 The next item of business is topical questions, and at question number one, I call Jamie Greene. To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to increase the resilience of Scotland's 999 emergency telephone service in light of UK-wide technical issues over the weekend that rendered the service unusable for many users. Cabinet Secretary, Angela Constance. Presiding Officer, the 999 call platform is a UK-wide system operated by BT and an integral part of the UK telecoms network. All telecoms infrastructure is reserved to and the responsibility of the UK Government. Scotland was not disproportionately affected by the issue. Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service promptly implemented business continuity arrangements that helped to manage call handling and reduce the likelihood of substantial call queue build-up or excessive wait times for callers. Due to the scale of the incident, the Scottish Government resilience room was activated for the duration of the incident. We have made clear our concerns about this incident to BT and await the outcome of the formal inquiry initiated by OFCOM on 26 June. That should allow us to better understand the cause of the failure, the full impacts and any lessons that may be learned. Jamie Greene. I thank the cabinet secretary for that very helpful update. I also add my thanks to those call handlers and emergency service workers who responded so quickly to events. On the issue of the outage itself and resilience, can I ask if the cabinet secretary had any direct conversations with BT or Police Scotland over the past 48 hours with regard to perhaps any initial thoughts as to what could have been a potential cause? Although I understand that there will be a full-scale inquiry into that for obvious reasons. What we did see, as a result of the 999 outage, was that the 101 service really stepped up to take and respond to emergency calls, which is a relief because the criminal justice committee just nine months ago took evidence from Deputy Chief Officer Page from Police Scotland who said that the very service itself was under existential threat, and thankfully the Government responded to that warning. Given the importance of the 101 service, can the cabinet secretary commit to on-going investment in it and that it will continue to exist in its current form? Cabinet secretary. Let me start by reassuring Mr Greene that throughout the course of Sunday I had several conversations throughout the course of the day with my resilience officials who were also taking part in the UK Cobra meetings to relay any concerns that we had in Scotland. Since then, yesterday, by chance, there were indeed four nations where all ministers were present with regard to resilience. There certainly is a shared understanding and a shared support for the BT inquiry from OFCOM in this matter. In terms of some of the more specifics around this UK-wide outage, I draw to Mr Greene's attention a statement made by BT that says that they are nearing the end of a full internal investigation and expect to share the findings with Government emergency services and OFCOM by Thursday. The internal review will examine the technical aspects of what triggered Sunday's incident, the process of moving over to the back-up system and the timings of communications to emergency services, OFCOM and Government. In the interests of transparency, BT will share key findings publicly at the same time, subject to the removal of any information that may remain confidential for critical national infrastructure purposes. In terms of the 101 service, I am glad that Mr Greene acknowledges the improvements in that service and that would coincide with the views of his Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Scottish Government will continue to ensure that the 101 service, as operated by Police Scotland, is scrutinised by the SPA that those arrangements work well. I thank the cabinet secretary for that further update and also to BT for the information that they provided, which is now a matter of public record from the cabinet secretary. I do not think that we can really underestimate the importance of our 999 and 101 services and the ability for the public to feel confidence in them and to get through when needed. The reality is that that trust has been eroded in many circumstances. Over the last five years, nearly 2 million calls to 101 had actually been abandoned by the caller and waiting times for both 999 and 101 calls has risen significantly. The longest wait last month for a 101 call to be answered was one hour and two minutes. We coupled that on top of the recent scandal, which was very unfortunate, where we discovered that calls had been allocated fake call signs and had not been responded to at all. We all know the tragic consequences as a Parliament of what happens when call handling goes wrong. I guess what I'm looking for are some reassurances to the public that they can have full confidence that all of our blue light services will be there for them when they are needed and that there is robust infrastructure in place to deal with both from a technical and resource point of view to deal with those emergency calls. Cabinet secretary. What is clear from Sunday's unfortunate events is that the Scottish Government's resilience arrangements work well and the continuity business plans of all our emergency services work well. Of course, we deserve our grateful thanks for that. In terms of the more specifics in and around Police Scotland call handling separate to this UK-wide national outage, that BT has now been investigated for, we continue to be hugely grateful to Police Scotland and its staff. It is worth remembering that Police Scotland receives more than 2 million calls each year and they continue to prioritise those 999 calls. The most recent figures show in that's April of this year that Police Scotland has an average answer time of six seconds for 999 calls and that is in line with other large forces across the UK. In this year, up to the end of March, the average time to answer a non-emergency 101 call was four minutes, 27 seconds. As I mentioned in my previous answer, the SPA closely monitors Police Scotland's approach and there have also been a number of improvements made. Police Scotland have highlighted a number of actions on public engagement system improvement and staff support being taken forward to further strengthen performance, but it is of course a matter that we will all continue to be vigilant on and it is a matter that is in helped with the increased police funding year on year since 2016-17. Of course, we have the assurance from the HMICS assurance review into the services contact assessment model which has highlighted a number of successes in this area. I would be grateful for concise questions and responses. I call Emma Harper. The downing of the phone line is of course a huge concern and I welcome the measures that the cabinet secretary has outlined to ensure that in an emergency access to care is always available. Can the cabinet secretary outline what additional steps are being taken to raise awareness amongst the public and what other means of accessing medical attention in a non-emergency or non-urgent situation? Our NHS 24 has completely transformed over the past three years from a predominantly out-of-hours primary care service to a 24-7 system-wide service providing triage to patients requiring both acute or primary care intervention and ensuring that they are signposted to the appropriate service. My messaging regarding NHS 24 services runs on social media along with communication campaigns on television, radio and digital platforms to promote NHS 424 services in the run-up, in particular to busy periods like bank holidays and there is also the NHS Inform website and the NHS 24 online app. To ask the Scottish Government what its responses to the reported delays in processing time for adult disability payments. Cabinet Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville. We know 53 per cent of adult disability payment decisions were made in less than four months, but we also know that many others are waiting too long and Social Security Scotland is taking urgent action and concerted action to speed this up. The focus is on getting the decision right first time and statistics show that this is working with only 6 per cent of people asking for a redetermination. People can also be assured that Social Security Scotland will backdate all payments to the date of application and that they will continue to deliver this benefit in a different way, supporting people to apply and collecting information on their behalf. Under the previous system, people had to do this themselves before applying. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Presiding Officer, things are getting worse, not better. The average waits in Scotland for processing adult disability payment applications have more than doubled between September 2022 and April 2023, with people waiting on average 19 weeks for a decision. More than double the average of the waiting time that people in England and Wales wait for personal independence payments through the DWP. That is an unacceptable position. We do not even have a full picture of the longest waits. Many members around the chamber will have mailbags telling us the stories of it in the ordinary waits that people are experiencing. We need the granular data, Presiding Officer, to be able to show the full picture of the situation in Scotland. Will the cabinet secretary agree to publish full data so that we understand the scale of the problem and so that we can measure her responses by it? Recent statistics have not long been published, which looks at the adult disability processing times. Can I urge some caution about a comparison to PIP and personal independence payments? They are very different application processes, and I made reference to some of those points in my original remarks. First of all, it is the obligation for social security Scotland to work very hard to make sure that they are getting the right decision first time. That is showing that only 6 per cent of people are going for redeterminations. Whereas PIP, for example, there were 25 per cent going to mandatory reconsiderations, and many are, of course, going to appeal. There are, of course, some people who are not able to just go through that quite oppressive system. Can I urge caution on that point because many of the PIP decisions clearly are then overturned under reconsideration or appeal? I can also point to the fact around the supporting information because that is a very important difference within the system. Under PIP, the client, or customer, as a DWP likes to call people, had to collect that supporting information themselves. People told us, as we developed the agency and its processes, that this was a very burdensome and onerous task. That is why it is now the responsibility of the agency to gather that supporting information. That does take time, but I think that it is important. I hope that Paul O'Kane is not suggesting that we change this and put that burden back on the client, as in PIP, that the Social Security Scotland will endeavour to do this as quickly as possible. That is why they are taking concerted action to speed things up, but they will endeavour to get that supporting information themselves rather than going through the client. Paul O'Kane speaks about concerted action in order to speed things up. Absolutely, I think that it is clear what we now must see. In recent months, there has been a whole range of issues exposed relating to the ability of Social Security Scotland to deliver on its core functions. The soaring cost of the IT budget, people waiting over an hour to have their call answered, being cut off on the phone and being unable to access the website. The reality is that we were promised a better, fairer social security system by this Government through the creation of Social Security Scotland five years ago that people are still in real need and should not be having to wait so long. Will the cabinet secretary outline for the chamber what direct action she is going to take to get a grip of that problem, to bring those waiting times down, and will she commit to bringing forward a clear plan to this chamber in order to ensure that those processing times are speed up? Cabinet secretary. I give one example of the cost of the IT budget has increased because, of course, when you compare that to our initial estimates, we were not at that time planning to deliver the Scottish child payment. Of course, the IT system has been delivered to ensure that that payment is now gaining traction right across the country and making a real difference to people's lives. I have been in the chamber on a number of occasions recently, talking through some of the points of change that are already being undertaken by the agency. There is an end-to-end process review, and there are some procedures that I have already put in place. Again, I have spoken in the chamber already about changes that have already been made to the application process. I have talked already in the chamber about the fact that the agency is drawing more on the expertise of in-house health and social care practitioners to support case discussions earlier, therefore allowing people to have their decisions made earlier. A number of changes have also been made to the way in which the agency handles calls. Staff who can be deployed from elsewhere in the organisation to help to reduce processing times have also been moved. I believe that the chief executive of social school to Scotland is due to appear before Parliament to go into further details on that. I have already discussed with him that it might be useful for him to provide an update to all members within the Scottish Parliament to reassure them of the work that has been undertaken and also to ensure that we are open to suggestions about how that can be improved. Stephanie Callaghan. People who have experienced a delay when applying have understandable concerns about the prospect of losing out in payments whilst they are waiting a decision to be made. I have heard what the cabinet secretary has said today, but just to be crystal clear, can she confirm that in cases where delays have been experienced, the Scottish Government will ensure that those eligible will be paid from the date on which they applied? Cabinet secretary. Yes, Prime Minister. I am happy to give that reassurance once again that people will be backdated in their payments to the date of application. Thank you. That concludes topical questions. The next item of business is a debate on motion 9710 in the name of Emma Roddick on illegal migration bill, UK legislation. I'd be grateful if members who wish to speak in the debate were to press their request to speak buttons. I'll allow a moment for members to organise themselves.