 The next item of business is consideration of business motion 963 in the name of George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out revisions to this week'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. The next item of business is topical questions. In order to get in, as many people as possible, short and succinct questions and answers are always very welcome. I call Oliver Mundell. To ask the Scottish Government what analysis is made of the joint statement by the World Health Organization and UNICEF on the need to prioritise in-person classroom-based learning as efforts to manage the Covid-19 pandemic continue. Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville. I welcome the statement from the WHO and UNICEF that educating children safely must be the primary objective. Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government has done just that. We have prioritised in-person learning and taken all possible actions to ensure measures across wider society support our commitment to ensure schools are low risk, open and welcoming. To support that ambition and to minimise the impact of educational disruption, we have invested more than £450 million over 2021 and 2021-22 in additional teachers and support staff, digital devices and connectivity, support for the workforce and enhanced cleaning regimes and ventilation systems. I thank the minister for that commitment and I know that it will be welcomed by many parents and young people, but it cannot be conditional as we move forward, ensuring that our children and young people can go to school in person must be our top priority. Does the cabinet secretary understand that there is a real fear when the Scottish Government talks about the need for caution and the possibility of a reverse gear that this may see further impact on our schools? No matter what happens with other restrictions, will she take the opportunity today to rule out a wholesale return to blended learning, which so disproportionately impacts on those who need our education system the most? In the very early days of the new academic year, we are monitoring the situation of the return to schools very closely. I would say to all of them and others across the chamber that the best way to protect education is for all of us to follow the wider societal guidance that we have. The Government, as I said in my original answer right from the start of the pandemic, has attempted to prioritise in-school, face-to-face education and has only taken the decision to move away from that if there were no other options available to this Government. We are not at that stage at this point. There are many things that we can all do to protect ourselves, to protect our community and protect our children and young people to ensure that they are having face-to-face education. That is why we have taken a cautious approach to the reopening of schools, keeping many mitigation measures in place—controversial though that was, particularly for some people within the Conservative benches—but we have done that and we have taken that cautious approach for exactly the reason all of them are asking me to do is to protect that face-to-face education that children have the right to have within Scotland. I think that many parents and young people would have liked to hear the cabinet secretary go a little bit further there but I do accept the sentiment and the support for in-person learning. The World Health Organization and UNICEF also talk about making sure that the right mitigations are in place. Vaccination is surely the strongest tool that we have and we quite simply would not be where we are without the vaccine roll-out, guided by the expert advice of the JCFI and others. I appreciate that there are many complicated questions and trade-offs, but I wonder if the cabinet secretary could update Parliament on the roll-out of the vaccination programme both in terms of young people themselves and the possibility of booster vaccinations for school staff. If I can reiterate it once again to Oliver Mundell, we are not at the point to look at something like a national approach to blended learning. We are not there. What we are saying as a Government is that we have to ensure that every party society, every sector, every person does everything that they can to protect ourselves and our community and protect the education of our children and young people. That is exactly what the Government is looking at. It is a encouragement not just for people in the education sector but for people right across the society to do that. He mentioned vaccinations and I would once again commend the many young people who have came forward directly for the vaccination, particularly for the 16 to 17-year-olds. We are approaching nearly 50 per cent of that at this point. That is an exceptional proactive statement that has been made by our young people, which once again shows that they are taking this very seriously, and I commend them absolutely for that. We will of course look at further recommendations and advice from the JCVI as it comes out, and we are absolutely stand-ready to move very, very quickly if any further recommendations from the JCVI are made, whether that is on booster vaccinations or indeed for vaccinations for the over-12s in general. Can the minister provide an urgent update on what tangible action has been taken over this summer to improve ventilation in classrooms? Can I ask the minister whether she will include teachers and support staff in the Covid booster vaccine programme, when, as I believe, the guidance is to be finalised this week? When it comes to ventilation, the member will be aware that we are providing an additional £10 million to ensure that schools and childcare settings have access to CO2 monitoring. We already have a large number of local authorities that have done a lot of work on this over the previous academic year and, in much part due to the recovery funding that the Scottish Government provided to them, which I mentioned in my original answer. We are now working with all local authorities to make sure that they are completing assessments of their schools and early learning and childcare settings by the October half term. Of course, there is on-going work on this on a day-by-day basis to ensure that we have that information available. As I said in my answers to Oliver Mundell, we are looking carefully at anything that comes from the JCVI guidance about booster vaccinations and any advice that happens around occupational groupings. That has not been a step that has been taken within the original vaccination programme, but we will always look to see what can be done and listen to the clinical advice that we are receiving as a Government on those issues. To ask what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the Ministry of Defence on the potential use of vacant armed forces houses in Scotland for refugees in Afghanistan. That is possibly for the next topical question that is on myself. I think that there is a little misunderstanding there, but we look forward to hearing from Ms Brown shortly. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the preparation and planning that has been undertaken to support people who are fleeing Afghanistan who may be resettled in Scotland. I thank the member for Glasgow, Maryhill and Springburn for raising this very timely and important question. The Scottish Government is clear that Scotland must play a full role in supporting people fleeing Afghanistan, and we continue to push the UK Government to accept more people. We are working with partners, including the UK Government, local government, the third sector and community organisations to ensure a warm welcome for people arriving in Scotland from Afghanistan. Scottish local authorities are already welcoming people arriving under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy for locally employed staff and supporting them to settle in their new homes and communities. We are pressing the UK Government for more details of the new Afghan citizens resettlement programme, so that the detail planning for their arrival can take place. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Scotland and the UK indeed have a moral responsibility to do all that we can to support those who are fleeing Afghanistan and who may settle in Scotland. I thank the record cabinet secretary for the role that Scotland's local authorities already play in resettling refugees. However, I ask for details of how many of Scotland's councils have committed to supporting resettlement of Afghan families to date. The amount of properties anticipated, the types of properties anticipated or that have been identified or will be identified going forward for Afghan families, because there is undoubtedly going to be great need. We need a great deal more detail from the UK Government about the new Afghan citizens resettlement programme to fully answer the question that my friend has asked, and in conjunction with local authorities, plan our full response. Scotland is committed to playing our part in welcoming and supporting people fleeing Afghanistan. That is the reason why, today, together with Scottish Government colleagues, I met with members of the Scots Afghan community, NGOs and the Scottish Refugee Council and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. Last Friday, the First Minister and I met with the UK Government. We are seeking those answers from the UK Government to ensure that we can provide maximum possible support for Afghans who need refuge in this country. I welcome that further update. It would be good if the cabinet secretary could just confirm how many local authorities have confirmed their willingness to be part of that resettlement programme. You have mentioned the UK Government, so what discussions there has been between the UK and Scottish Governments to ensure that there are appropriate financial commitments to support vulnerable families settling in Scotland, be that financial support to local authorities, or to wider support services, including support networks such as Glasgow Afghan United, wider integration networks and, of course, the Scottish Refugee Council, all of whom have a crucial role to play in welcoming and supporting vulnerable Afghan families. Bob Doris makes a very important point. There are a large number of reasons why there are connections between Afghan refugee seekers and both the Afghan community in Scotland but also organisations. We are probably all aware of non-government organisations that have worked on the ground in Afghanistan with the support and help of people now seeking refuge in our country. We will all be aware of military units based in Scotland that have been supported over years by Afghan translators and fixers. There are many Afghans who have studied in Scotland. All of those are people who have connections to communities in this country. One of the issues that have been pressing the UK Government on, in addition to the key financial issues that Bob Doris has raised, is ensuring that people who have community relations can, through the clearing system that is being operated by the Home Office and the MOD, find a safe haven in Scotland because they are incredibly welcome here. Pauline McNeill Can I welcome the minister who has met many Afghans communities directly? Does the minister agree that our obligation to the people of Afghanistan cannot be met properly without supporting our local government to provide resettlement programmes and voluntary organisations on the ground? Can the minister indicate how many Afghan refugees the Scottish Government is hoping to support? Will the minister assure me that he is making representations to the UK Government about the various different categories of Afghan asylum seekers, including those who would arrive by boat having escaped, but who would currently be disqualified automatically under the current rules and that they need humanitarian protection with routes to safety? Pauline McNeill raises a very important point, and she might have added to her list the literally hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghans who have been refused asylum in the UK thus far, who still face technically the threat of deportation back to Afghanistan. Surely that is not a situation that can stand given the situation that we find ourselves in. I hope that parties across this House are agreed that people who find themselves in that situation should, in addition to those who have been successfully transported to the UK, remain here and have their refugee status accepted. I really hope that there can be cross-party co-ordination to ensure that Scotland can speak with one voice on those questions. We should never lose sight of the fact that the last time that we were called on to stand and support refugees' country, which was from Syria, every single one of Scotland's 32 local authorities played their part and Scotland resettled over 3,300 refugees at 16 per cent of the total number received by the UK under the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about the financial aspect of how we can manage this and local authorities can be supported. We are asking the UK Government for answers to those questions. We will continue to pose them, but hopefully with goodwill on all sides, we can help to accommodate as many people as we possibly can, they deserve our support. To ask what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the Ministry of Defence regarding the potential use of vacant armed forces housing in Scotland for refugees from Afghanistan. Thank my colleague for the advance notice of her question. I think that it is an important one that we looked at every single opportunity about how accommodation can be provided to people arriving on these shores. She makes a very good point. The MOD is a very large landowner and has a significant amount of accommodation throughout the UK, and that is something that I will be happy to raise with the Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, who I have been in touch with about other issues in relation to helping and supporting Afghans who have had a particular connection to Scottish military units.