 That is my first question. 1. Ruth Davidson Thank you, Presiding Officer. This week, we learned that, at Trinity academy in Edinburgh, children are having to be taught maths by teachers for other subjects. The situation is so bad, that the school is written to parents to ask them to help out… all because of this government's failure to train up enough new staff. We know that it has happened in Perthshire, and we now know that it is happening in Edinburgh. Will the First Minister just confirm that this is not more widespread and that it's not happening anywhere else as well? As Ruth Davidson and other members are aware, we, like many other countries, face a challenge in teacher recruitment. At the start of the school term in August, the vacancy rate was around just above, I think, to be precise, 1 per cent of the total number of teachers, and that is a vacancy rate that we would expect to reduce as the school term proceeds. We face that challenge and nobody within the Government has ever sought to say otherwise. That's exactly why we are taking a range of actions to deal with and address that challenge. Let me just set out again what some of those actions are. We have increased student teacher intakes for six years in a row. Back in 2011, the intake to student teaching was 2,297. In the most recent year, it was over 4,000. We had 231 more newly qualified probationer teachers starting the induction scheme in August, compared to the previous year. We have also recently launched the next phase of the teacher recruitment campaign. We are developing a national approach to support recruitment of teachers from outside of Scotland, developing a specific campaign for headteachers recruitment. We are finalising a specification for a new route into teaching to help us even further to attract teachers, particularly to parts of the country or to particular subjects that are under pressure. Those are the range of actions that we are taking to tackle a challenge that is in no way unique to Scotland. Let me say finally, what the biggest threat is to all that action that we are taking. It is, of course, the restrictions that Ruth Davidson's party wants to put on the ability of people, teachers, nurses and doctors to come to this country from other parts of Europe. That, as in so many other areas, is the biggest challenge that we now face. From a Government that cut 4,000 teaching posts before Brexit even happened, that is the most pathetic excuse that I have ever heard. If that is supposed to cover up for the fact that the First Minister did not answer my question and clearly does not know if that is happening elsewhere, then it is not going to work. The first thing that she should have done was to get on the phone and find out, because teacher shortages are not just in Perthshire and they are not just in Edinburgh. For the schools coming back last month, Angus Council, for example, asked the Scottish Government for 40 probationer teachers to cover the staff shortages in their area. They got about half, they got 23, so children starting school knowing that there are not enough teachers to do the job. In May, John Swinney admitted that this Government's cuts to teacher training probably went too far. With all that we know now, shouldn't that probably be a definitely? Two things just to preface my substantive remarks in answer to Ruth Davidson's question. First, I started my first answer by recognising that teacher recruitment was a challenge in all parts of Scotland. Secondly, it is interesting that in order to back up her flawed and false narrative that this is somehow uniquely down to actions of this Government, Ruth Davidson has to go back several years and go back to a point when her party and other parties across this chamber were regularly coming to FMQs to ask my predecessor and the then education secretary about the problem of teacher unemployment, because they thought that we were training too many teachers for the jobs that were available. In the past six years, in every single one of the past six years, we have been increasing the number of student teachers going into teacher training. Ruth Davidson mentions probationer teachers. As I said in my original answer, there are 231 additional newly qualified probationers starting the induction scheme this August, as compared to last August. In terms of numbers, in terms of the other actions that we are taking, we are addressing what is a difficult challenge for Scotland and for many other parts of the world as well. Ruth Davidson has not yet addressed a very relevant point. As we are working in all the ways that I have set out to increase the numbers coming into teaching, to try to attract teachers from other parts of the world to come and use their talents here in Scotland, her party is trying to put the shutters up and stop people coming in. If she wants to be taken seriously on this issue, she should at least have the good grace to address that issue. The First Minister wants me to talk about people coming to teach here from outside Scotland, so let's talk about that. For years, we have been calling for people who have qualified outside Scotland and want to teach here to be fast-tracked, which is just one of the ways to help. Yesterday, we received an email from a couple who moved to Scotland five years ago. The husband did his teacher training in maths and he worked down south for 15 years as a maths teacher. When he moved here, he was told that he could not teach maths anymore without a full year's retraining as a student, so that is a qualified maths teacher not allowed to teach maths in Scotland. He is not alone. We have a crippling shortage of teachers, but according to evidence presented to this Parliament this year, we had more than 550 qualified teachers from outside Scotland applying to teach here, but who have been told by this Government to go back to school themselves? We have been asking for years to speed this up as a way to help, so why has there been a delay in implementing that? Unfortunately for Ruth Davidson, I received that email as well yesterday, so I have been able to look into it. My answer is going to include something that I would have thought Ruth Davidson would have known, but since she clearly doesn't, I am going to tell her about it. The circumstances are narrated in that email, and I am very grateful to the woman who sent it to me. It relates back to 2012. Since then, and this is the bit that I would have thought that Ruth Davidson, if she was going to raise this today, might have been aware of. Since then, the General Teaching Council for Scotland has introduced provisional conditional registration, which allows teachers qualified outside Scotland to become registered and to take up a teaching post in Scotland while they work towards meeting the minimum requirements. Ruth Davidson asks me why we have not fixed that, although I am afraid that Ms Davidson's answer is that we have, and she just did not bother to do the research to find out. That is absolutely right. He would not have been able to teach in 2012. He may now be in a position to do so, which is why we will be contacting that individual to see if he wants to take up a teaching post. That is the change in circumstances that, frankly, I am quite gobsmacked that Ruth Davidson did not bother to find out before she came here. Ruth Davidson. A lot of First Minister did not bring to the table was that this was only talked about by the General Teaching Council in May of this year and has not been brought through yet, so it is smoke and mirrors. Again, the First Minister stands here and says that this is my top priority. After 10 years of Government and 10 years of failure, I want a helogram for only now beginning to try and fix it. Let's hear the question, please. For years, but the record that you cannot run away from is this. 10 years in power, 4,000 fewer teachers, 40 per cent of teachers. Just one second, please. Let's hear the question, Ms Davidson. The record—they don't want to hear it, but let's say it again, Presiding Officer, you are absolutely right. 4,000 fewer teachers on her watch, 40 per cent of Scottish teachers considering retirement over 18 months. Hundreds of qualified teachers being held up of getting into classrooms because of this Government's bureaucracy. For all the promises of the future, that is the record of 10 years of failing our children. A pass marker of fail, First Minister, of fail. The First Minister You always know when Ruth Davidson has lost the plot at First Minister's Questions because we just get the angry waffling in place. This Government is taking action. Clearly, some of it Ruth Davidson wants to ignore and some of it she just doesn't even bother to find out about. The truth of the matter is that Ruth Davidson is not interested in solutions, she is just interested in standing up here talking about the problems, so we will continue to take the action that is right for our education system, right for our teachers and right for young people across this country, and we will leave the Tories unfortunately to continue to do the damage that they are doing to this country through their reckless Brexit approach, which is going to make finding the solutions to issues like this all the harder, something that Ruth Davidson never ever wants to talk about. Question 2, Alex Rowley. Presiding Officer, it is three months since we witnessed the horror of the fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower killing at least 80 people. We have since heard from many experts that fire sprinklers and high-rise flats can play a vital role in saving lives. I know that the Government has set up a ministerial working group that met for the first time on 20 June, and I look forward to hearing what recommendations they will make. However, can the First Minister comment on the submission from the Fire Brigades Union at yesterday's local government committee when they said, and I quote, that Scotland has lost 24 per cent of its fire safety inspecting officers since 2013-14. First Minister. Of course, it is a responsibility of the fire and rescue service to ensure that it has the right staff doing the right jobs in the right place. I understand that the 68 uniform fire safety enforcement officers that are deployed across Scotland, which I think was the number that was referred to yesterday, are supplemented by 13 specialist non-uniform auditing officers. Additionally, the fire and rescue service has a team of senior fire officers who are also competent in fire safety enforcement, thereby ensuring a national 24-7 capability to respond to fire safety-related matters. Of course, in the budget for this year, we increased the overall operational budget by £21.7 million to support investment in equipment and resources. Those are hugely serious issues, and we will continue to work very closely with the fire and rescue service, but we will also listen very carefully to the views of staff in all those matters. As Alex Rowley rightly says, we established following the Grenfell tragedy, a ministerial working group. That working group has now met on a number of occasions, most recently met last week, and is considering all relevant measures to ensure the safety of residents in high-rise domestic buildings. Since Alex Rowley specifically mentioned sprinklers, that includes a review of the evidence on sprinklers. We will continue to work through that group, and more generally, with all relevant stakeholders and partners here, to ensure that we are doing absolutely everything to ensure the safety of people who live in high-rise buildings and other relevant buildings across the country. It is, of course, the responsibility of Government to make sure that the fire and rescue service have the resources that they need. I have talked with many firefighters and have met with the Fire Brigades Union, and I have to say that there are some serious concerns being raised. Despite assurances from ministers to protect the front line, the FBU says that over 700 front line firefighters jobs have gone. There are grown concerns about adequate staffing levels and the future of fire stations. Will the First Minister give an assurance to Parliament that there will be no further job cuts in our fire service and that there will be no programme of fire service closures introduced across Scotland? I give an absolute assurance that we will continue to work with the fire service and to work in dialogue with the FBU to make sure that we are protecting those who keep us safe from fire. We have sought to do that, and we will continue to work to do that, both in terms of the number of fire officers and others who work in the fire and rescue service and in terms of the configuration of fire stations across our country. In terms of those issues, we owe an enormous gratitude to all firefighters who do a very dangerous job to keep us safe. In the aftermath of Grenfell, it is absolutely vital that we look carefully and critically at every aspect of fire safety, including all the ones that have been raised by Alec Rowley today. We will continue to do that. As we do that, not only will we talk as we do regularly to the fire and rescue service, we will hear the views of the FBU and those who work within that service and try to come to decisions that are about not just protecting the front-line service but also making sure that front-line service is configured to keep the people of Scotland safe. That is an assurance that I will give the Justice Secretary and the Minister for Community Safety regularly of discussions about those matters, and we will continue to do so. Alec Rowley? We certainly owe a great gratitude to all firefighters of that. There can be no question, but I think that the First Minister needs to look again at some of the big issues that are being raised, and I think that we need some assurances in terms of further job cuts and closures that we have not had today. It is now four years since the Government merged eight fire and rescue services into one, and I am told that progress remains very slow in terms of harmonising terms and conditions and wages for firefighters. That is causing a great impact in terms of staff morale within the fire service that needs to be addressed. Does she accept that a background of continuing cuts to the fire service is unlikely to help in resolving those issues and that cuts cannot be allowed to continue within our fire and rescue service? The First Minister is sure that we are protecting those who fight fire and keep us safe. As I said in an earlier answer to Alec Rowley, in this year's budget, of course, we increased the overall operational budget by more than £20 million to support some of the investment that the fire and rescue service need to make. Obviously, there are on-going negotiations on pay and conditions, and I hope that those discussions continue in a constructive way. Alec Rowley has asked me to look carefully at all those matters, and he is right to do so. We have an absolute responsibility to ensure that we do that at any time, but particularly given the tragedy that we saw happen in London over this summer. That is why the ministerial group is looking at all those individual issues very carefully, and recommendations will undoubtedly come forward in due course. However, in a wider sense, we continue to have those discussions with the fire and rescue service to make sure that we are putting in place the resources that it needs to do the job that the rest of us across the country depend on them to do. Today, Sir Ryder published a report on the support that is available to people with neurological conditions, featuring the story of Thomas and Dee McReevey, constituent to his case that I have been helping with for several months. Dee, a former nurse who is only 58, has an undiagnosed neurological condition and has been in an older person's care home for the past two years, largely confined to her room for 24 hours a day. Mr McReevey's tenacity in batting for better support for his wife has been incredible, but very little support is available for Dee and others like her. Will the First Minister agree to look further into the details of my constituent's case, and can she confirm if the Scottish Government will be considering the report's recommendations in full? First of all, in terms of the individual constituency case, of course the health secretary will be happy to look at that if Monica Lennon wants to provide the details. In terms of the Sue Ryder report that is being published today, first of all, can I take the opportunity to pay tribute to Sue Ryder? They are a fantastic organisation doing very, very good work. The Scottish Government works very closely with them and took action based on the priorities that they identified last year, which was making progress on data and clinical standards. This report has made five recommendations and will be taking forward work on all of them. I think that perhaps most appropriately today is to mention that we have already started the development of Scotland's first national action plan on neurological conditions, and the Public Health Minister has made clear that she wants to see new standards of care developed for people with neurological conditions as part of that work. One final point is to make, which, from the details that Monica Lennon did share with the chamber in her question, may be relevant to the case that she has mentioned today, is our decision to take forward and implement Frank's law, which will allow those under 65 with some neurological conditions to access personal care in the way that those over 65 already can. In a range of such issues, we are already taking forward action and will continue to do so, and, as we do so, we will continue to work closely with the Sue Ryder organisation. Scottish education, judged by international inspectors, is just average. Thousands of classroom assistants lost. Teacher vacancies up to 700. Thousands more want to give up two, and a school that is less than three miles from Scotland's Parliament is desperate for mass teachers. Has the First Minister had any doubts about our Government's education programme over the past 10 years? As I have said repeatedly, there are many, many, many strengths in the Scottish education system, and I do not think that it does the service to anybody in that system for us not to point to those. We have seen a 30 per cent increase in higher passes, for example, under over the last number of years. We see more young people, particularly from our deprived communities, coming out of school with qualifications and going to university. I am equally clear that I want us to go even further. That is why we are under way right now, the most radical programme of reform of school education that has been seen in the lifetime of this Scottish Parliament. Again, I note that it is entirely within his right to do so. I am not suggesting otherwise, but I think that Willie Rennie is opposing almost every aspect of that reform programme. We will continue to take forward the actions that we think are necessary to ensure improvements in our education system. In terms of vacancies, as I said to Ruth Davidson, in each and every one of the last six years, we have increased the numbers of student teachers going into teacher training, which is why, again, as I said earlier on, we have more than 200 additional newly qualified probationary teachers starting in our schools this August, as compared to last year. We will not shy away from those challenges, far from it, but we will continue to focus on taking the action that we need to take to address those challenges. That was quite an astonishing answer. She has no doubt about anything that she has done in education in the past 10 years. She listed all those great things, and I think that there are great things about Scottish education. However, in reality, under her leadership, education has got worse in Scotland over that time. The First Minister knows that Scottish teachers are on the edge. Their pay is lagging way behind those in other countries. A study found that there is a potential exodus from teaching with 700 vacancies already. The Macron report was delivered by the Liberal Democrat Labour Government, despite Nicola Sturgeon's opposition. It transformed education and had future teachers queuing up to join the profession. After 10 years of the SNP, that is not happening anymore. Is not it time for the First Minister to establish urgently a new Macron inquiry to reinvigorate teaching and have future teachers queuing up once again? The First Minister I do not think that the right thing to do is embark on a review that could take years to undertake and to complete. I think that the better thing to do is to take the actions, the hard, tangible actions that we are taking right now. Whether that is in terms of increasing the number of student teachers coming into the profession, the various initiatives around recruitment that I have already spoken about, whether that is the action that we are taking to put more powers and resources into the hands of head teachers, to make sure that head teachers and the teams of teachers that they work with are the real leaders of learning in their classrooms, not only good for motivating teachers, but also the evidence tells us the best way to raise standards in our schools. We will get on with the programme of reform and investment in our schools that we have embarked on. I look forward to continuing to debate the detail of that in this chamber, but I hope that people will engage in the actions that we are taking right now, not do, but will there any appears to be trying to do, just kick everything into the long grass in some review that will take forever and ever to report? We are going to take the action now to deal with the challenges that we face. The First Minister is aware that the First Secretary of State Damian Greene has warned this week that, if there are no post-Brexit framework agreements across the UK on issues such as agriculture, the devolved Administrations could adopt policies that are at odds with the UK Government's views. In other words, he wants framework agreements drawn up to smother and silence devolution in this Parliament's right to decide what is in the interests of Scotland. Does she agree therefore that this is another example of Conservative ministers' strong desire to use Brexit to undermine devolution and Scottish democracy? It is not just the view of this Government. We have seen it in House of Commons briefing papers, we have seen organisations such as the Law Society talk about how this withdrawal EU withdrawal bill is going to centralise powers that should lie with this Parliament at Westminster. I think that that is wrong and it is a deeply retrograde step. This week celebrated the 20th anniversary of the devolution referendum. The Scotland Act on which this Parliament is built is based on an important principle that everything is devolved unless it is expressly reserved. The withdrawal bill turns that principle on its head and means that every power, if it comes back from the EU, even in devolved areas, is reserved at Westminster unless a UK Government decides that it is going to devolve them. I think that Damian Green in his comments reported today gives the game away. The reason why he wants to do this is to restrict the freedom of decision and manoeuvre of this Parliament in devolved areas. I think that there are deeply concerning aspects to this. Take agriculture, for example. He was talking about subsidy wars. Is that code for wanting to reduce the funding that goes to our farmers? Right now, in Scotland, our farmers get 16 per cent of farm funding. We should actually get more than that because of the percentage of land. Do the UK Government want to see that reduce? That is a serious issue. It has serious consequences for different parts of society and our economy, but it is also serious in principle. Matters that are devolved should be for this Parliament to decide. They should not be re-reserved to Westminster to allow our Westminster Government to do whatever it sees fit. It is a big, big issue of principle, and I think that the Tories would do well to start standing up for this Parliament instead of just doing what their bosses at Westminster tell them to do. Mark Ruskell Perhaps staying with that theme. Two weeks ago, Fergus Ewing announced £109 million of cuts to the Scottish rural development programme, blaming Westminster on its failure to transfer the EU convergence payments. However, our research shows that those convergence payments were never included in the original budget and therefore cannot be the reason behind the cuts. Can the First Minister explain to Parliament what the real reason is behind those cuts to the SRDP programme, which will impact on communities, businesses and our rural environment? I am sorry, but the full convergence funding, and this is a matter of fact, was not passed on to the UK Government. This is additional funding that was made available to the UK, principally because of issues in Scotland that should have come to Scotland, but because it was not, Scottish farmers were shortchanged to the tune of £160 million over the course of the CAP programme. That is the reality. What we should all be doing in this Parliament is getting behind the call for that long to be righted and for farmers to get the money that they are due. To ask the First Minister about the Scottish Government's responses to the number of reported cases involving a child committing a sexual offence against another, increasing by a third over the last four years. Well, those figures are extremely concerning and our priority is to ensure the safety of children. Of course, it is too soon to say to what extent the reported increase reflects an actual rise in offending, because we know that greater confidence in the reporting of sexual offences might also be a factor. Last week, the Deputy First Minister spoke at an education summit organised by the Solicitor General to highlight the importance of a preventative approach in helping to stop children becoming either victims or perpetrators of sexual offending. Our review of personal and social education also supports that. Later this month, we will also publish new analysis looking at sexual crimes committed through the internet, including the age of victims and offenders. That will help to inform how the justice system responds to the type of offending in the future. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Will she join me in encouraging all schools, youth groups and parent groups to get actively involved in tackling the issues around the sharing of unsolicited images and get involved in initiatives such as DigiEye, run by Young Scott? Will she outline what we as MSPs in our areas and Government could do respectively to highlight those issues and encourage cyber resilience in young people and their parents? That question is important. I would particularly mention the DigiEye campaign that Young Scott runs and has been mentioned by Gillie Martin. The Government supports Young Scott with funding to support that campaign. That is just one of a range of actions that we are already taking as part of our internet safety action plan. Gillie Martin is right. That is first and foremost and very fundamentally a community issue, and it often takes a community approach to dealing with issues like that effectively. Not all sexual offending that is shown in those statistics will be offences committed on the internet. Of course it won't be, but we know that the internet can often be an unsafe place for young people. I think that all of us as MSPs can play our part in our communities in raising awareness and helping to educate parents about the steps that they can take to keep their children safe online. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that there is public confidence in the leadership of Police Scotland. The Government is committed to ensuring that Police Scotland has a strong, resilient and effective senior leadership team. As the cabinet secretary for justice set out in his parliamentary statement on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Livingston will provide leadership to Police Scotland in the Chief Constable's absence. As the DCC designates, he will have all the powers of the Chief Constable in this period and he is very ably supported by the other experienced and capable members of the senior team. I have confidence that they, along with all of our police officers and staff, will continue to provide the excellent police service that keeps our communities safe and has helped to bring crime down to a 42-year low. I thank the First Minister for that response. It is not about political posturing in difficult times because the public and our police officers must have the unequivocal confidence in the leadership of Police Scotland. Given that leadership requires scrutiny and scrutiny requires leadership and there is currently a perceived vacuum, can the First Minister tell us how she will ensure that the Chief Constable of Scotland will retain or gain the respect of all those that he or she leads and serves? I agree very much with the sentiment of that question. The Scottish Police Authority has taken a number of steps recently to increase transparency and the ability for scrutiny around its conduct and decision making, and I think that we should all welcome that. In terms of the Chief Constable, members will appreciate that I am not going to nor would it be appropriate for me to comment on the allegations that have been made in relation to the Chief Constable. What is important to say, though, is that there is a well-established process in place for investigating and coming to conclusions on complaints of the nature that have been made, and that process is now under way. I think that in those circumstances the Chief Constable was right to take leave of absence while that investigation is under way. Ian Livingstone is a senior police officer with many, many years of experience. He will be known to many of us across the chamber. He is a highly respected officer, and I know that he will do an excellent job while carrying out the functions of Chief Constable. We continue to reassure Edward Mountain talked about a perception of a vacuum. It is important that, although all members have a scrutiny role to perform here, we do not say to the public that there is a vacuum of leadership, because there is not. There is an acting chief constable in place, and the chair of the Scottish Police Authority is in place and will continue to be in place until his successor is appointed. Again, police officers right around our country do an excellent job. They do that excellent job in often very difficult circumstances. If we take a step back from all of this and remind ourselves, yet again, crime in this country is a 42-year low, and that is down to the hard work of police officers in every part of Scotland. Neil Findlay. One area of Police Scotland are involved in is undercover policing. Today, lawyers are at the court of session seeking a judicial review of the exclusion of Scottish victims from the UK-wide public inquiry into illegal and unethical undercover policing and the Scottish Government's failure to carry out a parallel inquiry. What does the First Minister say to the victims, including women who were violated, tricked into relationships and some who even had children by undercover officers with an assumed identity? That is what some victims describe as state rape. Why is there no full public inquiry here in Scotland? First Minister. I deprecate the kind of actions that Neil Findlay has outlined, and I would hope that everybody would. In terms of a court case that Neil Findlay started his question by referring to, he said that it is in court today that it clearly would be completely inappropriate for me to make any comment on that judicial review case. In terms of the wider issue, Neil Findlay, I assume, is aware that there is currently a review under way by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary into those issues of undercover policing. Of course, that will conclude in due course. If there are recommendations for the Scottish Government involved there, we will take those recommendations forward. Daniel Johnson To ask the First Minister what progress the Scottish Government has made in the identification of combustible cladding on public buildings in light of reports that it was found at Edinburgh royal infirmary. First Minister Following the Grenfell tragedy, the ministerial working group on building and fire safety focused on identifying combustible cladding on high-rise buildings over 18 metres in height. The NHS has identified two hospitals, the Queen Elizabeth university hospital and the royal infirmary of Edinburgh, where some combustible cladding is present. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, however, has confirmed that patients are safe and that is because there are other fire stopping measures and good fire safety management procedures in place at both hospitals. Daniel Johnson I thank the First Minister for that response. As Alex Rowley pointed out in his questions earlier on, today marks the three-month anniversary of the tragic fire at Grenfell tyre. Over those three months, combustible cladding has been found in schools, university buildings, hospitals in Glasgow and now in Edinburgh as reported in recent days. In light of that information, will the First Minister tell Parliament how many and what publicly accessible buildings still remain to be checked? When does she believe that the Government will have a comprehensive picture of the use of combustible cladding? Can she confirm how she will keep Parliament informed and up-to-date with the progress towards the comprehensive picture? The First Minister I should have said earlier on that it is appropriate to say that, at this moment in time, our thoughts should particularly be with the victims of Grenfell and their families, given the three months that have passed and also the opening of the inquiry into that. That will be every day of the last three months and will have been incredibly difficult, but as those issues start to be looked into, that trauma, of course, is underlined. There has been on-going transparency as we have done this work. As the member will be aware, we have focused, for reasons that I think everybody will understand and agree with, on buildings over 18 metres in height. The reason for that is, of course, for buildings. Underneath that height, it is more possible for the fire service to gain access in the event of fire. The ministerial working group has been very open about its deliberations and the work around hospitals. High-rise flats, domestic dwellings in the first place, hospitals and schools, there has been reporting of that as that work has been carried out. I will ask Angela Constance to write to the member with a full and up-to-date detail of exactly where that work has got to. All along, if issues have been identified, steps are being taken to mitigate any risk. For example, the Queen Elizabeth hospital, when cladding there of a particular type was identified, the health board set out the steps that it was going to take to remove that cladding in the Edinburgh royal infirmary, where I should say that there are further tests being carried out on that cladding, but notwithstanding that, particular mitigations have been put in place to make sure that the safety of patients and anybody visiting the hospital is absolutely paramount. We will continue to update Parliament as appropriate on this work. As I say, I will ask Angela Constance to write an update letter to the member setting out exactly what work remains to be carried out. First Minister, fire safety goes beyond issues of combustible cladding. The local government committee has heard a suggestion from the FBU that there should be a series of intrusive inspections of high-rises in Scotland to interrogate fire safety procedures and take the opportunity to improve fire safety further. First Minister, can I ask if this is something that the Scottish Government will give consideration to? We will of course continue to give consideration to any suggestions that are made, particularly those coming from the experts in fire safety. Through the ministerial working group, we are already carrying out a review of building in fire safety regulatory frameworks and any other relevant matters. I think that it is important to say that no ACM, which was the particular cladding on Grenfell, has been found on any high-rise social blocks in Scotland. We would expect all building owners to have been doing their own fire safety risk assessments and, of course, if they have any concerns, they should seek further advice from the fire service. We will, through the working group, continue to consider all relevant measures. I have already mentioned the work that has been carried out around sprinklers, but also the suggestion that Bob Doris highlights today will be taken fully into account in the deliberations of the working group. To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is marking the 20th anniversary of the devolution referendum. Like many others, I marked the referendum's anniversary on Monday. I think that the point that I was seeking to make, and we will make again today, is that whatever devises in this Parliament—and there are many things that devise in this Parliament—it should still be possible, as we proved 20 years ago, to try to find areas of agreement. That should be true on the powers of this Parliament, just as it is true on other issues as well. As I said on Monday to that end, we will publish in the coming months a series of papers on extending the powers of our Parliament, not intended to be the final work but to stimulate debate. I look forward to discussing those across Parliament. As we do two things, we seek to defend our current powers from the threat posed by the EU withdrawal bill, but we also look in the light of Brexit and the other challenges that we face as a country, what additional powers would allow this Parliament to address those challenges and concerns even more effectively. I thank the First Minister for that response. Damian Greene has let the cat out of the bag and said explicitly that the UK Government plans to take control of Scottish agriculture at the very time when we should be celebrating the many achievements of this Parliament. The Tory party in Westminster is staging a power grab. Does the First Minister agree with me that their attempt to undermine this Parliament is completely unacceptable? It is unacceptable. I hear some grumbling on the Tory branches. I was not in the chamber for Mike Russell's statement the other day, but I managed to catch some of it and I thought that the Tories were very constructive in their approach. I hope that we can find a way of working together to protect the powers of our Parliament when we have not just the SNP Scottish Government but the Labour Welsh Government and many other organisations saying that, in its current state, the EU withdrawal bill is unacceptable and represents a power grab on the devolved Administrations. I think that the UK Government should sit up, listen, take notice and agree to amendments. It can often be quite difficult because many of those issues around Brexit are highly technical, but, as I said earlier on, what the bill does is reverse the very principle on which this Parliament is founded. Every power coming back from the EU, in devolved matters, instead of coming to this Parliament, will go to Westminster. That will allow the UK Government to make decisions, whether in agriculture, fisheries, environment or a whole range of justice, in fact, would be included in that. In 111 different areas that Mike Russell was talking about the other day, it would take decisions on issues that are rightly devolved to this Parliament. Whatever else we disagree on, surely we can all come together and agree that that is simply unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand. That is the position of this Government, and I hope that we will have the backing of every other party in this Parliament. Jackson Carlaw In that light, in—can I ask the First Minister to reflect on the rhetoric that she has deployed both in response to Richard Lochhead and to Mary Todd? Her ministers warmly welcomed the offer that we made in all sincerity on Tuesday to work with ministers to seek to find solutions to the issues that the Scottish Government, which I believe now in all good conscience, has raised to the issues arising from the withdrawal bill. I am concerned. Is it the First Minister's position that she wants as a soapbox to promote a grievance agenda and to deploy rhetoric that is designed to scupper that, or does she genuinely want to seek to find a solution to those problems? Can she give the chamber an assurance that that is the case? Because what she has just said today almost seeks to undermine the spirit in which we have offered to work with her Government to find that solution. First Minister I am genuinely not sure how much attention Jackson Carlaw has been being paid to this, and I do not mean that pejoratively, because this is a really serious point, because while I welcome the change of tone from the Conservatives on Tuesday, surely Jackson Carlaw can understand if he has been paying attention that we have been trying to find solutions to this since early summer when the withdrawal bill was first published. We have been trying to find common ground and compromise with the UK Government since the referendum on the EU more than a year ago. All we have had at every step of the way are occasional warm words, but when push comes to shove, the approach from the UK Government will be our way or no way. With respect to Jackson Carlaw, it is nice now to have a suggestion that the Scottish Tories might be on the side of protecting this Parliament, but I am sure that he can forgive a degree of frustration on the part of the Scottish Government that thus far all the attempts that we have been making to find compromise on common ground have been rejected by the UK Government. If that is going to change now, I welcome that, but, frankly, I want to see some of that in action rather than just if he forgives me Jackson Carlaw in rhetoric. Thank you. That concludes First Minister's Questions. We now move on to members' business in the name of Rachel Hamilton, and we will just take a few moments for members to change seats.