 Rwy'n gweld gwneud yn gwybod i ei guweithio a'i gweithio gynnog yn gyntafon gyffredinosol, gan gyfaen presyfiadau oedd gwmeliadau a chylegau iddyn nhw i'n cael eu pentyn ymddangos dechrau. Rwy'n gweld i chi i'n gwybod i'r gwirioneddau ymddangos dechrau intefnigol ar gyfer gwasiwn ni. A byddai'n cael digwydd a wedi�flygu ar y cyfran o gynyddswil o ddaidd a'u effaith i'r gymhyself, ac i'n gweld i'r gwirionedd a'u effaith a'u hyry, i'n cael eu cyfraffu I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. In the stage 1 report on the land reform bill it has shown that social rural housing is needed across Scotland and planners have been allowed to group houses and village envelopes to make it easier to supply utilities. The real needs are for houses for tenant farmers and crofters to allow a retailer of agricultural lists on the spot in the places where they live and work. Will the Scottish Government ensure that planning makes real needs, not planning theories unshooted to much of Scotland? I have a great deal of sympathy with the point that the member makes. Our view is that planning authorities should accommodate the needs of people as expressed. We have the independent planning review being undertaken at the present time. I hope that the planning review will address the matter in its report, which should be due some time early in the new year. It is quite right that we need more housing and, to make it happen, we need to ensure that planning regulations are not overzealous. What analysis has the Scottish Government done on planning systems elsewhere that take less time to make decisions? We always look for best practice through our own offices, as well as the professional bodies representing the planning industry in Scotland. Obviously, one of the aspects of the independent planning review will be to receive evidence on where things work better elsewhere and what we can learn from other regimes. We have never taken the view that we get everything absolutely right in Scotland. We can always learn from other people, and that applies to planning, as it does to other aspects of policy. John Scott To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Ayrshire and Arran to discuss primary care out-of-hours services. The report of findings and recommendations of the national review of primary care out-of-hours services was published on Monday 30 November. The purpose of the review was to ensure that out-of-hours services were patient-centred, safe and sustainable as part of our wider reforms of primary care. NHS Ayrshire and Arran representatives contributed to the review, and the review chair and review team from the Scottish Government visited NHS Ayrshire and Arran on 26 June this year as part of the review's national engagement programme. Officials will continue to be in contact with NHS Ayrshire and Arran as we move into implementing the recommendations of the review, and I have recently met the chair and chief executive. John Scott I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer, and the cabinet secretary will be aware that a significant number of GPs in Ayrshire are approaching retirement age. She will also be aware of the difficulty in recruiting young doctors to become GPs in Ayrshire, particularly in the rural areas. The recent suggestion of university bias against such a career path does not help in the situation. Given the likely lack of GP availability for these and other reasons, how does she see a doctor-led out-of-hours services being delivered in Ayrshire in the future? Of course, the member will be aware that all of the pertinent matters that Sir Lewis Richie dealt with in his very, very good report pointed the way to a multidisciplinary team solution, not just in Ayrshire and Arran, but across Scotland, with the focus around the urgent care resource hubs, where urgent care is co-ordinated from the one place. That was with an out-of-hours context, but it has an in-hours application as well. The member will, I am sure, be aware of the nurse-led pilot in Ayrshire. I can tell him that over 2,500 patients were referred to the Ayrshire out-of-hours service and half of them were referred to advanced nurse practitioners. The role of the GP within the multidisciplinary teams will be as a clinical expert supporting the multidisciplinary team. From the feedback of that pilot in Ayrshire, the feedback is very, very positive indeed. It leads the way of how a multidisciplinary team can work to bolster and improve out-of-hours services. I think that the pilot is excellent. I think that we would all commend the work that is being done, but, obviously, demand pressures are increasing all the time on the health service. Can the cabinet secretary please tell the chamber how many more patients are now being treated annually by primary of our services in NHS Ayrnand since the SNP came to office in 2007? The number of patients being treated across the whole of the NHS has continued to increase. Out-of-hours is no exception to that. I will write to the member with the patient numbers for Ayrshire and Arran, but that is why, of course, we need to ensure the sustainability of out-of-hours services going forward, which is why the report from Sir Louis Ritchie is so timely and so pertinent, because it shows that, with the right workforce model, with the right multidisciplinary team, we can provide robust out-of-hours services to what will be a growing number of patients. Also, if we get that right, we can avoid patients going to other parts of the health system, which is obviously something that we want to do. Richard Simpson, can I just point out that it is about NHS Ayrnand in primary care? I welcome the cabinet secretary's responses and I also welcome the Sir Louis Ritchie report, which is obviously critical to care in Ayrshire and Arran and elsewhere going forward. However, could I ask her in the meantime, while we are setting up new pilots for the Sir Louis Ritchie model of which Ayrshire and Arran again has got one of the possible pilots, could I ask her to take a look at the problems that are occurring in Ayrshire and other areas in relation to transport of patients to the more limited number of out-of-hours centres, such as is occurring in Lanarkshire and Tayside? Obviously, we have a debate on primary care next week, where we will be able to explore those issues in more detail, but we will require, while the roll-out of the report recommendations is happening, we will require boards to maintain a robust and sustainable set of out-of-hours arrangements as we move towards a different model of delivery of out-of-hours. I am happy to ensure that Richard Simpson gets an update on the transport issue in advance of the debate next week. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the road haulage industry regarding reported driver shortages. The Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training met with the Scottish road haulage group to discuss this matter in March, and that was followed by a meeting with officials in June. My officials also met with Lantra and the road haulage association in the past two months. Skills Development Scotland has been working with the road freight industry partners on developing an invitation to quote for research aimed at gathering evidence on the scale of the shortage in Scotland. The invitation to quote for this work is expected to issue shortly and will inform the development of a skills investment plan for the industry. Finally, I would encourage employers to consider the potential for recruiting former members of the armed forces into the haulage industry, many of whom will have received the industry relevant training and experience that could give them a head start in securing the civilian qualifications that they need. I thank the minister for his reply, and I welcome the action taken to date by Skills Development Scotland. Is the minister willing to discuss with the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training the possibility of working in partnership with haulage firms to share the costs of training new drivers, not just in the general haulage sector, but also in the specialised livestock haulage sector, where there is a specific shortage? Yes, I am very happy to initiate those discussions and report back to Mr MacDonald. Thank you. Questions 4 and 5 have not been lodged. In both cases, the members have provided an explanation. To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to promote self-help as a form of preventative care. The 2020 vision for health and social care focuses on prevention anticipation and supported self-management. We need to ensure that people can live and die well with whatever health conditions they have. We are working with the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland. The Alliance developed our self-management strategy, Gone Yourself, and administers the £2 million per annum self-management fund. Our world-leading health literacy action plan, making it easy, supports people to be in the driving seat of their care by building their skills and confidence to use health information. That sits at the heart of our commitment to deliver a safe, effective and person-centred healthcare system. The One Stop Shop in Inverness offers a range of services to adults with autistic spectrum disorder. Because it delies in the budget this year, they are very concerned about the future of the service in Inverness. Can I ask the minister, can the One Stop Shop and its clients continue to count on the support of the Scottish Government? When will they be told that their funding will continue? Of course, the One Stop Shop in Inverness, like the One Stop Shop for people with autistic spectrum disorders, is a matter for health boards. They will be the ones who fund it. Personally, I think that they deliver an excellent service. I visited the one in Aberdeen, and I think that they do a marvellous job. I would hope that health boards would continue to fund them. To ask the Scottish Government whether the savings arising from renegotiating of the price of new hepatitis C medicines will be used to increase the number of people receiving treatment. Our sexual health and blood-borne virus framework, which we published this September, committed us to increasing annual hepatitis C treatment targets to 1,500. However, we were also clear that we would keep that target under review as the price of therapies changed and as more treatments came to the market. The treatment and therapies group, which we established to provide us with expert advice on those matters, will meet later this month to discuss recent developments in that respect. It includes members from NHS boards, procurement and patient organisations. We will consider carefully any advice that the group provides. The Scottish Government recently committed to the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health concern. While this is welcome, in order to do this, we must increase even further the number of people being diagnosed and treated. Will the Minister consider establishing a working group within the new sexual health and blood-borne vessel framework to investigate exactly what steps we need to take to eliminate the virus, given the importance of ensuring that this commitment is realised? The member is, of course, correct that we want to eliminate hepatitis C in Scotland. The number that we are treating has been welcomed by all those involved in the industry. As I said, we have the treatment and therapies group, of which we rely on advice, and we will look forward to the next report. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to assist farmers in Scotland. The Scottish Government supports farmers in a range of different ways. We provide around half a billion pounds, £500 million per annum through direct support through the new common agricultural policy, which for the first time will have access for new entrants, and we have a couple of support schemes for both beef and sheep producers. The Scottish rural development programme supports around 11,000 farmers and crofters through the ELFAS scheme and the new multi-million pound beef efficiency scheme that we are introducing as well. Those schemes seek to support Scottish agriculture and to ensure that the sector has a profitable and sustainable future. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. A recent meeting at Theinston in my constituency, I met with farmers and suppliers. They are expressing their concern that the banks are maybe not taking overdraft and bridging loans for suppliers in particular. They have not met the suppliers to look at this overdraft facility. I know that the cabinet secretary has met the farmers and the bankers to look at this. What can he do to allay their fears and concerns with overdraft facilities? Thank you, and we share Dennis Robertson's concerns over the cash flow issues facing many Scottish farmers and crofters. For that reason, I recently met RBS, the Clyde Steel Bank, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, to discuss their relationship with their farmers at the moment. They all gave me an assurance that they are standing by the sector at this time. If any individual farmers have any particular problems, they should alert their local bank as soon as possible. If there are any instances that Dennis Robertson can make available from speaking to his constituents, please let me have them, and I will discuss them directly with the banks. Not many of your constituency there. To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is available to planning authorities to ensure that equalities are central to the decision-making process. Presiding Officer, equality is integrated throughout Scottish planning legislation and guidance. A core value of the planning service is that it should be inclusive, engaging all interests as early and as effectively as possible. I highlight to the cabinet secretary the petition that was submitted to Parliament on 3 December by Eastumbartonshire Visually Impaired People's Forum. It was about shared space schemes, which include the Catherine Street junction in my constituency. In that petition, it referred to the lack of consideration by Eastumbartonshire Council of the proposal on the visually and mobility impaired. Is there any advice that the cabinet secretary can give to the group? I am aware of the petition and confirm that officials have listened to the concerns of representatives from local disability groups. In general, shared space schemes can be appropriate in some settings to put people in place before the movement of motor vehicles, but the decision is very much for local decision-making and local authorities on a case-by-case basis. Clearly, people should be given every opportunity to ensure that the shared space allocation within their community is absolutely adequate to their needs. What new efforts have the Scottish Government made to work with planning authorities to avoid the all-too-common scenario where local decisions are appealed but overturned centrally? I am not sure that that is entirely relevant. Dennis Robertson Does the cabinet secretary share my concern that people with significant visual impairments and those with dementia and other mobility problems as well cannot orientate through shared spaces because they have no significant landmarks? I am very aware of the problem, in fact. I was this morning launching the official new place standard tool, which will help local authorities and others to address some of those issues. I think that the point that Dennis Robertson raises is a very valid one, and one that every planning authority, indeed every department of every authority, including central government, should take full account of. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to adjust the common agricultural policy greening measures so that they can be implemented in the clearest way for farmers without jeopardising environmental benefits. In Brussels next week, I will meet representatives from the European Commission to explain why their greening requirements, in particular the three-crop rule, are not compatible with Scottish agriculture and why common sense must prevail to enable our farmers to choose alternative measures through what are known as the equivalence rules. I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that. There is still concern, as highlighted to me at the 4th and Clyde meeting, regional meeting of NFUS, and I'm very concerned particularly about a range of issues, but particularly about the grazing on ecological focus area buffer zones and the confusion expressed to me about where farmers are not able to graze because you have made the decision not to implement the grazing rule and how the double, where there are buffers for water courses, is beyond that. There is also the confusion about whether the ecological focus area has to be added to that or whether it can be part of the same buffer. There are three elements to the European rules on greening, the new common agricultural policy, and 30 per cent of the payments are dependent on farmers meeting those conditions. Where we have had some influence over flexibility in terms of how we implement those in Scotland, we have worked closely with the sector. If there is a specific concern that has been expressed to Claudia Beamish, I would ask her to contact my office and I'm happy to meet her because it sounds quite a technical issue, but I'd be happy to learn more about it and see what we could do.