 Ieithio, Fel brings in portfolio questions, duty question number one from Claudia Beamish Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the research that is suggesting that there is a possible link between Alzheimer's disease and air pollution. Scottish Government is aware of recently published research that suggests a possible link between air pollution and Alzheimer's diseases. The Scottish Government receives advice on those issues from public health experts, including Health Protection Scotland and Public Health England, who keep the available evidence on public health risks under constant review. That approach ensures that policy interventions are based on all the available relevant evidence. Claudia Beamish I thank the minister for that answer. As she highlights, there is a study led by Public Health Ontario published in the Lancet recently. It did find that among those who live within 50 metres of a major road that there is one in 10 cases of dementia could be attributed, and I stress the word could, to traffic exposure. With this new and concerning research coming forward, can the cabinet secretary give reassurance that she will work across portfolios to limit air pollution from traffic? I understand that there are also possible risks from noise, which might be associated as well, particularly for those living and working close to heavy traffic. I thank Claudia Beamish for her supplementary answer. I am aware of the study on Ontario. I think that it was widely publicised, although it was just one piece of research. As she knows with her environmental hat-on, we are committed to improving air quality across the country. We have seen significant reductions in pollution emissions over the decades through tighter industrial regulation, improved fuel quality, cleaner vehicles and increased focus on sustainable transport. We know that there are hotspots where local authorities have a key role in making sure that air quality is up to standard in relation to the noise aspect. I was not aware of that, but I am happy to look into it. If I can find anything, I will let the member know. Maurice Golden Does the Scottish Government have details of the estimated cost to the NHS and wider society costs as a result of air pollution? If that information is not available, will the Scottish Government commit to a study in that area? All local authorities have plans to deal with air quality management. As a Government, we work across portfolio. The Government provides £2 million of annual funding to local authorities to assist them with the work in making sure that air quality is up to standard. I can assure the member that we work across portfolios to ensure that the risks are minimised. Mark Ruskell I declare an interest as a councillor in Stirling. Is the minister concerned, as I am, that increasing numbers of councils are making decisions on developments that will worsen air quality? Often, in spite of recommendations from directors of public health to reject those developments, there is a particular issue in Perth with the schoon development of 700 houses, objected to by the head of public health at NHS Tayside, but nevertheless has now been approved, despite the fact that it will make air quality issues around bridge end in Perth substantially worse. What will you do to ensure that we can join up health and planning? The member for his question is perhaps more a question to the planning minister and there is a debate on planning tomorrow. I think that he has announced a review of planning, which I think that it would be wise for the member to feed his concerns into. Colin Smyth Recent figures for dementia post-diagnostics support have shown that only 17 per cent of those living in the least or the most deprived areas are referred for such support, compared to 24 per cent in the more affluent areas. I am sure that the minister will agree that both figures are shockingly low. What action is the Government taking to ensure that everyone with a diagnosis of dementia receives the care that they require? The member for his question is glad to see the figures that were published yesterday, which give us a true picture of those in need of dementia care. Scotland is the first country in the UK to have the support of a one-year post-diagnostic support. The dementia strategy is being reviewed at the moment, and members can look forward to a new dementia strategy shortly, which will take that into account. The Scottish Government, what action is it taking to reduce health inequalities in mothers during pregnancy and also into the postnatal period? Action from the Scottish Government and the NHS boards has meant that women are now accessing maternity care earlier in their pregnancy, with over 80 per cent having their anti-natal booking appointment by 12 weeks gestation. That is across all SIMD quintiles. Last week, we published a review of all maternity and neonatal services developed around what women and families tell us they want, with a number of recommendations focusing on inequalities. In the spring, we will roll out free vitamins to all pregnant women. There is something no other country in the UK has committed to, and from this summer, every child born in Scotland will receive a baby box, a box of essential items to help to level the playing field for every family. We have also invested more than £11.2 million from 2011 to health boards to promote breastfeeding and to support women to breastfeed for as long as they wish to do. We are the first in the UK to have 100 per cent of our maternity units accredited by the UNICEF baby-friendly initiative. We are providing funding for an additional 500 health visitors and have introduced a new enhanced universal service with key child health reviews, in addition to offering the family nurse partnership programme to all eligible teenage mothers by the end of 2018. Those measures are just an example of our ambition to give children the very best start in life, regardless of income. Reducing health inequalities is obviously one of the biggest challenges that we are facing and creating a culture in which healthy behaviours become the norm should start at the very earliest years. Can the minister outline what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that health outcomes for children are improved and inequalities are reduced? Reducing inequalities, including those around health, is a key part of the Government's aims, with our partners. We support a wide range of activity to address that. As I have mentioned, the family nurse partnership is a universal pathway for health-wisiting. The increased numbers of health visitors support for breastfeeding. Free vitamins for pregnant women are just a few, but we also address wider issues that impact health, including child poverty, and our aspirations for raising attainment. Finally, I agree that the early years are crucial, as is early intervention and prevention, and we continue to strive to achieve our aims of getting it right for every child. Of course, the roll-out of early learning and childcare will also play a part in the ambitions that we have for our children. One of the best possible ways to achieve better outcomes for babies who are born premature or sick is to ensure that parents are able to spend time with their baby for long interrupted periods and take the lead in the delivery of their care. The Bliss Scotland baby report, which I know that the cabinet secretary attended the reception last night, has quite shocking findings that only three out of 12 units have dedicated accommodation for parents of critically ill babies. Last night, after the cabinet secretary left the reception, we heard from Cody, whose baby was delivered at 29 weeks, and in her local hospital, there was only one room for parents to stay overnight. What specific action will the Government take to prevent the trauma of separation between mother and baby and to reduce the pressure on neonatal units? I thank Monica Lennon for her supplementary. As I have mentioned in my response to Ash Denham, we have published a review of all maternity or neonatal services. That has been developed around what women and families have told us that they want. Of course, some of the things that you have pointed out will have been part of that engagement process. That sets out a comprehensive package of things that we can do to improve on the services that we have across the country. It is also important to remember that what we will be doing is building on a position of strength and of the great work that is happening right across our NHS. There are a number of recommendations around what we should be doing around our neonatal, and we are working hard now to implement those recommendations and work hard to bring even greater improvements to services right across our country. I welcome the Government's positive response to Scottish Greens' calls for a roll-out of the healthier, wealthier children's scheme, which is very effective at addressing the health inequalities that we are discussing here. Can the Government give Parliament some information regarding implementation and the timescale for that roll-out? I will commit to updating Alison Johnstone and writing to her with some of the specific details that she seeks. However, I would also again point out to her, as I think that we have also had cause to do in many discussions and debates in Parliament around the work on the early years collaborative, which is not just about what is happening in Glasgow, but the work across the country that people are taking forward to improve and maximise income and working with local authorities and others to make sure that income maximisation is part of the holistic support that is offered to children and to families in those crucial and important early years. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to recruit physicians and surgeons for rural general hospitals. NHS Scotland boards are required to have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of the service and ensure high-quality patient care. The Scottish Government works closely with boards to support its efforts and staff recruitment. There are a range of actions that are already being taken to support boards to recruit in remote and rural areas from abroad and also to encourage those who trained or worked in NHS Scotland to return and work in the health service. We will continue to look at how we can build on that. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. She will be aware and indeed I have been told by NHS Highland on numerous occasions that the very nature of rural general hospitals means that general surgeons are required. That goes against the trend in recent years for surgeons to specialise in a particular field. What can be done to encourage trainee surgeons not to specialise and have a broader range of experience in training? Gail Ross makes a very important point. The longer term solution lies in implementing the recommendations from the shape of training report to achieve a better balance between general and specialist medical skills. Working with the surgical colleges, proposals are well advanced for a revised training curriculum that will equip trainees with the competencies to deliver elective and emergency general surgery in a district general hospital setting. Trainees who complete the programme successfully will become consultant general surgeons. As changes impact across the UK, health ministers from across the nations will soon be invited to approve implementation of that. I think that that will help very much to enable our district general hospitals and rural general hospitals to recruit and retain the staff that they require to deliver services. The cabinet secretary will no doubt heard Dr Peter Benny of the BMA's interview, where he spoke candidly about being fed up of the mantra of government that there were more doctors than ever before, when the actual question should be, are there enough doctors, are there enough nurses, are there enough staff. Given the challenges in all areas, but particularly in rural areas, can the cabinet secretary tell us what impact she believes the offering of nine-one contracts to consultants rather than eight-two contracts is having in terms of attracting consultants to come up to Scotland to practice medicine? We work very closely with the BMA and indeed there is a meeting with the BMA next week. One of the issues is around the balance of the consultant contract. That does vary within boards and across boards and I will continue to discuss with the BMA how we take that forward. On the point of how do we ensure that we continue to deliver enough doctors to deliver a quality service that we have here in Scotland and of course we have taken action not only to expand the number of undergraduate medical places and indeed to improve access to those medical places so that we can have a more diverse medical workforce. Of course we will be opening Scotland's first new graduate medical school in due course, which will help to ensure an even greater supply of doctors for the service for the future. Will the cabinet secretary agree with me that the huge cuts in NHS Highland budget, highlighted today on the front page of the press and journal, will lead to the NHS Highland continuing its centralisation of services to Ragemore hospital, which will lead to the absolute detriment and destruction of our rural hospitals? In contrast to that, the NHS revenue budget will increase by £500 million over inflation over the course of this Parliament. In 2017-18, funding for our core NHS budgets will increase by more than 320 million, more than the Barnett consequentials for health, of £304 million. We are investing £128 million in territorial boards over the course of next year in delivering services and NHS Highland will benefit from that investment, and they will get an uplift of 1.5 per cent, but also importantly a share of the £50 million in rack funding. I can assure Edwin Mountain that more investment is going into our NHS, but, as always, efficiency savings will be required in order to deliver some of the changes that are required, and all of that money is invested back into front-line services. Further to Gail Ross's point about specific GPs and consultants for rural general hospitals, will the cabinet secretary go back to the idea that it was in fairness posed in the past about looking at ways in which key staff could be retained for such hospitals post-graduation following the very significant investment that Parliament and Government vote and support them through that process? There are a number of recruitment and retention measures available to boards to try and recruit and retain staff, particularly those staff that are in key specialties that are more difficult to recruit. We are keen to work with boards to look at what more can be done. I think that part of the solution, in addition to the training changes that will deliver a very important change to the role of staff, the idea of having that general surgeon is going to be very important for our district and our rural general hospitals, but also the idea and concept of doctors particularly working across a network of hospitals so that they may spend part of their time working in a teaching hospital, part of their time working within a rural general or district general, and that makes the post far more attractive. Tavish Scott will also be aware of the range of activity that we are taking forward to address some of the gaps in general practice, particularly within rural areas. Is the cabinet secretary aware of the situation in the Belford hospital of Fort William, which has lost three rural general surgeons through a series of unfortunate events, leaving the hospital struggling for general surgeons? Would she work with NHS Highland to ensure that there are replacement general surgeons? Yes, I am aware of those challenges. Our health and social care delivery plan published in December recognises that we need services that have the capacity, focus and workforce to continue to address the pressures of a changing society and an ageing population, and those key priorities are set out in the delivery plan. A key driver for that, of course, will be our national health and social care workforce plan, which will be published in the spring of this year. NHS Highland is already looking at ways to make better use of the available workforce and work across traditional site boundaries, which I was referring to in response to Tavish Scott. All of those measures will be very important in bringing us stability but also to help some of our rural general hospitals to be able to recruit and retain their staff. To ask the Scottish Government what the funding uplift will be for NHS Fife in 2017 to 2018. NHS Fife will receive a baseline uplift of 1.5 per cent, taking resource funding for 2017-18 to £616.2 million. That follows the Scottish Government's draft budget for 2017-18 that was set out in Parliament on 15 December last year. The draft budget does not include the board's share of £50 million of additional enrack funding, which subject to parliamentary approval will be confirmed as part of the 2017-18 budget bill. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. Of NHS Fife's budget, what proportion will be used to support the integration of health and social care in 2017-18? Health boards are currently setting their budgets for 17-18, and NHS Fife has yet to finalise their figures for next year. However, we estimate that their current budget in 2017-18 will be £616 million, as I set out in my initial answer. The Scottish Government requirement is that the allocation to integration authorities from health boards must be at least equal to their 2016-17 recurrent budget allocation. For NHS Fife, the figure was £338 million, so we estimate that around 55 per cent of NHS Fife's 2017-18 budget will be delegated to the Fife partnership to support the integration of health and social care. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage young people's participation in badminton. Since the success of Scottish badminton players at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, we have seen a steady increase in people playing the sport. For instance, since the games, the active skills programme has seen an increase of over 2 per cent in participant sessions with a total of over 292,000 sessions through 2015-16. Sport Scotland, the national agency for sport, is investing up to £2.9 million into badminton Scotland for the 2015-19 investment cycle, a 2.7 increase from the 2011-15 funding cycle. In addition, through Visit Scotland's events directorate, the Scottish Government is supporting the badminton world championships being staged at Glasgow's Emirates Arena in August this year. Badminton Scotland plans to get 30,000 more school children playing the game through their big-hit festivals as part of the legacy programme built around the championships. Christina McKelvie Can I thank the minister for some of that detail and ask her if she's got any thoughts on the fact that it was recently announced that badminton was to be one of the five sports to lose all UK sports funding for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo? She will know that Hamilton Sports Council has supported many young people to take up and become champions in sport, not least her own very successful badminton star, Kirsty Gilmer, who raised some concerns about the UK funding cut recently. Can the minister tell us what support sport Scotland currently gives to her current and possible sport star of the future so that we don't lose this talent? Christina McKelvie I thank Christina McKelvie for raising this issue and for again giving us a chance to congratulate Kirsty on all the achievements that she has had through her career. Sports Scotland has developed a world-class sporting system at all levels, connecting sport in schools, education, club and community sport and performing sport. For instance, Sports Scotland is investing £50 million over the period 2015-19 in its active schools programme, which provides opportunities for children to try sports and begin that path towards becoming sport stars of the future. I will continue to engage with Christina McKelvie on any issues that she would like to continue to raise around badminton, particularly given her local interest in Kirsty's career. Brian Whittle I find it rather hypocritical for the member to be raising this issue. It is her Government that proposes to slash the sports budget by some £4 million. Sports Scotland has indicated in the health and sports committee that there will be significant repercussions in the number of sports that it will be able to support and the value of that support. How does the Scottish Government propose to mitigate against its own slashing cuts? I do not doubt that Brian Whittle's commitment to sport and I do not think that anyone can compete in terms of his first-hand knowledge and experience of sport, no matter how much of us across the chamber enjoy and experience sport ourselves. To add to his gold medals should be a brass neck in terms of the devastating blows that his party has hit on our poorest communities through welfare reforms on austerity. My party and this Government has to soften those blows, and alongside remains absolutely committed to sport and activity, building on the legacy of our 2014 games, empowering our communities and maximising the use of the significant investment and improvement that we have made in our facilities across the length and breadth of this country. Emma Harper To ask the Scottish Government what steps it takes to ensure that the health advice that produces is accessible to people with hearing loss and deafness. The patient charter clearly sets out what patients can expect when they use NHS Scotland services and receive care. That includes the right to be given the information that they need in a format or language that they can understand. Under the Equality Act 2010, NHS Scotland is required to provide translation and interpreting services and written material wherever possible and reasonable. All the NHS boards have a published accessibility policy and arrangements in place to support such needs. People who are deaf or who are hard of hearing can access Scotland's national health and information service, NHS Inform, using the Contact Scotland BSL service or by text phone and through web chat, which is available on the NHS Inform website. I thank the minister for her answer. Does she agree with me that taking steps such as subtitling Government videos is important to ensuring that people with deafness are able to fully benefit from health advice? I would fully agree with Emma Harper and would assure her that the Scottish Government is committed to providing health information in formats that are accessible to people with hearing loss and deafness. All Scottish Government campaign websites are tested for accessibility as standard and subtitles are added to videos that are placed on YouTube. In addition, all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the top-level and main contact pages on the Scottish Government website are compliant with worldwide consortium standards, which cover a range of disabilities, including auditory. NHS 24 is currently working with partners to ensure that videos displayed on the new NHS Inform website have the language option, including BSL and subtitles, as seen on the Care Information Scotland website. The BDA Scotland health review 2016 said that people with hearing loss found communication was easiest in local primary care services, which they were familiar with, but were more difficult in a secondary care setting. What plans do ministers have to improve healthcare for deaf people, specifically in a secondary care setting? As I said in my previous answer, people with impairments should be able to access that. It is a case of making sure that before a person goes to secondary care, that the letter that goes with the patient asking for the appointment is fully understands that the person may have a hearing loss or whatever. Those sorts of things are being worked on as a result of the BSL legislation that was put through this Parliament. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on GP practices in the most deprived areas, receiving more resources per patient than those in the less deprived areas. Tackling health inequalities is one of our primary care outcomes as recently published in a joint memorandum with the BMA. Adjusting the Scottish allocation formula, which weights general practice funding by various factors that affect workload and not least deprivation, is one way that could help to deliver that outcome. We also need to look beyond the GP contract to other interventions and ways of supporting general practice in areas of high deprivation. That is why the Government has committed to increasing the number of link workers that support general practice in Scotland. I think that the BMA is in the difficult position that it is representing both GPs in rich areas and in poor areas. I wonder whether we do not need to put more emphasis on the deep end practices and those in the poorer areas, because they are dealing with much greater health needs and multimorbidity, and they really need to spend a lot more time with individual patients. John Mason makes a fair point, but I am confident that we can get agreement with the BMA around making sure that there is a good solid recognition of deprivation in terms of the resources that are allocated to those practices that are operating in our most deprived communities. Of course, deprivation is one factor that increases demand on GP resources. Therefore, the Scottish allocation formula is weighted to help practices in deprived areas. We are investing in projects such as the deep end pioneer scheme to support GPs working in very deprived areas. In addition to our investment in primary care more generally, with an additional £500 million being invested over the course of this Parliament, which means that there will be a big shift in NHS front-line spending to our community and primary health services. The Scottish allocation formula is under review and has been reviewed. We are commissioning a further review into GP pay and expenses. All of that, alongside the renegotiation of the contract, will help to address some of John Mason's concerns. I can emphasise to the cabinet secretary concerns that the current formula for GPs in deprived areas has an unintended consequence that they have less time to meet and talk and work with needy patients. What certainly doctors said to me was that the link work of things might be part of the process, but they were concerned that the current funding means that they have less time to spend but they can give people drugs when, in fact, they do not need tablets and what they need is somebody who can understand properly what their condition is. Will the cabinet minister make a commitment to look again at how that can be taken forward? It is a genuinely bizarre situation when those doctors are under most pressure or less well-funded. Let me reassure Johann Lamont, because she has raised a number of times in the chamber. Let me reassure her that, as part of our negotiations with the BMA, as I have said, the Scottish allocation formula has been reviewed. We are commissioning a further review into GP pay and expenses, because we need to understand more of the detail around that in coming to some of the contractual agreements. What I would say to Johann Lamont, though, is that, in addition to the formula and the contract, there is a lot of work that is generally geared towards addressing workload issues, which will help those GPs working in deprived communities as well as GPs generally, and will be able to ensure that they have more time to spend with those patients with more complex issues. I think that we will probably have a more positive beneficial effect for those GPs working in deprived communities, because many of those patients will be those with complex multi-morbidity issues that need more time spent on them. Just on the link worker issue, I met a link worker down in East Ayrshire who is attached to a GP practice. What was very clear is that the importance of making sure that the GPs are able, through that link worker, to connect the patient into local services, whether that is mental health services or other services. I am absolutely convinced that that role will make a tremendous difference to helping to make sure that patients get to the right place. The cabinet secretary mentioned the financial commitments to primary care, but there remains a lack of clarity as to where that will be targeted. Given the chair of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Miles Mack, said that this is an opportunity to lessen the effects of the inverse care law under which those most in need of healthcare have least access to it. Will the cabinet secretary today give details as to where those sums will be targeted? First of all, let me just reiterate that next financial year we will be investing £72 million in improvements to primary care and GP services, but that is against a backdrop of a commitment to an additional £500 million being invested over the course of this session. That is a huge shift in investment, something that I would hope the member would welcome. In terms of where that money is spent and the priorities, we have set out the priorities for reducing workload, improving recruitment and retention, and building those multidisciplinary teams that will be able to work together, seeing patients, helping patients with the GP as a clinical expert supporting that team. That is a model that has the support of the BMA and, indeed, I believe the RCGP as well. I am very happy to continue to provide details as we take those issues forward, but that is a big transformation in the way that primary care is delivered. That will be very much to be the benefit of patients. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage more participation in sporting activities. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing rates of physical activity with participation in sport, a key element of that. The Active Scotland Outcomes Framework sets out our ambitions for a more active Scotland and is underpinned by a commitment to equality, making sure that, regardless of gender, age, sexuality or income, there are opportunities and support to encourage people to be active. I welcome the work that has been done. 2017 will mark three years on from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the legacy of which we sought to create. I therefore ask what action the Scottish Government has been taking and will continue to take in delivering community sports hubs across Scotland that will continue building on the legacy of our 2014 Games. I am delighted to say that, through the investment by Sports Scotland, there already are 157 community hubs, sports hubs up and running right across Scotland. That will further increase to 200 by 2020, providing more and better opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to be active. Sports Scotland is currently focusing on seven community sports hubs across five local authorities in the 5 per cent most deprived areas and providing additional support to help enhance their local offer to develop existing and new opportunities to grow membership and explore barriers to school clubs and participation. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the £90 million required to bring the electrical wiring at Ninewell's hospital up to safe and modern standards. NHS Tayside is currently developing a long-term investment plan for Ninewell's hospital, which includes work to ensure the resilience of the electrical infrastructure of the site. It is in the process of developing the business case for this project, and it will be submitted to the NHS capital investment group for consideration in the coming weeks. A decision on the funding will be made once the business case has been reviewed. While the plan is being developed, there is continual maintenance across the Ninewell site and on-going investment in the site's infrastructure to ensure that NHS Tayside can continue to deliver high-quality, sustainable and safe service delivery for their patients. Cabinet Secretary for her answer, she will know as well as I do that NHS Tayside is running a projected deficit this year of £18 million that it has millions of pounds of debt to this Government and there is no obvious way to repay it. In light of this and Audit Scotland's warnings about NHS Tayside finances, will she pledge to fully fund the £90 million bill so that we can make sure that electrical wiring at Ninewell's hospital is safe for patients? First, on the issue of the deficit of NHS Tayside, which has obviously been subject to a lot of public scrutiny, not least from Jenny Marra's own committee, it is clear that the Scottish Government will continue to work with NHS Tayside in helping them to deliver a sustainable plan to recover their financial position. However, if Jenny Marra had listened to my initial answer, she would have heard very clearly that a decision on the funding will be made following review of the business case. That is how we do things. We get a proper business case from a board, we then review it and we take that forward. It would not be appropriate to make any decision before that review is complete. That is the proper way to make investment decisions. We recognise the importance of Ninewell's having a reliable and safe electrical infrastructure and officials at the Scottish Government have been working with NHS Tayside as they develop their case. I would have thought that, given that I said that that would happen in the next few weeks, it might be something that Jenny Marra might welcome. 10 days ago, NHS Tayside took a decision to close the dedicated mental health unit, the Mulberry unit at Strachathrow hospital, which is the only adult psychiatric admissions ward in Angus, because only 18 whole-time junior doctors from a requirement of 31 are available to NHS Tayside. What is the Government actively doing to recruit more mental health doctors, and when will NHS Tayside have enough resource to reopen the Mulberry unit? In this case, although the question is valid, it is not a supplementary to a question about Ninewell's and electrical wiring, so we will take question number 10, Mary Fee. To ask the Scottish Government when it will next meet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyte. Cabinet Secretary, Shona Robison. Ministers and Scottish Government officials regularly meet with representatives of all health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyte. Mary Fee. As the health secretary will know, a campaign group of strong and committed parents has been set up to oppose the closure of ward 15 at the RAH in Paisley. We heard last week that a young boy from Paisley, Alex Gray, had to be diverted to Edinburgh because of lack of beds at the new children's hospital in Glasgow. If she thinks that the closure of ward 15 should go ahead, given that the new children's hospital could not take this one child, never mind an estimated 8,000 additional cases that are to be transferred from the RAH to Glasgow. Can the health secretary tell us whether she intends to visit Paisley at any point to listen to the views of local parents? First of all, it is important that we understand what the paediatric intensive care service is. It is a service that is operated as a single national service, delivered from two units in Edinburgh and Glasgow since 2007. Those are highly specialised facilities with very skilled clinical teams. Clearly, it is important that those beds are managed on a Scotland-wide basis and that children will get to the right place when they require that bed. That sometimes means that if there are no beds available in Glasgow that children would go to Edinburgh or vice versa, but those beds are managed on a very specialist basis and are managed on a national basis. It is important not to conflate the issue with ward 15 at the RAH because it does not have any paediatric intensive care beds. Children could not be treated in those beds if they have that level of need. The two issues are very different, but in regard to ward 15 at the RAH, they were designated by the board as Mary Fee knows full well, as major, currently out to formal public consultation until 6 February, and I would certainly encourage all stakeholders to register their views. It would be inappropriate for me to comment any further at this point except to say, of course, that those final proposals will be subject to ministerial approval, and I will carefully consider all the available information and representations before coming to a final decision. I thank you. We are tight for time this afternoon, so we will move on to the next item of business, which is a statement by Michael Russell on the UK Supreme Court judgment on the triggering of article 50. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions while he is speaking. If members wish to ask a question, however, they may press their request-to-speak buttons whenever they wish to do so.