 Mae'r unrhyw deall, mae'r bwysnys yn cymryd yn ysgrifennu, yn gweld o'r gyrddion yn gallu i wneud yn ddwy beth yw gofynbarau. Mynd i gyd, rhywbeth o'r cyllid ym�체가eth fel y cyfryd? Rydw i'r pyfrannu Gennie Minntow yn gweld. Ond yma yw'r Llyfrgell Gawr Ysgrifennu, beth byddai'n gwineis ei ddweud o'r populatio yn cyllide i amser Rhyw Ysgrifennu argylchedd ymgwysgol a dda'r cynlluniau yma i ddymiadau? There's no quick fix for the challenges leading to depopulation, and we must work with regional, local and community partners to ensure that we collectively deliver a sustainable solution to the challenges facing our rural and island populations. Many of those challenges have been exacerbated by Brexit, the increased barriers to migration, which has helped to offset an ageing population and keep services running, will leave a particularly damaging gap in our rural communities, and the Scottish Government continues to call upon the UK Government to make vital reforms to the immigration system to meet Scotland's needs. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Scotland's rural communities often face social and economic challenges for a range of different reasons, but one thing, as the cabinet secretary has highlighted, they all have in common is that they have all been impacted by an ideologically motivated Tory Brexit. There can be little doubt that many of those often fragile communities have had their populations impacted in some way by this act of social and economic vandalism. So can I ask the cabinet secretary what his latest assessment is of the impact that Brexit has had on the population of rural Scotland and how the Scottish Government is seeking to repair the damage that this has caused? I thank Jenny Minto for her question. The detrimental impact of Brexit on our rural and island communities is profound where the reliance on tourism, on accommodation and hospitality-related employment is acute. Those jobs help to sustain rural and island economies. However, we know that those sectors are particularly vulnerable to Brexit impacts such as labour shortages, which 57 per cent of island businesses reported difficulties with in 2021. The Scottish Government is clear that we need practical, deliverable, evidence-based migration solutions that meet Scotland's needs. One example of our work in this space is the development of a rural visa pilot proposal to submit to the UK Government. Beatrice Wishart. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that reliable transport is essential to prevent depopulation and that infrastructure such as inter-island fixed links would benefit island populations and economies in places such as Shetland? I think that Beatrice Wishart is absolutely right to ask a question like that. There are great lessons that can be learnt from other island groups in northern Europe, for example the Faroe Islands, which has very successfully integrated the different island communities there. I am very open to suggestions, very open to best practice, and we really need to understand what can be done to make sure that island communities, whether Orkney, Shetland or the Western Isles, have the best infrastructure that is available. I would be happy to discuss the issue further with the member. 2. Colin Smyth. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Dumfries and Galloway regarding the reinstatement of inpatient births at the community maternity unit within the Galloway community hospital. Thank you. Officials in the chief midwifery officer have met with the head of midwifery of NHS Dumfries and Galloway in May 2022. The Scottish Government is aware of the potential issues and we continue to engage with the health board to explore ways forward. 4. It is four years since inpatient births were halted at the Galloway long before any pandemic because poor workforce planning means we have a chronic shortage of midwives. The minister will know that in those rural areas not being able to fill even a couple of vacancies can mean a service not existing at all. Does the minister accept that it is utterly unacceptable that women in Wigtonshire face the very real fear of having to give birth in a lay-by on route to hospital in Dumfries two hours away because the community maternity unit on their doorstep is closed? More importantly, will the minister say what specific action the Government has taken to ensure that we have the midwives needed in rural communities because women in Galloway should not be treated differently just because they live in a rural area? The Scottish Government expects all boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as possible, including the option of home birth services, but that has to be balanced with ensuring the safety of mother and babies when they need access to hospital maternity and neonatal services. Under the Government, the number of nurses and midwives has grown. I recognise that there are difficulties in terms of recruitment in certain parts of the country. That is something that my colleague Marie Todd is working on. I know that Marie Todd is taking a very close interest in that situation. I am quite sure that she will be willing to speak further with Mr Smith to ensure that progress is made. Finlay Carson, although I understand that NRAC is a regularly independently reviewed system of working out funding allocations to health boards across Scotland and that health boards are free to make decisions on where their priority lies, we have already heard that the community midwife-led maternity unit in Stranraer, which was once the eighth busiest out of Scotland's 22, is close for births, while other similar CMUs are still in place. If the formula is fit for purpose for rural areas, it should address the health inequalities and equities that pregnant women face in Wigtonshire having to travel two hours to get to maternity hospital. Will the minister look at the shocking situation and commit to a reassessment of NRAC specifically for rural and island communities? I am sure that the cabinet secretary would be willing to look at any proposal that Mr Carson has about NRAC, but that is the formula that is in place at this moment. If Mr Carson is calling for a review, he should write to the cabinet secretary about that. That might be popular in some areas, but not in others. In my times in local government, I know about the arguments that there have been around the local government funding formula. What I would repeat to Mr Carson is exactly what I said to Mr Smith. We, as a Government, express all boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as possible in a safe manner. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is putting in place to mitigate the impact of industrial action by rail workers, including on the night-time economy. Minister Jenny Gilruth, the R&T network rail strikes began on Tuesday of this week with today and Saturday, your mark presently as the first strike action. Noting that this dispute is a reserved matter for network rail and the relevant train operating companies to resolve it, I have written to both the network rail and the UK transport secretary outlining this Government's position on no compulsory redundancies and urging all parties to resume talks to ensure a quick and timely resolution. Ars and theatre venues have expressed their concerns about reduced rail timetables and their impact on the re-emergence of live performances in culture in Scotland. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to provide certainty to the Scottish culture sector and what forms of compensation for theatres, if any, is it considering to mitigate the impacts of restricted timetables? The member seems to be conflating industrial action, which is what is happening today and happened earlier this week, with the legitimate actions of the train driver's union to refuse to work on their rest days. It is important to say that, as led the train driver's union, I have said that this is not formal industrial action. I accept that. I thought that the Conservatives did, but I might seek some clarity on that. In relation to the position that we have in Scotland, we are running at this moment in time a reduced timetable. I am hopeful that we will be able to reintroduce the former full timetable in the coming weeks in relation to some of the cultural impacts. The member will recall that I served previously in Government as a culture minister. I recognise that this has been a deeply challenging time for our theatres and more broadly for the culture sector, which had to contend with the imposition of pandemic restrictions until quite far into last year. The Government sought to support the culture sector, and provided additionality that the UK Government did not provide in relation to the funding available. In relation to the work that will have been undertaken by the relevant minister on this, I would probably defer to Mr Gray to answer the specifics of the member's question, but I am quite sure that Mr Gray will have been meeting regularly with the event industry and advisory group as I did throughout the pandemic to ensure that we have put in place that additional support that is required to help the culture sector in this really challenging time. The dispute between the UK Government's network rail and RMT is having an enormous impact on Scotland. While the Tories are clearly continuing this dispute for political and ideological purposes, I note that Mick Hogg recently told the nine that, perhaps the UK Government should take a feather out of the Scottish Government's hat and propose 5 per cent, along with a five-year no compulsory redundancy agreement. In Scotland, we recognise a valuable role that trade unions play in our industrial relations, but it is clear that the Tories would use this dispute to weaken the role of the unions. What discussions have taken place with the UK Government regarding the impact of the ideological dispute on Scotland? I fully agree with the member. In relation to the engagement with the UK Government, there were planned meetings that were scheduled to take place between the devolved Governments and the UK Government on Monday. Those were cancelled at short notice. I was meant to meet with Wendy Morton, the real minister on Wednesday. That meeting was also cancelled at short notice, so I have to say to the member that, despite repeated representations from myself to Grant Chaps, there has been limited consultation between the UK Government and this Government, and that is deeply regrettable because, at this moment in time, network rail remains reserved. Yet another reason is that we need full devolution of Scotland's rail services back to Scotland. To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making to address the reported recruitment and retention problems in the delivery of care at home. I thank Mr Riley for raising that important issue. The social care workforce has experienced unprecedented challenge during the pandemic. The Scottish Government is committed to supporting social care providers to recruit and retain a skilled and fulfilled workforce. My officials are working with local DWP job centres to host a number of jobs fairs across Scotland. We have also approved funding to extend the MICE Job Scotland recruitment website until September of this year. Our most recent recruitment campaign, which ran during the winter, targeted a younger audience using social media. The data that we have received following evaluation of the campaign indicates that there were increased rates of young people entering the sector, which we will continue to encourage through work to improve career pathways. I would like to reiterate that we are fully committed to improving the experience of the social care workforce, including improving pay and conditions. From April this year, we have provided funding to deliver a £10.50 minimum wage for adult social care staff and commission services. I thank the minister for that answer. When the Government launched its national care service bill on Tuesday, I noted that Fiona Colley, the carer of Scotland, said there needs to be actions in the interim to actually make the changes that are needed. For example, investment in social care, investment in breaks for carers, investment in the people who deliver social care, there is huge pressure on health and social care and those pressures are falling on carers. Unless we do something now, we cannot wait five years for the bill to go through. Does the minister accept that unequal treatment of care workers is key to the problems that we have with recruitment and retention? The only way that we are going to address that is to put resources in now and start to treat care workers properly. Otherwise, this problem is just going to get worse and worse. I agree with Fiona Colley and Mr Rowley that we cannot wait until the national care service to resolve some of the issues that are at play at this moment in time. That is why the Government has paid for two pay rises in the last year, an increase of 12.9 per cent. Mr Rowley pointed out in his question the rights to breaks, which is built into the NCS, but we cannot wait for that. That is why we have put additional money in this financial year into breaks for unpaid carers, because that is the right thing to do. We will continue to co-operate with partners, including in COSLA, to ensure that we get this right as we move forward. We will not wait until the NCS comes into play. To ask the Scottish Government if it will provide an update on their hydrogen plan. We will publish your updated hydrogen action plan later this year following the publication of the draft hydrogen plan in November 2021. We undertook a 10-week consultation process to allow comment. This feedback has been reviewed and is informing. Work currently under way to review and update the hydrogen action plan. The Government's draft hydrogen plan has good intentions, and with the energy market making green hydrogen potentially more attractive, and with other countries now investing and deploying hydrogen electrolyzers, what Scottish companies are the Government supporting in order to see the step change needed to grow the industrial base and to develop the hydrogen production we will need for domestic use and for export as part of the energy mix to deliver net zero. We have a strong track record in supporting a range of hydrogen demonstration projects across the country from the £7 million that we are investing in the SDNH100 hydrogen heat network in Fife and the Aberdein hydrogen bus fleet and the surf and tough programme that has been taken forward by Emake on Orkney. Alongside that, we have also committed to investing £100 million as part of our hydrogen action plan. What I can assure the member is that we have ongoing discussions with a range of companies who are engaged in the hydrogen sector and who are interested in developing hydrogen production facilities here in Scotland. Later this year we will be hosting a hydrogen supply chain event here in Edinburgh to bring together companies in Scotland who are interested or working in the hydrogen sector. I would like to ask the Scottish Government what the work at is undertaking to ensure that there is a suitable and sustainable EV charging network in place across Scotland. Scotland has the most comprehensive public charging network in the UK outside of London, with close to 3,000 public charge points of which at least 740 are rapid chargers. Our focus is on growing the network so that it works seamlessly wherever you live or need to get to. Our priorities are threefold, encouraging commercial investment through our new £60 million electric vehicle infrastructure programme, introducing regulations on charge point installation in new buildings, on developments and working with communities and designers to make charging as simple and reliable as visiting your local filling station is. Jim Fairlie. I would like to thank the minister for that quick answer. One of the key things I am hearing from electric vehicle users in my constituency is that we need more EV charging points and we need to make sure that the existing ones are reliable. Can the minister explain how the electric vehicle infrastructure fund will help to increase the number of charging points in my constituency? Our new fund will at least double the number of charge points over the next few years, and for constituencies such as Persia South and Cronautra, our focus is on working with commercial providers so that investment's target gaps network is not just areas of high traffic. It is also true to say that we will require to leverage private investment to support some of that work, but we also need to work with our local authority partners to make sure that that works. Funding is available to all 32 councils, including the council in Mr Fairlie's area, and in relation to developing the EV charging strategies and infrastructure plans. As Mr Fairlie is correct to point out, reliability is front and centre of people's minds when they are considering the switch to an electric car or a van, and while the reliability of the charge play Scotland network is typically high, I know that any unavailable charge point is a source of frustration and it can be an inconvenience too. As we roll out our new fund though, we will work with providers to deliver a network that works for everyone whenever they need it. To ask the Scottish Government how it will address the reported shortage of nurses in rural areas. Minister Kevin Stewart, although Scotland's nursing and midwifery staffing is at a record high, the Government understands that health boards operating in primarily remote or rural communities face distinct recruitment track challenges. That is why we will develop a remote and rural recruitment strategy by the end of 2024 and a national centre for remote and rural health and social care, which is expected to be operational by spring 2023. That will support employers to ensure that the health and social care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met. The latest figures show that the number of unfilled nursing posts continues to grow, putting pressure on already-overworked and exhausted staff. On Fees and Galloway, we have a 14 per cent vacancy rate in paediatrics, 14 per cent vacancies in school nursing and a 10 per cent vacancy over the national figure for mental health nursing. Is the minister aware of the huge impact that is having on Fees and Galloway's royal infirmary, which is currently cancelling more operations that are going ahead because of staff shortages? Families of patients in one special ward are being asked to help out with basic care such as feeding them. The situation where one single registered nurse is being left alone in charge of an entire adult mental health ward, what urgent action is he going to take to address those issues? The Government will continue to invest in recruitment and retention of healthcare staff, including nurses in remote and rural locations. What we are doing includes a record £11 million in the lifetime of this Parliament to support further international recruitment. We have also doubled the number of funded training places in nursing and midwifery over the past 10 years. If we take Mr Carson's area in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, since this Government came to power, staff levels are up 19.1 per cent or 633.3 whole-time equivalents, and qualified nurses and midwives in Dumfries and Galloway are up 11.3 per cent or 131.9 whole-time equivalents, much greater than that south of the border where the Tories are in power. Thank you. That concludes general questions. Before we move on to First Minister's questions, I invite members to join me in welcoming to the gallery the honourable Nathan Cooper MLE, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.