 I want to draw members' attention to a revision to the ministerial code in relation to parliamentary liaison officers, which comes into force from today. Up to now, the session PLOs have been required to declare their appointment the first time they participate in parliamentary business relating to the portfolio of their cabinet secretary. Please advise you that following a request from the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, the First Minister has now revised the code requiring PLOs to declare every time they are participating in business relating to their cabinet secretary and this applies from today. I am sure that members will agree that this is a welcome change to procedure which will enhance the transparency of parliamentary business. The first item of business is topical questions and our first question is from Willie Rennie. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of intolerable working conditions at Amazon's Fife warehouse. It is important that all employees in all workplaces are treated fairly and the Scottish Government is doing everything that it can within its powers to drive up employment standards and promote good working practices with the powers that are available to us. Willie Rennie. Reports about camping outside the centre and an undercover reporter have lifted the lid on Amazon. In one case, the company penalised the worker for being in hospital with a kidney infection. The Scottish Government paid almost £1 million to Amazon last year, even though it did not pay all its workers the real living wage. Can the minister rule out paying Amazon any more grants in future? All the grants that were previously awarded to Amazon have been paid and the conditions attached to them have been fulfilled. It is also true to say that grants go back many years to 2005. I am concerned about the reports over the weekend. I have been in touch with Amazon and we are working on establishing a meeting to take place within the next seven days so that those issues can be raised. Of course, those matters are of concern to the Scottish Government as they will be of concern to anybody. It is important that we do what we can to raise them. We do not have the powers in terms of either the living wage or some other employment laws that allow us to take the action that we would like to take. We would like to legislate for a living wage. We have said that on many occasions. In the absence of that, what we can do is make representations and speak to Amazon and make clear how we find the practices that are unacceptable. That is what will happen over the course of the next few days. Willie Rennie I am afraid that the minister has ducked my question. When I raised the issue with the First Minister on numerous occasions, she previously sent Roseanna Cunningham to the Amazon plant. What happened with that meeting? Did she tell them that she would receive more grants? If not, why not? It is about time that the Government gave some clarity on whether it will give Amazon grants in the future. I have just said to Willie Rennie that we have no outstanding grants. We have no proposals for further grants from Amazon. We have no intention of providing those for the grants, not least in the absence of any application. The applications that are made and the conditions that are attached to them have been fulfilled. The grants have been paid, as were the grants made by the previous administration under the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party—the same conditions that I would imagine applied at that time. It is very important that we do what we can to bring jobs to Scotland, which is the purpose of those grants. Of course, it is also very important that we promote fair work and fair work practices. That will be the focus of the meeting that I have with Amazon in the coming days. Jackie Baillie The cabinet secretary will be aware that Amazon has a global value of £290 billion, £6 billion in revenues in the UK, yet it pays very little tax. It gets employees to opt out of the working-time directive to get a job, and, as we have already heard, threaten workers with the sack if they are off sick or pay so little that staff are camping out to avoid travel costs. I understand what the cabinet secretary is saying about grants being given to Amazon in the past, but could he review conditions that apply to any regional selective assistance or other grants that are given by the Government to future companies—not just Amazon, but all of them—to reflect fair work practices? I thank Jackie Baillie first of all for acknowledging the simple fact that we do not hold those powers in relation to either insisting upon the living wage or some of the employment practices that she has mentioned. In relation to future grants, it would be the case that we would want to continue to look at each application that is made on its merits. The reason why I say that is because Jackie Baillie will know from the way that the living foundation will go about their work. They will often work with companies that do not pay a living wage in the idea, the belief and the hope that they can encourage them to paying a living wage. That is one of the—in fact, they can even be given accreditation in advance of paying a living wage. I think that what we do want to do in the focus of our activity must be on is, of course, first of all, making sure that we bring jobs to Scotland and we encourage job creation, at the same time as either encouraging those companies that do not currently pay a living wage to do so, or driving up nearly 80 per cent of people in Scotland currently who pay a living wage. That seems to me to be the practical and responsible way to go about this. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what steps is he taking to ensure that Amazon is in compliance with existing employment laws, although he does not have power to create new employment laws? What steps are he taking to ensure that they are in compliance? Given that Amazon is not a signatory to the business pledge, is the cabinet secretary pleased with the current uptake of the business pledge, which has been signed by less than 300 businesses in Scotland, representing less than one and every thousand businesses in Scotland? First of all, I did not mention Jackie Baillie's point, but we have no powers in relation to the raising of tax from those companies. The same is true as I mentioned already in terms of employment law. I have mentioned that I have written to Amazon and we expect to meet them shortly. Of course, their practices are things that we are looking at, in which we will review not least but not only in relation to the press reports that we have had over the course of the weekend. In addition to that, I think that it is extremely important that we encourage companies to sign up to the business pledge. There are many other companies that are currently considering this. They want to know about the terms and also the provisions of the business pledge to see if they can possibly meet them. I think that it is a good initiative and it has to start. It is important that we do that. It is not something, for example, that the UK Government has done. I would have thought that Dean Lockhart would have welcomed that initiative and welcomed those 300 companies thus far and others who are considering it. The fact that they are willing to sign up to vital provisions is, of course, just to remind Dean Lockhart, which includes a commitment to pay the living wage. Mark Ruskell will be aware of repeated reports in the media that the company has been hostile towards unionisation. In fact, a JMB described it a couple of years ago as a one unionisation drive as being like being in the French resistance. Will the Government commit towards ensuring that union membership is available and respected for staff members at all companies receiving grant funding and subsidies from the Government? I would say to the member that we routinely encourage companies right throughout Scotland to recognise and to work with trade unions, because we believe that the influence of trade unions is a positive both in terms of workforce development and the welfare of its workforce. We do that as a matter of course. Of course, companies have the right not to do that, and when that happens, we have been willing to get involved in the past, whether to help to make the connections with relevant trade unions or to further encourage them to reconcile that position. We will continue to do that as we deal with companies in the future. Neil Findlay In 2012-13, Amazon paid £3.2 million corporation tax on £4 billion of UK sales and claimed back £2.5 million in public grants. We hear, as Willie Rennie said, another million last year, tax avoidance, low pay, poor working conditions and no trade union recognition. What exactly is the Government's message to companies like that, who breach the principles of fair work, breach the business pledge? I think that the Government needs to call them out. Those employers need to be exposed for what they are, their exploiters, their cheats and their a throwback to a Victorian era. I have done precisely the point that Neil Findlay makes by contacting Amazon as my predecessor Roseanna Cunningham, where we intend to put those points to them. In particular, the allegations made over the course of the weekend. Neil Findlay started off by talking about tax. We do not have the power to insist on a tax regime to clamp down on what I agree with Neil Findlay, although he does not want to listen to it. I agree with Neil Findlay that it is widespread tax practices that we would not condone and we would not want to see repeated where we have control over those tax-raising powers. As ever, there is a great deal that Neil Findlay and I agree on, but he is determined at each point to make sure that that is not the public perception. Regardless of that, I will continue to work to try to encourage Amazon and employers like Amazon to have good working practices, fair working practices and to recognise trade unions. I ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest BMA GP survey. As demonstrated by the recent joint memorandum, we are working closely with the BMA to deliver a new vision for general practice and primary care, which will help to address the workload challenges facing Scotland's GPs. That is why, by the end of this Parliament, we will increase spending on primary care services to 11 per cent of the front-line NHS budget, delivering an extra half a billion pounds in building a genuine community health service with general practice at its heart. Let's look at the figures in the survey. We already knew that one in three practices are now reporting a GP vacancy and that the practices are closing, but the BMA GP survey has found that 91 per cent of GPs believe that their workload negatively affects the quality of patient care. Only 7 per cent of GPs say that consultation times are adequate, and new figures published by the BMA today show that 35 per cent of GPs are planning to retire from general practice in the next five years. 20 per cent of them are planning to move to part-time, 6 per cent are planning to move abroad and 6 per cent are planning to quit medicine altogether. That is directly linked to the £1.6 billion cut to GP budgets imposed by this Government over the last 10 years. Will the cabinet secretary take responsibility, accept that her party has been in control of the NHS for 10 years and accept that, in her two years as health secretary, she has overseen a declining performance? Will she therefore take this opportunity to apologise to Scotland's GPs and their patients? We are getting on with working with Scotland's GPs through the BMA to deliver a new contract that will deliver a new vision for primary care, along with £0.5 billion worth of additional investment over the course of this Parliament. To Anasarwa, in terms of investment in GP services, we have seen that increase in cash terms each year under this Government, rising by £175 million from £704.6 million in 2007-08 to £879.9 million in 2015-16. That is a cumulative increase of £920 million under the SNP to 2015-16, but we accept that there is more to be done, which is why, of course, we are working on the new contract. That is why, in the short term, I announced £20 million of a package to help ease pressures on workload in the short term and contribute to putting general practice on a more long-term sustainable footing. I have said in the chamber on a number of occasions that I recognise the pressures that Scotland's GPs are under, which is why we are working so hard with the BMA to deliver a new contract address workload issues and make sure that we get general practice and primary care on a more sustainable footing. It is clear that the cabinet secretary does not do sorry to our patients and to our NHS workforce. The reality has been a real terms £1.6 billion cut under this Government. I welcome the reversal of the cut to GP budgets, but my fear is that it may be too late and nothing more than a sticking plaster approach after 10 years of SNP mismanagement. Labour has been pressing the Government to take steps to help alleviate the pressure and build for the long term, to firstly reverse the cuts to funding and prioritise the retention and recruitment of GPs, to increase the funding for auxiliary staff such as nurse practitioners, mental health nurses, counsellors, physiotherapists and others to work in practices and support GPs, to expand the minor ailment service in pharmacies to help to take the pressure of GPs and to use the opportunity of the new GP contract to renew and revitalise primary care. If this Government does not change course, then as the chair of the BMA's Scottish GP committee has said today, and I quote, we could soon be in a situation where we do not have enough GPs to deliver effective care to patients. Will the cabinet secretary accept our proposals and avoid that being her legacy? Cabinet secretary. So I don't regard £500 million over the course of this Parliament as being a sticking plaster. That is exactly what has been asked for by the profession and 11 per cent share of NHS front-line funding. That is what we will deliver, what this Government will deliver. Anasarwar ran through a number of suggestions. It should maybe look at what is already happening. All of the things that Anasarwar suggested are already happening. The multidisciplinary teams are exactly what the new model of primary care will be built around. The minor ailment service is being tested and overclied as we speak. That is going forward. I think that Anasarwar should perhaps do his homework before turning up here, with a list that is a direct left from what the Scottish Government is already doing. Alice Crawhamilton Thank you, Presiding Officer. Three weeks ago, the City of Edinburgh Council passed its local development plan and with its rubber stamped nearly 5,000 new family homes in my constituency, a place that has not seen a new health centre built in 45 years. That will lead to potentially 20,000 new patients exerting demands on practices that are already on their knees. When I raised that with the First Minister two weeks ago, she unfairly suggested that I was trying to tell local authorities how to do their job. What I was asking for was for the health sector and the housing minister to work together so that the planning bill can give local authorities the tools that they need to compel local developers to consider building things like health centres and to rule out developments on the grounds that there is no healthcare infrastructure. Will she confirm to me today that she will work with the housing minister to that end? I can say to Alex Cole-Hamilton that the point that the First Minister was making was that the Liberal Democrats often criticised us for what they termed centralisation. Then they came to this Parliament asking us to tell local government what they should do around those matters. However, in a spirit of consensus where I do agree with Alex Cole-Hamilton is that we need to ensure that we have the infrastructure in primary care to make sure that where there are housing developments or, indeed, just increased demand that we have the infrastructure there. NHS Lothian and my officials and myself have had regular discussions around the need for infrastructure investment in primary care. As far as I am aware, there are plans being developed to ensure that the primary care infrastructure is fit for purpose. There are particular issues in Lothian that I have spoken to Alex Cole-Hamilton and other Lothian members around to make sure that we address some of those short-term issues, which are very real for patients who are struggling to get access to a GP. I am very happy to write to Alex Cole-Hamilton to give him further details of what NHS Lothian is planning, and I will do that after this session. The cabinet secretary may be aware that figures released today show that not only are there fewer GPs in Scotland than there were two years ago, but there are also the lowest number of practices since her party came to power. In fact, the number of practices has decreased in every year that the SNP has been in power. With rising demand, more GPs nearing retirement and a significant GP shortage, will the cabinet secretary take responsibility for her party's abject failure to manage primary care over the past 10 years? The only point that I would make before is that I absolutely accept responsibility, which is why we have come up with a very comprehensive plan of what we are going to do to help to turn the situation around for general practice and primary care. The only point that I would make to Donald Cameron is that the same issues that he raises here today are exactly the same issues that are happening within NHS England, exactly the same. Before he levels criticisms here, he should look at the situation down south. Of course, to be fair to the UK Government, some of the actions that they are taking to address the issues in primary care are exactly the same action that we are taking here. That is making sure that we have the right workforce in the right place, more GPs but also more other health professionals to ensure that we can deliver those multidisciplinary teams. We need to ensure that clusters are developed so that practices can be supported with staff in the right places. All the actions that I have laid out, with the £500 million over the course of this Parliament and additional funding, will help to address those issues. I am very happy to make sure that Donald Cameron and anyone else is furnished with the details of those, if they so wish.