 Y clytidon ymlaen i, yn'r geigffordd bywydeth, the next item of business is consideration of business, Motion 2456, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of Parliamentary Bureau setting out changes to today's business. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button, now. I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you President and I moved. No members asked to speak against the motion, therefore the question is that motion 2456 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is topical questions. In order to get in as many people as possible, I would prefer short and succinct questions and responses. I call it question number one, Jamie Greene. To ask the Scottish Government what resilience measures are in place to tackle serious organised crime and terrorism in light of reports that the assistant chief constable in charge has been suspended. That is an operational matter for Police Scotland. The chief constable has confirmed that the assistant chief constable, Tim Mayers, will move from his current role on an interim basis to take responsibility for the organised crime, counter-terrorism and intelligence portfolio. The member will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to comment further, although an investigation is under way. Jamie Greene. I do appreciate that there is an investigation under way. However, it is the seniority of the individual and the importance of his remit that causes the most concern. The assistant chief constable suspended leads the charge in tackling serious organised crime, terrorism and cybercrime in Scotland. We know that cybercrime increased 95 per cent last year. Web-based grooming offences have increased by 80 per cent over five years and the police are currently investigating nearly two and a half thousand serious organised gang members in Scotland. Can I ask if the cabinet secretary is confident that we are making progress in tackling those crimes and what steps has he personally taken in the past few days to make sure that those recent events will in no way impact Police Scotland's ability to protect the public? Cabinet secretary. As I say, there is not much I can say in terms of the actual investigation. Just as the member says, it is very important because of the level of the person involved in the organisation that it would be just as important for a member at any level in the organisation in that kind of case. Is the responsibility of the chief constable to deploy his force as he sees fit? I have had discussions in the last few days, both with the police themselves and with the SPA. I am confident that the police and the chief constable will ensure that the same kind of coverage, the same kind of effort has been made in relation to organised crime and cybercrime, as was being made before this case came to fruition. That will be affected by the changes that the chief constable has put in place. Jamie Greene I am reassured in the sense that a conversation has taken place about the resilience of the police's ability to handle such serious crime in Scotland. Let's not forget, Presiding Officer, that it has been over a year since Dame Angelini's final report into police misconduct and complaints handling was published. The Government, I remember, snuck out a progress report on the final day before summer recess. I raised it as an issue at the time, but we have heard nothing since. It remains a fact that, astonishingly, an officer can resign while suspended during an investigation with no further action or recourse taken whatsoever. Why is that still the case? That is a very important point that Jamie Greene makes. He knows that it was one of the recommendations in Dame Angelini's report. He will know that there were more than 100 such recommendations, many of which have been progressed. To reassure the member, a meeting took place last week at which the latest tranche of recommendations, which have been progressed, were summarised and will shortly make a statement and make public the progress that has been made throughout the range of recommendations. The one that the member refers to, of course, is one that would require primary legislation to change. It is a question that we will have to take forward that. Perhaps another provision, which is in relation to advisory and barred lists, whereby somebody who is convicted of offence in one police force cannot join another police force without that police force being told about it. Those are on their own two very important recommendations, but they will require primary legislation and, if we take them forward, will require to be fitted into the legislative programme, just to say that justice currently has around 22 bills scheduled for this parliamentary loan before any bills that the member might bring forward and others. It is a congestive programme, but we intend to take that forward seriously. Serious progress has been made throughout the recommendations that Ailish Angiolini has made. I thank the cabinet secretary for that information. He will be aware that there has been an 18-fold increase in the stoppages of so-called street ballym in the space of a year, while seizures of psychoactive substances has nearly doubled. I would just like a further assurance that the cabinet secretary will be mindful that the successful work does continue and is not compromised in any way. Cabinet secretary, I would like to give the member that reassurance. The reassurance is based on the 17,000 police officers that we have in place and the work that is being done through some new initiatives, psychoactive drugs that are mentioned by the members, and she will be aware of some of the things that have been done in relation to the presence of those drugs in prisons. She will also be aware of recent changes by the Lord Advocate in relation to how those drug offences are prosecuted and dealt with by the police. Yes, there is a real focus on that. Of course, it should not be the case necessarily that the discovery of an increased amount of drugs is necessarily seen as increased prevalence. It may well be due—I am not saying it is—we cannot properly determine exactly what it is due to, but it may well be down to the fact that the police are acting very effectively to locate and seize those drugs as well. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to strengthen the process for the handling of complaints and misconduct allegations against police officers. I have partly answered the question in response to Jamie Greene's supplementary question, but, following the review that was mentioned before by Dame Ailey Shangelini, which was into complaints handling investigations and misconduct issues, a number of recommendations have already been implemented. Others, as I have said, will require legislation and will consult on those proposals further to further strengthen the framework for complaints and misconduct allegations against police officers. We will do that next year, including the conduct framework for senior officers. There is, though, currently an established process for the handling of police complaints, investigations of serious incidents and misconduct. I welcome the significant progress that has been made by, among others, the Police Scotland, the SPA, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service to drive improvements in systems and processes in advance of those legislative changes that I mentioned earlier. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing NHS Lothian and other NHS boards, given the consequences and impact of delayed discharges. For a very important question, the health and care system is under extreme pressure due to the pandemic, and all health boards are experiencing significant issues, including workforce challenges and high levels of delayed discharge. To help alleviate some of that pressure, we announced a substantial new package of £300 million in hospital and community care to support NHS and social care systems over the winter. A substantial proportion of that funding is going directly into social care to help with delayed discharge. I also announced last month further funding of £10 million to support health boards to maintain resilience throughout winter by putting in place a range of measures, including appropriate levels of staffing at the right place at the right time. I have been meeting with the chief executive of NHS Lothian alongside the chief executive of the city of Edinburgh council and Judith Proctor and the team at the Edinburgh health and social care partnership, as well on a weekly basis for the last month to discuss this very issue. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer and I'll be very measured in my question because myself and others in the chamber today were at a briefing on Friday, which painted an alarming picture where there has clearly been a spike in delayed discharge, particularly in Edinburgh, leading to a log jam right the way through inpatient care and into accident emergency. Can I ask the cabinet secretary, have in his meetings identified what the issue is? My understanding is that it is not necessarily just one of money. Is this about social care provision or are there other blockages to discharge? Is this an issue that is happening elsewhere in the country? I thank Daniel Johnson. If he wants further briefing, I am happy to speak to him offline with my officials in detail. In terms of the questions that he asks, there are some Edinburgh-specific issues. That is why I meet with Edinburgh every single week because I am concerned about the level of delayed discharge that is the highest in the country, but also the very unique circumstances. For example, there is a severe lack of in-house provision, as he probably knows, not just in care homes, but of course care at home, which is a vital part of keeping people out of hospital, albeit via the back door or preventing them from coming through the front door. Workforce is clearly a challenge in Edinburgh, given that there are other competing workforce pressures in hospitality and so on and so forth. He is absolutely right that finances that I have said to Edinburgh City Council, to the health and social care partnership and to Lothian health board should not be an issue. In fact, I agreed additional funding, recognising that, for example, for interim care placements in Edinburgh, the cost may well be higher in Edinburgh than it would be in other parts of the country. I am convinced and content that funding is not the issues that he articulates, but there are a significant number of other issues that we are trying to work through with Edinburgh. Given the time that I have here in Topicals, I am happy to either write to the member or, if he wants a meeting, I am more than happy to discuss these in greater detail. Indeed, I would welcome more detail and a meeting. A particular concern is in-patient care and particularly within trauma. One particular example is the orthopedics, where delays in treatment can obviously have consequences in terms of bone growth and so on. Is there a particular concern in particular areas of in-patient care and would be able to elaborate that and what action is being taken to remove those issues? Yes, we have concerns right across the board, but he is absolutely right to focus on the areas that he does. What I would say is really important. We can often spend a lot of time in this chamber understandably so focused on unscheduled care, emergency care and elective care. We know that there has been a building backlog due and exacerbated by the significant impact of the pandemic. What we are doing is trying to use all the resources that are possible nationally. For example, we are taking the likes of the Golden Jubilee. How can the Golden Jubilee help with orthopedic surgery, be it in Lothian, be it in the west coast or any other part of the country? We are trying to maximise as much resources that we can to help with the elective backlog. We know that the longer people have to wait for that surgery, the more problems there will be in the future. I am more than happy to go into more details with Daniel Johnson at a meeting. You have announced money for delayed discharges and agreed in your previous answer that money does not necessarily seem to be the problem. When do you expect to help more long-suffering patients to receive the care that they need and deserve by reducing the current level of hospital delayed discharges? As we have reduced in the past week's figures, we have gone below 1,500. It is still far too high, and I want it to reduce even more. I am happy to provide Sandra Scrohani with the latest figures, but I would say that we are beginning to see small levels of reduction, but I need that to be far bigger than it is. I am meeting with the six health boards that have the largest number of delayed discharges and we are working through solutions. We are making some progress, as I said, but I hope that that progress continues. As I have said to Daniel Johnson, I have made it clear to the health boards that funding and finances should not be the barrier to helping to reduce those delayed discharges. I also attended the briefings on Friday with NHS Lothian, and then I went on to one with NHS Borders. Further to the answers to Daniel Johnson, it is not just an Edinburgh problem. Figures for beds as of today at the Borders General Hospital are out of 300 beds. Seven are occupied by Covid patients, but 51 by those whose discharge is delayed. Now, while appreciating the various causes of this, losing 17 per cent of bed capacity with all the predictable challenges this winter lie ahead, we have an immediate problem. Can I listen carefully to the cabinet secretary's answer? If he is also meeting with Ralph Roberts, Ralph Roberts of NHS Borders, it is also a problem in the Borders. You could imagine that I discussed this issue with every single health board. Of course, Christine Grahame is absolutely right. It is a problem that every health board contains with her. There are also areas of very good practice that I am ensuring that is shared right across every single health board. However, Christine Grahame always gets to the crux of the issue here, which is, of course, if we invest, not just in care home placements, which are hugely important, but care at home and making sure that people have the appropriate packages at home, we hopefully prevent them from coming through the front door of the hospital, too. To give her an assurance, I meet with the chief execs and the chairs every single week, of course, Ralph Roberts is on those calls, and we discuss those matters in great detail. I am very grateful for the answers that we have heard today. Following the meeting on Friday, can the cabinet secretary say where the staff are going to come from that are needed to alleviate the problem across Scotland? Recruitment is under way and is going well. DrawBadverse is not just out, but interviews are commencing, and a number of people have already been recruited. I did reference my answer to Daniel Johnson that Edinburgh does have an acute problem, because there are a number of other pressures that are upon them from the retail sector, from hospitality and so on and so forth. However, some of the £300 million of funding that I announced—a bulk or significant proportion of that—was for additional recruitment of band twos to force. That work is very well under way, and I am happy if the member wishes to write to me if he wants more specific detail on recruitment, and I am happy to provide the numbers to him. Stephen Kerr Can I ask the cabinet secretary if he will tell us how many people are now waiting in Scotland for the hospital appointment, given the comments that he has made in relation to capacity in the system? I do not have the figures to hand in terms of exactly how many are waiting for a hospital appointment. I have been happy to look to see if we have those figures and provide them to Stephen Kerr. What I would say is that we are investing heavily to try to free up as much capacity as we possibly can, to get those delayed discharges back out into community, and to help us to free up space within the hospital to see more people, which is important. Of course, our investment in primary care is really important for that, because we do not want everybody to just have to go into hospital to be seen where they can be seen in the community, where they can be seen at primary care, which is why we are making investment right across the entire system. For the exact figures that Mr Kerr is looking for, I am more than happy to see if they can be provided to him.