 Maen nhw'n gweithio gyda'r cwestiynau. Cwestiynau nr 1, John Finnie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it's had with the Home Office regarding proposals on the forthcoming immigration bill for landlords to carry out checks on tenants immigration status and evict undocumented migrants. Minister Margaret Burgess. The Minister for Immigration, James Brokenshire, wrote to the First Minister on 13 August advising that the UK Government would be introducing the immigration bill in September. Following that, Home Office officials met with Scottish Government officials on 19 August. I have written to the immigration minister setting out my significant concerns about the measures in the immigration bill and the lack of adequate consultation with my officials and housing stakeholders in Scotland. John Finnie. I thank the minister for that response. This proposal is clearly at odds with our approach here in Scotland and certainly will encourage suspicion and discrimination. It undermines our efforts to strengthen tenants' rights. I was delighted to hear the First Minister say yesterday that she would not only oppose the repeal of the Human Rights Act but she will refuse to consent it. Will the Scottish Government take the same stand here and stop the staconian xenophobic scheme being imposed in Scotland? Minister. The Scottish Government is very much opposed to what the UK Government is proposing in terms of the landlord's immigration. However, as it stands, the UK ministers will be able to extend the eviction measures to Scotland through second legislation. That legislation allows them to amend, revoke or repeal any act or order made by the Scottish Parliament. I have written to the immigration minister making clear my concerns and urging him to amend the bill to require the UK Government minister to seek the consent of this Parliament before it extends the legislation to Scotland. 2. Malcolm Chisholm The Scottish Government will extend the planning moratorium on fracking to include on-shore underground coal gasification installations. Minister Fergus Ewing. As Malcolm Chisholm will be aware, the UK Government has issued licences in Scotland for underground coal gasification. However, at this time there have been no planning applications for any underground coal gasification projects in Scotland. The Scottish Government has been clear that the development of new energy technologies such as underground coal gasification must be consistent with our environmental objectives. We will continue to take a cautious, evidence-based approach to all such developments. I can assure the chamber that we continue to listen carefully to the views being expressed by communities and stakeholders on this matter. Malcolm Chisholm. The minister for the answer, but I am sure that the minister knows the great concerns of communities and I am sure that all MSPs have had very many e-mails and letters about the matter. Given that underground coal gasification is the most frightening and experimental method of unconventional gas extraction, and given the unacceptable climate change implications, it is puzzling to people throughout Scotland that the Scottish Government will not make a clear statement about this and say that it will extend its moratorium to those aspects of underground coal gasification that are within its control. We shall continue to take a careful and considerate approach that puts the public and communities' interests at the centre of the debate. As the member will appreciate, licensing of onshore unconventional oil and gas is being devolved, but licensing of underground coal gasification is not. Indeed, it is licensed by the coal authority as opposed to the section of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change dealing with oil and gas. Montefraser. Thank you. A report this week from Bigger Economics said that underground coal gasification could be worth £6 billion to the Scottish economy and create 5,000 jobs. What weight will the Scottish Government give to the potential economic impact of this industry when it reaches any decision on planning consent? Minister. We listened carefully to all evidence submitted from all quarters in this matter, and we look forward to having an opportunity to study in detail the report from Mr Blackett, I believe, to which Mr Fraser has referred and which has been reported in the press earlier this week. Our approach is to listen to evidence from all sides of this debate, Presiding Officer, but to take an evidence-based and extremely cautious approach. Question 3, Annabelle Goldie. To ask the Scottish Government what its medium-term strategy is for higher education. Cabinet Secretary, Angela Constance. The Scottish Government wants to enable our higher education sector to thrive. That is why we are investing over £1 billion in the sector this year. Universities can make a key contribution to delivery of Scotland's economic strategy by increasing growth and helping to tackle inequality. We want our highly successful institutions to be places where anyone can aspire to study. Every young person, whatever their background, should have an equal chance of participation in higher education based on their ability to learn and not based on their ability to pay. Annabelle Goldie. Presiding Officer, perhaps predictably the Cabinet Secretary does not refer to the elephant in the room. The Scottish Government is now very controversial proposals to interfere in university governance. Can I ask her why, when the opposition to her Government's plans is so overwhelming and includes such bodies as 17 universities, 17 university principles, the chairman of the board of governors at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the committee of the Scottish chairs of university governance, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institute of Directors, the SCDI, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and administrators, Robert Black, the former Auditor General of Scotland and Presiding Officer, I could go on. In deference to you, I shall not. Can I ask the cabinet secretary why? She still thinks her proposals are wise, workable or even credible. Cabinet secretary. Of course, Ms Goldie forgot to mention trade unionists, students and of course the higher education governance bill also has support in this chamber, indeed from the Labour Party. Let me stress that our universities are autonomous and that they will remain autonomous and there is nothing in this bill, Presiding Officer, that requires our higher education institutes to ask ministers permission for anything. As Ms Goldie knows, there was a review of higher education governance in 2012 by the principal Ferdinand Vaughan Prinsinski. I think that it is only right that in return for a £1 billion worth of public money investment that we expect the very highest of standards of governance. Much progress has been made in the sector, but of course there is room for improvement to ensure that university governance is modern, transparent fit for the future and is diverse and inclusive and represents that wider university community. Thank you. The cabinet secretary will recognise of course the huge concern about the effect on universities of the UK Government's policy on post-study work visas. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that there is also a great concern about Scottish colleges, such as South Lanarkshire College in East Kilbride, about the UK Government's many changes to international college student visas, not least the removal of the well-established right to work part-time? Yes, Presiding Officer, people who want to come to Scotland to live, study and work are important to our population growth and our future economic prosperity. We are working hard to attract the best international talent to our colleges, to our universities and of course to our workforce. The UK Government's focus on arbitrarily reducing net migration irrespective of the value that people might bring or to the contribution that they could make to our economy and society in Scotland is simply wrong. I have raised my concerns and this Government's concerns about the impact of this policy on Scottish colleges with the UK Government and I will continue to work with the college sector in this regard. Question 4, Patrick Harvie. Thank you. Can I ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken in the last year on currency options for Scotland, either in the current constitutional context or perhaps in the future? Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government set out its position on the currency question during the referendum last year. Patrick Harvie. I take it from that that no further work has been done on exploring this subject area further. Can I point out to the cabinet secretary that if a city like Bristol can have a Bristol pound if an area like Brixton can have a Brixton pound and create a local economic benefit isn't there an opportunity for Scotland also to explore complementary currencies in the current constitutional context as new economics foundation and common will have recently suggested? Wouldn't this have an immediate local economic benefit as well as increasing the understanding in Scotland of what money is, where it comes from and a confidence that pound sterling is not the only kind of money we could ever trust? Cabinet Secretary. Of course there are a number of interesting ideas that Mr Harvie set out in his question and I will of course look carefully at the points that he raises he would expect nothing else of me. The Government is of course very interested in local economic development that is why we bring forward measures to support the development of local economies principally through the work of our enterprise agencies in Scottish Enterprise and Hans-Anne's Enterprise why we so actively support the business gateway why we support organisations like Entrepreneurial Spark and the Scottish agent and the concrete practical support for the small business community in our localities through the small business bonus scheme which provides savings on business rates for over 95,000 businesses within Scotland which I'm sure is a policy that Mr Harvie enthusiastically supports. Question 5 Mary Fee To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the availability of rail travel in the west Scotland region. Scottish Government has secured through the new ScotRail franchise agreement significant improvements and innovations in improved services, trains and facilities. There will be enhanced services on the Kilmarnock air and Stranrair route by December 2015 and the introduction of new electric trains on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route from summer 2017. Passengers in the west of Scotland will benefit from fair increases cap to RPI the extension of smart ticketing and port modes. I thank the minister for that answer. We must develop alternatives to the reliance on the M8 and the road network which is hard push to cope with demand particularly at peak times so with rail now becoming possible once again we should seize the opportunity. What I'm suggesting is the route that would go from Brayhead to Glasgow as this would involve minimal disruption. These are the words of Derek Mackay in 2012 before his appointment as transport minister when discussing rail links to Renfrew. Can the transport minister tell me now what he's doing to bring rail links to Renfrew? I would agree with Mary Fee as a fellow resident of Renfrew the largest town in Scotland without a railway station but I won't let my ministerial interest be compromised. All that needs to happen is for the Labour-led Remshire council to put in an application to put in an application as promoter of the scheme but they failed to do so so I can't even execute my desire to see rail extended to the town of Renfrew at Brayhead but this £5 billion investment in rail in Scotland is all the reason that patronage in the railways is increasing as well as the multi-billion pound investment in roads as well but if Mary Fee wants to tell her pals to get their finger out then I'll happily oblige. To ask the Scottish Government at which steps it's taking to address the issue of new psychoactive substances. Minister, Paul Wheelhouse. Substantial progress has been made across many fronts including on all the recommendations of the NPS expert review group. For example, I wrote to all Scottish local authorities requesting the ban NPS in their public entertainment licences and providing standard staff across Scotland was launched last week. NPS remains a priority for alcohol and drug partnerships and improving identification and prevention activities focused on NPS or set out as a requirement in their local delivery plans. I also would want to thank Graham Dave for the work he has done locally as has Nigel Dawn to help tackle these substances and also for Mr Dave's participation in the NPS ministerial cross-party working group. Graham Dave. Thank the minister for that answer. I wonder if he can provide some specific details on what is deployed to respond to the challenges posed by NPS in the area of forensics. Minister. Mr Dave raises an important point. The Scottish Government is contributing towards the cost of infrastructure that has allowed new high-tech machinery to be secured. We are engaging further with stakeholders including publishing a questionnaire yesterday to understand views on the proposed definition of NPS, categorisation of NPS, improvement in data collection and crucially on the potential functions of a forensic centre for excellence to lead detection and identification of NPS and assessment to the extent to the psychoactivity of substances and the harms that they are likely to cause. Potential functions of that could also include developing national reference standards to become a national resource in the field, linking with other data systems at EU, UK level and indeed the Wedinoss project in Wales and acting as a central resource for enforcement agencies and potentially the NHS on emerging trends with NPS. The Scottish Government asks what steps it can take to improve the safety of passengers on trains. Railway safety policy has not been devolved to Scottish ministers and remains an area that is reserved to UK Government. The Office of Rail and Road, ORR, is a UK member state railway safety authority who has the responsibility for ensuring with enforcement, if necessary, that the safety performance of train operators including those operating the ScotRail and sleeper franchises continues to ensure the safety of passengers using train services. The Scottish Government has ensured that both ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper are committed to fulfilling an active role in providing a safe and secure rail network for all passengers and staff and will work in partnership with others to achieve that aim. Our input to the specification of cross-border franchises run by the DFT includes the same passenger-focused approach to safety issues. Check Brody We'll provide an update regarding Prestwick's bid to be the UK's first spaceport. Minister Derek Mackay The location of the spaceport is a decision for the UK Government. Airfields on the shortlist are awaiting the Westminster rules to outline the bidding process and the timetable for submitting bids. As I've said before, we believe that Prestwick is well-placed to submit a strong bid. We would like to see the UK spaceport located in Scotland, and we have stated that we will provide advice and support to any Scottish airfield that wishes to pursue this opportunity. Check Brody Does he agree with me that the development of high-tech space and aerospace manufacturing opportunities are an integral part of the development of the UK spaceport, business case and subsequent decision and that Prestwick and Ayrshire with its manufacturing base and its aerospace campus at Ayrshire colleges are ideally placed to develop these opportunities? Minister Yes, I agree that Prestwick airport is well-placed to submit a very strong bid for the spaceport and we'll be happy to support them in pursuing that at every opportunity. John Scott In my view and obviously in the view of others, Prestwick airport is the location of choice for spaceport, not just in Scotland but in Britain. Given the competition for spaceport from England and Wales, can I urge the Scottish Government to get behind this bid for Scotland and at least pick one site, otherwise we run the risk of ending up with no Government backing for any site and Scotland's bid ultimately failing? Minister I understand John Scott's desire for us to support Prestwick and no other but until we see the final criteria it would be wrong for us to rule out other potential airfields that may be eligible so he will support the bid to come to Scotland and I've said that Prestwick does have a very strong case and a very strong bid and if it so transpires that it's the best bid then of course the Scottish Government will get behind that but right now we're behind all the potential bids to bring it to Scotland. Michael Russell I am of course very pleased to hear that ministers behind all the bids can I remind the minister of the bid from Macro Hanish the Cape Cambleton bid now supported by Argyllun Bute Council which has of course the only runway in Scotland presently approved for spacelight? That's exactly the reason that I'm not closing down options we will support the spaceport to come to Scotland we believe that there are a number of good bids Prestwick for the reason it's been given has a particularly strong bid and there may even be a coalition in which airfields can work together to maximise the opportunity that Scotland may have for a spaceport within the UK To ask the Scottish Government how many small businesses successfully bid for local authority contracts in the last year Minister Fergus Ewing Public contracts Scotland portal indicates that a total of 15,692 suppliers were awarded contracts in 2014 of these 58% were registered on the portal as micro or small businesses Claudia Beamish I thank the minister for that answer with the numbers but impact is a small wood frame start-up business seeking small procurement contracts via the e-procurement portal describing PECOS system as a closed shop the business cannot secure a contract without access to the system and cannot get onto the system until it has secured a contract in the light of the recent Scottish Government strategy on digital procurement what is the Scottish Government doing to ensure the system is inclusive and accessible to all start-up businesses enabling them to grow and contribute to their local economies what we are doing is making sure that thousands and thousands of small businesses are assisted to get contracts and let me point out to the member that of the contracts awarded 9147 were registered as micro and small business and what we are also doing with the small business bonus is providing low or no business rates 100,000 businesses in Scotland more than any other Government anywhere in the UK thank you