 The next item of business is consideration of business motion number 14778, in the name of Delford's Patrick, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, setting out a revision to the business programme for today. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press the request-speak button now, and I call on Delford's Patrick to move motion number 14778. No member has asked to speak against the motion, therefore I now put the question to the chamber. The question is that motion number 14778, in the name of Delford's Patrick, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is there for agreed to. The next item of business is topical questions, question number one, Alex Johnson. To ask the Scottish Government whether it has determined the number of homes that are immediately available to house refugees in Scotland. Minister Margaret Burgess. Of the refugees expected to arrive in the UK before Christmas through the Syrian refugee resettlement programme, Scotland is expected to take around one-third. This is a testament to the work of the members of the refugee task force and all our partners around Scotland. Local authorities are responsible for identifying accommodation for refugee households. Local authorities that will be welcoming refugee households have identified housing as part of their on-going preparation. They will also be ensuring that other services are ready to support the wider needs of refugee households. As co-chair of the accommodating refugees subgroup, I am very aware and welcome the great lengths that local authorities have taken to ensure that accommodation and support is in place for refugee households. Alex Johnson. I presume that the minister has included bute house in the numbers that are available given the First Minister's declared intention to provide accommodation for a refugee. However, it is the case that many communities across Scotland want to be part of this process and look forward to welcoming refugees. Yet, at the moment, there are an estimated 173,587 households on the local authority or common housing register lists. With waiting lists to that extent, is the minister confident that she will be able to allocate refugees around Scotland in such a way that it will achieve a fair distribution and avoid that terrible error of putting them all in the same place and the pressures that that may bring about? What I would say to the member is that local authorities from across Scotland have all very much indicated their willingness to accommodate refugees. It is up to local authorities who work directly with the Home Office to determine the best accommodation for refugees, because it is not just about accommodation. I would have to make that very clear. It is about finding houses and other services that are available for refugees. We are very confident through the task force subgroup that I co-chair that across Scotland there will be refugees taken into local authority areas across Scotland, and all will be accommodated and have support services to go with that accommodation. At the moment, the minister, along with other political parties, is making plans for how they will construct more social and affordable housing in the time of the next Parliament. Is there any way at this time that the minister could make a commitment that those local authorities who have dug deepest, who have the biggest waiting lists and who yet are willing to do their part will be given an appropriate level of support to ensure that additional houses can be built in those areas during the course of the next five years? The Scottish Government and the First Minister have already made very clear our commitment to increasing housing across all tenures in Scotland, and we continue to do that. As I said in my earlier answer, it is local authorities who work directly with the Home Office in accommodating the refugees. Our responsibilities to the people of Scotland do not prevent us from taking the right approach in that humanitarian approach in terms of housing and housing refugees. We are looking very carefully and working closely with COSLA and with our 32 local authorities to ensure that refugees are accommodated across Scotland in good accommodation, as any other person on the waiting list in Scotland would expect. I wonder whether the minister would agree with me that the approach taken by Stirling Council by holding recently a summit of all interested parties in the Stirling area about how to provide services for those refugees who will eventually arrive, including register social landlords, private landlords and the council's own area of housing, working together to try to come to the appropriate conclusion about how best to provide services for refugees in the future. I would recommend that approach to others across Scotland. I very much welcome the approach of Stirling Council and other local authorities across Scotland in community planning partnerships. We are taking that same approach about the community coming together, housing services, voluntary agencies and members of the public all looking together about how best we can support refugees when they come to Scotland. I wonder whether the minister would agree with me that one of the very welcome changes in this round of resettlement of refugees is that so many local authorities are coming forward and that it is not only Glasgow City Council that is responsible for rehousing refugees, as has been in the case in the past, because no other local authority would come forward. Does she welcome the efforts being made by those local authorities across the country, but also the efforts of organisations such as the Maryhill refugee integration network, which provides such wonderful support to the new members of our community coming in, but also to the existing community and making sure wherever it can that those relationships remain harmonious going forward? Yes, I very much support what the member says there. I welcome that local authorities across Scotland are looking at taking refugee families into their communities. I think that Glasgow has shown that local authorities have learned a lot from what Glasgow City Council has done in the past in Glasgow Housing Association, and that has been now shared with other local authorities, and they are confident that they can provide the services that are required and the support networks such as they have in Glasgow. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the awarding of the Saltair prize for marine renewables. The Saltair prize challenge committee, the independent committee that oversees the prize, has been keeping the prize criteria and competitive progress under review. It is currently considering options for reshaping the prize to better reflect the circumstances of the wave and tidal sectors. Trade body Scottish renewables is supporting the Scottish Government with the review and has convened a focus group of industry representatives and other marine energy experts to discuss revised prize options. A report with the conclusion of the group's discussions is expected next year. That will then go to the Saltair prize challenge committee for consideration and approval. I thank the minister for that answer. There was a time when ministers were all over this prize barely a month went by without a pressurly, so indeed an invitation from the former First Minister to join him at the Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle. We have not heard anything this summer or autumn, even though a decision has been taken to dismantle the prize. We had to learn that from the small print on the Government's website. I absolutely understand the pressure that marine renewables is under right now. Companies are closing or scaling back involvement in the sector. Does it not make sense for the minister to say today that he will bring forward the money that has been put aside for the Saltair prize and use it this year to protect the fledgling industry? First of all, I have not put out a whole flurry of fresh releases. I have been too busy getting on from the job to answer that. Secondly, I think that Mr MacArthur, who has pursued these matters as a supporter of marine energy, would acknowledge that, in setting up Wave Energy Scotland with £14 million budget, we have made a very solid commitment to supporting the marine sector. Thirdly, of course, it is absolutely right to review the prize now in the likelihood that it cannot be won because of the criteria set. That is what is happening. The industry is leading the recommendation about how to reshape the prize in a way that achieves the objectives of the prize, but also does not unduly hit the taxpayers' pocket. I hope that Mr MacArthur and I can continue to work together to promote marine energy, where Scotland, particularly with Emac in Mr MacArthur's constituency, is recognised as a leader as the world's only grid-connected accredited testing centre of marine devices. I certainly acknowledge his passionate commitment to seeing marine renewables playing a part in our future energy mix, but the sale to our prizes that he has just conceded will never be awarded. Companies are not far enough ahead in their development. The minister has the opportunity today to use that money to help to develop the industry further. It seems to me that the choice for the Scottish Government is whether it perverses to save the reputation of the former First Minister or instead to try to save the industry and will he commit to use the money to save the industry in that way? I have always been more interested in results than in reputations and the results, in particular, of success in the marine sector. In that regard, I am delighted that Scotland is leading the way with companies such as Albatern, Nova and the Atlantis Corporation. Indeed, the Atlantis Corporation is the architect of the world's largest tidal array, which is currently being deployed, as Mr MacArthur well knows, and whose success would give the most tremendous Philip to a sector that has had hard times, as the member well knows. In addition, as well as the headline prize, there are Salta related activities, the Salta prize lecture medal, the junior Salta prize, which promotes activity and innovation among school children, students and the Salta prize website. The prize was always anticipated as being awarded in 2017, and therefore there has been no allocation to the existing budget in respect of meeting the cost of paying out the prize. Therefore, we have achieved all the success, Presiding Officer, with none of the cost. Question 3, David Stewart. Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Loganair regarding safety, reliability and maintenance. I met Loganair officials on 15 September 2015 and sought assurances about the reliability of Highlands and Islands air services. Loganair officials accepted that their engineering support wasn't good enough and have embarked on a significant programme of improvements, and I hope that passengers will start to see the benefits of those changes as soon as possible. The minister will be aware of cross-party concerns within the Highlands and Islands about the robustness of Loganair services within the Highlands and Islands. Constituents have written to me this weekend expressing worries around the reliability of the services, which, as the minister knows, are vital for business and tourism. Can the minister raise those issues with the airline as a matter of urgency? Yes. I agree with David Stewart on the issue of reliability. I had raised it specifically with the operators in the past. I am happy to do so again and ask for a progress report on how their plans were going. All members will be well aware that, in terms of the cost of air fares, the Government has increased the subsidy in support to 50 per cent. I expect enhancements around engineering, and Loganair has plans around that. I want to see them realised, because I agree that the reliability issues have not been acceptable, and that point has been made by both islanders, politicians and certainly Government. The Pilots Association has expressed concerns that aircraft have been returned to line in poor condition. Does the minister share the pilot's view? I will go by what both pilots and the company have told me. We should say that we express concern around reliability, but we must not put into question safety, because it is the case that no pilot will leave the ground unless they are convinced that it is safe to do so. Their trade union organisation has made that perfectly clear that no Loganair pilot would fly if they thought that an aircraft was unsafe. That is certainly more of an issue about reliability, and all the necessary checks are put into place in terms of aircraft before they fly. That might then have an impact on reliability if aircraft departs later than it should, but safety must never be compromised, and on that we all agree, operator, pilots, politicians and communities. I assure the minister sadly that this is the worst that it has ever been in the 15 years that I spent getting on a plane to and from Shetland. I agree with this point about safety, but would he undertake to speak and meet with the CAA, if that is appropriate to so do? Will he undertake also to meet Stuart Adams, the chief executive of Loganair, because, while Stuart Adams is making best endeavours to improve things, on Sunday night at Sumbra, the Aberdeen plane went technical, the Glasgow Incoming plane went technical? People are putting up with this every day, as David Stuart has rightly said. We need to see some genuine improvements here. I would agree with Tavish Scott that that is why I had met Loganair. That is why I will continue to meet Loganair and push them on the engineering commitments that they have made. They have matters of commercial sensitivity, but they may be able to share their plans about investment engineering and address a number of issues. On the civil aviation authority as industry regulator, Tavish Scott is aware that aviation safety is reserved to the UK Government, but that has not stopped me from raising any relevant matter with the operator. I will continue to do that, because I think that the issue has certainly got worse. I will certainly do that if I can, from a Scottish Government transport Scotland point of view, to try to ensure that there is a more reliable service. I would like to say again that I do not believe that safety is compromised and no-one should scare munger to that effect. That has not happened today, but people should be reassured around the service that is being provided, but we expect a better service, and that is the case that I will put to the operators. We have now moved the next item of business, which is a statement by Michael Matheson on policing. The cabinet secretary will take question.