 Felly, rydyn barn iddi yn cael ei dod cwrsig sy'n dded marchefawr i ni, bod ddelfent arrangedill fy modysig Dylai y cwmaint ddeiligio'rhell, ond nid y bydd hwn yn gweithio y cyd-kyrraedd kami i yn ddatele lleol iaith cymdeithasol. Rwy'n cael ei ddaeth y cyd-kyrraedd, ac mae'n du yr siwlaeth yr unrhyw ar gyfer gynyddiant, ar dill, yn ei ddyn nhw. Aibol, oherwydd mae ein gweld o gwaith yn ei ddau o ddiddordebau, yn dod eich mynd i'r ddae trwy cyllidiaeth ar gyfer gael i ddysgu i ddysgu'r o'r rhan o'r cymdeithasol ac o'r cymdeithasol. Keith Brown. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. I attended a public meeting last week where SPS were able to hear directly from residents about their concerns, and I pleased that SPS agreed to provide updates every fortnight to keep people informed of progress towards addressing the issues. However, over the last few days I've received several emails about continued disturbances and I have a real concern over what my constituents feel is the lack of urgency on the various mitigation measures discussed at the public meeting, with most appearing unlikely to happen until well into the new year. The situation is clearly having a significant impact on the lives of my constituents. For example, one constituent has explained that his eight-year-old daughter sits with headphones on crying as she is so upset by the noise that she is hearing. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that this is not acceptable and that SPS must expedite their plans to address the situation as a matter of urgency? I agree very much with the member who has continued to raise these matters with me. Those issues, if they are all concerned, need to be resolved as soon as possible. I know that SPS is rightly concerned about the impact on neighbours and has taken action that Mr Brown is aware of as a priority. They remain committed to engagement with local residents. Indeed, prison service officials are meeting with local councillors today to discuss the operational measures that they already have to minimise the noise. I have asked the chief executive to keep me updated on progress. The residents are exhausted by these continued disturbances. The new facility continues to fail the inmates and residents who cannot wait months for mitigation measures to be implemented. They need action and they need it now. It is quite clear from what was said at the public meeting that residents were not in any way considered through the design and the planning process of this facility. Therefore, what urgent action can be put in place to resolve the situation for these exhausted residents? If I can thank Mr Stewart for his correspondence on the matter, which has been extensive and has included some video footage, I would like to reassure him and all members and the constituents that they represent that they have my support to ensure that we can work with the prison service in getting matters resolved as quickly as possible. He will be aware of all the actions that are taken place operationally within the prison but also in terms of structurally outwith. I very much want to see that resolved and if I can confirm to Mr Stewart that I have replied to his extensive letter this morning. Mark Ruskell. The evidence is clear that the noise disturbances at HMP Stirling have been getting worse, not better, despite the proposed mitigations from SPS. At the public meeting that was co-ordinated by my colleague Councillor Arstitolmash last week, SPS admitted that they had no way of monitoring noise beyond the site, beyond recording the complaints that were coming from constituents. Does the cabinet secretary agree that SPS must urgently find a way to systematically and proactively monitor noise disturbances at HMP Stirling to start to restore that trust with residents and to monitor whether the mitigations are actually working or not? If I can confirm to Mr Ruskell that I have replied to his councillor colleague, I can assure him that staff on site are actively intervening on a daily basis to limit the sound levels that are related to the disturbances experienced on the prison site and by residents. Alongside that and further other operational matters, SPS has given a commitment to continue to measure and monitor the noise levels to inform the development of further options to suppress noise levels. Question 2, Christine Grahame. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has in place to reduce disruption to public services due to severe winter weather. Business continuity is a core responsibility of categorised responders under the Civil Contingencies Act and its regulations in Scotland. To support that responsibility, the Scottish Government hosts regular winter resilience meetings over the winter months with a wide range of stakeholders. The next winter resilience meeting is on 24 November. In addition, at a local and regional level, Scottish Government officials engage directly with partners to support preparedness including through resilience partnership. This is not limited to winter preparedness but is part of a continual process of monitoring and assessment. I have a feeling that my supplementary is not within the Cabinet Secretary's portfolio but I am going to ask it anyway. In Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Borders and Midlothian is meaningly rural and keeping the road network clear is crucial to all the services that the Cabinet Secretary has mentioned. Can I ask therefore how road grit is allocated to local authorities and if necessary, can a local authority access additional road clearing assistance if necessary? The best thing that I can say to Ms Grean is that I will, with urgency, ask the Minister for Transport to reply to her. A couple of supplementaries, Beatrice Wishartford. There was a lessons learned exercise after storm when issues with the digital voice programme and turning off the copper wire telephone network and lack of resilience in the mobile phone network have been highlighted. Last December, Shetland had a severe weather event causing power cuts for up to six days for some people. What engagement has the Scottish Government had with the communications sector to ensure that people are able to contact public and emergency services during such severe winter weather events? The member is a good point in terms of the interaction between severe weather and communications and power outages. I have answered a number of substantial questions from colleagues on the lessons learned from Storm Arwyn. I will certainly forward those two Beatrice Wishart, but also to reassure her that built into our resilience arrangements is robust debriefing because after each and every incident there is learning to take place. I will ensure that the member is reply to in-depth. John Swinney. Prost, I acknowledge that winter weather can disrupt public services. We are increasingly finding that heavy rainfall can disrupt public services in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Can the justice secretary reassure Parliament that all responders are preparing for the changes in climate in our response to protect public services when there is a risk that heavy rainfall can result in the type of disruption that my constituents have experienced in the course of the last two months? Yes, I can, Presiding Officer. Resilience is an all-year round activity as we live in Scotland. Weather disturbance is an all-year round activity. As we all know, climate change is with us here and now and is one of the biggest challenges that we face here and now. Question 3, Alexander Stewart. To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants worked on the production of the latest building on new Scotland paper on immigration and EU policy. Minister Jamie Hepburn. First of all, I apologise to Alexander Stewart and other members that are not in person to answer his question. As with other publications in the building on new Scotland series, migration to Scotland after independence was co-ordinated by the Scottish Government's constitutional futures division with officials from other business areas contributing as part of their normal duties supporting Scottish ministers. There are presently 21 staff in the constitutional futures division. I thank the minister for that answer. You have just related that possibly 21 civil servants time may have been spent working on the policy which will never be implemented. Minister, do you think that civil servants time would be better spent for example dealing with NHSF backlogs or writing this latest paper of literature in the SNP's taxpayer-funded independence campaign? Minister. Let me first of all remind Mr Stewart that in relation to NHS performance we have the best performing A&E in any part of the UK. Of course, let me also remind Mr Stewart that this Government won the last Scottish Parliament election. His party lost the Scottish Parliament election and we said that at that election we would advance the case for independence. So not only do we have the right to do this, we have a responsibility as part of our manifesto commitment and in terms of the time that's being devoted by Scottish Government civil servants the cost of the work that's being undertaken in 2022-23 in producing these papers and of the constitutional futures division overall represented 0.0035% of Scottish Government budget in comparison to the great opportunities independence would bring, which we will I can assure Mr Stewart one I think that's a cost well worth paying. Supplementary Bill K I thank everybody for the round of applause. Thank you Anyway, described as xenophobic and completely unacceptable by the African Union the UK Government's illegal orwanda deportation policy stands in stark contrast to Scotland's human approach. Can the minister say what assessment we have made of the UK's plans to force through new legislation and what steps they are taking to help the Tory Government to understand that it is imperative that we create an asylum system which treats people with dignity and respect as they sit out in the Scottish Government's proposals. We welcome the Supreme Court Gerdrum, the UK Government's policies are not only immoral but now being deemed to be illegal and rather circumvent that ruling or seeking to circumvent that ruling by suggestively themselves from the European Convention on Human Rights they should accept that ruling and ditch their orwanda policy, we'll push them to do that and we'll also push them to drop their so-called illegal immigration act but when all is said and done we need independence to create a humane approach to asylum here in Scotland. To ask the Scottish Government how many health services across the Highlands and Islands have been downgraded or lost entirely over the last 16 years? Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson It is for territorial NHS boards and their planning partners to organise and provide high quality services that meet the needs of local people in line with national guidelines and frameworks. Clearly these services will be developed over time to account for a number of factors such as changes in clinical best practice and significant technological developments. In terms of this Government's commitment to an investment in local health services just in the case of NHS Highland the Borg resource budget has increased by 19.5 per cent in real terms between 2010-11 and 2023-24 and by 83.1 per cent or £348.6 million in cash terms from 2006-07 to 2023-24. Jamie Halcro Johnston 16 years of SNP mismanagement has seen a running down of our rural health services. Maternity perversion has been downgraded by the healthness and worry and the GPs are undergoing pressure right across the region and our ambulance crews are increasingly stretched and it's many of our more remote and more vulnerable communities which have lost out. At a meeting of Sir Lewis Richie's steering group in June of this year, NHS Highland made a commitment to provide urgent care and minor injuries cover at Port Tree Hospital seven days a week by the end of October. This has still not happened. My constituents in North Skye will get the vital service back in Port Tree for seven days a week as they were promised. The member will be aware that some of the changes that should be made to specific services in the Highlands have come about as a result of safety issues. For example, the issue of the midwife led service in Caithness was a result of our full-term baby dying in 2015 and the independent review that was undertaken made recommendations as to why changes had to take place in order to help to improve safety in the delivery of that service. In relation to the provision of services in the Lewis Richie report as well, Professor Lewis Richie is engaging with the health board and local stakeholders in order to make sure that there is resilience in providing seven days at a week urgent care services in Port Tree and that that work is on-going at the present time. They are also working very closely with the ambulance service in order to make sure that the service is resilient going forward. The member will also be aware that we have also just invested £27.7 million in the new Broadford hospital to provide additional clinical services in the area. To ask the Scottish Government when the education secretary last met with Renfrewshire Council and what issues were discussed. I last met with Renfrewshire Council on 31 August this year. At that meeting, we discussed school provision in the Dargavall and Bishopton areas of Renfrewshire. The member also attended this meeting as did Natalie Dawn MSP as constituency MSP, the interim chair of Dargavall primary school parent council and the chair of Bishopton community council. My officials remain in close contact with the council and receive regular updates on school provision developments in the area. The cabinet secretary will be well aware of Renfrewshire Council's Dargavall debacle, which will cost taxpayers anestimator £160 million. There are now concerns that a similar blunder may even now be taking place in relation to St Andrew's Academy in Paisley. Meanwhile, plans for a new thorn primary in Johnston were dealt a blow as the council's funding bid to the Scottish Government failed. Given this, can I ask the cabinet secretary what additional support will the Scottish Government provide to Renfrewshire's children to ensure that no child is left paying the price for Renfrewshire's councils' incompetence and financial mismanagement? I thank the member for his question. I very much recognise the scale of the challenge here. We engage on this matter, of course, over the course of summer recess, on three occasions. I understand that the council are keen to learn lessons from the report that was undertaken in relation to the action, particularly at Dargavall primary school. In relation to Government funding, it's worthwhile saying that Renfrewshire has benefited from funding over the years in relation to the school estate. Through the Schools for the Future programme, they were awarded £16 million towards three projects. Scottish Government funding is also supporting Paisley grammar school through the LEAP programme. Although, of course, our investment from Scottish Government is intended to augment and not replace the local authorities' responsibilities in relation to the school estate, we will continue to work with the Scottish Futures Trust on exploring how we can improve the school estate more broadly. It is worthwhile saying, that in 2007, the school estate in Scotland has improved, and 61 per cent of our schools has been in good or satisfactory condition to now over 90 per cent of them being in good or satisfactory condition. That's thanks to investment from this SNP Scottish Government. To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with third sector agencies to improve outcomes for vulnerable people. Every portfolio across Scottish Government works closely with third sector agencies and organisations, many of which support our work with vulnerable people across Scotland. Scottish Government grant making is allocated across portfolios to various parts of the third sector to make a positive difference in many areas. The Government recognises the vital work that the third sector organisations do on a daily basis to help make Scotland a better place for everyone. I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. Aberdeen Football Club community trust recently launched its impact report, which highlighted how the charity used the power of football to support communities across the north-east to close the poverty-related attainment gap, improve physical and mental wellbeing and support our most disadvantaged citizens through the cost of living crisis. Will the cabinet secretary join me in congratulating Aberdeen Football Club community trust, and does she agree with me that when public finances are so constrained it is all the more important that local authorities and the Scottish Government continue to support fantastic organisations like this? I would very much agree with Audra Nicol on this point. The Government recognises the impact football clubs and their associated trusts and foundations can have on the lives of people and community right across the country. The example of Aberdeen FC community trust is a fantastic example of that work in action. I know for example about the initiative that it carries on about the dementia friendly programme football memories run with Alzheimer's Scotland. That is but one example from one club about the tremendous work that they do in their community and I commend them for it. Thank you. For over a decade this Government has pledged multi-year funding assessments for the third sector and most recently the SVO gathering the First Minister repeated that commitment so can I ask the minister when will she be able to update Parliament and more importantly the third sector on when this will be delivered? Or is it just more warm words from the First Minister and this Government? Well the First Minister spoke directly to the third sector as Minister Cain said at the gathering and did commit to look at this. Clearly this is a difficult area for the Scottish Government when our budget is also not guaranteed and in fact the damaging policies of the autumn statement yesterday just showed how difficult it is to be able to ensure that we are providing not just support for the third sector but for our public services in general. That is something we are absolutely committed to do through our fairer funding approach and I look forward to working with the third sector to deliver on that.