 Y dynistrach ym ysgrifennidol yn ddelifio'r pwysig unrhyw 150209 yn ynghylch o Joffit's partych, yn cymddechrau gyda'r pwyllfa ystafell yn ei ddweud o'r reifasio i'r brasgol yma. Maes yw, hon. Si'n gwybod y cilydd â'r ffodol, ond diweddio'r ddim yn gwelltyddon, ddim oedd yn cymryd o'r ddweud sy'n ddod o'r ddweud ynghylch yn ei wneud. Mae'r ddweud yn cymryd. Wrth fy mod i dwy o'r ddweud, mae'n ddweud y yr adroddorffent o'r ddweud. Mae'r adroddorffent o'r ddweud yn ei weld o'r ddweud. Nawr. Mae'n olynydd i gyd ddechrau'r perfysgwyl ac yn ddweud i gyd o ddweud mor trafiadol hefyd. i'n mynd i'r ffordd. Cwestiwn 1, Willie Coffey. To ask the Scottish Government how many employers in Scotland pay the living wage. Cabinet Secretary, Roseanna Cunningham. Information is not available on the overall number of employers paying the living wage, though we know many do, which is why we encourage them to become accredited. During last month's living wage week, both the First Minister and myself, along with other ministerial colleagues, took part in a range of activities promoting the benefits of the living wage. I'm pleased, of course, that the Scottish Government is one of over 425 Scots-based living wage accredited employers with workers from a number of different sectors and different areas of Scotland benefiting from the substantial progress we're making. That figure continues to grow as we're fast approaching the target of 500, set by the First Minister for achievement by March. Willie Coffey. I thank the minister for that answer. She knows that the UK's national living wage increases not. A living wage does not support young people under 25. Can she tell us how many employees across Scotland earn the living wage or above, and how that compares across the UK? Cabinet Secretary. We do know that, from the latest figures, over 80 per cent of employees in Scotland are currently being paid the living wage or higher. That represents a higher proportion than anywhere else in the United Kingdom with the single exception of the south-east of England, so it's a higher proportion even than in London. I think that's good news for Scots workers. Question 2, Paul Martin. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it's taking to tackle unemployment in Glasgow province. Minister Annabelle Ewing. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing employment levels by helping unemployed people across Scotland to achieve their full potential. Employment in Scotland is now at a level above its pre-recession peak in 2008 with the employment rate in Scotland higher than the UK average. Employment levels in Glasgow have also seen an increase over the past year whilst unemployment has fallen. The Government continues to invest in a wide range of employment initiatives in Glasgow and I'm happy to discuss that further with the member. Paul Martin. Minister may recall a statement that was made in March 2014 in connection with the European Youth Guarantee worth £1.1 billion over two years to be spent in both the south and the west of Scotland condition over the additional European funding as it would be committed during the period of 2015 financial year. I wonder if the minister could advise us what progress has been made in that respect. Minister. I thank the member for his question. I fall within the jurisdiction of another cabinet secretary so what I will arrange to do is to ensure that the member's question is passed on to cabinet secretary Keith Brown because his officials are dealing with European social fund monies. Many thanks. Question 3, Christina McKelvie. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding the apprenticeship levy. Cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham. I spoke to UK Government ministers on 26 November when I confirmed our agreement to establish a working group of senior officials from across all four nations to manage the transition from the current arrangements. In addition, a four nations senior officials group has been established by Treasury to discuss the allocation of the levy to the devolved administrations. In our discussions with Treasury and BIS, the objective is to achieve the best outcome for Scotland. We now know what the rate and scope of the apprenticeship levy will be when it is introduced in April 2017. We have still to be provided with the clarity on how Scotland's share of the levy raised will be calculated and transferred to the Scottish Government. Christina McKelvie. Can I welcome that four nations working group and the fact that the four nations voices will be heard on that? Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that the UK Government really need, as a matter of urgency, to provide clarity to both business, of which I've had approaches from and the Scottish Government and how they intend the apprenticeship levy to operate? Cabinet Secretary. I think that that's incredibly important. We know that it's going to be at a rate of 0.5 per cent of a pay bill over £3 million, which means we think about companies about 120 employees will be caught in this 120 upwards. It is therefore unfortunate that we still don't have clarity on how Scotland's share of the levy will be calculated because, obviously, many of those companies will be cross-border and some employees will be in Scotland, some will be elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Once we have the clarity, I will be working directly with employers and other stakeholders to explore how the funding from the levy can benefit employers, young people and support the growth and enhancement of our successful apprenticeship programme. As I said, I'm working with my counterparts in Wales and Northern Ireland who have similar issues with the UK Government on lack of clarity on the levy. Cabinet Secretary, tell me what discussions has the Scottish Government had with industry bodies both those based here in Scotland and those based elsewhere in the UK and others providing apprenticeship training regarding the impact of the levy on their current apprenticeship schemes? A number of us have had conversations, both formal and informal. I've spoken, for example, to the Chamber of Commerce in Scotland, to the Scottish Retail Consortium, all of whom have members who are very concerned at the point that we were having those discussions. At that point, we still didn't even know the rate or the scope which was introducing an enormous amount of uncertainty into the process. We still have no certainty about the way that this is going to be divided up in terms of the Treasury decision-making process and we continue to press the UK Government to allow us to be able to have meaningful conversations with businesses about how we will progress once we know that certainty. Many thanks. Question 4, Patrick Harvie. Thank you. I apologise for being a few moments late at the start of the session and can I ask the Scottish Government what the implications are for skills and training of its proposed national infrastructure priority on energy efficiency? Cabinet Secretary. As the member knows, the connoisseur of the national infrastructure priority will be Scotland's energy efficiency programme, which will bring an integrated approach to energy efficiency provision of heat to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions for domestic and non-domestic properties throughout Scotland. Work to develop that programme is under way. There has been significant development of new skills to support our current energy efficiency and low-carbon programmes and we will consider what skills and training are required to develop the necessary capacity in the sector as the new programme is piloted and developed. Patrick Harvie. As the cabinet secretary makes clear, we are yet to see the detail on how this infrastructure priority will pan out, what the practical implications or indeed the scale of what is going to be required. We have been told that it will impact on every building in Scotland. Does the cabinet secretary agree that that implies a dramatic increase in the availability and in the breadth of skills that we are providing on energy assessment, on installation and hopefully on the design and manufacture of some of the materials and equipment that will be installed so that the highest quality jobs that are supported by that programme are based in Scotland? Cabinet Secretary. I would definitely agree with that. I think that there is a tremendous opportunity open here in terms of employment and in terms of skills. We are already doing a lot of work in this area. We are engaging with Skills Development Scotland and partners to support skills uptake in low-carbon technologies through vehicles such as the low-carbon skills fund, modern apprenticeships, flexible training opportunities, and individual learning accounts. The low-carbon skills fund has supported more than 3,000 training opportunities in low-carbon technologies since 2010-11. There is other work going on through the Energy Saving Trust and Resource Efficient Scotland. We are including other work to develop the capacity of the workforce. Of course, as that rolls out, there will be niche opportunities becoming apparent. It is a little difficult to foresee exactly what they will be in advance, but we are ready and willing to ensure that the best possible results come for the labour market in Scotland. Many thanks. Claudia Beamish. Thank you, Presiding Officer. South Lancashire College won the Homes for Scotland award for work on sustainable construction. It has both a low-energy, low-carbon, usable teaching block and a house where those training can practice with airtight, thermally efficient design. What support is envisaged by the Scottish Government and partners in the transformation needed in building techniques and how will they be able to develop such practical models as the ones at South Lancashire College across South Scotland and beyond? Cabinet Secretary. Some of the things that I have already raised in respect of the previous member's question will involve a wide range of events, workshops and other support right across Scotland, including with colleges. I want to commend South Lancashire College for the work that it is doing. The college sector is very vital in respect of all the skills development that goes on. We refreshed the skills investment plan for the energy sector last year and that was developed in partnership with a variety of different bodies. Colleges would have had some input in respect of that. Obviously, that has to be an on-going and continually developing sector and therefore we have to be able to operate as quickly as possible when we see opportunities develop. Colleges are key to that. Question 5 Colin Beattie. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that the gender pay gap in Scotland is 7.3 per cent compared with 9.4 per cent in the UK. The member is correct to say that the figures published by the ONS last month show that the gender pay gap in Scotland has been persistently lower than that for the UK. Relative to the UK, recent falls in the gender pay gap in Scotland have been driven by the growth of female earnings in Scotland. Other factors contributing to the narrower pay gap in Scotland include increases in the number of older female workers and the fact that the gap is smaller in Scotland for the highest 10 per cent of earners. I am sure that the member would agree with me that the fact that we are still talking about this and 45 years after coming into force of the Equal Pay Act Westminster is beyond comprehension. That is why the Scottish Government has made it a priority in our programme for government to seek to address the factors giving rise to the gender pay gap to the extent that we have the power to do so. I thank the minister for her response. I am sure that the minister will agree with me that despite this good news any gender pay gap is too high. Can the minister outline the steps that the Scottish Government is taking specifically to help to continue to reduce the gap? As I have said in my first response the Scottish Government seizes this as an absolute priority and will seek to do whatever we can within the powers that we have. Some of the action that we are taking informs the broad approach that we have to take to this issue. For example, we are tackling the underrepresentation of women in senior management roles on the boardroom through our partnership for change campaign. We are strengthening our commitment to pay transparency by reducing the threshold at which public authorities must report on their pay gap from 150 to over 20 employees. Of course we continue to promote fair work practices and to extend childcare provision. There is no one single answer to this problem and we will do everything that we possibly can to ensure that in 21st century Scotland we can finally stop talking about a gender pay gap. Many thanks. Question number six. Jenny Marra has not been lodged. No explanation has been provided. I'm afraid this is the second week running with no explanation. It's not acceptable and the trust and the explanation will now be forthcoming. Question number seven. Cara Helton cannot be called because I'm afraid Cara Helton is unable to be in the chamber and an explanation has been provided for that. I now call question number eight. Stuart Stevenson. To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how youth employment in Scotland compares with the rest of the European Union. Minister Annabelle Ewing. Latest data from Eurostat shows that Scotland has the third highest youth employment rate at 54.6 per cent across the European Union countries for quarter two of 2015. Only the Netherlands at 61.3 per cent at 55.9 per cent were ahead of Scotland. Stuart Stevenson. I thank the minister for her reply and that's very welcome news although overtaking the Netherlands and Denmark should remain an objective. Can she say what investment is being made to improve opportunities for Scotland for young people across Scotland so we can get to number one? Minister. I share the member's ambition to always seek to get to number one. The Scottish Government has in fact been taking a number of initiatives and making a number of investments to ensure that we do everything we can such that young people can fulfil their potential in life. For example, of course, we have invested over last year in this £12 million last year and £16.6 million this year in embedding our developing young workforce principles and policies. We also, of course, have provided over 25,000 modern apprenticeship starts year on year with some 101,000 modern apprenticeship opportunities having been delivered in this parliamentary term. We have ambitions to go further to secure 30,000 modern apprenticeship starts by 2020. We also, of course, work with Skills Development Scotland in terms of employability activity. We invest in community jobs Scotland operated through the SCVO. We have extended the eligibility for the educational maintenance allowance. There are a number of other initiatives and we work with Inspiring Scotland to help young people in the 14 to 19 age bracket. We are conducting a number of activities across a range of areas to ensure that we do everything we can. I am pleased to note in that regard that in the Labour market statistics published this very morning, we see that youth employment has increased over the past year. We recognise that we are going in the right direction, but we do recognise that we have more to do. Is the minister satisfied that all school pupils in line with the Wood commission recommendations who want to attend further education for vocational work experience and qualifications are, in fact, given the opportunity to do so? I would hope that that is the case. Of course, our youth employment strategy has set out a series of detailed targets over a seven-year period and we just published, in fact, last week or so, the first annual report on the developing young workforce in terms of our refreshed youth employment strategy. If the member has any particular instance of concern that she would wish to raise with me or indeed the Cabinet Secretary responsible, Angela Constance, I would be very happy to answer that. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Women's Development Forum report, a study of the perceptions and experience of police officers and staff during pregnancy and maternity. The Scottish Government is clear that we want to see no barriers to what women can achieve in the workplace. We provide funding to the Scottish Women's Development Forum to increase occupational maternity leave for Scottish police officers from 1 April 2016. A key priority for Police Scotland is the recruitment and retention of women officers and staff and they recognise that this report highlights important areas of improvement within the service that will help them to embed equality and diversity throughout their policies and procedures. I was pleased to note that the report from the Scottish Women's Development Forum was welcomed by Police Scotland and the Human Resources Committee to accept all the recommendations. The report shows that even when the law is clear and the right HR policies are in place, they are not always followed in an open to misinterpretation by line managers. That is something that happens across employers. Maternity action says that all the available evidence suggests that pregnancy and maternity discrimination is now more common than ever before, estimating that as many as 60,000 women in the UK are pushed out of work each year. Does the minister agree with me that action to tackle that discrimination is overdue and will she take this opportunity to send a strong message to employers in Scotland that it is time for change and do what she can to ensure the public sector leads the way and would the Scottish Government consider commissioning research into the prevalence of pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the workplace? I am trying to deal with each point. On the issue of Police Scotland I understand that they will be shortly publishing a new pregnancy and maternity guidance pack. An updated standard operating procedure and additional reference material will be available on both the intranet and the internet. I think that we will see practical steps being taken within Police Scotland that I am sure the member would commend. In terms of the wider issue I absolutely agree with the member on pregnancy and maternity. There is some work being done by the UK Government. I understand that that has been delayed but when we get that response that they are preparing we will work with the EHRC as the Scottish Government to see what we can do and we will at all times make sure that we make the message very clearly that this is unacceptable behaviour in the 21st century. Thank you. Call question number 10 but brevity would be appreciated. The Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported shortage of 11,000 professionals with digital skills particularly in relation to computer coding training? We are working in partnership with public sector partners and industry representatives to address skills issues in Scotland's digital sector with a programme of work built around the recommendations in 2014's ICT and digital technologies skills investment plan. A prime example of the collaborative work is a recent opening of code plan an industry-led digital skills academy based in the heart of Edinburgh. The cabinet secretary will know that earlier this year the education committee received evidence that in recent years we have lost over 200 computer science teachers in schools and that teacher training places remain unfilled. As a result some 12 per cent of Scotland's secondary schools do not teach computer science at all. What action is the Scottish Government taking to address this crisis in computer science education? For a number of things that are being pursued at every level of education including colleges and universities as the member knows perfectly well the situation in high schools would be a matter that he ought to raise directly with the education secretary Angela Constance and I will alert her to his concern about that particular issue. Many thanks. We now turn to questions on social justice communities and pensioners rights and I would appreciate brief questions and answers in this section to please question number one Richard Lyle. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to looking after the welfare of older people. Cabinet Secretary, Alex Neil. We have a long standing commitment to improving the welfare of older people throughout Scotland. We have taken decisive action in a number of areas including investing in services and initiatives designed to empower and improve the lives of older people including free personal and nursing care a record £119 million this year for fuel, poverty and energy efficiency, the concessionary travel scheme for older and disabled people supporting a number of social prescription pilot projects in Glasgow and introducing free prescriptions but we are also committed to working with older people and older people's organisations to ensure that the quality of life for older people in Scotland continues to improve. I thank the cabinet secretary for that very welcome answer and ask him if he agrees with me that policies like the concessionary bus travel scheme is one that delivers for older people in our communities across Scotland and indeed tackles the issues of isolation. Can I also ask if he can tell me what action has been taking taking this festive period to ensure that we are aware of isolation of older people in our communities particularly important at this time of year. Cabinet secretary. I agree totally with the member about the benefits of the concessionary bus travel scheme and I think it makes a major contribution in the prevention area to stopping isolation stopping depression amongst older people there is no doubt about that. In terms of provision during the festive season obviously every service is making their own arrangements but generally I would draw attention to the silver line which is Age Scotland's free help line for older people which offers information and advice and a very friendly service for older people throughout the year including at this time of year and of course it is supported by the Scottish Government. Many thanks question number 2 has not been lodged and explanation has been provided to therefore call question number 3 John McAlpine. Thank you Presiding Officer to ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many single parents in Scotland have been subject to benefit sanctions in the last year. Presiding Officer in the year ending June 2015 a total of 1,854 job seekers allowance sanctions were applied to 1,207 lone parents in Scotland. We have no information on lone parents on receipt of other benefits who have been sanctioned. John McAlpine. Thank you cabinet secretary for that answer and it is very worrying that a vulnerable group like single parents and their children are subject to sanctions particularly as I studied last week by the charity crisis found that sanctions became homeless as a result of sanctions and the crisis survey also found that sanctions had risen sharply among homeless people and particularly among those with a mental health problem. Does the minister agree with me that pushing already vulnerable people into homelessness is completely unacceptable in a civilised society and for that reason the Scotland bill was totally wrong to leave responsibility for sanctions in the hands of Westminster? Presiding Officer I totally agree with every sentiment issued by the member and can I say what was depressing particularly not only was the crisis report depressing in terms of the impact of sanctions on some of the most vulnerable people in our society but the response of the department of work and pensions was utterly unacceptable trying to deny that sanctions are having such a detrimental impact. I'm sure any MSP who does surgeries on a regular basis will come across people who are victims of sanctions and by far the best way to deal with this situation given the obstinacy of the UK Government in relation to sanctions policy is for it to be devolved to this Parliament so that we can adopt a humane approach and give people dignity and respect in relation to the recipients of social security benefits rather than treat them the terrible way in which the UK Government is currently treating people particularly through the sanctions regime. Ken Macintosh I associate myself with the remarks of the cabinet secretary and Ms McAlpine about the crisis report and the effect on homelessness Can I ask the cabinet secretary the sanctions may have contributed to the unfortunate stall in progress that we've experienced here in Scotland in reducing the amount of homelessness in Scotland that remained at around 54,000 households Can I ask the cabinet secretary how he will respond to that situation and what action he can take to address homelessness particularly at this time of year when we have rough sleepers out in our streets? I make a distinction in terms of how we approach this question as previous administrations have done between rough sleepers which present particular challenges and the more widespread issue of homelessness as a result of family breakdown including issues like domestic abuse and if we look at the success that we've had in a whole range of areas across various parts of the country in dealing with homelessness of course the biggest way the best way to deal with us is to increase the supply of housing and that's precisely why we have committed to a nearly 70 per cent increase in the programme of building for affordable homes in Scotland over the next five years and I would hope that Labour members would welcome that 70 per cent increase in the building programme for affordable housing Question number four, Drew Smith Presiding Officer, may I ask the Scottish Government for what reason the publication of the Scottish index of multiple deprivation has been delayed? Minister Margaret Burgess The Scottish index of multiple deprivation was delayed because an extension to an earlier consultation improved the geographical building blocks or data zones of the index meant that it was not possible to complete the SMID in 2015 but SMID is designated as a national statistic by the UK statistics authority and as such the decision to delay it can only be taken by the chief statistician his decision was announced in October 2014 through the SMID section of the Scottish Government website and communicated in an SIMD newsletter there was no ministerial involvement in this decision Drew Smith The decision to delay publication is obviously regrettable but in the spirit of Christmas which targeted and redistributive policies of this government is she most confident will have delivered a meaningful improvement in the position of her constituents in my living in some of the most deprived parts of the country I think a number of measures this government has taken and I would raise childcare as one of the issues that we have taken to increase childcare to assist people back into work and get them back into the economy and improve their standards but also we have taken a number of issues in social measures which are helping free school meals, educational maintenance allowance the reduction the council tax freeze the council tax reduction scheme the Scottish welfare fund in deprived areas and improving their life chances and we will continue to do what we can to help people in low income areas and deprived areas despite the austerity forced on us by the UK government Question 5 Mike McKenzie Presiding Officer to ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes Minister is a priority for the Scottish Government and has been designated a national infrastructure priority in recognition of its importance the cornerstone of this will be Scotland's energy efficiency programme which will provide an offer of support to buildings across Scotland to improve their energy efficiency over a 15 to 20 year period during this first development phase of the programme we will continue to deliver our existing home energy efficiency programmes to Scotland which provides support to households across the country this includes local authority led area based schemes our national fuel poverty scheme warmer home Scotland and low cost loans which will help households to spread the upfront costs of investing in energy efficiency Mike McKenzie I thank the minister for that answer I wonder if she could tell me a bit more about how the new Scotland's energy efficiency programme will build on the home energy efficiency programme for Scotland in terms of delivery in rural areas Minister We've established the rural fuel poverty task force to consider the issues facing a remote rural and island communities in tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency and the task force is due to report later next year to incorporate their recommendations into the development of the new programme as appropriate but what I would say to the member is that over the lifetime of the HEAPS programme we've allocated over £7.4 million to Highland Council to support area based schemes we've increased the grants available to houses in remote and rural areas by almost 40% is now £9000 so we will build in the access of our existing area based schemes so that over the years oversupplier obligations have been devolved, we'll have scope to tailor Scotland's energy efficiency programme so it best needs Scotland's needs and that will very much include the rural and island communities. To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of dwellings in the Lothian region meet the Scottish house inequality standard. The latest available local authority results from the Scottish house condition survey were published in 2015 and relate to the aggregated three-year period from 2011 to 2013. Those show that 50% of all dwellings and also 50% of social housing in the Lothian region met the Scottish housing quality standard but I would stress that this doesn't necessarily reflect the current level of compliance every social landlord in Scotland also has to provide an annual return of their compliance which is published on the website of the Scottish Housing Regulator. The regulator has advised that from the returns made by landlords there are 79,382 self-contained social rented properties in Lothian as at 31 March 2015. Of those, 70,620 met the Scottish housing quality standard which equates to 88.96% of social houses excluding exemptions. Alison George Clearly the scale of this challenge is massive. Over half of Scotland's homes are in need of repairs to critical elements and thousands of people aren't warm enough in the winter. Reducing VAT on repairs would help but we need to see warm homes over winter as a critical part of preventative spend which helps keep people healthy. How does the Government intend to include housing issues in health and social care considerations? Minister. What I would say to the member is that our programme of heaps and our energy efficiency programme and keeping folk warm in their homes and providing energy efficiency measures sit side by side with what we are doing in health and social care and we have in terms of our fuel poverty group a health professional on that group as well from Health Improvement Scotland so we are looking at that very closely we have already said this morning this afternoon about our Scotland's energy efficiency programme what we are currently doing with our warm works programme and our energy advice and we will continue to do that and what we are also looking at in the building of new homes to ensure that our energy efficiency as well as improving the housing stock of the current homes. Briefly, please. Does the Scottish Government agree that the best way to improve housing standards in the private rented sector is to incentivise landlords Minister What I would say to the member we have already in the housing bill the housing act that was passed last year improved standards that landlords have to make to ensure that their houses are up to standard because it still is a problem and it is showing that it is in the private rented sector that the housing is of the poorest quality and we have taken actions to address that and we will continue to do that in regulating letting agents in enforcing landlord powers and giving tenants more right in our private tenancies bill To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle poverty Our commitment to tackling the long term drivers of poverty through early intervention and prevention is articulated in the child poverty strategy for Scotland 2014-17 The strategy focuses on maximising household resources improving children's wellbeing and life chances and provision of well-designed sustainable places It includes a full measurement framework against which the progress on the key outcomes will be measured We have also appointed an independent advisor in poverty and inequality and we will publish a social justice action plan early in the new year The Scottish Government is committed to building a fairer Scotland but we are aware that the UK Government's welfare cuts and austerity agenda will have a significant and detrimental impact in Scotland and do nothing to tackle the scourge of child poverty George Adam Thank the minister for her answer Does the minister agree with me that it is unacceptable for the Westminster Government to spend billions of pounds renewing trident while at the same time spending hundreds of thousands of pounds every time to drop a bomb in Syria? Is it right that they are doing all this while there is unprecedented use of food banks in Scotland? Minister, briefly please I certainly do not think that it is right that the Scottish Government is firmly opposed to the UK Government's plans to retain and renew its trident nuclear weapons It is indefensible that the UK Government proposes wasting £167 billion on renewing trident nuclear weapons and it is doubly galling, while people are being hit so hard by the treasuries damaging and austerity cuts that we know are forcing people into food banks and also the decision of the UK Parliament to expand airstrikes against Daesh are potentially counterproductive and less supported by a comprehensive strategy to bring a peaceful end to the wider conflict and build a fair and just stable future for the people of Syria we urge the UK Government and international community to work towards this end as a matter of utmost urgency 8. Kevin Stewart To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the planning review panel to complete its work The review panel is expected to submit its recommendations to the Scottish ministers in May 2016 The cabinet secretary is well aware of the controversial Marshall Square development in Aberdeen Will he consider any proposal on the review panel or others to require developers of major projects to provide 3D video visualisations of their schemes at the pre-application stage to better inform the public about the proposals I would agree that 3D visualisations can be useful but we have no plans at present to require them for all major projects but we would encourage authorities and developers to make use of them as a matter of good practice This could be particularly helpful where there is significant community interest in a major development 9. Jackie Baillie To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that it will end fuel poverty by November 2016 The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating fuel poverty as far as reasonably practical by November 2016 The Scottish Government is doing everything it can and the latest statistics show that fuel poverty levels have been contained despite fuel prices rising Jackie Baillie I would question the minister's response while still thanking her for it because isn't it the case that the method by which you account fuel poor in Scotland has changed so a simple manipulation of the figures has accounted for the fall and no action on the part of the Scottish Government isn't it therefore the truth that the SNP will not end fuel poverty in November 2016 Minister? I would certainly say that we are not manipulating the figures The methodology used in the Scottish House and Conditions Survey to estimate fuel poverty was recently changed at the methodology to reflect the current industry standard for assessing home energy performance but what I would say to member is last year the methodology changed as well when fuel poverty rose by the methodology so for the first time the survey also includes the contribution of the warm home discount scheme and a more accurate reflection of the prices households are paying for fuel in Scotland Question 10 Rob Gibson To ask the Scottish Government what consideration the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pension rights has given to the implementing of the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights Action that gives effect to rights identified in the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights is central to the work of the Scottish Government Equality and social justice are at the heart of our programme for government and we are committed to economic growth that is both sustainable and inclusive we have taken specific actions to reflect a human rights approach including promoting gender equality fair work in the living wage delivering high quality health and social care services building affordable homes and working to empower communities and legislating for land reform those actions contribute directly to the shared vision in Scotland's national action plan for human rights of a Scotland where everyone can live a life of human dignity through the realisation of internationally recognised human rights Briefly Mr Gibson Thank you for that answer Can the cabinet secretary offer any other examples under the UN Charter as they influence the policy drafting in planning and in housing law Briefly minister I would briefly point out that the international obligations are mirrored in Scotland's approach to homelessness legislation which ensures that all those assessed as being homeless through no fault of their owner legally entitled to settle the accommodation and the work we are doing to provide a ready supply of affordable housing at 50,000 in the next Parliament That ends portfolio questions The next site of business is a statement by John Swinney on the draft