 I wish to make a statement before we turn to the next item of business. At this morning's bureau meeting, James Kelly, the Labour Business Manager, expressed concern at the announcement made this morning to the media and not to the Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport on funding to tackle the lead discharge. I asked the Minister for Parliamentary Business to investigate the matter and to come back to me. I have subsequently spoken to the Minister and I find the response to be unsatisfactory. All members will be aware that the good practice guidance on announcements by the Scottish Government states that major policy and announcements should always be made to the Parliament. They should not enter the public domain through any other route. Whilst I accept that the Government is entitled to exercise its judgment on making announcements, that was clearly an announcement of significant public policy and should have been made to the Parliament in the first instance. In addition, the issue of delayed discharges has been of great concern to many members over the last few months. I therefore consider it to be a gross discurty say to this Parliament and its members that the announcement was not made here first. When a similar situation arose last year, I indicated that it was my expectation that the Government should reflect on its actions. I am very disappointed that this does not appear to have happened. I would therefore ask the Government to reflect on its actions today and the consequences for ministers that will flow from similar actions in the future. I also advise the Government that if a request for an emergency question had been made to me this morning, I would have accepted it and I would have obliged the Cabinet Secretary to be here in this chamber in person regardless of her other commitments, being no doubt that I will do so in the future. We now move to next item business, which is topical questions. To ask the Scottish Government what limits it will place on its contribution to the V&A project in Dundee. The Scottish Government has committed an additional £10 million to the V&A project, bringing its total capital contribution to £25 million. We are also in discussion with the council about proposals for our growth accelerator model for the wider Dundee waterfront area, anchored by the V&A. In taking forward those discussions and the management of the project itself, the Scottish Government expects Dundee City Council and Dundee Design Limited to ensure that all steps are taken to deliver the project on time and to budget under the fixed-price contract proposed. Alex Johnston While I accept that there are inevitably issues of commercial confidentiality, will the minister take the opportunity today to, on behalf of our Government, create some transparency around the process that has led to the announcement? Will she also pass a comment on the fact that the City of Dundee Council itself was unable to inform any member of its opposition during the process as to what was going on? In terms of transparency, it is quite clear from the Scottish Government's point of view in terms of budget scrutiny that we have laid out, our proposals and we are doing so again here today in Parliament. In terms of commercial confidentiality, that has meant that there has been a period, a series of discussions taking place with the contractors to make sure that we can get the lowest price. I think that there has been quite a key driver to reduce prices but not to compromise on the project itself. As part of that, there has been on-going discussions between ourselves and Dundee City Council. In terms of Dundee City Council's transparency to its own, in terms of itself as an authority to its councillors and to the wider Dundee public, the papers that were produced on Friday announced what that figure now is. There has been a period, as I think everybody expects, to make sure that there has been robust discussion, to make sure that what we have is a certainty of a fixed price solution. In terms of the confidence going forward, I think that that is something that we should welcome, but I absolutely agree with Alex Johnson that transparency is important with contracts and in proposals. That is why I am happy to answer the questions here today. Can the cabinet secretary give an unequivocal guarantee at this stage that the money that has been made available to support the project will be adequate to ensure that the people of Dundee get the Victorian Albert Museum that they have been promised for so long? The people of Dundee are very enthusiastic about the prospects of the V&A and what it can mean for the wider regeneration of Dundee. In terms of the certainty that he is looking for, that has been part and parcel of the discussions that were taking place in relation to the contract and trying to make sure that we could get the best fixed price that was possible. Certainly, the council could with the contractors and that is why, in terms of committing Scottish Government money, we have been making sure during that period that we are confident that the proposals and the figures, which are obviously a significant increase on what was the original estimate before tenders went out, could be realised and give people confidence that the project can go ahead and indeed will be successful. Claire Baker, thank you, Presiding Officer. Yesterday when I met the director of Dundee V&A in Dundee's office, which is opposite a building site, I should have actually at that time been on a tour of the building if we looked at the original timescales. What we have seen is escalating costs and continuous delays, and there needs to be transparency and accountability. I am sure that the cabinet secretary must also have concerns over how the project has developed. Therefore, will the Scottish Government agree to calls for an inquiry into the rising costs of the building so that we know who knew what when? It is quite clear that Dundee council itself will be reviewing the process to date. On the project, it has to be right. It is an ambitious project. It has also been part and parcel of bringing, for example, the UNESCO City of Design to Dundee. It is important that the project goes ahead. The issues that I have with an inquiry would be any uncertainty and delay, and I am sure that my colleague Claire Baker will be familiar with concerns over many years when some opposition members have caused uncertainty in their attitude and behaviour. Uncertainty is what we do not need at this time. We need certainty, particularly when we are attracting additional private sector funding, and she will be aware that it is a heritage lottery funding decision to be made in the next few days. I am sure that she would want to make sure that it was confidence given to the heritage lottery funding that we are all behind the V&A. I welcome the additional funding from the Scottish Government for this regeneration project, which is important in cultural terms, not just to Dundee, but to Scotland as a whole. Could the cabinet secretary outline the benefits that she expects the V&A to bring to the local and national economy? Quite clearly, as I said, the iconic anchor of the V&A will have a significant development for the waterfront development as a whole in terms of the economic impact. That is jobs, a time when we want to make sure that it can benefit from cultural edry generation, as many other areas have as well. George Adam is right to look at the actual culture offering itself in terms of Dundee as a city of creativity, of innovation. I just mentioned the UNESCO city of design that has been awarded to Dundee very few in the world, and indeed that is something that we should celebrate. In terms of the content, it allows us to showcase our industrial heritage and how we can look at our innovation design in lots of different areas, not just in the culture offering but in the heritage offering, but also in terms of how innovation has driven that city and continues to drive our economy as well. The cabinet secretary has proposed that the remaining sums will be made up through a borrowing model, the growth accelerator model. The cabinet secretary also knows that Dundee city council is a council with very high levels of deprivation, and so those repayments will need to be made over many years that will affect budgets long into the future. Can she give the chamber any indication about how the risk will be shared in the growth accelerator model between the Scottish Government and Dundee city council? We have made clear that the growth acceleration model, which has initially been announced for us at the St James quarter here in this city, is one that we will be inactive discussions with the Dundee city council about. I hear what she is saying in terms of Dundee and the areas of deprivation, but that is exactly why we need to have the economic regeneration of Dundee, of which the waterfront is a significant part and of which the V&A is a vital part. In terms of the contribution, I have made clear, as I have repeatedly, and the member will have heard me, that we stand behind the V&A and that project. In terms of that discussion, I cannot give the detail that is still in discussion in relation to the growth accelerator model, but we want to make sure not just in this, but in other areas that I know from my portfolio in support for Dundee, that we make sure that Dundee not only gets its fair share of resources but, in many respects, is doing far better than in other areas as well. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the needs for support following the fire at the Peterhead fish processing plant. Many members will have seen the images of the devastating fire at the North Bay processing factory in Peterhead, which was ablaze for more than 10 hours. At its peak, 10 fire units and several specialist crews were on site to stop the flames from spreading to canisters containing ammonia and, of course, to bring the blaze under control, but thankfully no one was injured. North Bay pelagic is one of the largest fish factories in Scotland, a major employer with around 120 full-time staff and 100 temporary staff. The fire has destroyed the processing plant and production line, but the company has said that it intends to rebuild the plant as quickly as possible. Indeed, when I spoke to the company today, it reaffirmed that intention. However, it is imperative that we all pull together to get the company up and running again. Scottish Enterprise and Aberdeenshire Council are already in close contact with them, and the multi-agency task force is convening this Friday in Aberdeen to further establish what level of support the company may require from the public sector to enable the business to continue in the short and longer term. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The cabinet secretary will be aware that North Bay pelagic is one of the most important fish processing facilities in the country, and this is a crucial time of year, of course, at the start of the macro season. Ian Gat, chief executive of the Pelagic Fishermen's Association, has suggested that this incident could lead to buyers and fishermen looking to other ports, even to Norway, to do business. Has the cabinet secretary had discussions with local stakeholders about how to prevent this occurring? Indeed, can he help the company to find temporary accommodation, for example, so that we limit the impact that this incident has on the local economy? As the member can imagine, the Scottish Government is very keen to help in any way that we can to help to limit the impact on the local economy and recognise the importance of the factor in that context. Scottish Government officials will be involved in the task force that has been set up this week. Clearly, I will have to wait for feedback from the various agencies and the local community and the local authority, as well as the company, to understand how best the Scottish Government can intervene. However, we have instructed all the public agencies to take this matter very seriously indeed, not least to give some comfort to the staff who remain in employment with full-time pay, so that everything has been done to secure their future. The minister has, hopefully, referred to the local economy. In particular, has there been any contact with other businesses in Peterhead and beyond to see what the knock-on effects are and to see what government and others can do to assist? I can assure Stewart Stevenson that that is one of the issues that will be discussed at the task force meeting this week, because we are aware that not only is this about the factory itself, which was a significant employer in Peterhead, but many other suppliers relied on that company for their own business as well. There will indeed be a knock-on impact. It is also worth saying that other pelagic businesses in the area have been in contact with North Bay to offer support. I think that we should welcome that and thank them for doing that. Of course, there is a lot of effort by the local community to rally around the staff, that particular business and the other businesses that are affected. I can assure Stewart Stevenson that we will pay very close attention to the knock-on impact of other businesses in the locality. I welcome the establishment of the task force, because I think that that will be hugely important for the fishing industry and the knock-on in terms of local economic development. Can I focus on the issue of the regeneration opportunity that could come from rebuilding the factory? Has the cabinet secretary been in discussion with Aberdeenshire about the regeneration impact of getting on the ground fast with a replacement facility? Well, Sarah Boyack raises a good point on the role of Aberdeenshire council. As you can imagine, given the intention of the company to rebuild the factory as soon as possible, that will require the co-operation of Aberdeenshire council in terms of planning permission and other permissions. Indeed, other public agencies are also involved in that process. I would be very keen for them to expedite the process where possible. Again, that is part of our thinking and moving forward, because we want those people to have a job for the future, as well as other businesses that rely on North Bay for business to have that business in the future. There will be wider issues that will arise out of that. I should mention in the context of some of those questions that, although the pelagic boats would normally be out at sea and landing fish to be processed, which would have created a problem, which you can imagine with the time of year that this fire occurred, because of the poor weather the supplies weren't being landed to the extent that they normally would be, so that particular problem perhaps wasn't as bad as it could have been if the factory had all that stock there. There may be wider issues to come out of that, so we will be looking at them in detail as well. Thank you. That ends topical questions. We now move to next item of business, which is a debate on motion number 12095, in the name of Alex Neil on tackling inequalities. I'll give a few moments for members to change their seats.