 Ie drwrs, mae ein ansestsynion yn ymdd disgw Pun Cards a ymdd gyfgriforiadau hwn yn mfridd이 g essential i ddیکil-u'r hwn hogw beatus棚 y worried ystyn gostol. Diolch yn fawr ar y cerson gyda ffriforiadau hwn dan yn ff Mitte a G reconocbon Uwthent preparedt. Maen nhw'n ddech 모든 assume hi peirioniau ar eu brigfenau. for the housing supply budget in 2016-17. Let me answer succinctly, Presiding Officer. This Government's priority is to increase affordable housing supply across Scotland with a particular focus on increasing the number of social rented homes. In addition, we recognise the importance of offering a range of home ownership options to help people to buy a new home. All of our investment in housing not only provides more homes for rent and home ownership, but also helps to support construction jobs and sustains businesses across Scotland. Thank you very much, Gavin Brown. I am grateful for that succinct answer, Presiding Officer. Is it correct to say that the help to buy budget is being reduced, and if so, by how much? Presiding Officer, the help to buy budget is £195 million that is funded through financial transactions, and all the financial transactions are committed, including to other parts of the housing budget. The number of people who will be assisted by the new phase of the help to buy scheme will exceed nearly 7,500 people, which is a 1,000 increase in the number assisted by the first scheme. Many thanks. Question 2, Jane Baxter. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to prevent people from becoming homeless. Minister, Margaret Burgess. Preventing homelessness is a priority for the Scottish Government, and we have seen consistent falls in recorded homelessness in Scotland in recent years. The falls in homelessness are due to the promotion of the housing options approach to prevention, which local authorities and their partners have developed with both financial and practical support from the Scottish Government. We are committed to continual improvement in the delivery of this approach, and non-statusry guidance and a training toolkit will shortly be available to help to improve the consistent delivery of homelessness prevention. Preventing homelessness is part of our overall housing strategy, backed by more than £1.7 billion of investment in the lifetime of this Parliament. We have already exceeded our target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes, including 20,000 homes for social rent, and we have pledged to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes over the next five years. Thank you very much, Jane Baxter. Thank you Minister for that response. Homelessness is increasingly becoming visible in the streets of our cities this winter, and the Scotland Homelessness Monitor, recently published by Crisis, shows that attempts to prevent homelessness are often relatively light touch, consisting primarily of information and signposting. Will the minister commit to a renewed approach to tackling and preventing homelessness, including a new cross-departmental strategy? Minister. We have a strong focus on preventing homelessness in Scotland and work across stakeholders. We have a stakeholder group, the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy group, which I set on as a member. COSLA or on that as a member. We also have shelter and other organisations. Health Scotland as well is on that group. We are looking very closely at ensuring that everyone who is homeless in Scotland can access the services and the support that is available to them. We will continue to look at that and review it. Every single meeting that we hold is an absolute priority to reduce homelessness in Scotland. Thank you very much, Alex Johnson. Will the minister consider looking once again at those who have specific problems in holding down a tenancy to see if additional aid can be given to support them in their tenancies and prevent them from becoming homeless? That is currently on-going. I think that the member rightly highlights that. That is something that is on-going, is supporting people and keeping them in tenancy. I visited a housing options team this week in Ayr just to see how that works in practice. Of course, if there is practice there that we can spread out to other local authority areas and to other housing options teams who meet regularly, then we will do that. There is lots of good work going on across the country, across local authorities in supporting people into tenancies. It is recognised that it does work. It does prevent homelessness, and we will continue to do that and work with them to ensure that we see the results of that. Questions 3, Graham Pearson. To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the effect of the reduction in fuel poverty and energy efficiency funding in the draft budget 2016-17 on its ability to meet its statutory fuel poverty and housing climate change targets. We have allocated £103 million to tackle fuel poverty and energy efficiency in 2016-17, which will be used to help to install energy efficiency measures, including solid wall insulation in 14,000 homes, building on the more than 900,000 measures delivered since 2008. We have broadly maintained the expenditure available for fuel poverty and energy efficiency in the budgets that we have under our control in what is a tough financial climate. The 2015-16 budget was increased over the course of the year with £15 million of consequentials from the UK Government's Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. The scheme was ended without warning by the UK Government and is therefore no longer available to us. The Government is fully committed to eradicating fuel poverty in Scotland and, overall, we are on track to meet our statutory 2020 target of a 42 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but we do recognise the scale of the challenge before us. I thank the Minister for that response. The Government's Scottish House Conditions Survey 2012-14 has just reported. In my own area at East Ayrshire, it records a 3 per cent rise in those reporting fuel poverty and, within Dumfries and Galloway, a 1 per cent rise in fuel poverty during that two-year period. Has the Minister considered any specific steps she will now take in light of the 13 per cent cut in budget allocation to deal with this rise in fuel poverty? What I would say to the member is that the methodology that is used in the Scottish House Conditions Survey to estimate fuel poverty was recently changed to include the contribution of the warm home discount scheme, but we are always looking at ways to reduce fuel poverty in Scotland. We have already announced very recently that the Cabinet Secretary announced the Scottish Energy Efficiency programme for Scotland, the national infrastructure scheme, which is looking in detail at how we can reduce and improve energy efficiency in homes and buildings across Scotland. It will not just look at the social rented sector or indeed houses, it will look at buildings as well across Scotland. All of that is part of our energy efficiency programme and we will continue to do that in work with our stakeholders. We have a strategic working group who is going to advise and inform the Government. They are working alongside the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum and the rural fuel poverty task force to build in our efforts and drive forward the fuel poverty agenda. The Minister rightly mentioned the House Survey and the latest figures in that. Is she aware that in that survey the number of households in fuel poverty in Shetland are more than half? Therefore, what specific steps, as Mr Pearson rightly also asked, what specific steps does the Government have to address the particular problems in rural communities such as Shetland? As I announced in the previous answer, we have set up the rural fuel poverty task force who are looking specifically at the issues in rural and remote areas. We have also adapted our HEAP scheme to take into account of the fuel poverty in rural areas where they can spend more per measure because we recognise the difficulty space there. We have made a number of other measures to help with the training and accreditation of the installers to ensure that we can provide support to local businesses in rural areas as well. Ken Macintosh briefly. Thank you. As well as cutting the fuel poverty budget in this year's budget, the minister has cut business rates relief for renewables industry in Scotland. Can the minister tell me how much money that will cost and what the impact will be on climate change of that measure? You can answer that if you want, minister, but it's not the question. I will speak to the energy minister and write to the member on that. Thank you very much. To ask the Scottish Government what rights none UK-EU citizens will leave in Scotland have to participate in elections. Mr Joe Fitzpatrick. Non-UK-EU citizens who live in Scotland can vote at European Parliament, Scottish Parliament and local government elections. In addition, Commonwealth citizens from Malta and Cyprus and citizens of the Republic of Ireland who are resident in Scotland can vote at the UK Parliamentary elections. I thank the minister for the answer and, as he will know, that will not concern me, neither I live in Malta or Cyprus. Will he agree with me that stopping EU citizens residing in Scotland from voting in the EU referendum after they will have been able to vote in every Scottish parliamentary election and in two Scottish constitutional referendum, in 1997, is, in fact, a breach of human rights law? The Scottish Government is very disappointed that the franchise is not being extended to EU nationals resident in the UK. Around 170,000 non-UK EU citizens have chosen to make Scotland their home. EU citizens can vote in the Scottish Parliament elections, as I have said. Most recently, as Christian Allard said, they had a vote in our independence referendum. The case for extending the vote to EU citizens in the EU referendum is clear, and I would urge the UK Government to reconsider. Although they are at it, they should make arrangements to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the election, too. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with representatives of Argyllin Bute Council. I am meeting Argyllin Bute Council on 1 March to discuss matters of mutual interest. Other ministers and officials also meet regularly with the council. Is the minister aware of the extent of the concern among councillors and the public in Argyllin Bute that the severity of the spending cuts being considered there and the impact on vital local services? In particular, can he comment on the possible loss of core funding to Argyllin Bute's Citizens Advice Bureau network that directly prevents dozens of people each year from becoming homeless and thus saves the council hundreds of thousands of pounds every year? The local government settlement as a whole has been challenging but fair, and that applies to Argyllin Bute as much as anywhere else, representing a 2 per cent reduction of the overall expenditure available. I would point out that for Argyllin Bute many of the things that we are asking for come with attached funding. Argyllin Bute will be funded to the tune of £1.4 million for Argyllin Bute and its share of the £250 million for health and social care is £4.6 million. I will endeavour to investigate the specific issue in Argyllin Bute that he raises as I am not aware of whether that is a local funding or a national funding issue and I will write to the member on that issue. Minister meets Argyllin Bute council and other councils. Is he not embarrassed and ashamed of what his Government is doing to local government? Minister? It's always a ray of sunshine when Neil Findlay comes to ask a question, isn't it? I am very proud of the effect that our policies have had on local government since we came into government. We came into government and we immediately removed £2.7 billion of ring fencing and allowing local government to address its own priorities and answer to its own electorate. We have consistently protected local government from the scale of the cuts that have happened in England where, if you really want to see what an embarrassing record on local government is, I would suggest looking at England where figures range between 27 per cent in cuts or one I saw last night as an analysis from the IFS and run-up to the 2015 election was a 36 per cent cut in central government funding to local government in England. We are far away from that and I am very proud that we are. Thank you very much. Question 6, Margaret Mitchell. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussion is had with local authorities in relation to the commissioning of third sector services. Minister Mark Beaget. Scottish ministers and government officials regularly meet with representatives of all local authorities to discuss a wide range of matters of current interest to local organisations. The decisions on commissioning services are made locally reflecting knowledge and understanding of local need. Margaret Mitchell. Can he outline the process for the allocation of the additional 1.85 million of criminal justice funding that was invested in providing additional support for victims of sex crimes across Scotland including male and female survivors of childhood sexual abuse? Can he give an indication when the many small charities and who are awaiting a decision about their core funding applications submitted in September 2015 can expect a decision? Minister. The member raises some very important issues and I will endeavour to have my justice colleagues investigate and respond in as short an order as possible. Thanks very much. Question 7, Graham Day. How many people have received support into home ownership since 2007? Minister, Margaret Burgess. Since 2007 the Scottish Government has spent over £800 million supporting over 20,000 households into home ownership through a range of initiatives that include the low cost initiative for first time buyer schemes and the help to buy Scotland scheme. From sales forms returned by buyers between 70 and 75 per cent of all sales across the different low cost home ownership and help to buy schemes were aged between 18 and 34. Graham Day. I thank the minister for that response. Can I ask her to outline how the Government intends to build on that success in supporting people into home ownership and whether such measures will be targeted at those who need support to get on or move up the housing ladder? Yes, I can. We are committed to the member that we are doing everything we can to help first time buyers and existing homeowners to buy a home where it is sensible and sustainable for them. For 2015-16 we have allocated £160 million to help up to 5,000 people to buy a home. £80 million of that has been allocated to our popular open market shared equity scheme to help up to 2,000 first time buyers by their first home and £80 million has been allocated to our help to buy Scotland scheme. It is an affordable build scheme to help first time buyers and existing homeowners to get a new build home. The £80 million allocated to the help to buy Scotland affordable new build scheme forms part of the £195 million allocated over the next three years to help up to 7,500 homeowners to build a new home by a new home. Gavin Brown. The minister said that it would be £160 million for 2015-16. What will it be for 2016-17? Sorry, I am just checking what we have announced, but certainly the budget announced that we clearly invested a further £80 million through the open market shared equity scheme in 2016-17. That remains the same as we have spent in 2015-16 and the £80 million has already been announced of the £195 million that has been allocated to help to buy over the next three years. That announcement was made by the cabinet secretary, I believe, last month. Many thanks. Question 8, Dr Lane Murray. To ask the Scottish Government how many homes for social rent and how many for mid-market rent will have been built in Dumfries and Galloway between May 2011 and March 2016. Between 1 May 2011 and 30 September 2015, £23 million funding supported the construction of 642 homes for social and mid-market rent in Dumfries and Galloway, which includes 595 social rented homes and 47 intermediate rented homes. Our projected investment for this year is a further £8.255 million to support the building of more affordable homes in the region. An update to housing statistics for Scotland will be published in March 2016 on the Scottish Government website. That will include the number of completions for the period October to December 2015. Housing statistics to the end of March 2016 will be published in June 2016. Thank you very much, Elaine Murray. I thank the minister for her full response. The minister contacted recently by a couple with four children in a two-bedroom property with a box room 40 overcrowding points and one of 24 families who are applying for eight four-bedroomed properties in the Anan area, none of which have become available in the last 12 months. Consideration was being given to other methods of funding for housing associations to build additional properties for social rent, such as the use of pension funds. I wonder if the minister can give any update of whether or not progress has been made by the minister? I would say a couple of things to the member that we have clearly set a target of 50,000 new affordable homes for the next five years of the Parliament back by £3 billion of investment. We are working with the sector, housing associations, local authorities and right across the sector to look at other ways of supporting and funding affordable rented houses. That is on-going. We have the scheme up and running in Falkirk through Falkirk pension fund and that can set an example to other pension funds but it is clearly up to the trustees of funds where they wish to make their investments. We are certain that we are still looking at that. To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide on the future of attendance allowance in Scotland in light of concerns in England regarding its proposed transfer to local authorities. The UK Government has not yet published its consultation on transferring attendance allowance to local authorities down south so I am not in a position to comment in any detail on the proposal. However, my understanding is that this proposal will not impact on the devolution of attendance allowance to the Scottish Parliament so that it is currently being implemented or will be implemented through the Scotland Bill. We are considering how we will use the new devolved social security powers by publishing our plans in the coming months. In the meantime, we will continue to engage with users and stakeholders as we develop the detail of our policies. I can assure you at this point that the current attendance allowance recipients will be protected however we choose to use the devolved powers. Thank you. Briefly, John McAlpine. Yes, I thank the minister for that answer. There is a lot of concern in England about devolving attendance allowance because of the independent living fund when it was devolved to English local authorities. Of course, it was cut whereas when it was devolved to the Scottish Government it was continued. Can he assure us that something similar will happen to attendance allowance? The independent living fund is a very good example of how we protect services in Scotland compared to the axing of services south of the border. The independent living fund is a new scheme now in Scotland and it went live in July 2015, safeguarding the rights of 2,800 existing ILF users in Scotland and with an extra £5 million committed to open up the scheme to new users. The successful creation of the Scottish welfare fund after the abolition of elements of UK Government social fund is another example of where we have protected provision of a vital service and increased funding over and above that devolved by the UK Government. The latest statistics for the welfare fund shows that it has paid out £81 million and helped 178,000 households since April 2013. Thanks very much and that concludes that portfolio of questions. Now moved to Fair Work Skills and Training question 1, Stuart McMillan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have outstanding equal pay claims. Mr Anna Will you? As employers are responsible for dealing with equal pay claims by their staff so information on the number of claims is not held centrally. The Minister for Local Government and Community Empowerment Marco Piaggi has written to all Scottish local authorities asking for information about equal pay claims. The letter he sent reiterated the need for cases to be resolved with urgency and with commitment so that those affected receive their legal entitlements and local authorities meet their legal obligations. Stuart McMillan? I thank the minister for that reply and the minister will be aware that to the issue of equal pay claims has been a long standing issue and it was raised in the chamber last November and the First Minister encouraged local authorities to conclude these settlements as quickly as possible and thankfully since then Five Council has actually done that but many still remain. The minister just highlighted in terms of the local government minister writing to local authorities but can I ask the minister then before this Parliament dissolves for the election to once again write to local authorities just to impress upon them the importance so that we can allow people who are affected to move on with their lives. Minister? I share the member's frustration and indeed probably those of his constituents who may be affected with the delays that are on going in the settlement of these claims however I would reiterate that the settlement of claims to local authorities notwithstanding that as I referred to Mr Bias, he did write to all local authorities on 28 October last year he received only 11 replies and wrote again to the others on 11 December last year further I think to that second letter it has been agreed that there will in fact be a meeting with the minister and with COSLA representatives and representatives from the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and that will take place on 1 February this year so I would encourage all local authorities who have still got outstanding claims to do the right thing and to ensure that these claims are settled as quickly as possible. To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on women employed in part-time and temporary work. Minister? The Labour Forest Survey produced by the Office for National Statistics is the source of information on women employed in part-time and temporary work. The latest available data in terms of the labour market statistics for the period of September to November 2015 show that female part-time working decreased by 38,000 over the year and female temporary working by 7,000, while at the same time female full-time working increased by 27,000 over the year. Many thanks, Claudia Beamish. I thank the minister for that answer. While that is encouraging I have had information from SPICE reported in Scotland 2015 that 41 per cent of women work part-time compared to 11 per cent of men and as women are more likely to work part-time and make up the majority of those in the workforce who are part-time closer gap suggested is relevant to compare women's and men's earnings on this basis. For every pound a man earns a woman earns 83.2 pence. What is the Scottish Government actively doing to rectify this very bad situation? Minister. I think that the member's supplementary point concerns principally the issue of the gender pay gap if I understood correctly and of course the gender pay gap is unacceptable. It is unacceptable in 2015 that we are still talking about it. I would point out to the member that the gender pay gap has decreased from 9.1 per cent in 2014 to 7.3 per cent in 2015 but it is still unacceptable that there is any gender pay gap. The legislation was introduced in Westminster in 1970 the Equal Pay Act and notwithstanding the success of Westminster Government of both hues, we still are faced with the situation. We in the Scottish Government will do everything that we can to ensure that this pay gap is narrowed to the point that it no longer exists and we are pursuing important initiatives in terms of expansion of childcare in terms of the promotion of flexible working in terms of challenging pay and pregnancy maternity discrimination in terms of challenging occupational segregation in terms of promoting 50-50 gender balance on boards and of course in terms of promoting the living wage for social care workers. I do hope that the local authorities across Scotland will respond to this very good funding deal on offer and do the right thing by social care workers, the majority of whom are women. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government about the trade union bill. In addition to a telephone call with Nick Boles, Minister of State for Skills on 8 October 2015 I have now written to him on five separate occasions setting out the Scottish Government's increasing concern with the bill proposals and seeking Scotland's exemption from the extent of the bill although he hasn't yet responded to any of those letters. The First Minister raised this issue in her meeting with the Prime Minister on 14 December and of course the Scottish Parliament debate held on 26 January demonstrated the opposition of Parliament to the bill. I do want to reassure each and every worker in Scotland that we are doing what we can to deal with the potentially damaging legislation being applied in Scotland. I can say that just before I came to the chamber I received confirmation of a meeting with Nick Boles specifically to discuss the trade union bill. It will take place tomorrow morning. I support any and all means to defeat this appalling legislation including its intrusion on areas of devolved competence but if all else fails will the Scottish Government join councils in Scotland in refusing to comply with this legislation? I can do is to quote the words of the First Minister that we will go on doing what we are doing at the moment. There are aspects of the bill which it will be impossible to avoid. There are aspects of the bill which we are currently discussing directly with the STUC amongst others including COSLA in order to establish how best we can deal with the likely consequences if the worst comes to the worst if this bill is passed although we are not giving up seeking exemptions in respect of its various aspects. To ask the Scottish Government what innovative steps are being taken to help improve skills and provide training for adults in Scotland. Achievement of our ambitions for a more productive and inclusive Scotland involve a greater focus on strengthening and developing the skills of all of our people. The Scottish Government is committed to developing the skills whether in colleges, universities, communities or workplaces ensuring that our people are able to thrive in sustainable employment. In particular, Skills Development Scotland delivers an all-age career service and we also have, of course, our modern apprenticeship programme applying also to those aged over 25 in key and enabling sectors. The minister will be aware that the principal at Dundee and Angus College, Grant Ritchie, has suggested that one potential way of addressing the key education needs of long-term unemployed is to be provided to develop literacy and IT. He has made the suggestion that colleges could help address this by opening in the evening to provide additional classes. Could I ask the Scottish Government if they were undertake to discuss with Colleges Scotland this important initiative? I thank the member for her interesting point. I suspect that that is something that I probably should discuss first with the Cabinet Secretary for Education because I think it does seem to fall within her immediate remit. I promise to do that and I know that Dundee and Angus College have been pursuing an interesting programme with their code academy and I was interested to learn about that and I will be in fact visiting Dundee and Angus College in a couple of weeks albeit in another matter but I will take the opportunity when I am there to hear more about the proposals that the member was referring to. The 2015 employer skills survey showed that 71 per cent of Scottish employers were given to their staff at a higher rate than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Can the minister provide an update on what else can be done to continue that good progress? I thank the member for his supplementary. It is the case that the recent statistics show that employers in Scotland are doing more and more to ensure that young people are given an opportunity. We will continue to work as hard as we can to bring more employers on board. We have set a very ambitious modern apprenticeship target of 30,000 starts by 2020 and we are working closely with employers, training providers and third sector and others to ensure that young people get the training that they need and that employers also have the possibility of creating a more dynamic workplace with young people on-site and, of course, ensuring proper succession planning for the employers themselves. Thank you, Richard Simpson. On the modern apprenticeships, can I ask the minister what progress that has been made in ensuring that people with disabilities enter the apprenticeship scheme? Last time we looked at this, the figures in England were around 7 per cent, the figures in Scotland were less than 1 per cent of disabled people entering the apprentices scheme and the Government gave an undertaking to do something about it. What's happened since? Yes, I do remember that exchange in the chamber with Dr Simpson and, since that time, a number of issues have come to light, one being the issue of self-certification as to whether or not you certify as having a disability or not, but in any event leaving that issue to one side that we have already aired together in this chamber, the member may be aware that we published through Skills Development Scotland the quality action plan that I had referred to in those previous debates. It was published on 2 December last year, and we will be working closely with SCS to ensure that we move forward and meet the various objectives and targets set forth in that quality action plan on this very, very important issue. Mae thanks, Rob Gibson. Question 5. To ask the Scottish Government what aspects of fair work it has discussed recently with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The Scottish Government promotes the benefits of fair work in the Highlands and Islands as we do across Scotland. We have regular discussions with Highlands and Islands Enterprise on a range of issues, for example, how I actively contributed to the development and implementation of the Scottish business pledge, discussions around future employment services and investors in people. In October 2015, HIE contributed to discussions with the Fair Work Convention in Inverness. Account managers from HIE regularly discussed fair work innovation and internationalisation with individual businesses as part of their efforts to boost productivity and inclusive growth. Thanks, Rob Gibson. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary for that. I don't know whether the Cabinet Secretary has sought HIE's views and the impact on the tales of a change to the Scottish Government's version of the living wage for hospitality workers just as the Scalloway hotel in Shetland has announced. A specific discussion with HIE about the Scalloway hotel announcement, but of course we do welcome that. I am pleased to say that the number of living wage accredited organisations is growing rapidly and has now reached 460 of our target of 500. I could say that 37 are within HIE area. The accreditation of the Scalloway hotel, an excellent hotel, emphasises that employers from across all of Scotland and in all sectors are recognising the benefits of fair pay. There are now a variety of accredited employers in tourism and hospitality making significant efforts to reward staff within two sectors that are traditionally low paid. Put succinctly, the measure that the Scalloway hotel has taken, that particular move shows that it can be done. The Scottish Government is in frequent discussions with the UK Government regarding contracted employment support services that were intended to be devolved from April 2017. My next meeting with the UK Minister for Employment, Priti Patel, is scheduled on 11 February. My officials continue to work with those in the UK Government to build strong relations focused on the future needs of unemployed Scots. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. If she agrees with me that cutting the budget by 87 per cent after deciding to devolve those powers not only breaks one of the things that not only breaks is so-called foul, but it's also against the very spirit of the SPF agreement. We do believe that the drastic reduction in programme spend suggested by the UK Government does undermine the spirit and intention of the SPF. More to the point, it fundamentally reduces the ability of the Scottish Government to provide employment support for those in areas to enter employment. We're still awaiting progress through the fiscal framework on details of a final settlement to be offered by the UK Government. Clearly, however, we do believe that what is proposed in respect of this particular aspect of it will create severe financial restrictions for us to operate within following devolution of the services. I ask the Scottish Government what skills and other training it provides to people in Ayrshire who have been made redundant. Redundancy triggers support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, partnership action for continuing employment, more commonly known as PACE. SDS leads on the delivery of PACE support on behalf of the Scottish Government in conjunction with a number of key partners including the DWP. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work. It is tailored to me individual needs and local circumstances. In Ayrshire from April 2015 until December 2015, PACE support was provided to 552 individuals from 13 companies. I thank the minister for that answer. The minister will be aware that over recent months there have been announcements of job losses rolling into the hundreds across Ayrshire. Around 60 at Clydeport, 77 at Red Cross House, 212 including agency workers at Marcomarnock, and just last week we heard that the Britannu and the next store are closing in Irvine. In addition, how co-in Irvine will shed 50 jobs after public money was invested in the plant, although neither the Scottish Government nor Scottish Enterprise appear willing to disclose Labour councillor Joe Cullinanes to how much public money was invested for a return of 50 P45s. What will the Scottish Government do in that respect because there is a steady leakage of jobs in Ayrshire? What exactly are they going to do to protect the local Ayrshire economy? We work very hard through a number of different ways to protect the whole of the Scottish economy, as well as in the local labour markets. There will be work done by SDS through the entrepreneurship scheme, local employers, the local DIY group, local authorities who are actively encouraging employment opportunities through their local employment hubs. A great deal is being done. The issue of what happens when people become redundant, however, is that we do put in as much support as we can in order to ensure that people's period of redundancy is done as possible. Kenneth Gibson. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the Ayrshire growth deal will do a lot to help to create jobs in North Ayrshire and put a lot of those redundant workers back to work? It shows the tremendous level of co-operation between the three Ayrshire councils and the Scottish Government and private business that this is actually on-going and should deliver substantially for Ayrshire in the years ahead. I know that there is a great deal between the three councils and I think that is to be commended there delivering and developing a very good employability offer on a local basis. I am delighted with the increased number of opportunities that have been provided in North Ayrshire. I am encouraged by the partnership, by local authorities, Skills Development Scotland, local employers and wider partners in supporting our ambitions for the further expansion of the programme and the opportunities that this will provide for people and employers in the area. Thank you. That ends portfolio questions. We are now moving to the next site of business which is...