minister will be aware that temporary changes to the intensive care unit and any trauma care at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock will now be made permanent despite fierce opposition a decision that will see hundreds of patients moved to Glasgow. This flies in the face of a commitment by the health board and by ministers in this very chamber that no such decision would take place without full consultation. Can I ask the First Minister if she will offer a firm commitment to the users of Inverclyde Royal Hospital including its A&E and ICU departments that those departments in their full capacity are there to stay to meet the full needs of all patients in the west of Scotland? I'll happily write to the member with more detail on this. My understanding is that those changes are not permanent and wouldn't be permanent without full and proper consultation but I'm happy to write to a health secretary on that point. I'm grateful for that answer. I will state this clearly where others have not. I and my party are fundamentally opposed to vaccine passports as a matter of principle. Added to that the rush to introduce this in short order throws up practical problems too. How will this keep up with vaccinations in the booster programme across borders because that's already in chaos? Hospitality see this as a threat and have no idea how they will police it. It's unclear what that means for young people and will I need a vaccine passport to join a mass protest against vaccine passports? But above all for the first time Scots will have to provide private medical data to strangers to access freedoms in our society. Vaccines are the way out of the pandemic but vaccine passports are not. There's no time limit and an open door for expansion. So can I ask the First Minister where does this stop? First Minister. I don't agree with him on many of the points but I've got a lot more respect for his position than I do for some of what we heard earlier on because it is a principle position and I think it is a legitimate debate. I've said before I have my own concerns about the use of vaccine certification but my view is based on the following. We are still in the grip of a pandemic. This is a highly infectious virus and therefore doing nothing over the next period is not an option. We've got to stem transmission and therefore it becomes a question of how do we do that in the least restrictive, most proportionate way? Therefore in terms of nightclubs for example it may be as we get into winter I hope this wouldn't be the case but it may be that the choice is not to use vaccine certification or no restriction at all around nightclubs. It may be something like vaccine certification or nightclubs having to have heavier restrictions and perhaps seeing closure again which none of us want to see. So this is a proportionate step I hope it will be a time-limited step it will be very limited in terms of the application to settings. I said yesterday we do not intend certainly at this stage and we would not do this without full parliamentary consultation either to extend it to hospitality more generally. Vaccine certification schemes are operating in many countries Ireland for example the closest to us in many countries on a much wider ranging basis than I set out yesterday I wish we weren't here I genuinely wish we weren't in this position but we are and therefore we've got to think about every proportionate measure we can take to try to protect people so we will set out the detail on this because there are some legitimate questions posed there that in some of them we have to work with other countries to make sure we have interoperability none of these things are straightforward in the circumstances we are in but my judgement is that this is a proportionate step but of course it will be Parliament who gets to decide that next week I'll now move on to general supplementaries and I call Emma Harper Thank you Presiding Officer Today a consultation in England and Wales will close the qualifying age for free prescriptions from 60 to the state age pension of 66 Age UK have branded this move as a kick in the teeth for older people this highlights the difference between the progressive SNP Government in Scotland and the cruel politics in Westminster Can the First Minister confirm that no one in Scotland will be left struggling or unable to afford medicines that they need to stay as healthy as possible and that prescriptions will remain free for all? First Minister Yes, it is certainly the position of this Government that free prescriptions will remain. People should have access to the medicines they need without charging and without. As some people used to have to do making videos choices between taking their medicines and feeding themselves I never want to return to that In my view it beggars belief that there is a consultation on taking away free prescriptions elsewhere in the UK for those over 60 It's not my decision obviously but I certainly hope that we don't see that direction of travel but I can be absolutely categoric that certainly as long as this Government is in office free prescriptions are here to stay Jackie Baillie Health professionals in Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland have published a long-term Covid action plan today We know that at least 74,000 people are living with long Covid and the numbers are rising Many of them are not getting the services they need So will the First Minister agree on the recommendations in the report in particular the creation of a long Covid fund for health boards to access? Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland are doing a fantastic job supported by funding from the Scottish Government I think they have made a number of very important points today They have published an action plan which has four key recommendations I do broadly have sympathy with all of them but we want to discuss them in detail with Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland I think that recommendation 4 is a long Covid capacity fund and in the course of our budget discussions we will give that very serious consideration as we will do with the other three main recommendations as well Oliver Mundell Our exam system just like our education system must be there to serve all pupils That has not been the case in the last two years and that is shameful but having considered the latest OECD report does the First Minister agree that it would be unacceptable moving forward to create a situation where some young people could leave school with no option or opportunity to gain an externally assessed exam-based qualification and does she recognise that exams are not a British Victorian legacy but a Scottish education tradition? First Minister I do recognise the important role of exams in the Scottish educational tradition and not just the Scottish educational tradition There is a need to properly consider for the future how we certificate the achievements of young people and what the correct balance is between formal exams and on-going assessment I think that that is a debate that we should all enter into and we should come at it from the perspective of what is best for our young people and I look forward to having views and contributions from across the range of perspectives on that and of course we will continue to take responsible decisions as we get our education system back on track and through the recovery from Covid as well Question 4 Stuart McMillan To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding reports of retail stock and staff shortages and then on up to Christmas First Minister Scottish ministers first wrote to the UK Government about this emerging problem back in July The Rural Affairs Secretary has written again this week seeking a meeting to discuss those challenges I think that the fact that we've had to ask for such a meeting tells its own story about how urgently or otherwise the UK Government is treating this issue We've warned repeatedly of the damage that would be caused by Brexit we knew that the loss of freedom of movement would be particularly damaging and sadly we're now seeing staff shortages putting real pressure on food and drink supplies images of healthy food rotting and astonishing frankly for this whole sorry situation the Tories should frankly be hanging their heads in shame Stuart McMillan I thank the First Minister for that reply and the British Retail consortium is the latest organisation to warn of further price increases and disruption in the coming months due to the Tory-led Brexit Does the First Minister agree with me that Brexit has been nothing short of a disaster and that Scotland is increasingly vulnerable under Westminster control and that the only way to keep Scotland safe from the long-term economic and social devastation of the Tory-led Brexit is for Scotland to secure our independence The Conservatives don't like to hear this but we right now, not just in Scotland but across the UK are in the quite incredible situation unlike other countries across the European Union so this is not about Covid I've seen shortages in our supermarkets of having shortages of other supplies of having children told that there might not be toys at Christmases because of the disruption to supply chains I really do think that Conservatives should take some responsibility because it is entirely inflicted by their obsession with Brexit There are two things I think it's important to remember here Firstly, Scotland did not vote for Brexit and secondly, it was utterly reckless of the Conservatives to flow ahead with Brexit in the middle of a global pandemic Those issues do illustrate the fact that right now these are things that are being done to Scotland not by Scotland and the only solution to that is for us to take control of all of our affairs in Scotland and yes that does mean being an independent country Michael Marra Thank you, Presiding Officer Has the First Minister ever told a senior Scottish police officer that he lost confidence in them and would it be appropriate for a First Minister to do so? That question is not relevant to the question Supplementary questions should refer to the question that was asked I will therefore move on to question 5 from Tess White Thank you Presiding Officer To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to the increase in ambulance waiting times in parts of Scotland The Scottish Ambulance Service is currently carrying out a national review of demand and capacity This review will ensure that the right resources are in place across the country to help to meet present and future predicted demand Over the past four years we have invested over £1 billion and continue to invest with just over £20 million in additional funding being made available to support this review In the north of Scotland this has resulted in 67 extra front-line staff a mixture of experienced paramedics newly qualified paramedics and technicians along with nine patient transport service staff The Scotland-wide figure is 296 Work is also under way in partnership with health boards across the country to put improvement measures in place to reduce any unnecessary delays for ambulances waiting at hospital to hand over patients Tess White Thank you Presiding Officer I had to take note very quickly so make sure we don't miss it In recent weeks NHS Grampian has said that staff are under more pressure than at any other time throughout the pandemic There have been reports of people across the north-east waiting up to 20 hours That's two zero 20 hours to be taken to hospital by ambulance Ambulances are being stacked outside hospital entrances because there simply isn't the capacity to treat more patients A 28-page plan just is not good enough Will the First Minister tell us what immediate action the Scottish Government is taking to address the crisis? First Minister I actually answered that in my first answer but since the member says she didn't quite catch it I'll go through some of the detail again because she's right on our ambulance service because of the pressures in our national health service caused by Covid We haven't just produced a 28-page plan important though that is what we have done is invest an additional to the £1 billion over the last four years that I spoke about £20 million to support the on-going review of the Scottish Ambulance Service In the north of Scotland that has already resulted in 67 extra front-line staff a mixture of experience qualified paramedics and technicians and nine patient transport services I said that that's more than 250 across Scotland so that's what we are doing immediately In terms of the performance of the ambulance service again under pressure and let me take the opportunity to express my gratitude to paramedics and technicians and everybody working in the service but in the most recent week the ambulance service advised that they responded to around about 10,500 10,401 emergency incidents that was up 1.2% from the previous week and for the most urgent calls the median national response time was 8 minutes 55 seconds so I recognise that there will be people waiting longer than that and there will be some people who have waited completely unacceptable lengths of time that's why we are investing in this way but we are taking the action making the investment and supporting the ambulance service in the excellent work that it does Pam Duncan-Glancy I think I may have pressed my button too early, Presiding Officer I was hoping to come in after a different question Thank you In that case we move on to question number six from Neil Gray To ask the First Minister what engagement the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the reduction to universal credit that is set to take place at the end of September As I have set out in Parliament on previous occasions we have strongly urged UK ministers not to push people into poverty through the cut of £28 to universal credit most recently the social justice secretary joined with colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland to write to the UK Government on this matter I know the same calls have come from the children commissioners, poverty campaigners even the Prime Minister's own back benches although I'm not sure we've heard it from the Conservative benches in this Parliament but I may be wrong on that We know that families are struggling this cut risk push in a further 60,000 people including 20,000 children in Scotland into poverty and just to put it in context it would be the biggest overnight reduction to a basic rate of social security since the beginning of the modern welfare state more than 70 years ago so I hope we could unite in this Parliament to call in the UK Government not to do this not to take that £20 a week away from the people who need it most Neil Gray I thank the First Minister for that answer it's shocking, isn't it the secretary of state, Teresa Coffey responded to the four nations committee chairs joint letter calling for the uplift to be kept by saying they are prioritising getting people into work ignoring the 1.7 million people on universal credit who the DWP don't expect to get or find work and almost two fifths on universal credit recipients who are already in work but still need to use services like Paul's Parsels food bank in shots who I visited last week doesn't this show the limitation of our hybrid only part devolved social security system where the benefit of the likes of the Scottish child payment will be wiped out and tens of thousands of people in Scotland being forced into the poverty at the discretion of the chancellor's pen First Minister There is a really serious issue here the removal which I hope doesn't go ahead but the intended removal of the £20 a week will push thousands and thousands of people into poverty and that is not something that any of us should sit back and be in any way comfortable about and Neil Gray is absolutely right to say that the Tories would rather people who are in work well of course we want to support people into work where they can work so many of the people on universal credit are already working that is the point that is being missed here many others are not able to work but they will all have this £20 a week taken away and as I said a moment ago in Scotland alone that's 20,000 children pushed into poverty and that's why the other serious aspect of this is the one that Neil Gray raises we are, we have already and we're rolling out the Scottish child payment and there is rightly calls for us to go further with that and to increase the value of the child payment which we're committed to doing but this cut simply takes away money that we're trying to put into the pockets of the poorest in our society it's a ridiculous way of these decisions being taken so you don't even have to support independence surely to say that it would be much better if we could join up all of this within the powers of this Parliament so that we can decide and set aside the resources we need children out of poverty not to see them pushed back into poverty so this is an issue not the only one but I hope this is an issue where we could find some real consensus across this chamber an act to tackle child poverty not to do what we can while watching a government elsewhere do the complete opposite thank you and I thank the Presiding Officer and the chamber for their patience with my error I hope that every MP will do everything they can to retain the uplift in universal credit to remove it is abhorrent the removal of the £20 uplift to universal credit will mean that some families in Scotland will no longer be eligible for the Scottish child payment will the Scottish Government use the powers it has here and ensure that those families who would have been eligible for the child payment continue to get it we'll do everything we can through our powers and our resources to make sure that we lift children out of poverty don't allow them to be pushed into poverty and I absolutely respect and sympathise with the sentiment behind that question but there is a really hard issue for us here in this Parliament every time the Conservatives at Westminster make a cut to social security and save the money from that cut they don't then transfer that money to the Scottish Parliament so every time we have to mitigate a cut from elsewhere within the budget it is an unsustainable way to proceed so we all want to do that but that goes back to my previous point and I'm not that hopeful I'll get Conservative agreement to this point I am more hopeful that I will get the agreement of people at Pym Duncan Glancy because I recognise the sincerity here we need to bring all of these powers within the Scottish Parliament so that we can do these things sensibly and we can the Conservatives who cannot bring themselves to oppose their own Chancellor taking £20 a week away from the poorest children in our society have no room to lecture me about using powers in this Parliament let those of us those of us who genuinely care about lifting children out of poverty come together in opposition to this callous, uncaring Tory Government Question 7 Pauline McNeill To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Government has to tackle public displays of anti-Irish racism and anti-Catholic prejudice First Minister Can I say very clearly there is never ever any excuse or justification for hatred or bigotry and I unequivocally condemn anti-Irish racism and anti-Catholic prejudice because it should be called out Scotland is a diverse multicultural society this diversity strengthens us as a nation and that's why it's so important that we tackle all forms of prejudice and discrimination Police Scotland of course is committed to protecting our communities and will act on all incidents of bigoted violence disorder and vandalism including follow-up investigations based on evidence gathered and those who commit criminal acts motivated by prejudice can expect to feel the full force of justice and I know the police have issued comment about the progress of a particular investigation just this morning Pauline McNeill I thank the First Minister for that strong answer I hope that she agrees that there is still a clear problem with the minority of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice and a growing feeling that if those terms were sought with any other minority group that the sentiments displayed would be treated far more seriously and for the avoidance of doubt I'm sure that the First Minister is aware that the famine song contains the words the famine is over why don't you go home as confirmed by Lord Carlyway in his judgment in 2009 If First Minister I do welcome that there have been three arrests I understand last night in relation to this particular incident and Rangers football club which I applaud have just announced indefinite ban of three members of the identified were involved in singing the famine song and I think that has to be welcomed I just want the First Minister to reassure me that Police Scotland will respond proportionately to these offences and in doing so I offer my full support to the First Minister to work with her and with everyone to ensure that all forms of racism and all forms of bigotry are stamped out in Scotland First Minister but can I thank Pauline McNeill for the question the way in which she asked the question and the offer of support I think that we should all come together to tackle this can I say clearly and I know everybody across this chamber will support this I take the view that anybody who chooses to live in Scotland whether they and their families have been here for generations or whether they have come to Scotland very recently and we should not allow anybody ever to say I would be grateful if members at all times in this chamber remember that we are privileged to represent the people of Scotland and that at all times in this chamber we treat one another with great dignity and respect and I would be grateful if we could hear the First Minister thank you I have just had a comment made to me and I would not normally do this but I am so deeply offended by the comment that I do want after this session to take it up with you so that with your permission the member may be asked to reflect on that and to withdraw that comment it was a comment that would have been unacceptable unacceptable in any context but in the context of what we are discussing here right now I am deeply aggrieved that any member thought that was an appropriate thing to say can I go back to the very important question that was asked all of us have a duty to stand against racism prejudice and bigotry and I dedicate myself, not just as First Minister but as a citizen of this country to always doing so and I look forward to working with anybody who stands with me and with people across Scotland in that and I thank Pauline McNeill again for her question thank you that concludes First Minister's questions we will now move on to members business and I would ask members leaving the chamber to do so quietly thank you