 Y cwestiwn i'r next item of business is a statement by Nicola Sturgeon on agreement with the Scottish Green Party. The First Minister will take questions at the end of her statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Nicola Sturgeon. First Minister. Thanks, Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to confirm to Parliament today details of the wide-ranging co-operation agreement that has been reached between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party and now endorsed overwhelmingly by our respective party memberships. In nature, scope and intent, this agreement is genuinely groundbreaking in both Scottish and UK politics. It represents a new and, I hope, a better way of doing politics. Of course, while the agreement is the product of much negotiation and some compromise, it is also a leap of faith for both parties, but it is one that we are taking willingly and for the common good. The challenge and the discipline of working together, of not allowing the issues on which we disagree to obscure those on which we do agree, will undoubtedly take us out of our comfort zones. The SNP and the Scottish Greens, albeit joining together in government, are and will remain distinct entities with different identities and points of view, but this agreement is founded on shared convictions and common principles. It is based above all on our recognition that the times that we are living through render a business as usual approach simply not good enough. Scotland, like most of the rest of the world, faces significant challenges in the years ahead and also many opportunities, and many of those are deeply interrelated. We must tackle the latest surge in Covid cases while leading and supporting the country's economic and social recovery from the pandemic. We must ensure that the recovery is a green and sustainable one and address with urgency and determination the climate and nature crisis, which threaten the planet and the security of this and future generations. We must, unfortunately, address and mitigate the consequences of Brexit, which are becoming more serious by the week as labour scarcity and interrupted supply chains lead to shortages on supermarket shelves and elsewhere. Shortages that should be unthinkable in a country like the UK and which are, make no mistake, a direct and shameful result of the Brexit disaster. We must defend our Parliament against UK Government power grabs that are undermining the very principles on which it is founded. As we do so, recognise that the best way not just to protect this Parliament from Westminster but also equipping it with the full powers it needs to build a fairer, more prosperous country is to make this Parliament independent of Westminster. That is why fulfilling our democratic mandate to let the Scottish people choose our own future is a key strand of this agreement. Those are the inescapable challenges that confront us. How we respond to them will shape Scotland now and for the decades ahead. In the face of the magnitude of those challenges, and for this we all bear a share of responsibility, our politics can too often seem small, polarised, divided, focused on self-interest rather than the national interest. Perhaps I am seeing evidence of it already today. If we are to meet the moment, we must all of us try to do politics differently. In this agreement, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens are accepting our responsibility to do that. Genuine disagreement, honestly and respectfully debated and resolved through the ballot box, is of course the essence of democracy. However, we also have a duty to reach beyond our disagreements and in the interests of progress maximise the consensus between us. That is essential if we are to find the solutions needed to solve the big problems confronting Scotland and the world. In both my view and in my experience, co-operation and collaboration in place of division and acrimony is what most people want to see much more of from their politicians. Of course, that spirit of co-operation and consensus building is also very much in keeping with the founding principles of our Scottish Parliament. Arguably it has never been more important for us, all of us, to live up to those principles and that is the motivation for reaching this agreement. It is not a full coalition. Our parties will retain distinct voices and independent identities, but it sets out processes of co-operation and consultation that will enable a firm foundation for the delivery of our shared and transformative policy objectives, and indeed for the Scottish Government's wider legislative and policy programme. As part of that, for the first time in UK politics, it will see Greens enter national government as ministers, working in a spirit of common endeavour, mutual challenge and collective responsibility to deliver for the people we serve. To that end, I look forward later this afternoon to seeking Parliament's approval for the appointment of Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie as Scottish ministers. An agreement like that is not something that would be seen as in any way remarkable or even unusual in other parts of Europe, but it does represent an important landmark for politics across the UK. Most importantly of all, however, this agreement provides a strong foundation, I hope, across the lifetime of this Parliament for bold and decisive action. After all, its ultimate test, as with any arrangement of this kind, is not about how well the signatories get on, it is about what we deliver. There is, of course, and rightly so, a strong environmental theme to our shared policy agreement. We recognise the urgency of the climate and nature crisis and also the challenges inherent in tackling them, but we also appreciate that with the right approach and a commitment to climate justice, the transition to net zero will create economic opportunities and improve the wellbeing of all of us. We are determined to seize and realise those opportunities. Over the session of this Parliament, we will do more to decarbonise our transport network and support active travel. We will dedicate at least 10 per cent of the Scottish Government's overall travel budget to active travel, cycling, walking and wheeling. We will significantly increase investment in public transport. We will work to cut the emissions from it and also to make it more accessible and affordable, with a commitment to free bus travel for young people, for example, and we will, of course, bring ScotRail into public ownership. All of those measures will help us by 2030 to reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent, vital if we are to meet our climate targets, but also important to improving the environment in communities and neighbourhoods, the length and breadth of our country. We will also support the essential transformation in how we heat our homes and buildings. This term of Parliament will see investment of at least £1.8 billion in energy efficiency and renewable heating. We will do more too to protect our natural environment. We will designate a new national park, plant more trees, including more native species, and protect more of our seas. We will work right across the economy to support a just transition to net zero, with just transition plans for all sectors and regions and a new green industrial strategy with investment in skills at its heart. As part of that, we will support and accelerate the necessary and inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable and low-carbon sources of energy. Through that agreement, we will deliver a stronger package of support for marine renewables and offshore wind and significantly increase our onshore wind capacity. We will also establish a 10-year £500 million just transition fund for the north-east and Murray to ensure that the jobs and communities that depend on our oil and gas sector are not left behind and that we instead use the considerable infrastructure, skills and expertise of that sector to help to drive and speed up the development of cleaner alternatives. Our agreement will also help to make Scotland fairer as a country. It will tackle child poverty and deliver stronger rights for tenants, including an effective system of rent controls, so that housing in the rented sector is more affordable and more secure, especially for families and for young people. We will make the investment in this Parliament to support the delivery of 110,000 new affordable homes between now and 2032. We will reform our public services, including through the establishment of a national care service, perhaps the biggest public sector reform that this Parliament will ever have undertaken, improvements to mental health and work to improve education and close the poverty-related attainment gap. Finally, as I indicated earlier, this agreement confirms our intention to give people in Scotland the choice of independence. The mandate for that is undeniable. Between us, the SNP and the Greens won 72 of the 129 seats in this Parliament, and each one of us was elected on a clear commitment to an independence referendum. Just as the mandate is undeniable, the reason for a referendum is just as important. As we emerge from this pandemic, the kind of country and society that Scotland is now and becomes in future, and the decisions that will shape our society and economy and our place in the world must be determined democratically here in Scotland and not imposed upon us so often against our will by Government at Westminster. The agreement that we have reached offers a clear vision of the sort of country Scotland can become, a greener, fairer and yes, independent nation. It also recognises and puts into practice an approach to politics that sees parties try to work together for the common good. I firmly believe that that is what most people in Scotland want to see. I hope that this agreement, as we move now to implement it, will demonstrate that when we step out of those comfort zones and when we embrace co-operation, we enhance our ability to deliver the ideas and the practical policies that can meet the scale of the challenges that we face. Of course, this agreement is novel in terms of UK politics, but across Europe and in many countries around the world, arrangements like this are commonplace and they are based firmly on the idea that co-operation, rather than confrontation, will lead to better outcomes for the people across our country. This Parliament has undoubtedly secured some significant achievements in the last two decades and all parties can and should take credit for that fact. But there have also been times, especially in more recent years and this is not unique to Scotland when our politics has been toxic and polarised and because of that we have sometimes seemed collectively incapable of properly living up to the expectations of those we serve. As we can all and should all take some credit for our successes, we all must bear some responsibility for our shortcomings and I believe that we all have an obligation to make positive change. This agreement represents a renewed commitment from the Scottish Government to do so. Although it is at political level an agreement between the SNP and the Greens, I hope and I mean this sincerely that over time it can and it will encourage greater co-operation between all parties in this Parliament. There are issues, including, perhaps especially, the constitution on which we disagree profoundly and passionately. That is, I suspect, unlikely to change, though even on these fundamental issues perhaps we should all make an effort to disagree more civilly. But there are many other issues, especially as we recover from the pandemic and address the climate emergency, where I believe that acres of common ground can be found if we are willing to find it, while still acknowledging and respecting our disagreements. Despite all the risks inherent in any decision of two parties to co-operate more closely and with a full appreciation of the compromise and the ups and downs that an agreement like this will entail, the SNP and the Greens are choosing to work together. We are doing that because we believe that, in a time of great challenge, a better, more collaborative politics is needed so that a better Scotland can be built. We are resolving to spend the next five years working together to build it. As we do so, I make an open and sincere offer to work whenever and wherever possible with others across this chamber too and I hope that offer will be accepted. The agreement is a milestone in this Parliament's progress. It sets out how the SNP and the Scottish Greens will work together as the Scottish Government. It demonstrates our commitment to a new and a better way of doing politics and it provides the strong platform that is needed to deliver the transformative policies that will build a greener, fairer country and make people's lives across Scotland better. For all those reasons, I enthusiastically commend it to the chamber. The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow it around 40 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons now. Finally, the SNP-Green deal has done something for the environment, because Nicola Sturgeon has just spent the last 15 minutes recycling the exact same speech that she gave last week. The exact same speech that she used to try to convince everybody that this coalition is not actually a coalition. I know that Nicola Sturgeon lectures us all that she speaks at a higher level of intelligence than everyone else, but trying to claim that this is not a coalition is quite simply a joke even by SNP standards. This is a nationalist coalition with one overriding goal, separating Scotland from the United Kingdom. Yet again, a divisive referendum has come first, as it always does with this Government. It is a simple fact that Nicola Sturgeon made this nationalist deal her priority over a programme for government, which should have been announced today, as it normally always is at the start of a term. She made it a priority over a flimsy NHS recovery plan that was more of a PR pamphlet. Once again, the SNP has got their priorities all wrong. It has turned their backs on jobs, our economy, the oil and gas industry and on car drivers. This is not a deal for hard-working Scotland. This coalition will hammer everyone who works hard. Everyone who runs a business, everyone who owns a vehicle, this is not a deal that works for Scotland, this is a deal that works for Nicola Sturgeon. She failed to get a majority and this deal is a consequence of that. This deal is one that nobody wanted, even the Greens. In Lorna Slater's own words, before a promotion was dangled in front of her, an SNP Green deal would be, and I quote, a terrible idea. So let me ask the First Minister. When her Green colleagues say that she has made, and again this is a direct quote, a significant change of direction on her approach to oil and gas, how many of Scotland's 100,000 oil and gas jobs will be put at risk by this change of direction? Since Nicola Sturgeon is appointing ministers who do not believe in economic growth, will Nicola Sturgeon now admit that her financial case for Scottish independence is based on harming Scottish businesses and cutting Scottish jobs? It seems that rising to the challenge of doing politics better or even vaguely competently is for the moment beyond Douglas Ross, but hopefully as this Parliament progresses that will change. I think that in that barely coherent set of questions, I think that Douglas Ross really misses the point. We face big challenges and it is incumbent on all of us not to disregard our disagreements but to work beyond our disagreements to find the areas where we can agree, work together for the good of those we represent. That is how we are going to proceed in this Parliament, certainly on the part of those of us on these benches. I think that other parties in this chamber in response to that have a choice. They can join with us, respect our disagreements but try all of us collectively to work together or push themselves more and more to the margins of Scottish politics where they simply hurl insults from the sidelines. Before I come on to the two specific questions that Douglas Ross posed to me, let me say this. Not only is Douglas Ross' rhetoric, in my view, given the scale of the challenges we face and the responsibilities we all bear, deeply inappropriate, is also deeply, deeply ironic. Right now, across this country, there are shortages of food on our supermarket shelves. In England, at least at the moment, the health service has been told to ration blood tests because of a shortage of test tubes. Children are being told that there may be shortages leading to a lack of toys for Christmas all because of Mr Ross' party's obsession with Brexit. Is not it about time that he took some responsibility and recognised the importance of coming together to try to address those challenges? Turning now to oil and gas, I recognise, and it is the responsibility that I take extremely seriously, that we must meet the climate emergency. Yes, that does mean making a transition and a rapid enough transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in order to do that. I do not want to see jobs lost in the North Sea. That is why the heart of this agreement is a just transition deal of £500 million specifically for the North East so that we can harness the skills, the infrastructure, the expertise of that sector and use it to drive the development of those alternatives. Here is a suggestion. Perhaps in the spirit of consensus and co-operation and collaboration, we might hear the UK Government agree to match the Scottish Government's commitment to a just transition deal for the North East and Moray. Let's hear some substance in place of Mr Ross' rhetoric. Finally, on the question of independence, Mr Ross and I fundamentally disagree on the future of Scotland. My vision of the future of Scotland is a prosperous, fair, green country. I believe in democracy. I believe in the right of the Scottish people to decide their own future. That is the prospectus that I put to the Scottish people in May. As I said, between us, the SNP and the Greens won 72 of the 129 seats, so democracy demands that the Scottish people get the right to decide. It is only a politician that fears the outcome of such a choice that would seek to block the right of the Scottish people to make it. The coalition agreement, for that is what it is, is just formalising the agreement in the last Parliament where Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP hammer our public services with cuts and the Greens simply nod it through. Cut through the spin and the now typical boast of historic moments, this is no new Government, this is not a clean start, this is a deal that is more about the Constitution, not the climate. I am all for common ground being found and co-operation on issues that parties agree on, but this deal is not about delivering greater accountability and transparency in this Parliament, it is about the opposite. It is about greater control for Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, not co-operation. The Greens cannot pretend to be in government and pretend to be in opposition at the same time. At this time of acute economic, public health and climate crisis, Scotland needs a government focused on bringing our country together and addressing the urgent issues at hand. Unemployment, child poverty, drugs deaths, clearing the NHS backlog, the climate emergency, that is what faces and confronts our country. Does the First Minister understand that bringing our country together means more than just working with people that agree with you on the Constitution? Does she understand that our national recovery must truly be our collective national mission and that it must be more than just warm words, it must be ambitious action too? Finally, will she confirm which ministers will be losing their jobs for the appointment of two new ones? I spent an election campaign, and indeed we have heard more of it today, hearing Anasarwar talk about the responsibility on all of us to focus on what we agree on, not what we disagree on. I actually agree with him and commended him during the election campaign for striking that tone. The problem is that so far there is nothing from Anasarwar to suggest that that has anything in substance and is any more than rhetoric, because all of the challenges that he has rightly alluded to today are exactly the challenges that this agreement sets out, concrete actions, investments, plans and policies to address, not in rhetoric but in substance. We have agreed to do that, notwithstanding the disagreements between us. We are both of us being prepared to compromise, being prepared to cede some control and come together in order to do better for the country. In the days after the election, in Anasarwar knows this, I invited Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater in to talk about how we co-operate. I also invited Anasarwar in to talk about how the SNP and Labour may co-operate. The difference is that the Scottish Greens took that seriously, went away and thought about it and came back and tried to work towards an agreement. I say to Anasarwar now that it is not too late to be part of that consensus. There is a strategic choice for the Opposition parties in the face of this agreement. I am fairly certain which choice the Conservatives will make. I think that it is perhaps more of an open question which choice Labour will make. I suspect that it will define much of Anasarwar's leadership of his party, because the choice is coming with us to try to find the common ground, respecting our disagreements and working together to meet the challenges or moving more and more to the margins of politics along with the Conservatives. I make an open invitation to Anasarwar again today to work with us to co-operate, to be part of that consensus building, because I agree with him that that is what the country needs, but it takes courage to do it, it takes boldness to do it and it takes a willingness to do it in substance, not just in empty rhetoric. The co-operation agreement includes a £500 million just transition fund for the north-east and Murray. Can the First Minister provide further detail on how the fund will support people seeking to move from the oil and gas sector to green jobs? The £500 million just transition deal is vital in making not just the transition from oil and gas renewables but doing that in a fair and just way. We will set out in the period ahead the detail of how that fund will operate and the objectives that it will support. We will be working with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take it forward. It is intended to accelerate the transition of the region, support the role of Aberdeen and the wider north-east as a centre of excellence for the development of new technologies and the transition to a net zero economy. The scope, timing and design of the fund will be developed in consultation with stakeholders and set out to Parliament as soon as possible. I would like to press for clarity on oil and gas, please. Patrick Harvie has bragged that the Greens have changed significantly the First Minister's position on the future of our oil and gas sector and the tens of thousands of jobs it supports. Lorna Slater stated that she wants to shut the industry down within the next four years. Does the Government support new oil and gas exploration and production, or Lorna Slater's closure plans? The agreement sets out exactly what we agree on. My view is concerned around new exploration. I set that out in a letter to the Prime Minister just as it is the case that new licences for exploration have to be assessed against the climate emergency. In my view, so too should existing licences before production goes ahead. We face an inescapable climate emergency. We have to recognise that it is not any longer consistent with tackling that climate emergency simply to assume that we can go on and on with unlimited extraction of fossil fuels. However, we must support a fair and a just transition. I think that the oil and gas sector recognises that. The responsibility on government is to make sure that we are providing the support and the investment to do that. Parties such as the Conservatives will no doubt go on burying their heads in the sand in the face of the climate emergency. We will not do that. We will provide the leadership to make sure that this country meets its targets on climate change. That it transitions to net zero by 2045 and that we take the jobs and the expertise, the skills and the infrastructure built up over decades in the oil and gas sector and use those to drive the alternatives that we need. Other parties, I hope, will be part of that, but we, all of us, have an inescapable duty to meet the climate emergency head on. I acknowledge the Scottish Government commitment to prioritising the Covid recovery. However, as you said earlier in your opening statement, it is right that the people of Scotland have a say in what that recovery looks like in the long term. Can you outline for the chamber how that agreement between SNP and the Greens strengthens the democratic mandate for an independence referendum to ensure that, as we rebuild from the Covid pandemic, we also build up fairer and greener Scotland that we all want? First and foremost, I have a duty as First Minister to continue to lead the country through the on-going Covid crisis. I will make a statement here tomorrow on the latest Covid situation and the steps that we need to continue to take collectively to tackle the increase in transmission. However, as we come out of the acute crisis, as we recover our economy, our society and our whole way of life, we have big choices to take and to make about the kind of country we are recovering to. We are not alone in that regard. Countries across the world are asking themselves those questions. I believe that the answers to those questions should be shaped and decided here in Scotland by our democratically elected Government and Parliament, not imposed upon us by a Westminster Government that, as we see so powerfully on Brexit, is intent on taking us in a direction that the majority do not want to go in. The question here is not whether we all in this Parliament agree on the question of independence. Clearly we do not, and that is perfectly legitimate in a democracy. The question is, are we all prepared to agree in the basic principle of democracy that election mandates should be honoured and that questions over the future of our country should not be taken by politicians but by the people of our country? The arithmetic in this Parliament is there and it is clear. There is a mandate for an independence referendum that should be honoured and I am determined that it will be honoured and the people of Scotland will decide the future of this country. In February 2021, the Greens supported Scottish Labour's demand for a minimum of £15 an hour for social care workers in the budget. Less than two weeks later, clearly knobbled by the SNP, the Greens abstained on the same demand. It appeared in the green manifesto but not in the SNP manifesto. Try as I might, I can find no reference to it in the SNP green agreement. Can I ask the First Minister when will social care workers get £15 an hour or have the Greens sold out? Can I also ask if the Greens will be bound by collective responsibility in relation to planning applications such as that submitted by Flamingo land at Loch Lomond? Jackie Baillie has been in this Parliament since its inception. She is very well aware of the constraints on ministers when it comes to planning applications and I am actually quite surprised that she has asked a question of that nature when she knows how ill-founded it is. On the other question, to Jackie Baillie, any member of this chamber will be able to find lots of examples of where the Greens and the SNP do not agree and have not agreed in the past, but what we have done—this is the whole point of what we are doing—we have come together to focus on where we do agree but also crucially we have come together to work together to find the ways of achieving the things we agree on. I also want the question of pay for social care workers. Yes, we want to achieve that but the Greens, to their great credit in my view, have decided to come into government to be part of working out through our budgets and through our decision making how we deliver that rather than simply standing on the sidelines shouting for something to happen with no consideration at all of how to make it happen. It is the difference between achieving nothing in opposition and achieving lots by having the guts to go into government and take the decisions required. Alex Cole-Hamilton This is thin groove for the Green Party. The SNP Government has barely had to budge. Take education, something that in the last Parliament the Greens worked with us to reform. Yet every single education policy in this agreement document was existing government policy before those negotiations began. The Greens have not moved the dial at all. In fact, this deal takes us backwards on education. All opposition parties voted in 2018 to halt the national testing of primary ones. There was a parliamentary majority backed by teachers and by parents to that end, one that the SNP Government chose to roundly ignore. The First Minister told us that testing would not lead to league tables and yet there are now league tables in the national press. Will national testing of four and five-year-olds finally be abolished or have the Greens surrendered the parliamentary majority that existed in support of that abolition as well? I think that it's a bit rich, I have to say, from the leader. My congratulations to Alex Cole-Hamilton on his election as leader. The leader of a parliamentary group that doesn't even any longer qualify as a parliamentary group because it lost ground in the election to criticise a party that increased its presence in this Parliament and is intent on trying to achieve change for the people that they represent. The Greens, over all the years that I have been in government, have, through co-operation and constructive opposition, achieved more than the Liberal Democrats have, and they will achieve even more in government. The Greens, I am sure, will achieve a great deal in government through collaboration, co-operation and being constructive around getting things done. I say again to the Opposition parties across this chamber that the offer is there for all of us to try to come together and find the areas that we can agree on. The question will be who is prepared to do that and who isn't. The Greens to their credit are, and it remains to be seen whether anybody else is willing to work in that constructive way. The agreement between the Green Party and the Scottish Government is welcome, particularly at a time when others in the chamber seem to be shying away from working collaboratively to address with urgency the impacts of the climate emergency. Can the First Minister expand on how this agreement will bolster the Scottish Government's work to achieve our ambitious net zero targets? A very basic level, this agreement will make sure that those of us who have been in government a long time are accepting and embracing fresh challenge because we need fresh thinking and we need bolder ideas in action to meet the climate emergency. There is no escaping that. We have to make sure that we are accelerating that transition but, as we do that, we are harnessing and realising the massive economic benefits that are there to be won. We have not always been as good as we should have been at harnessing in the past. I think that this agreement is focusing on very specific areas, how we change the way in which we heat our homes, how we decarbonise our public transport system, how we make sure that we protect our natural environment through the specifics of this agreement. We can see how we will take forward those responsibilities. In the very nature of a co-operation agreement that demands compromise from all of us, that demands consensus building, I hope and believe that we will challenge each other to go further and faster because that, I believe, is what is needed and wanted by a majority of people across the country. At the time of the recent Scottish election, the Scottish Greens said that we needed to move away from traditional economic policies and abandon the endless focus on economic growth. Business in Scotland, virtually every economic policy body in Scotland and the banking sector are all absolutely adamant that economic growth is vital to recovery from the pandemic. Indeed, that was a view that seemed to be expressed by the finance committee at this morning's finance committee. Can I ask on whose side is the First Minister when it comes to economic growth? I believe in economic growth that is sustainable. The Greens and I and the Greens and the SNP have a difference of opinion which is set out openly in the agreement about the role of GDP as a metric in that. I believe that it is an appropriate metric but not the only one we should rely on. I believe that we should widen our measurements of economic success. I believe that for a long time, which is why this Government is one of the founding Governments of the Well-being Alliance, which now involves a growing number of Governments across the world, saying that the health and the happiness and the wellbeing of a population should also matter in our judgments of economic success, that it shouldn't simply be GDP. It is at the heart of this agreement that there is an agreement to develop those metrics of how we measure our success as an economy as a society. I think that more and more people across Scotland, more and more people and Governments across the world are recognising that. It does not surprise me but it does disappoint me that the Conservatives continue to sit outside of that. I hope that that is something that we might see change over the course of this Parliament. This is an historic agreement between the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Government. A new model of politics responding to the code red for humanity on the climate while building a fair recovery from Covid. The agreement has bold and far-reaching programme that will accelerate a just transition, doubling the size of the wind industry that was previously butchered by the Tory party at Westminster. A £1.8 billion investment in energy efficiency, renewable heat and £500 million just transition fund for the north-east. Does the First Minister agree that this programme will help Scotland grasp the economic opportunities of the just transition, creating new fair jobs while tackling the climate emergency? Yes, I do. That is one of the biggest challenges that we face. I hope—notwithstanding impressions to the contrary from some today—that there is genuinely a unanimous agreement across this chamber that tackling the climate emergency with urgency and determination is not an option. I do hope genuinely that we all agree on that. One of the big questions is how we do that. Do we achieve it in a way that is just and fair and seizes and realises those massive economic opportunities? If I am being candid and we have had exchanges in the chamber on many occasions in the past about this, we have not been as successful at that as we should have been in the past. Through, and Lorna Slater, subject to parliamentary approval later on, we will have a key role to play in this, driving a new green industrial strategy so that we do meet our obligations in terms of reducing emissions, but we are doing it in a way that creates new jobs and new industries of the future. There is a big challenge here in climate change, but there is a massive opportunity as well. I think that this agreement will help us to seize that. For that reason, I think that all of us and people right across the country should genuinely be enthused, inspired and excited by it. It has been more than a decade since national park designation for the Isle of Harris had to be abandoned, despite more than 70 per cent of residents backing the move in a plebiscite that had a higher than 70 per cent turnout. There was limited support from the local authority and that contributed to the bid being rejected. The shared policy programme commits to at least one new national park being designated by the end of this parliamentary session. Can the First Minister say more about the process by which a new national park will be chosen? The process will follow the National Parks Scotland Act 2000. That includes a detailed process of consultation with communities, local authorities and other stakeholders. The criteria for designation include that an area is of outstanding national importance because of its natural heritage or a combination of its natural and cultural heritage, and it has a distinctive character and coherent identity. In the agreement, we make clear that we believe that national parks should be designated only in response to local community demand, so we encourage community stakeholders and local government to come forward now with proposals. It has been a transparent evidence-based review to include a climate compatibility assessment. Will the A96 be fully dualled or not? I should probably quote more fully from the agreement, so let me do that as well. Let's focus on what it agrees in terms of enhancements to the A96, duelling from Inverness to Nairn, bypasses in Nairn, Keith, Elgin and Inverury, road safety improvements, for example between Fockebers and Huntley in Inverury to Aberdeen, the development of an A96 electric highway and of course enhanced public transport improvements in north-east Scotland. A range of improvements, including looking at a rail link between Dice and Elin, further north to Peterhead and Fraserborough, review the A96 corridor with a view to implementing bus priority measures. It does say that the current plan is for full dualling. As with any major road development, environmental assessments and impact assessments have to be carried out because in this period of having to address the climate emergency, no politician with any credibility would suggest that we don't assess all of our policies against the climate imperative. So we set out clearly our priorities and the process that we will take to making sure that people across the north-east have the transport links that they need in order for the economy to thrive. For the majority of the members in this duly elected chamber, the most important step that we can take to empower the Parliament and the people of Scotland is to be able to make the changes that we need as to be an independent country. With Westminster's continuing refusal to recognise the clear democratic mandate delivered by the people of this country when we were elected to the Parliament in May, where does the First Minister think that this agreement leaves us constitutionally? And what are the options available as we seek to provide the people of Scotland with the ability to determine our own future? There is a basic question of democracy here. We have disagreements in this chamber about what future Scotland should choose. There is nothing wrong with that. That is the essence of democracy, I believe, fervently. I have done so for all of my adult life that Scotland should become an independent country, like all the 200 independent countries across the world, so that we can work in partnership with other countries but have the ability to determine and shape our own future. People are entitled to disagree and say that Scotland is better remaining within the Westminster union. However, the people who should decide that question are not us as politicians, it is the population of Scotland that should decide that question. Those on the Conservative benches are saying that that happened in 2014, but since 2014 Scotland has been ripped out of the European Union against our will. People across Scotland are struggling to get basic food supplies in supermarkets right now because of a Tory-imposed Brexit. Of course, this Government fought the election on a commitment to give the people of Scotland a choice and a referendum and one with historic vote shares and many other record-breaking results along the way. Let us have that rigorous debate about the future of Scotland, but let us accept that central tenet of democracy, that it is the people of Scotland and only the people of Scotland who should get to decide. On the very same day that deal was announced, ScotRail unveiled a consultation on timetable changes that we cut 300 rail services. The SNP transport minister seems to accept these cuts when wonders of the green ministers do too. Given what the First Minister said on investing in public transport and tackling the climate emergency, will she be stopping these cuts to rail services? If not, how can they possibly justify? Record ministerial salaries, more ministerial cars and bicycles when making cuts to Scotland's rail services for everybody else? Commitments in this agreement are about investing in our rail services, bringing our rail services back into public ownership, nationalising ScotRail, making sure that there are services that people in every part of our country can rely on, but also making sure that we have affordable fares for people to travel and that we cut emissions in our rail network as well. Are there difficult decisions to be made along the way in all of this, of course, but there is a determination to come together to make sure that we are taking those decisions so that our transport network is capable and fit for the purpose of transporting people across the country for work and for leisure but also meets our imperative on the climate emergency? Again, I welcome the input and engagement from members across the chamber. The question is whether those on the Labour benches are prepared to work on that basis. I certainly hope that they take up the invitation. I very much welcome this agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party. I believe that this is a fundamental moment in the continued progression of devolution in Scotland that will lead us to the normal status of independence. Could the First Minister outline the benefits that this agreement will bring to local authorities across Scotland? The agreement has many elements that are positive for local government and democracy. For example, work to increase voter registration and participation, particularly in underrepresented groups. The commitment to undertake an independent review of the Scottish welfare fund is important to many families and individuals across the country. There are a variety of policies in the shared programme that will see us work very collaboratively with COSLA. For example, commitments in community wealth building, planning, active travel, work on education reform and the establishment of a national care service. All of those have an impact on local authorities, so engagement and joint work on those issues are important. Of course, we will be seeking a strategic discussion with COSLA's leadership on the agreement and, of course, the upcoming programme for government. We work collaboratively with COSLA and this agreement will enhance the various measures where we can help local authorities deliver their services for people across the country. Alexander Burnett There is a concern that this agreement ignores rural communities. I had previously been delighted when the First Minister visited my constituency during the election campaign, which shared my pledge to reopen into community hospital. The First Minister went further, saying that we are prepared as a Government if re-elected to make funding available to the health board, not just to reopen it but to do work to give it a long-term sustainable future. I did write to the First Minister over two weeks ago on this, but I have yet to receive a reply. Can the First Minister now confirm to the English community that her commitment is not at jeopardy from her green agreement and set out the timescale of the delivery of her promise? I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Inge during the election campaign. I stand by the commitments that we made around Inge community hospital this time next week when I set out the programme for government. As part of that, we will set out our ambitions for capital investment across the health services state as we take the decisions to ensure that it is fit for purpose. I am very sure that our green colleagues will be as enthusiastic about seeing community health facilities as well as the elective treatment centres and more specialist services developed over the period ahead. I look forward to saying more about all of those things next week in the programme for government. I am sure that we will have the opportunity to ensure a just transition to a greener society. How will that co-operation deal further our collective fight, promote sustainable economic change and advance Scotland's journey towards independence? The devolved context contains a number of commitments that will help to deliver a just transition to net zero. I have already touched on some of them. The transition deal for the north-eastern Murray, for example, the national strategy for economic transformation, is vital in building the economy. We need for the future the green industrial strategy, which I have spoken about, just transition plans for industries and sectors and regions across the country to help our supply chains create high quality jobs. Within that agreement, within our devolved powers, the plans are ambitious and wide reaching. It is a fact that for us to meet our full potential, the full range of powers over tax, over social security, to build that greener, fairer Scotland are necessary. Ensuring that the mandate to give people a choice on independence in this Parliament is honoured is a key part of making sure that we meet the challenges that lie ahead. The additional two ministers and two additional special advisers will cost Scotland's taxpayers £1 million. In 2007, the SNP promised the Scottish people in their manifesto a smaller, better-focused ministerial team. The First Minister, how does she feel? Is she proud of leading the largest and most bloated government in the history of devolution? What I can say with absolute certainty is that every single Scottish Government minister is fully occupied and working hard every single day to deliver on the commitments and policies of this Government. I do believe that Scotland is over-governed. I do believe that there is some, to use Stephen Kerr's word, bloating in the governance of Scotland. Some people call it the Scotland office, but perhaps Stephen Kerr has another name for it. Let's have more streamlined Government. Let's abolish the Scotland office through Scotland becoming independent. While we're at it, perhaps the House of Lords could be dispensed with as well so that all of the politicians we have working for us are fully occupied in doing real jobs, delivering day in and day out for the Scottish people. Emma Harper I think that Emma Harper for that question. We have already published the South West Scotland transport study that emphasised the importance of a connected safe, resilient and high-quality strategic transport network for those travelling in South West Scotland. The recommendations for targeted road improvements to the A75 and A77 are now, of course, subject to more detailed appraisal as part of the STPR2 process, and that is the overall process through which we have agreed to direct future transport infrastructure investment. Monica Lennon Thank you, Presiding Officer. Scottish Labour has been calling for an immediate moratorium on new incinerators alongside a policy review. The Scottish Green website has a quote from Mark Ruskell, warning that Scotland is sleepwalking into an incineration nightmare. I sincerely hope that it didn't harm his ministerial chances. In the spirit of working collaboratively with all parties and listening to our communities that are under threat right now, will the First Minister work with Scottish Labour to introduce an urgent moratorium on new large-scale incinerators? In case I missed the First Minister getting off the fence, can she clarify whether the SNP Green Government that she leads now supports a stop-cambo campaign? Yes or no? On the first question, as I'm sure that Monica Lennon knows, we have committed to a process of review to consider the role of incineration in how we deal with waste. I understand that the process of that review will be set out in the next couple of weeks, so imminently I'm sure that Monica Lennon will have an input into that. The difference between being in government and opposition is that you have to deal in detail with issues. I think that there are big issues and big questions over whether we should continue with new exploration in the North Sea and that would include the cambo development. That's why I think that there should be a process. Licences are granted there but there should be a process before production agreement approval is given. There should be a process of checking that against the climate emergency. I think that that's the right way to go because I don't think that we should carry on with business as usual in terms of energy any more than we can right across our society. I'm prepared to challenge my long-held views to make sure that we are doing the right things and I would encourage everybody to do likewise. There is a lot to look forward to in this new agreement, particularly in terms of addressing the climate emergency that we all face and securing a more sustainable future for Scotland. Although I do think that it is understandable that many outwith the central belt or city centres are eagerly waiting to hear how a greater focus on active travel and public transport can benefit them. As a region that is currently widely dependent on car travel, can the Highlands and Islands expect to see real improvement in rail infrastructure, perhaps including a doubling of the Highland Mainline and the Inverness to Aberdeen line and improvements to the far north and west Highland lines as a result of this deal? That is a fair question and I think that the answer to that has to be yes. We have to develop public transport and active travel options across the Highlands and Islands. I was going to say as much as in the rest of the country but more so given the geographic challenges and the over-reliance for understandable reasons on car use. As members will be aware, rail improvements are being considered as part of the S2PR2 process and the rail decarbonisation action plan, which was published last year, is aligned to this. For example, the action plan commits to developing potential options to serve the West Highland line by hydrogen or battery trains as well as considering partial or full electrification of the Highland mainline. Those are longer-term projects that will contribute to our commitment to decarbonise passenger services by 2035. At the core of the question is the inescapable fact that if we are to meet the targets around reducing reliance and car use for all of the country, but some parts of our country in particular, that absolutely depends on developing the alternatives. There is an absolute seriousness of intent around that across the Highlands and Islands. That concludes the First Minister's statement on the agreement with the Scottish Green Party. I will take this opportunity to remind members that social distancing measures are in place across the chamber and the Holyrood campus. Please take care to observe those measures, including when entering and exiting the chamber. Please only use the aisles and walkways to access your seat when we are moving around the chamber.