 I have the next item of business in the topic of questions. Question number 1 is from Monica Lennon. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it had to address the financial deficit that has reported to be facing 16 out of 20 colleges in the current financial year. Mr Shirley-Anne Somerville. The recent Audit Scotland report, Scotland's colleges 2016 highlighted that the financial health of the sector remains relatively stable. The Scottish funding council works closely with colleges to ensure that deficits are kept to a minimum and operational activity is not adversely affected and where required special measures are being put into place. Mwneun i gael hynny. The minister has attempted to give a reassuring answer but there is no escaping that this is a worrying financial picture which comes at a time when the Scottish Government has cut funding to colleges in real terms year-on-year since 2010. Budgets have been pushed to breaking point. Now we know from the latest returns reported to the Scottish funding council that over three quarters of Scotland's colleges are expected to be in the red by the end of the year. Will the minister take responsibility for the situation that the college sector now finds itself in, which her Government has created and rely any further cuts to this year's college budgets? Scottish Government funding levels for 2015-16 remained steady at 2014-15 levels. In a hugely tight financial times that we are in, our 2016-17 budget protected college resource funding at £530 million, and that is despite a cut to the Scottish Government's overall budget due to the Westminster austerity agenda. As I said, the recent Audit Scotland report concluded that the college sector is financially stable overall. Funding councils are working closely with the colleges to analyse these latest returns. For example, to determine how those figures relate to technical accounting adjustments such as property asset valuation reductions or net depreciation charges. The member can be reassured that the funding council is and will continue to work with colleges through a range of specific measures where they are needed. The minister is correct at funding for the sector that remains broadly static for 15-16, but that is a real-term cut since 2010-11 of 18 per cent. I am disappointed by the lack of assurances regarding funding for colleges in the next year, which I am sure will be shared by those in the sector who are facing the uncertainty over further cuts. The Scottish Government has failed to deliver on the promises made to the further education sector. From promising national pay scales without delivering the resources to deliver it to bringing colleges into the public sector balance sheet and failing to deliver an adequate solution. Just last month, the Auditor General told the Public Audit Committee that it is difficult to assess whether the college major programme has saved the sector money. As a result of those factors, colleges have lost staff and the number of part-time courses and students has reduced. Does the minister accept the recommendations in the Audit Scotland report on colleges and what steps will the minister be taking to ensure the long-term financial stability of the sector? I hope that Monica Lennon will appreciate that I am not going to write Derek Mackay's budget for next year for colleges or any other part of my remit. You can indeed have a go, but I am not going to go down that path today. We will be looking at the funding for colleges and universities and the rest of the education system through the budget process. I hear her demands for calls for colleges, I hear her demands from the Labour Party for calls on many other aspects. As we go through the budget process, it will be for the Opposition parties to come together and to deal with the budget in a realistic manner to work out where their priorities are, just as we do as a Government. The financial situation that we are working in is tight, and I am sorry, but it is simply not acceptable to continue to demand money for education, for the NHS, for transport and every other section of the Scottish Government budget without a dose of realism about where that money is going to come from in the difficult decisions that you have to make in government about balancing the books. Colin Beattie As a member of the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Crescutinay Committee, I have heard a great deal about arm's length foundations. Is it not the case that alfs allow colleges to protect revenue that would otherwise have been lost following ONS reclassification? Could the minister outline how much of the funds transferred into alfs has been returned to the colleges? The member makes a very important point, and Monica Lennon did also discuss ONS reclassification during her answer. She seemed to assume that this was something that the Scottish Government had wanted or brought upon itself, and of course it was not. Arm's length foundations were a way of allowing colleges to keep the reserves that they had before reclassification continued. Alms are separate to the Scottish Government, and they are independent of the Scottish Government. They have been set up with a charitable purpose with the colleges, and it is for the colleges to have determined during those articles of association how the money will be spent from alfs. It is for colleges themselves to look at the money that is within the alfs and make sure that they are spending that in the correct manner. Llyr Smyth I asked the minister about the Scottish funding council's response when it said in its recent estimate of the total cost of the murders in 2016 that it did not include the cost of harmonising staff terms and conditions, which could obviously be significant. Could I ask the minister whether the Scottish Government is carrying out a very urgent and very thorough estimate of what that will involve? The funding council has looked at both the costs and the benefits that have accrued from the regionalisation process within colleges. Llyr Smyth mentions one aspect of that. The Government has set up national bargaining for colleges, and many of the aspects that she refers to will be dealt with through national bargaining, and the conclusions from that will be dealt with through the spending review process. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the introduction of an injecting facility for drug users in Glasgow. Minister Eileen Campbell Glasgow City Joint Integration Board agreed yesterday for a business case to be developed to pilot safer drug consumption facility and heroin-assisted treatment in Glasgow. The Scottish Government sees value in that proposal and is supportive of it, subject to the business case, which is to be presented to the Glasgow City Joint Integration Board in February 2017 being acceptable. I thank the minister for that answer. There is no question that something must be done to tackle drug addiction not only in Glasgow but right across Scotland. There has been a significant increase in the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland, which is why the SNP's decision to cut drug and alcohol funding in last year's budget is so baffling and so misguided. One specific question for the minister today, Professor Neil McEagney of the Centre for Substance Use Research has cautioned that there is a real danger that we are moving away from a commitment to get addicts off drugs. What can the minister say to reassure the chamber today that getting people off illegal drugs and preventing drug use remain key priorities of the Government's drugs policy? I thank the member for the supplementary. We, as a Government, have invested heavily and significantly in treating drug and alcohol dependency issues since 2008 and continue to do so and continue to work with alcohol drug partnerships, continue to work with stakeholders across the country who have an interest in making sure that people can get the support that they need and when they require them. Of course, there will be a mixture of solutions to people's dependency issues, the trauma that people have gone through their lives, the homelessness, the poverty issues and the isolation that they may face. There needs to be a holistic approach to taking to ensure that we can help people when they need it. That help has to be timely as well. There is also a job for us to do in tackling the stigma that is associated with drug dependency. From my point of view, the minister for public health and the Government's point of view is evident by the significant funding that we have put into the area and by our commitment to help people to become more stable in life and tackling associated risky behaviours. We have a clear commitment to tackling and doing all that we can to help Scotland to become much more healthy as a nation and to ensure that people can live their lives without being unnecessarily dependent upon illegal drugs. Adam Tomkins The minister talks about significant and sustained funding, but the fact is that this Government cut drug and alcohol funding in its budget by 20 per cent in last year's budget. Possession of heroin is, of course, an offence, but it is also an offence to permit premises to be used for the supply of heroin. What is the Scottish Government's position on whether the criminal law should be enforced in the circumstances that we are talking about, and what does the minister make of the suggestion by the UN's international narcotics control board that fixed rooms could breach international drug control treaties? As I said yesterday, the minister had the agreement to look at the business case, make the business case, develop that business case, and we will look at those proposals. Subject to then being acceptable, the Glasgow situation will move forward. Of the issues that the member raises around drugs legislation, the Lord Advocate would have to authorise any proposal to establish a supervised injecting facility, and presumably somebody with his constitutional knowledge would have realised and understood that as well. So I do not necessarily think that we want to get into this debate around looking at this from a point of view that something is right or wrong or black or white. We need to be able to look at the issues that people face who have drug dependency issues in a much more holistic sense. There are issues around poverty, homelessness and the trauma that people have gone on in their lives that have led them down this path. We need to tackle the stigma, we need to be able to deal holistically, as I said, with people's behaviours, and we need to work across the Parliament to ensure that we can, as a country, respond appropriately to help people when they need it. To ask the Scottish Government what lessons might be drawn from the MediClease to supervise safe injecting rooms in Sydney, Australia and other centres across the world that might add to the potential benefits of such a facility in Glasgow. I think that the member raises an interesting point, and we should look to all the evidence from around the world to inform how we move forward as a country. Evidence from around the world indicates that drug consumption facilities are associated with a decrease in public injecting, their effectiveness at reaching and maintaining contact with highly vulnerable, marginalised target populations has also been widely documented. However, we need to be mindful that we need to have a Scottish context, which is again why the Glasgow pilot will be important and important in terms of our knowledge and approaches going forward. Alex Cole-Hamilton Thank you, Presiding Officer. The 20 per cent cut to alcohol and drug partnership funding, which Adam Tomkins discussed, is one of the most retrograde steps in tackling substance use in this country. It has led to a measurable outbreak of HIV in Glasgow and, all told, according to Rob McCulloch-Graham, who is the chair of Edinburgh's integrated joint board, that will lead to a total of 1.3 million year-on-year cut-to services in our nation's capital. That is a fire sale. Does the cabinet secretary agree that, given the weight of international evidence supporting initiatives such as the injecting facility that is proposed in Glasgow, we should embrace it for Scotland? Will she now commit to reversing the cut to ADPs at the cost of which is already measured out in human lives? Ruth Davidson We have invested significantly since we came to power in 2008 in tackling and trying to help people cope with alcohol and drug dependency issues. The letter from the cabinet secretary to the NHS boards earlier on this year asked them and sought that they used their resources to match the outcomes of previous years and to look at the fact that they have had an uplift to their budget. This is an NHS that has had record investment and has support from this Government. We need to look at that wider context. We also need to look at what works. I accept the point that we need to be mindful and open to other approaches, provided that evidence is robust and that evidence is there. That is again why we will be looking at what is proposed in Glasgow with keen eyes to see what that case is and to see what evidence comes forward. That will also be what informs the Lord Advocate if he needs to take a decision. Certainly from my perspective and from this Government's perspective, the fact that we have some encouraging signs of drug taking amongst our younger population being lower than they have been for some considerable time, I think that many of our approaches are working. Again, I think that we need to work across the Parliament because this is a Scotland-wide issue that requires not just me in my portfolio but across all portfolios around housing, social security and a whole host of other areas to make sure that we can give people back the opportunity to move forward with their lives with dignity and respect. John Finnie Minister of the Scottish Green Party support community-based supervised medical interventions such as this. David Little of the Scottish Drugs Forum talked about this as being an additional provision to deal with long-term use of summer for human and a quote, abstinence recovery is not an immediate horizon. Would you join me in applauding the aim as outlined by Mr Liddell of saving lives and would you acknowledge that if this were rolled out across Scotland there is an opportunity to save even more lives? Again, I think that we need to make sure that the evidence is robust and that is what the IJB yesterday agreed to for that case to be made. We need to look at that evidence, we need to then, if that is given the go-ahead, need to look at that pilot and look at the evidence that that produces and certainly learn from the evidence within our own country and across the world as well. Certainly, I met David Liddell today from the Scottish Drugs Forum. I was hugely impressed by the level of commitment that they have and they show the diligence that they have put into this issue for decades now. We want to work collaboratively, indeed we do work collaboratively in the funding that we give to the Scottish Drugs Forum, because we do not want to see the statistics that we saw around drug deaths. What I was presented with when I was not long in post, that figure represents 700 lives and families affected. We certainly want to see that turned around and that will require us to work harder and understand that situation much more readily. In many of the elements that John Finnie spoke about there, I agree with him that we want to save lives and we want to work on community-based solutions for that. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take following the recent report on the performance of the border railway. I recently made this Parliament aware that my view that Scotland's performance levels have not been to the acceptable standard. That is why I requested an improvement plan from Scotland within that plan and the actions around it. There is a focus on the border's route performance. I am closely monitoring and reviewing progress to ensure that better performance is delivered. Christine Grahame I thank the minister for his answer. In the year from October 2015 to 2016, trains were cancelled on 47 weeks out of 52. In September, the Government put in place the recovery plan for border railway yet on October 20, three trains were cancelled, one from Tweed Bank had to terminate at Newton Grange due to door problems, and even the next day there were two cancellations. Does the minister consider the recovery plan as having any effect? John Swinney I would say to the member that, when an improvement plan is put in place, we have to give ScotRail the time to be able to enforce that and enact that. What I would say is that there is a serious amount of work going into that. For example, £14 million into the refurbishment and the improvement of the class 158. I would also say to the member that, unless I am misquoting, she can come back at her member's debate. Last week, she said that, to judge by my experience and by my inbox, there has been improvement in the services reliability in recent months. It was a bit bumpy at the beginning, but it is not now. I am sure that the member, from what she has just said last week, also recognises that there is an improvement. However, I am not going to be satisfied until the border railway reaches the PPM target and, indeed, some of those problems are resolved. Yes, there is an improvement plan in place and there is significant funding going into that. We are now going to give ScotRail the time to ensure that performance improves. If it does not, I will certainly be monitoring that very closely and there will be some consequences to that. I thank the minister. Of course, my comments were anecdotal, but this report from two long-time supporters of the line, Bill Jameson and David Spavin, calls for an official border railway specific survey to include the impact on repeat journeys, especially on commuters. Will the minister commission one? I met on a regular occasion with David Spavin and had the conversations about the border railway. There are criticisms about forecast methodology, about rolling stock and about track infrastructure of ones that I am very well aware of. I am happy to continue to discuss them with the campaign for border rail with elected members, as well. As I said, there are, of course, PPM figures for the border railway, which must be met. I will be working to ensure that ScotRail meets those figures that have improved in the past three days. That is only the last three days. You can take a snapshot from three days from a week, from a month, but until there is consistent improvement, I certainly will not be happy. There is an improvement plan in place, some serious investment going into ensuring that the border's improvement takes place in terms of its PPM. I will be closely monitoring that. Of course, I will keep the member, but others, such as David Spavin, and indeed the campaign for border railway up to date. Rachael Hamilton Campaigners have called for six asks to provide a better service for border rail service, and notwithstanding the improvement plan that ScotRail has in place, they include improving the efficiency of door opening and closing, increasing the number of coaches on busier services, replacing defective radiators on class 158s, improving the maintenance regime for the coaches, redeploying more reliable class 170 units and replacing faulty signalling equipment on the route. How many of those asks will the Scottish Government help to see implemented, and when can we expect to see those vital changes made to improve the performance of the border's railway? I thank the member for the question. I think that those asks are very reasonable asks indeed, and they are the ones that ScotRail are taking forward to just give some examples of some of those asks for talking sake. The radiators in the 158 are going through an engineering check. Some of them have been replaced, some of them have been refurbished in terms of the 158s. An engineer will also meet the 158s on its departure and on its arrival at stations as well. In terms of rolling stock being upgraded, when it comes to peak times in 2017, due to cascading of rolling stock around the network, there will be more capacity on the network at peak times in 2017. Some of what the campaigners are asking for is being done. I think that all those are very reasonable asks. They are asks that ScotRail are taking forward, each of the ones that she mentioned that I took her note of are being taken forward. I think that the reasonable asks—I think that ScotRail's improvements must improve their performance across the network, but there must be a particular focus on borders. Let's not take away on the district to end on this point that the border's railway has been a great success for that region. Over a million passengers, of course, had the longest rail, new rail line in a century. There is great success, and all that success is celebrated, but notwithstanding that there are some issues and ones that ScotRail are determined to get to the bottom of, and I will be keeping a personal lie on that. Neil Bibby. The border's rail monitor report makes clear that Transport Scotland is directly responsible for many of the problems on the border's rail, including the deployment of class 158 units and the cutting back of sections of double track. In addition, Transport Scotland massively underestimated passenger numbers on the line, astonishingly patronage at Tweed Bank in the first six months was 869 per cent above forecast. Clearly, the minister agrees that there are serious questions about Transport Scotland's forecasting abilities, and I welcome the much-needed review of their methodology. Therefore, once the review is completed, will the minister commit to new appraisals of rail infrastructure projects, and specifically the Glasgow Crossrail scheme, given that this important project was rejected using a methodology, it is now accepted to be flawed? What I was saying, the spirit of trying to keep the consensus around the success of the border's rail was, as I said at committee last week, there are certainly some of those forecasts were way off in some of the stations, so I instructed a review of forecast methodology. I will more than happily report those findings. Some of those initial findings actually have come forward and I think are very, very helpful. The reason why I asked and instructed that review of forecast methodology is that I do not want other rail projects to come forward and then be rejected on the basis of flawed forecast methodology. In terms of retrospectively reviewing, if people want to come forward with me, with campaigns, and I meet regularly with rail campaigners from leaving mouth right the way through to the borders and the improvements to be made on the borders, I am more than happy for people to come to me. I will be very open minded in that discussion, bearing in mind that we are going into new control, discussions on new control periods 6 and 7. However, what I will do is commit to sharing that. What I would also request to the member to do in the fairness of balance context is to acknowledge that the border's railway has of course been a great success to that region. It has brought so much into tourism regeneration and I think that it is something that we can all say has been a great success. Notwithstanding that, I will make sure that he gets a copy of any of the reviews and the findings of the review of the forecasting methodology.