 I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. The first item of business is consideration of business motion 3453, in the name of George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, setting out revisions to today's business. I call on George Adam to move the motion. No member wishes to speak on the motion. Therefore, the question is that motion 3453 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is general questions in order to get in as many people as possible. I would be grateful for short and succinct questions and responses. At question number one, I call Gordon MacDonald. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has in place to support World Book Day on 3 March 2022. Minister, Jamie Hepburn. At today is the 25th World Book Day, which seeks to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading the Scottish Government's supports activity of the Scottish Book Trust, but today promoting a range of activity to encourage the love of reading. Literacy is foundational to every child's education and reading is a fundamental skill for life, as well as a source of lifelong pleasure to help young people to develop these skills. The Scottish Book Trust delivers the First Minister's reading challenge, the reading schools programme and read-write count. Each initiative aims to positively impact on pupils' attainment by building and embedding reading cultures in schools at home and in the community to support and nurture the love of reading for pleasure. I thank the minister for that answer. To celebrate World Book Day, many of the schools and nurseries across my constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands are encouraging our pupils to dress up as their favourite book character. I know many young people will be excited to take part on World Book Year this year, given the impact of the pandemic on previous year's celebrations. Will the minister commit to continue to support the Book Book programme, which is proven to provide a range of positive benefits for children and families across the country? Let me first of all recognise the excitement that many children are taking part today, not just in Mr McDonnell's constituency, but across all the country, including my own. My son went off to school today, and his pajamas in line with his school's bedtime story seem to recognise the day. Initiatives such as Bookbug help encourage an early love of books among children, while also providing great opportunities for parents and their young ones to spend time together playing, having fun and learning. In this financial year, we provided £1.66 million of funding to the Scottish Book Trust's early years programme. It provides a range of three bookpacks for every child in Scotland from birth to primary one to support the day this year. The Scottish Book Trust is a working partnership with World Book Day to distribute vouchers to 2,800 early years settings in Scotland alongside their explorer resource kits to distribute World Book Day digital vouchers to families who receive extra support through Bookbug for the Home. They will also send copies of World Book Day books to a further 3,000 families via Bookbug for the Home after today. Discussions with the Scottish Book Trust's grant fund's early years programme in Bookbug in 2022-23 are currently under way. To ask the Scottish Government how many households are waiting for social housing in Central Scotland. The latest data suggests that an estimated 80,000 households across the 16 local authorities in Central Scotland in 2019 were on a housing list or had applied for social housing in the previous 12 months. However, we know that this figure will include households who are already living in a social home as well as households looking to access the social sector. Ensuring that everyone has a warm, affordable home that meets their needs is a priority for the Government. That is why we are committed to delivering 110,000 new affordable homes by 2032. Mark Griffin. Thank you, cabinet secretary. For that answer, I just ask the cabinet secretary if she is aware of the changes to the system of our long-term empty or second homes in Wales. To ask if the Scottish Government has considered giving local authorities in Central Scotland powers to implement a similar scheme that could reduce the number of long-term empty homes and raise additional funds to build social housing and reduce the number of families waiting for a home. Tackling empty homes is a priority for the Scottish Government. We have set out a range of actions in housing to 2040 to help to make better use of this essentially wasted resource. We continue to invest in the successful Scottish Empty Homes Partnership approach, which has brought more than 6,000 homes back into use since 2010. Of course, we will look at ideas that are brought forward in other places and are happy to look at what Wales is doing. However, we have existing measures, including, for example, the additional dwelling supplement that second home buyers pay, short-term let control areas for secondary letting and existing powers that local authorities have to vary or remove council tax discounts on second homes. We are already taking a lot of action, but we are obviously happy to look at any other ideas that Mark Griffin or anyone else might want to bring forward. Can the cabinet secretary advise the chamber how many council houses have been built in central Scotland under the Scottish National Party and how many were built from 1990 to 2007 under Labour and the Liberal Democrats? In the central Scotland constituency region, which includes Falkirk North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire local authority areas, published official statistics on local authority new-build homes, showed that there were only 30 council homes built between 1999, 2000 and 2006, 2007 compared to 1,792 council homes built between 2007-08 and 2020-21. Since 2007, the Government has delivered 105,755 affordable homes across Scotland, more than 73,000 of which were for social rent, including nearly 17,000 council homes. I would have thought that something everyone in the chamber would welcome. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent Pricewaterhouse Cooper's report showing that Scotland lost on average four shops a day in 2021. We know that retail businesses have been faced incredibly difficult trading conditions in the past two years as a result of the global pandemic. That is why, since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefited from £4.5 billion in support and, under non-domestic rates, relief have saved businesses, including retailers, around £1.6 billion. Last week, we announced an £80 million Covid economic recovery fund for local authorities and allocated a further £3 million to the city centre recovery fund to support local economies to recover. Under £10 million Scotland Loves Local programme and city centre recovery task force are supporting local communities and retail businesses in our towns and cities to rebuild our high streets. Our 10-year national strategy for economic transformation, combined with the upcoming retail strategy and town centre action plan, will strengthen the retail sector and ensure that Scotland maximises its economic potential, becoming fairer, wealthier and greener. Dean Lockhart, I thank the minister for that reply, but it does not go far enough. The PWC report also shows that the number of shops across Scotland's high street has declined in each of the last six years, well before Covid, the worst performance across the UK. The Scottish Government has said that it would publish its long-awaited retail strategy last year, but we still have not seen it. The Scottish Retail Consortium has called for a long-term coherent approach towards the sector, so minister, when will this happen? We have worked very closely with the retail sector, including the SRC in the development of the retail strategy, and that publication of that will be forthcoming relatively soon. I would wish to assure the member. We do take a coherent approach. I outlined in my original answer much of the funding that we have put in place, but our policy coheres across a range of areas, and I would encourage the member, once it is published, to look carefully at the town centre action plan, again developed in partnership with COSLA. I would also encourage the member to look closely at what we are doing with NPF4, where there is an abundance of policies there that will reflect the review of the town centre action plan, incorporate it and put in place the long-term structures that we need in planning, matching what we are doing across the range of other areas to ensure that we have a vibrant future for retail. A very final point that I would make is just to acknowledge the point that Mr Lockhart made. There are long-standing structural challenges to the retail sector. Our job is to support retail to make a just transition. Does the minister welcome the inquiry, which I understand the economy committee may be undertaking into town centre regeneration? We will be looking at gallous heels in my constituency, where energised gallous work very hard over the years with politicians across all parties to try to deal with the very thing that we will be discussing, which is the small shops of disappearing, trampled over by the large supermarkets. I absolutely welcome the inquiry that the economy committee is undertaking, and I very much look forward to seeing the evidence that the committee takes and the recommendations that come out of its final report. I would be very happy to discuss this matter further with Christine Grahame, including if she would like to invite me to her constituency to see some of the excellent local examples of retail that she has referred to. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that historic environment Scotland is considering criteria that could be used to identify sites that could be left to managed decline. It is important that Scotland's historic properties and care are kept in a safe condition, both for historic environment Scotland's staff and for public visitors. We are seeing how those properties' natural processes of decay have been accelerated by climate change and that that process is likely to continue. Historic environment Scotland are currently considering what future management approaches and strategies will be needed for care in the long term, and I will keep discussing those potential approaches with them. HES recently stated that it may need to reduce physical access to some historic sites and accept the natural process of decay in some cases. Dun Calaway Brock on Lewis has been closed since 2019, with little progress made since leaving local communities very worried about its future. Can the minister confirm if HES is considering managed decline for this site and, more broadly, will he confirm what historic sites in Scotland HES considered to be most at risk? I thank Donald Cameron for his interest in this area. I understand that Historic Environment Scotland's director of conservation has written directly to him about this and the process of reaching out to Mr Cameron's office to arrange a visit to Dun Calaway Brock with Historic Environment Scotland's experts. I can also confirm that Historic Environment Scotland carried out consolidation work on the Brock in October. Last year, I managed to get a section of the upper Brock stabilised, which is good news. Further, programme works are planned for the end of this month, and HES will undertake a review at the end of April, which will inform the next steps and reopening timetables. Safety of the public must always be the primary concern. I hope that that will assist Mr Cameron in his local issues, but I am happy to correspond further if that would be helpful. It is not just reviewing sites, but it is also ensuring that there is sufficient funding to make sure that those sites are able to remain open and be safe. If I can say as a resident of the city, just minutes away from us we have the radical road, which has been closed for a long time in Holyrood Park, and the problems of Duddingston Low Road. It is not just reviewing, it is making sure that Historic Environment Scotland has enough resource to keep our fantastic cultural heritage alive and accessible to all of us wherever we live. Sarah Boyle has given substantially increased resource to Historic Environment Scotland in 2021. That was £80 million, £21 million, £22 million, £75 million, and £22 million, £23 million over £70 million. We are investing substantially, recognising the Covid challenges that Historic Environment Scotland has had in its potential income streams. We will continue to work very closely with them on the important sites that we have across Scotland to make sure that we are protecting them as best we can from what we have already described as climate change erosion and other challenges that they face. To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling any issues related to high numbers of second homes in some parts of Scotland. Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison We recognise concentrations of second homes that can affect community sustainability. Existing measures include the additional dwelling supplement that second home buyers pay, short-term let control areas for secondary letting, and existing powers that local authorities have to vary or remove council tax discounts on second homes. In 2017-18, that meant that council tax income generated from second homes contributed £21.2 million towards the provision of affordable homes across Scotland. Emma Roddick She will be aware that I and many in the Highlands and Islands have deep concerns about how housing availability affects depopulation. It is clear that, particularly in certain rural and island communities, second homes are contributing to the issue. Can she give an update on the SNP's manifesto commitment to give local authorities power to manage the number of second homes in their area? First of all, I recognise Emma Roddick's background of raising the issue in the chamber. It is an important issue. First of all, just to say that through the housing to 2040 strategy, we are committed to providing more tools and powers to local authorities to support the best use of existing housing stock. We are going to engage with stakeholders about proposals on what additional powers are needed during the stakeholder discussions on the remote, rural and island housing action plan and the issue of a taxation review that she mentioned. We will be recommencing work on the taxation review this year. Work is being paused, obviously, due to Covid, but it will recommence this year. Has the Scottish Government walked progress that is made with the UK Government on the devolution of drug legislation to the Scottish Parliament, particularly in relation to the misuse of drugs act 1971? The Scottish Government has and will continue to engage with the UK Government to reform and or devolve the misuse of drugs act to fully enable an evidence-based public health approach to tackle the drug death crisis. The UK Government remain unwilling to either review legislation or devolve powers to Scotland. At a recent parliamentary joint committee session on 1 February, Mr Malthouse refused to accept the recommendations of the drug death task course for legislative change. In the meantime, the Scottish Government will continue to seek solutions within the current laws and our current powers to save and improve lives by reducing harm and promoting recovery. It is going to take a national mission to end drug addiction and drug deaths in Scotland, and the Scottish Government is doing all within its devolved powers to tackle that. However, having the misuse of drugs act still reserved to Westminster, we are tackling this issue with one hand tied behind our back. Does the minister agree that this legislation should be devolved immediately so that Scotland has all the levers available to fully address this and save lives? Yes, I do very much believe that we need a route and branch review of the 50-year-old misuse of drugs act and for the powers to be devolved to this Parliament. I should also say that I do not, for a minute, demur from the challenge of doing more with our existing powers and existing resources. That investment, tackling culture, reform and services are important along with legislative powers and legislative reform. Certainly, if the misuse of drugs act was reformed or devolved to Scotland, some of the work that we are currently immersed in in and around drug checking facilities and drug consumption facilities would be far more easier. However, the crux of the problem with the misuse of drugs act is that it impedes that full public health approach to a public health emergency and, in particular, it limits that full range of evidence-led harm reduction measures. I hope that I have demonstrated to the chamber and beyond that I am fully committed to recovery, residential rehab, abstinence-based interventions, but we also need to get serious in this country about harm reduction and reach people where they are at any given time. That is in part what we need to do to reduce harm. 7. Richard Leonard To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the remediation, including removal and replacement of unsafe cladding on residential buildings in Scotland as part of its response to Grenfell. Selected 25 high-priority residential blocks of flats for an initial phase to test and develop our free single building assessment surveys are on-going, and some reports will be finalised in the coming weeks. That will allow us to understand what actions need to be taken to further support affected home owners and seek the most appropriate solutions. We will continue to urge other parties, such as developers, to continue to play their part where construction is found to be unsafe and we are continuing to discuss with the UK Government what their plans are for the establishment of their announced £4 billion fund. Richard Leonard I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but the Grenfell tragedy that claims 72 lives was four and a half years ago. We know that the Government has identified 25 high-rise buildings in Scotland affected, but it has not told Parliament where they are. We also know that, since last year, the Government has had £97.1 million to spend in Barnett consequentials, but has not spent a penny of it. It will receive more funding, including a share of the £4 billion that the cabinet secretary mentioned. When will the cabinet secretary move beyond assessments, inspections and so-called innovations, and for the sake of the safety and the very lives of residents, including the lives of children, who live in these at-risk buildings, just get on with it? First, I will say to Richard Leonard that the reason that the locations have not been made public is because of the requests from those living in the buildings that they do not want that information made public. I would have thought that Richard Leonard would respect the views of those who have asked for that information not to be made public. In terms of the £97.1 million, every penny of that would be spent, but he dismisses inspections and assessments. We do not know what remediation work is to be done until inspections and assessments of those buildings are done, and they are complex engineering work that requires specialist input into making sure that we know what that remediation is. Once that remediation—many of those buildings will be deemed safe once those inspections and assessments are done—for those that require remediation work, yes, that £97.1 million will of course be spent, but we also need access to the £4 billion that the UK Government has talked about, and the Welsh counterpart, Julie James, has written to the Secretary of State calling for our Governments to be part of any discussions with developers and its impact on our countries.