 14. minister. Q1, from Jackson Carlaw. Thank you. Can I ask the First Minister which plan delivers public spending in real terms over the coming years higher—the UK Government's budget plan or the Scottish National Party's growth commission? First minister? Let me be very clear that as a result of the budget on Monday, the UK Government budget,�ro fel Volksdeingell, in real terms by almost £2 billion per anniosiant between the Tories coming to office in 2010 and end of this decade, highlighting that austerity under the Tories is far from over. They continue to deliver tax cuts for the richest, and cuts for everybody else. By contrast, the growth commission recommends on the real terms growing in spending to protect our vital public services? Jackson Carlaw. Well, if that's austerity, the First Minister's going to have to think of a new word to describe life under her miserable plans, because that's quite something. And whatever else that was, whatever else that was, it wasn't an answer to the simple question that I ask. On Sunday, Derek Mackay swaggered round the TV studios saying, show me the money. Well, on Monday the Chancellor did. And what the First Minister won't admit is that the UK budget has now set a course for public spending to increase within the UK at 1.4 per cent a year in real terms up to 2023-24, whereas the SNP's growth commission, the Evangelical Bible of Economic Misery, forecast public spending in an independent Scotland to increase by just half a per cent. First Minister, those are the facts, so I ask you again, which plan proposes to increase spending by more in Scotland? The UK Government's bold proposals are the SNP's miserable growth commission. First Minister. Appendence and control of our own resources, we can ensure real terms increase in public spending, that is the price of independence. However, let's go back to the budget and the reality of the UK Government Tory budget announced on Monday. That will result in, cut to the Scottish Government budget of £2 billion over the decade that the Tories have been in power. Most of the consequentials in next year, of course, are earmarked for the national health service. When that is taken out, we will pass it on to the national health service. I should say, as an aside, that the Tories have even managed to short changes on that. We were meant to get £600 million in consequentials next year, and we are only seeing £550 million of that delivered next year. If that shortfall continues over the planning period, that will see the Tories short change the Scottish people to the tune of more than a quarter of a billion pounds. That is absolutely shameful. However, if Jackson Carlaw does not want to take my word for it, perhaps he can listen to the think tanks and the experts of all had their say on the budget over the past few days. The resolution foundation is not the end of austerity. Existing promises of extra spending in some areas mean that the chancellor's numbers imply on-going cuts in other day-to-day public services. We know what the Tories stand for. The mask has well and truly slipped. It slipped before we even got to Halloween this year. Tax cuts for the wealthiest and cuts for everybody else are the reality of the Tories, and this Government stands for something very different indeed. Jackson Carlaw. How miserably predictable. Here is the reality. The Scottish Government will receive an extra £0.5 billion more in real terms next year. That is what the independent Scottish parliamentary researcher Spice has declared. Yet the SNP is so focused on finding the cloud in every silver lining that it cannot even bring itself to welcome a single penny of that money, let alone £0.5 billion of it. Worse still, the finance secretary has also indicated that he will refuse to pass on tax cuts that will benefit middle-income families elsewhere in the UK. Will the First Minister give any hope of tax relief to people like senior teachers, nurses and police officers who, without it, face paying a bill of £1,000 extra in income tax compared to those who are doing exactly the same job elsewhere in the UK? Will she? However, Jackson Carlaw tries to spin it. The reality is cuts to this Government's budget as a result of decisions taken by the Tory Chancellor. I have got the figures here. £2 billion over the decade is a real-terms cut in the budget of this Government. That amounts to almost 7 per cent in real terms. The Tories should be utterly ashamed of that. We are seeing the true colours of the Tories really highlighted today. When we set our budget on 12 December, the decisions that we take will be driven by our determination to protect our national health service and our other public services, to tackle poverty and low pay, and to ensure that those who earn the most in our society make a fair and reasonable contribution to our public services. It will be a balanced, progressive and fair budget, and it will stand in stark contrast to the one that we saw on Monday. Let me look at tax in more detail. I am really surprised that Jackson Carlaw is prepared to defend the reality of this. Again, let me cite the resolution foundation. Those are not Scottish Government figures. 84 per cent of the benefit from the Tory tax cut for the richest goes to the top half of the income spectrum. 37 per cent of that goes to the top 10 per cent of income earners. I am quoting the resolution foundation here. The overall impact of tax and benefit policies, put in place by the Tory Government since 2015, will, on average, make richer households better off by £390 a year and the poorest fifth of households £400 a year worse off. That is absolutely damming and shameful. I would be really interested to hear if Jackson Carlaw is prepared to stand up and defend that. Jackson Carlaw. I will tell you something. Audit Scotland is not very impressed with your efforts to protect the NHS, because it thinks that its current forecast is completely unsustainable. What we get from the First Minister is the usual basket of cliches. That was a budget that froze fuel duty and delivered a tax cut of £132 to the record number of Scots in work. It delivered a freeze on the duty in whiskey, welcomed by the industry, helped for the oil and gas sector, welcomed by those in it, more than £0.5 billion for Scotland's NHS, helped for our high streets, investment in our roads and the SNP response, an all too predictable whinge. How tired, lackluster and miserable. They wanted a freeze in whiskey duty, they got it, they wanted support for oil and gas, they got it, they wanted to see the money, they got £950 million worth of it. If ever Scotland wanted evidence that this is a grudge in grievance government led by a grudge in grievance, First Minister, this was it. Why can't she for once, just once, First Minister, welcome it? Well, isn't it interesting and isn't it very, very illuminating that when I quoted the resolution foundation about how the Tories are cutting tax for the richest in our society while continuing to punish the poor? I asked Jackson Carlaw to have a go at defending that. He just changed the subject. I think that lots of people will have listened to Jackson Carlaw today and realised that he is completely unable to defend the policies of his own party at Westminster. Let's turn back to the NHS in tax. First, let us not forget that, as a result of our budget decisions last year, 55 per cent of taxpayers in Scotland right now pay less tax than counterparts across the UK because of our new starter rate, not helping those at the top, helping those at the bottom of the income scale. That's a progressive change. When it comes to the NHS for weeks now, the Tories have been challenging the Scottish Government to say what we're going to do with the £600 million of consequentials that we're going to get in this budget for the health service. We will pass on every penny of consequentials for the health service to the health service. Interestingly, it's not £600 million that's been delivered, it's only £550 million, and that will cost Scottish people more than a quarter of £1 billion over the period. My final point, Presiding Officer, and the Tories might want to listen to this, because that figure of £550 million has another significance, does it not, because that's also the figure that would have been taken out of the Scottish budget if we'd followed Tory calls to cut tax for the riches in this financial year. That would have been the equivalent of taking 13,000 nurses out of our health service. The Government stands for public services, it stands for helping the poorest in our society, it stands for fairness and progressive principles. What we've seen today is that the Tories stand for tax cuts for the rich and just cuts for everybody else, and Jackson Carlaw can't even try to defend it. Utterly shameful. The First Minister once pledged that in government the SNP, and I quote, will not force students into deeper and deeper debt, and would further meet the debt repayments of Scottish graduates living in Scotland. When the First Minister made that promise, the average debt for a Scottish graduate was £6,070. First Minister, what is the average debt today? First Minister. Debt for students in Scotland is at the lowest level of any country in the UK. It is significantly lower than in England, it is significantly lower than in Northern Ireland, and it's also significantly lower than in Labour-run Wales. That's because we don't have tuition fees, we're protecting students from having to pay tuition fees, and we've got one of the best student support systems anywhere in the UK. Of course, in recent months, we've announced increases to the support that we give students, so we will continue to give Scottish students the best deal anywhere in the UK, and we will continue to be proud to do so. Let me give the chamber, which the First Minister did not, new figures published this week show that the average debt for a Scottish graduate now stands at £13,200. That's more than double. Yet Nicola Sturgeon not only promised Scottish students that they would not be forced into deeper debt, she promised them that their debts would be written off, they would be cancelled. Let me quote an SNP election leaflet from the time, which said that we will write off the accumulated debt still owed to the student loans company by Scottish domicile students. Now we know, now we know, Presiding Officer, that Nicola Sturgeon did not dump the debt, she dumped the promise, because this week it was also confirmed by the student awards agency for Scotland that the SNP has cut student grants and bursaries by a third since 2012, and it has increased student loans by a staggering 182 per cent over the last decade. The First Minister was not prepared to tell us what the average student debt is, but can she tell us what the total value of student debt in Scotland is? Student debt in Scotland is lower than student debt in any other part of the UK because of the policies of this Government. Richard Leonard cites the figure in Scotland of £13,230. In England, average student debt is £34,800. In Northern Ireland it is £22,440. In Wales, where Labour is in Government, student debt is not the £13,000 that it is in Scotland, it is £21,500. Yet another example of Labour telling us to do as they say, not as they do. Richard Leonard cites figures published this week, so let me share with him some of the figures that were published this week by the Students Awards Agency Scotland. Total student support is up by 4.5 per cent to £882.7 million last year. Average HE student support in Scotland was up 1.4 per cent since 2016-17. More full-time higher education students than ever before are receiving support up 3.1 per cent since 2016-17. We paid out more in grants and bursaries last year, up 8.9 per cent, and the number of students receiving a grant or bursary increased by 2.8 per cent to 53,620 from the year before. As I have already said, of course, student loans companies statistics show that students in Scotland continue to have the lowest debt in the UK. My final point is that we do not just have the lowest debt for students in the UK, but that gap is growing year on year. That is our record on student support. It is one to be proud of, and we will continue to support students as best we possibly can. Richard Leonard If the First Minister had read further into that report, she would have found the answer to the question that I asked, which is that the total student debt in Scotland is now almost £5 billion. So the SNP in office has presided over a 169 per cent increase in that debt, and let us be clear, it is the poorest students who end up racking up the highest debts by taking out the biggest loans. That is not just my view, that is the view of the National Union of Students in Scotland, who this week said, and I quote, that students in the lowest household income bracket still finish their course with the most debt. Even by the standards of this government, promising to scrap student debt and then increasing it by 169 per cent, is nothing short of shameful. A generation of students have started high school and gone to university since the SNP made and then surreptitiously dropped their promise on student debt. That is a generation of students burdened with debt repayments that the SNP promised that they would write off. As a result, these current and former students may still owe a debt to the government, but this government owes them an unreserved apology. So will the First Minister today do the right thing, and will she apologise for her £5 billion broken promise? Presiding Officer, I think that there are students in Scotland who have started and finished degrees in the time it took Richard Leonard to ask that question. Anyway, when I was pointing out the fact that students in Labour-run Wales have significantly higher debt than students in SNP-governed Scotland, there were those in the Labour benches who were saying that that was not relevant. Well, let me tell you what certainly is relevant. Richard Leonard is the representative of a party that, when they were in power, supported charging students tuition fees. He stands here now and has the gall to mourn about student debt. Not only do we have the lowest debt for students in the UK, not only are, according to all those statistics published this week, increasing the amount that we pay to support students. We set out further plans. Over £21 million will be invested every year by the end of this Parliament to improve the support available to students at university and college. Next year we will invest £16 million to increase and expand access to further and higher education. Bursaries for students from the lowest income families. We will increase the higher education, bursary income threshold. We will increase bursary support for the poorest young students in higher education. We will increase bursaries for the poorest independent students in higher education. Of course, we will be paying a bursary equivalent to the real living wage to all care-experienced students in higher and further education. Not only do we have a proud record, we have the best plans of any party in this chamber for supporting students in the future. We will continue to get on with the job and leave labour to the various contortions that they managed to get themselves into. The number of constituency supplementaries is three. In fact, first from Tavish Scott and Maurice Golden. Last week, Highlands Islands airport is limited, confirmed that they will impose car parking charges on islanders travelling from Sumbra airport in Shetland. There has been no consultation, no island impact assessment and no new public transport links between Sumbra and Laowick, which is 25 miles away. Could the First Minister explain what happened to island proofing? Highlands Islands airports have to take decisions that they think are balanced and allow them to support and to invest in the airport facilities that are there. Of course, they should do proper island proofing. Tavish Scott is absolutely right about that, and they should make sure that they consult. I will ensure that the transport secretary discusses the issue with Hyal and corresponds with the member once he is done so. Maurice Golden Cameron Barclay, a six-year pupil from Renfrewshire, is trying to study for his advanced hires. I say trying because he must attend three separate schools and because Renfrewshire Council refused to help him with taxi costs, he must make a 45-minute cycle journey between them that sees and misses both class time and lunches every week. Does the First Minister think that that is acceptable? I do not know the individual circumstances of young Cameron Barclay, but I am more than happy to look into that. However, one of the things that we have tried to do—I have had exchanges with Ruth Davidson on the issue at previous sessions of First Minister's Questions—is to ensure that young people have as broad a range of qualifications that they can access. Some schools in different clusters will provide different qualifications and young people will go to different schools to access them. That is the part of how we deliver qualifications. As I say, I am more than happy to ask the Deputy First Minister to look into the specific case that the member is raising. However, the principle is that we want to ensure that young people get access to as broad a range of qualifications as it is possible to do. The First Minister is only too aware of the impact of two fires on Suckie Hall Street in Glasgow, where those businesses have been closed for months on ends. Some are still struggling, and sadly some will probably not make it. Does the First Minister agree that Glasgow deserves the same treatment as Belfast, who in the budget were awarded £2 million for their equally tragic circumstances of the pre-marked fire fallout? Does the First Minister agree that this is appalling that Glasgow's needs were ignored? I know that she has been helpful to the businesses in Suckie Hall Street, for which I am very grateful. Will the First Minister meet people of Suckie Hall Street businesses to discuss what further help can be given to the city of Glasgow? The finance secretary has already met businesses that are affected by those two fires, and he intends to continue to do that and to engage with them in the run-up to our own budget in December and beyond. The Scottish Government has already provided financial support, both in business rates relief and the £5 million fund that we set up to allow businesses to access financial support, and a number of businesses have taken advantage of that. I certainly do not regret the fact that Belfast got support. I think that that was right and proper, but I regret the fact that that was given to Belfast and that there was not the same consideration by the UK Government to the situation in Glasgow. Of course, the responsibility of the Scottish Government through our own financial decisions is to make sure that we are taking all appropriate steps to help businesses affected, and I can assure the member that we will continue to do exactly that. Later today, Parliament will debate the treatment of asylum seekers in our society in view of the continued threat of an imminent wave of mass evictions and mass destitution in Glasgow. I hope that the vast majority of us will unite in revulsion of the UK Government's brutal policies and in determination to take action to support asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants. People like Abdul, who was refused asylum and has been destitute in Glasgow now for two years, has serious epilepsy as well as mental health issues stemming from his persecution in Afghanistan, as well as from his homelessness here. This summer, he was discharged from an emergency hospital appointment to a shelter that did not have space for him. As I speak, Abdul is facing destitution again tonight. He will spend yet another unsafe night on the streets with literally nowhere to go. Only once he has short-term, safe emergency accommodation staffed by professionals who can meet his health needs, can he start making choices in his life again rather than being forced to make the grimmest survival decisions night after night. That provision does not yet exist and, with winter coming, it is needed now. Can the First Minister tell us, five months after the Scottish Government accepted the recommendation that there must be funding for emergency accommodation for those at immediate risk? What progress is being made and when will that provision be available? The recommendations that were made by the homelessness and rough sleeping task force, the initial recommendations that were made in the run-up to last winter, were accepted in full and funding was made available. That funding was used to very good effect to help many of those who were facing rough sleeping and those working on the front line, who helped to shape those recommendations. Those that I have spoken to are very positive about the impact that they have. As Patrick Harvie knows, further streams of recommendations have been made by that task force. They have now published their final recommendations and we are working through the implementation of all of those and it is an on-going process. In terms of asylum seekers, there are circumstances of the individual that Patrick Harvie has mentioned today. Often with asylum seekers there are issues around recourse to public funds, which complicates some of the provision that the Scottish Government would want to see provided. I abhor the way in which the UK system often exacerbates the trauma that asylum seekers have experienced and the trauma that has brought them to this country. I want to make sure that we do everything that we can to help them in the situations that they face, but also that our actions to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness are not just about helping asylum seekers, but are helping everybody who faces that circumstance. In terms of the detail, there are a large number of recommendations made by the homelessness task force. In terms of the detail of where all of them are in progress of being implemented, I am more than happy to get the cabinet secretary and Kevin Stewart, the housing minister, rather, to write to Patrick Harvie and set out the progress against each and every one of them. Patrick Harvie. Thank you. I appreciate the tone of the First Minister's answer. I do believe that the Scottish Government wants to get this right. We in Scotland should reject the wider hostile environment policy on migration in general that comes from the UK Government, but also reject the idea that asylum seekers are a burden. To be asked for asylum is to be in a privileged position. To be able to offer asylum to those who need it is to be privileged. To have to ask, that is what it is to bear a burden. But we do need more than just that firm sentiment and the commitments to act. We need that action to be immediate, especially as the nights grow colder. We need an urgent timetable for the implementation of that recommendation on emergency accommodation provision and integrated service that includes support services as well. We know that there is not a legal barrier to funding those services, even for those people that the UK Government has abandoned with the label no recourse to public funds. If the First Minister agrees that no one should be made destitute in 21st century Scotland, will she give a clear commitment that the Scottish Government will take the action necessary to prevent this humanitarian crisis on our own doorstep? First Minister. Yes, I will give that commitment. As I said in my previous answer, we are in the process of implementing all the recommendations of the homelessness and rough sleeping task force. We learned a lot from the winter initiatives that were taken last year, and those lessons will be applied. This year, we are committing significant funding to that. Out of the ending homelessness fund, we have allocated more than £23 million to get on with implementing those recommendations. We have also recently announced additional funding for the housing first approach. I absolutely agree. I would say that the sentiment that I am expressing here in terms of the detail of what we are doing to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness is backed up by the practical action that we are taking. More generally, I do not think that we should ever see those who seek asylum as a burden. We are undertaking our moral responsibility in offering asylum to people here. Given the nature of the constituency that I represent, I make representations regularly on the part of a large number of asylum seekers. What we often find with people who come here seeking asylum is that they are highly skilled, highly educated people. One of the things that I believe very strongly is that they should be allowed, as so many of them want to do, to work and make a contribution while they are here. I would hope that this Parliament, on all of those issues, can unite and call on the UK Government to change the rules that are causing and exacerbating so much of the misery that asylum seekers are facing, but to get behind the work that we are doing around tackling homelessness and rough sleeping, not just for asylum seekers but for everybody who faces that situation. A couple of further supplementaries, first from Bill Kidd. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Does the First Minister share my concern that this week's UK budget was a missed opportunity to end the roll-out of universal credit? The Chancellor's proclamation that universal credit is here to stay risk-driving more children into poverty and forcing families to defend food banks as the five food banks in Glasgow Annesland. The extra money that was announced for universal credit and the changes to the work allowances within universal credit were welcome, but I do not think that it goes nearly far enough. Universal credit is still going to adversely affect many people and lead many people into rent arrears and debt that would be completely avoidable. I still take the view that universal credit should not be tinkered with, but that universal credit should be halted. I hope that this Parliament continues to call on the UK Government to do exactly that. Interestingly, I quoted the Resolution Foundation a couple of times already today, but the point that it made about how the income tax threshold increases and increases to the universal credit work allowances is that those changes do not offset the impact of the benefits freeze for lowering from households. It is not just about universal credit, it is about the overall impact of the welfare cuts that we are seeing, which, as I said earlier on, is leading to a situation in which the richest in society are going to end up better off and the poorest in society are going to end up worse off. That, as we saw from Jackson Carlaw earlier on, is literally indefensible. I hope that this Parliament continues to stand up against it. Alison Johnstone Thank you. The Scottish Government's consultation on the protection of wild mammals act ended in January, closed in January. Analysis of the responses was published in July. The vast majority of the 20,000 respondents want to see a real ban on hunting with dogs. The fox hunting season begins again on Saturday, yet the Government still has to publish a response. Does the First Minister believe that the Scottish Government has done enough to ensure that foxes are not hunted with hounds when the season begins this weekend? The Scottish Government's response on this is due to be published imminently. I do not have the date for that in front of me right now. I know that Cabinet is due to discuss it very soon. I will ask Roseanna Cunningham to write to the member to give her more detail on the timing of that. I think that we have done enough. I think that we have done the right thing. We asked Lord Bonomy to review the provisions. He has published a report. It is right that we carefully consider the way forward. That is exactly what we are doing, taking full account of the consultation responses that we have received and, as I say, we will set out our response in due course and as soon as possible. John Mason To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in response to the reported rise in antisemitism. The First Minister Well, there is absolutely no place in Scotland or anywhere else for any form of antisemitism or religious hatred. Last week, of course, we learned of the tragic attack on the tree of life synagogue in Pittsburgh and my thoughts, and I am sure that the thoughts of the whole chamber are with all of those affected. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community across the world. I was reminded of the importance of tolerance, compassion and respect during my visit to Auschwitz earlier this week with school children from across Scotland. I certainly will never forget what I saw there, and none of us should ever forget the horrors of genocides around the world. There is a stark reminder of the inhumanity and violence that bigotry and intolerance can cause. We are committed to tackling hate crime and prejudice. We recently launched the letters from Scotland campaign, which aims to encourage witnesses and victims to report hate crime and help to create a society where hate crime and prejudice of any form is not tolerated. John Mason I thank the First Minister for that answer and I certainly share her sympathies with those affected by the attack in Pittsburgh. I have to say that I also found the visit to Auschwitz incredibly moving, especially when I saw the railway there. Would the First Minister agree that both the words and the tone that politicians use are extremely important and can have a big impact on the people that hear them? We all need to be wary and careful of the tone that we use, including President Trump about Mexico and other people about Israel and about the Jewish communities. The First Minister Yes, I absolutely agree with that. I think that it is incumbent on all of us to consider carefully the words and the language that we use and the tone that we use as well. Words do matter, and all of us are aware of the damaging impact that can be inflicted upon individuals and communities through the irresponsible use of language. Everybody in public life is a duty to be aware of that and to understand the importance of the messages, tone and language that we use. It is important that we acknowledge and take time to consider the impact that our words can have on people, on their families. Of course, that includes personalised attacks and violent language. Personalised attacks and violent language debases all of us and all of us, each and every single one of us, have a part to play in challenging and confronting that. Adam Tomkins Thank you. The First Minister has referred to her visit this week to Auschwitz. In reflecting on her visit, as I have reflected on my own visits to Holocaust memorials such as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, does the First Minister agree with me that, above all else, the principle lesson of the Holocaust is that none of us can ever afford to look the other way in the face of anti-Semitism? Even in a country as otherwise welcoming and civilised as Scotland, as Efraim Borowski of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities has recently said, Jewish people remain 30 times more likely than others to be targeted for their religion. Is that not the call, First Minister, not merely for words but for action? The First Minister Yes, and I think that all of us have to look carefully not just at what we say, but at how we apply those words in the actions that we take. I, as the First Minister and as leader of my party, take that responsibility very seriously, and I hope that that goes for others across the chamber. For anybody who has not yet had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz, if you get that opportunity, I would thoroughly recommend taking it. It is a profoundly unsettling experience but an incredibly important one. As I said when I was there on Tuesday, it is important to remember all those who suffered and were murdered there and to pay tribute to that suffering. However, it is really important that we do not just see what happened there in a historical context. It is not just a history lesson. The Holocaust did not start in Auschwitz or Birkenau or any of the concentration camps. The Holocaust started in the everyday antisemitism and discrimination, the othering and dehumanising of Jews. That is the lesson that we must learn and apply in our modern lives. That is why I was so pleased to be there with 200 Scottish school students and the Scottish Government. As many members in the chamber, I know how to support the work of the Holocaust education trust to make sure that as many young people get that experience as possible. It had a profound impact on me, but I know how to watch the reactions of the young people that I was with. It had a deeply profound impact on them as well, but that can only be to the good as we do everything that we can to make sure that those horrors cannot be allowed to happen again. Neil Findlay I fully support the First Minister's words, but this week, the acting leader of West Lothian's SNP councillors and one of his colleagues shared and then defended sharing an article attacking a young female Jewish trade union leader for her work representing low-paid workers. The article cited Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf. The author of the article was rightly suspended by the First Minister's party. Will the First Minister now take further action and suspend both elected councillors and others who spread such offensive, hateful material and attack and abuse people for simply doing their job? The First Minister Can I respond really seriously in a very heartfelt way to that legitimate question? It is important that all of us reflect to follow-up in Adam Tomkins' question, not just on what we say but on what we do. The author of that blog was suspended from SNP membership earlier this week. Obviously, there will now be due process that has to be gone through, so I will not say any more about that at this stage. What I will say is that the IRA definitions around antisemitism will be used in the consideration of that disciplinary complaint. On the SNP councillor, I should say that the councillor in question has written to the young woman who mentioned an unreserved apology today, fully recognising that he made a significant error of judgment and that that error of judgment arose out of a lack of understanding and knowledge. There are two things that I want to say about this, and I was discussing those things in general terms with some of the members of the Jewish community that I was with on Tuesday. Where people do get things wrong through lack of understanding or knowledge, it is sometimes important that we give them a chance to learn, because education and learning is an important part of combating antisemitism and tolerance and racism of all forms. The SNP is responsible for the decisions that we take on those things and are answerable for those decisions, but we, in all of those matters and have done so this week, have consulted Scogec, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, about the appropriate response to this particular situation. My final point is equally important. I could stand here right now, and I am not going to run through a whole list of alleged failures of Labour or other parties to take those things seriously and, indeed, to act as seriously as we have done this week. However, I am not going to do that, because, yes, in a democracy, it is really important that we hold each other to account, that we check each other's behaviour and call out unacceptable behaviour. That is a vital part of our democratic process. I think that it is equally important—we are all guilty of this sometimes—that we do not rush to weaponise those things against each other for petty party political reasons. On the fundamentals of this, it is important that we stand united to say that antisemitism, racism, bigotry and intolerance in any form is completely unacceptable. The SNP will continue to treat it in that way, and we will continue to be answerable for the decisions that we make. Ultimately, on those issues, I think that there is a lot more that unites all of us than divides us. I think that we would probably do a greater service to the memory of those that we have just been discussing, but also to future generations if we actually took the time to stand in solidarity on those issues as much as we choose to defyde. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that there is mental health support for college and university students. First Minister, every student should have access to emotional and mental health and wellbeing support. That is why our programme for government includes a commitment to provide more than 80 additional councillors in colleges and universities over the next four years with an investment of around £20 million. We are also supporting NUS Scotland's think positive project, which aims to find ways to support students experiencing mental health, tackle stigma and discrimination and promote wellbeing. We will continue to work closely with the university and college sectors, NUS Scotland and other partners, on the implementation of the additional councillors and to ensure an integrated and wraparound approach to student wellbeing in both higher and further education. She will be aware that the number of university students in Scotland seeking support for mental health issues has increased by two thirds over five years. Information from universities across Scotland for the number of students seeking some form of support found that 11,700 students asked for help in 1670 compared to 7,000 in 1213. Cases ranged from anxiety to depression, gender-based violence and body dysmorphia. Therefore, can I ask the First Minister how she plans to ensure that mental health funding is split across colleges and universities fairly? When, as she has just indicated, there is some implementation going on, can the students expect to see more councillors on the campuses? The short answer to that important question is yes. The announcement that we made in the programme for government—and obviously there will be more details of this around our budget in a few weeks' time—is that we are going to invest significantly in putting additional councillors into schools and also into colleges and universities, and that will have an impact on campuses across the country. Rachel Hamilton talked about the increase in students coming forward for support, and she is absolutely right to do so. That reflects an increase across society in people coming forward for support with mental health issues. As I have said many times before, that in some ways is something that we should welcome because it is a sign that the stigma associated with mental health is reducing, but it puts our responsibility on government shoulders to ensure that the services are there. As well as investing more, we need to reconfigure the way in which mental health services are delivered, having much more preventative support, much more support in places like schools, colleges and universities, in police stations, for example, and in GP services. That is exactly what we are trying to do. Perhaps one of the most important things that we are going to be doing as we implement those plans is developing the community mental wellbeing service, which will cater for everybody in the five to 24-year-old age group. So there is a whole range of things that it is important that we take forward, and we are committed to continuing to do so. 6. David Stewart Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with the European Commission regarding the Highlands Islands exemption from the air departure tax. The First Minister We want to protect the existing Highlands Islands exemption from the air departure tax. We have written to the UK Government asking them to notify the exemption for approval to the European Commission, and I have had on-going discussions with them on this matter. As the EU member states, only the UK Government can engage with the European Commission to pursue that notification. However, as has previously been set out, notification is only one avenue. We are also continuing to explore a range of different options to try to find the best possible solution to the Highlands and Islands exemption issue. Of course, that needs to be resolved before EDT can be introduced in Scotland. David Stewart I thank the First Minister for her answer. The First Minister will be well aware of the calls from some quarters of the aviation industry south of the Highland line to kill off the exemption with potential damaging consequences for businesses and communities across my region. Can the First Minister give Parliament an absolute assurance today that she will resist the misguided demands and protect the interests of the Highlands Islands by preserving this vitally important exemption? The First Minister It is not just that I can give an assurance of that. The actions that we have taken to date demonstrate that we are absolutely determined to protect the Highlands and Islands exemption. We have taken the decision that the EDT cannot be introduced and some of the policy changes that we want to make cannot therefore happen until we have resolved the exemption. We continue to take steps to try to get the UK Government to come up with the solutions to the issue. I do not know exactly who David Stewart is quoting, but I certainly would not support anybody who wanted to kill off the exemption. We understand that that exemption is important for the economy and connectivity of the Highlands and Islands, and that is why we are taking the action that we are to try to protect it. Question 7, Mike Rumbles. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in light of ScotRail's performance falling to its lowest level since the current franchise began. First Minister I am fully aware of the performance issues that ScotRail requires to address. However, the most recent punctualities statistics were impacted significantly by the severe weather that is seen during Storm Alley. That included damage to overhead power lines and trees falling on to tracks. Notwithstanding those issues, we continue to impress upon senior management of network rail, the need for a renewed focus on maintaining the network infrastructure in Scotland, and that will help ScotRail to meet its challenging but achievable targets. Michael Matheson is due to meet Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail, and the ScotRail alliance separately over the next week, and he will be making it clear that it is absolutely imperative that performance improves swiftly and effectively to the standards that are expected by passengers. Of course, the process would be helped by the full devolution of Network Rail, a move that would allow the appropriate parliamentary oversight to be put on the whole of the rail infrastructure in Scotland, rather than just on part of it. More services are running late, carriages are jam-packed because the new fleets are well behind schedule, and ScotRail's performance quite frankly stinks. Now that has been taken to an all-too-literal level. This week, we learned that ScotRail will be dumping human waste on tracks thanks to the roll-out of trains at first-ended service in the 1970s. ScotRail calls those trains classic. Is that the description that the First Minister would use, and does she think that this practice is acceptable in a 21st century rail system? The First Minister It is not a practice that we support, and ScotRail has also said that it is not one that they want to see continue. It is an interim measure, and it is regrettable, and ScotRail is working to mitigate the issue as soon as possible. The Scottish Government, of course, has directly funded previous installation programmes to eradicate that practice across ScotRail fleets. It will be necessary to introduce some unreforbished high-speed trains into the service for an interim period, but it is important that ScotRail works to resolve that as quickly as possible. In terms of the wider performance issues, it is important—notwithstanding what I said in my initial answer—to stress that nearly 90 out of 100 trains arrive within the recognised punctuality measure. The latest figures show that ScotRail's public performance measure is at 87.7 per cent, which is above the GP average of 85.8 per cent. The figures in the last period were affected, as I said, by Storm Alley and the severe weather that came with that. My final point is again the one that I made. More than half of the delays on ScotRail trains are to do with network rail infrastructure. We continue to work hard with network rail to try to resolve that. We fund network rail's operations in Scotland, but it would help if we got the whole chamber to get behind the calls for network rail to be properly devolved so that we could ensure that scrutiny and oversight of the whole of the rail infrastructure. I hope that something that Mike Rumbles will support. Thank you very much. That concludes First Minister's questions. I would just note that there is a large number of members who wanted to ask supplementaries who did not get in today. I would just again call on members and ministers for short questions and short answers. We are now going to move to members' business in the name of Ruth Maguire, but before we do so we will have a short suspension to allow the gallery to clear and for new guests to arrive and for the ministers to change seats.