I moved a bit quantum in the ASPALMIA team in Vienna. So yeah, well, let's start the talk by first thanking the organizer a lot. It's very, I'm very glad to be here. And I think it's very nice that everyone can gather online like this, very convenient. And as I said, the talk, the work I represent today was done in the UNS Lyon with Jorge Pareda. That was a postdoc also at the time, Sergio Ciliberto and Ludovic Belon, who were my supervisors. And basically, we worked on information and thermodynamics and more specifically on how to optimize information processing using underdamped systems. So let's start by something I think you all know, but I would like to start from the basics, which is the cost of information. I will define it as the energy spent to perform one basic operation. And if you look a bit of this phenomenology, this one, this low, called the cumulo, it's a bit similar to the murolo, it's stating that regarding the advance we made in technology, we are able to roughly double the efficiency of our computers every one year and half, meaning that we are able to perform more and more basic operations per the same amount of energy. And nowadays in 2020, we were able to perform at best one basic operation for 10 to the power minus 15 joules. And you could assume that it will still keep raising this way. But at one point, we will achieve, I mean, we will reach a fundamental labor theoretical bound that was stated by Ralph Landauer, working for IBM at the time in 1961. And he claimed that, I mean, he stated that one bit erasure or similarly one bit writing will cost you at least KBT log of two, where KB is the Boltzmann constant, T the temperature of the device you're using to proceed, and log of two is just the logarithm of two. And this can seem very small, three times 10 to the power minus 21 joule at room temperature. But if we keep going this way, within 40 years, we will reach this fundamental bound that will prevent us to go even further in terms of computer efficiency. So that's why what we were doing was trying to go back to the fundamental physics behind information processing and scale down your computer or whatever device you're using to the smallest possible one bit memory that is naturally evolving at the scale of the fundamental bound stated by Ralph Landauer, which is the thermal energy at room temperature. So during this talk, I will show you how we built an underdamped one bit memory and using it to compute the cost of a reset operation, also often not operation, which is reversible. Then I will discuss a bit the specificities and the benefits of underdamped memories. And in the end, I will try to open by showing how we can do better, basically. Well, let's start on how we built the one bit memory. You need to encode one bit of information so you need a state zero and you need the state one. The easiest way to do that is to encode it in one degree of freedom. Let's call it X in a bisable potential. So if the system is stable on the left here, it will be state zero in the right, it will be state one. And the better is to have an energetic barrier high enough to prevent the bit from switching before the two possible states so that you're secure.  What you have to keep in mind is that in the end, the performance of your memory will be ruled by two things. The first one will be the potential and the protocol you're using to operate on the memory. And the second one would be the system that is used to encode the memory. So the thing that is on the left or on the right. Usually, if we want to scale down to the thermal energy ladder, we will use microsystems that are ruled by stochastic dynamics. One way to do that is, for example, to use a particle in water trapped by optical tweezers. If it's on the left tweezers, it's zero. On the right tweezers, it's one. Some team did it already. You can see the quotes there. And the characteristic of this system is to be overdamped because it's evolving in water, which is a very viscous fluid. And therefore you are with a quality factor much lower than one. And what we did was basically to wonder, can we do the same this time with underdamped memories? So we were using this system, which is the cantilever, usually used for atomic force microscopy. And basically it can be banded a bit. And this deflection of the tip of the cantilever on the vertical X axis will encode the information. If the cantilever is down, it will be zero and up it will be one. But this time, this system is a perfect harmonic oscillator as you can see on this plot between the measurement and the harmonic fit. And if you look at the spectrum, there is a resonance frequency because this time you are underdamped because you are evolving in the air and not in the water anymore. So there is inertia, there is speed, and there is a natural oscillation frequency of your cantilever, about 1.2 kilohertz. So here at air pressure, the quality factor is about 10, but we are able to go much higher in quality factor by removing the air and going a bit lower in pressure. So this is our memory. I don't want to spend too much time in experimental details on that, but just so that it's not magic how we create the bi-stable potential, we apply a voltage between the cantilever and the facing sample. And doing that, we are able to attract the cantilever a bit down or a bit up. It's just a voltage monitoring. And as you want a bi-stable potential, we are using this trick of using a feedback loop. Basically, we will measure at each time the position of the cantilever X. We do that by an interferometric system. So we have the position with a greater accuracy. And in real time, we compare this position to a threshold X naught, which can be, for example, zero for the example. And depending whether the system is on the right or on the left, I will change here the voltage so that the cantilever is attracted on the right or on the left. Let me show you this video here, which is actually experimental data. And you can see the system is evolving in one well. And whenever it crosses the threshold now, I switch to the force. So that in the end, it's called a virtual effective potential because I just lie to my system and I show him the correct potential each time it's switching. So thanks to this virtual loop, I can have a perfect bi-quadratic potential. And if you want to be convinced, this is the experimental data we have for the potential using the probability distribution. We obtain a very proper bi-quadratic potential. So this is my underdown to memory. And now I will use it to figure what is the cost, the thermodynamic cost of different operations. First reset, and then we'll go on not operation. So a reset operation is also called an erasure and we expect this fundamental lower bound. Just to go back a bit on the context on this one, basically when you reset your memory, when you erase an information, you start with two possible states, zero or one to possible information. And you want to reset your memory to state zero, whatever was the initial state. So doing that, you're compressing the phase space, you're shrinking the number of states available by the system from two to one. And if I choose to write the Boltzmann definition of the entropy, you can see that this comes with an entropic loss. And this entropic loss, KB log of two, because you divide by two, the number of states available by the system will bound the average heat required to erase. So in the end, when I erase my memory, we'll need some work to proceed with the operation and we'll release some heat in the surrounding environment. As I'm doing cycles, the memory state is the same in the initial and final state. I mean, the memory, the potential, not the memory state, the potential. Therefore I will have an average, the heats equal to the work and this will be bounded by the entropic loss, so KB T log of two, T being the temperature of the surrounding environment. This inequality can be saturated when I proceed very slowly in a quasi-static regime. So this is for the theory. Now let's see how we can compute the costs of the erasure, the reset operation for an underdamped memory. We have to design an erasure protocol. In our case, we decided to do the following. I will describe it to you and then show you a video because video are always better. But what we do basically is we have the two wells first in the initial time and we will progressively merge them together so that we lose all of the information. We don't know anymore if it was zero or one. Then we bring everyone back to zero and we build again the second well to have again the same state of the memory. So here on the video, you will see in yellow what happens if I have a one as an initial information and blue what happens if I have zero as an initial information. This is experimental trajectories and on the right, you have the potential landscape. So at first, the bit is secure in the well. You have either zero or one. Now you'll start merging the two wells and the information is progressively lost because the system jumps from one well to the other. And now you don't have any information from the initial state anymore and you will just bring back your system to state zero and in the end reconstruct the second well. So you have a cycle. You'll start with the memory, the bisable potential. You end up with the bisable potential but now the only final state is state zero. So this is an erasure. Just so that we speak the same language, the first stage when I merge the well together I will call it compression because we are compressing the phase space. We are forcing the system to go from two states to only one. And then I just translate my system to state zero to then again build my memory. And this is called stage two. And you will see in the following it has very different description. Then how do we compute the costs? The cost is a thermodynamic cost. So I want to compute the work and the heat. These are stochastic thermodynamic quantities and you can compute them when you know the trajectory which is the case in blue here. For example, I have one trajectory of my system. So the position X here jumping between the wells then in one well and then going back to zero. I also have the driving of the two wells. So it will be the red and black line and using some formula. I don't want to go in the details but it's just derivating the potential during the operations. I can compute for each trajectory the work and the heat. And then I average on thousands of trajectory and I know the average cost of my erasure. This is what we did for different erasing speeds. So let me comment this graph with you. Here we show the average work or the average heats because they are equal, they are supposed to be and you can see the cross and the circles are always very close. So this is also very good news in the KBT scale. And I plot that as a function of the erasure speed between being the characteristic time of the speed at which I merge my wells together and operate also the translation. If I go very, very slowly, I have log of two which is the expected Landau bound. Let me highlight here that's compared to overdamped previous study. We have a very better accuracy on the work and we are able to compute the heat which is very complicated because it involves a derivative of the position and it's only doable because we have the position with a very great accuracy here. And then if I go faster, I will have to pay a bit more which makes sense because I just I'm manipulating my system a bit faster. And as it was predicted by in overdamped studies we observe kind of the same in underdamped regime. There is a scaling in one of the characteristic time of this operation. And if I want to perform the erasure several order of magnitude faster I basically have to pay a double price. So this is a kind of measurements we were able to do computing the costs of a reset operation. But now I want to show you also what we did to perform and compute the cost of not operation. Indeed, if you have one bit of information you can do only four possible operations on it.  So this is called not. If I have a zero at the initial time I want a one at the final time. This is another operation or it's also called a bit flip sometimes and this time it's logically reversible because I'm not compressing the phase space available by the system. I start with two possible states and I end up with two possible states. I just want to switch them. And here being underdamped allow us to use the phase space and the speed degree of freedom to perform this computation. So basically we will rotate our two states in the X position and speed landscape. And during that, if we do that bit smartly then we are able to reach also a non-agirreversibility meaning that the operation is logically reversible. So in principle there is no entropy costs and if there is no damping using a smart protocol we can also achieve zero work on average required to proceed with this operation. Now you all want to know what is the smart protocol in question is the following. You start with your memory so your two wells and when you decide to operate the bit flip you will switch to only one well and you will wait exactly half an oscillation of the natural oscillation frequency of your underdamped oscillator because it's underdamped remember so you have natural oscillations. You wait for half an oscillation and so your particle on average will reach the other side and then you recreate the memory. And during that you just benefit from the speed degree of freedom to have a bit flip protocol. Again, let me show you a video here that will show you if you start on one or if you start on zero what happens. First you have your two possible bits one or zero and I will switch now half a period and you're back. So as you can see it's very fast it's just half a period and you switch between the yellow and the blue which was two different possibilities starting on zero or starting on one. And we compute the work required to do that. In theory it's pi over the quality factor times the energetic barrier. So if I want to have five KBT for example for an energetic barrier in experiment we had 0.44 KBT for the average work required to do so. Why it's not zero is because we didn't have zero damping. We were working with a quality factor of 100 so we had a bit of dissipation in the environment still. So we are able to beat the Landau bound because there is no more entropic cost from the irreversibility but we still have a bit of energy military to proceed just because of the damping. So this was for the not and I will shortly explain to my opinion what are the big specificities and benefits of using underdamped memory. First as I said we are able to perform fast half a period and not operation and cheap not operations. And I want to stress out that this couldn't be done in overdamped dynamic because in Markovian dynamic you cannot switch the auto states using only one degree of freedom. So if you don't have the velocity degree of freedom you cannot do it in overdamped dynamics. So one thing you could do is to use two special degrees of freedom and do the same circle around but during that you will have to pay the price of dragging your system in the two dimension circle and you have to do that super slowly. So here, yeah just to conclude it was much better in underdamped dynamics because we could go faster and cheaper. The second benefit is that we can also be faster and cheaper to reset operation. This is again the plot you had before this time not with the speed but with the characteristic erasure time and you can see that there is the same trend you have to pay more if you go faster but using underdamped dynamics we were able to reach the minimal possible cost which is the Landau bound several order of magnitude faster than what was done in overdamped dynamic in previous studies. So again, it's a really huge benefit. But now let's go for the specificity. This is I think very important to understand what happens. If you're underdamped there is no more coupling with the bath, you're isolated from the environment meaning that you cannot thermalize as quickly as you would in overdamped dynamic. So if I write the heat flux it's obvious that if you're overdamped or go very slowly the memory will always be thermalized with the environment at T naught. On the contrary, if you go fast or underdamped there is no coupling so the temperature of the memory can increase. And actually it's exactly what happens like you would do for a gas if you can press the phase space very fast so you reduce the volume available by your system to evolve by a factor two, your temperature will increase. So just I will go a bit fast on this and just show you how we can measure the temperature. We just measure the kinetic energy of our system during one erasure protocol. So this way we have access to the temperature and the emotional temperature of our system. And as you can see you start as the room temperature the environment one and you will raise this energy during the compressing of the space space and achieve twice the initial temperature just because you do that without being able to thermalize with the bath. And then you have to wait for the thermalization and you can proceed with the translations stage. So to summarize what big specific one specific specificity of this kind of systems is that if you proceed very fast by compressing you will in the end increase the temperature and instead of having KBT log of two you will have KB effective temperature log of two. This is bounded by a factor two so the maximum work you will require is just KBT not but it has to be mentioned because it doesn't happen in overdone system. And now just briefly before concluding I will show you two ways to a bit improve the performance of this kind of underdown to memories. Basically, yeah, there is two solutions either you optimize the memory properties either you optimize the erasure protocol. So you have five minutes including questions. Okay, maybe then I will go fast on this one I just show you this results here which is optimizing the protocol. Here I said we just translate the system linearly without thinking really further but there is a smarter way to do that which is using this kind of protocol that was computed in the literature that I put on this slide. If you kick the system a bit at the beginning and at the end, then you will give it straight away the final velocity for the translation. This is just to show you in red it's using the optimal protocol and in blue is using the natural linear protocol. And you can see that using optimal protocol will reduce the oscillations and reduce the overcost at the end of the translations. So this is what we did and you can see that here in red this is the optimal protocol compared to in blue the nonoptimal one and you can see the erasure cost so it's really improving a lot the performances of your memory. So on that I think I will go straight to the conclusion or maybe just a word on this it's just a way maybe to speed up a bit the thermalization between when it's the temperature rise we could apply some specific protocols after the increase of temperature just to thermalize more quickly. And on this I want to thank you for your attention and if you have any question, please go ahead. Thank you very much Sambo. We talk the questions from the audience. Please raise hand. First students, I think there are a lot of questions. Please watch it, okay. Oh yeah, hi, very nice, I have a quick question. So if I may understand correctly that your potential is created by the voltage, right? And you are measuring the tip of the potency and that's like that tip doing the motion like a bead in a optical trap, right? Yeah, it's exactly like in optical trap but this one is the mechanical properties of this leader. Yeah, but how did you do that translation thing with that potency here?


So as of July 1st I officially started cardiology fellowship. What does that mean? What do I actually do now as a cardiology fellow? That means I finished my four years of medical school three years of residency I took an optional one-year gap year to work as a full-time hospital now I'm spending three years training to become a cardiologist, which means that I still practice clinically I get paid But significantly less I'd be making in the future and my whole experience is every single month I will be on a different rotation whether it be reading echoes for one month cath lab for another working on the Consult service and etc and rotating over the next three years to get enough exposure to all the variety of things I'll be exposed to as a future cardiologist My role as a fellow in each of these rotations is to do exactly what I would be doing as a full-time cardiologist Which is seeing the patients as if they were my own because they are making decisions based off what I think to be true And then using my supervising attending who is a full-time licensed cardiologist to go ahead and discuss my plan and seeing where I need to make adjustments and use that to help future patients get better Now if you want to follow me on my journey over the next two years as a full-time cardiology fellow Go ahead and hit that like subscribe and follow for more content just like this one


Hi, I'm Loren Silent. Welcome to this new pilot program called Able to Cook on Orca Media, which will air on Channel 15, Comcast Cable. Able to Cook is a new program that is and will focus on cooking for and about people with special needs. What you're about to see in this pilot is a person by the name of Mindy Sprague. She used to be so afraid of the kitchen she couldn't even deal with knives or hot objects. Now she cooks for Washington County. This is Able to Cook, the first episode. Stay tuned. All that and much more when Able to Cook starts right now. Washington. Yeah, Washington. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I just want to make sure you're just up there and dirty or nothing. What made you want to start cooking or why do you like cooking? Well, I like cooking because I'm good at it. I'm good at it. And anytime I cook, I get excited about it and happy. But if it's a lot, cooking makes me feel good. Do you follow recipes? Yeah, I got my own recipe book and I follow it. Whatever it's in my recipe book, I do slow Canadian stuff. I like to cook homemade mac and cheese and meatloaf because meatloaf is my favorite. I love meatloaf. I have to come back here when they will do it. Oh, yeah, that'd be awesome. I'm a good cook and Rosie's a good cook, too. Rosie's a good cook, too. Okay, well, the blade, the handle blade, yeah, you can just rinse it off. Just like this because it's very, very sharp. I'll leave it right there. I'll leave it right there. If I get done with it, I'll leave it right there. I don't like cooking. Cooking is my fun thing to do. One of the things, other types of things, right? Yeah, I do. Yeah. I mean, other tasks. I heard that you paint, you've done other... Oh, I have Rosie took a couple pictures. The painting I did, I go up to, what is it? Summer Street. Summer Street and I paint.  She even has one hung up over on there. And I have one over there hanging up on that wall over there. And I have one over there hanging up on that wall over there that me and Rosie did together. And Rosie, on Rosie's phone, she has this one that I did. It was so beautiful. It was a mountain one that I did. It's very pretty. So, Min, when you're done with that one. Yeah, we made these yesterday. They are for the ice cream sundaes. It is eight cups of chocolate chips. There's cocoa powder in that too? No, just chocolate chips. Some ice-cream chocolate chips. We do a cup of sugar. Six eggs Min? Six eggs. Yeah. Six eggs. Yeah. Bacon soda. Yeah. And we do a cup, a cup of butter or margarine. Yeah. And they're very, very fudgy. As you can tell by the way the... The reason why I ask cocoa powder is that, you know, they make the extra chocolate. Oh, you haven't tried these. These are really, really, really good. We tend to try and keep everything homemade. Yes. Not out of a box. That makes a lot of sense. Especially with all the preservatives that are in the stuff that's in boxes. And people might have allergies. Yeah. So we keep it very simple. And no hidden stuff. No what? No hidden stuff. What is a typical, I mean... Typical meal? Because you know, food goes up all the time. Well, this meal itself is $80. Yeah. That's typical grocery shopping. Yeah. She spends anywhere from $50 to $80, depending on the ingredients. Come back for the meatloaf. I will give you a small sample of the brownie. Go for it. When Mindy first started it, she did have like $30 stipend to help. But that only lasted for like three months. And then... $30 for three months. That's a... because the way food steams works, they don't give people a lot of... if you're on food stamps, they don't give people a lot of food stamps. Well, this was through the agency. They would give her $30 to spend on activities. And she happened to use it for her cooking activities. So that was that, yeah. Yeah, that's done. Pick it up and put it in. All right, cool. And then...  We give it to that, give it to everybody else, and they deal with it. All right, great. And this is for some some other friends of Mindy's. Actually, every Wednesday Mindy has a meal. Yeah. And sells it to everybody in the building. Awesome. And it's $5 a meal. And she charges an extra for a drink. And that's how you... it helps fun. That's how she funds it. That's great. She takes the... Entrepreneur, huh? Oh, yeah. I'm always capable by the grill. Yeah. When Mindy first started with me, she was afraid to go near the stove and afraid to be near the grill. Serious, yeah. Hold up. It's a little bright. Okay. And then you close the lid, Mindy. And then you're gonna come... What temperature to cook it at and all of that? Yeah, we do a lot of eyeballing, but the ovens, she knows what to put it on. The temperature to put it on. Does she know the thermometer at all? Because I'm just asking, because... She actually haven't done thermometers with her, because we don't have one.  And different ways. You can tell by the density of the meat. But for example, other states like New York, you wouldn't be able to do that. You would have to have a thermometer. A thermometer, because they deal with temperature. Yeah. Noodles at 165 is... And chicken is 150. No, pork is 160. No. Pork is 155. 150 to 155. Chicken is 165 to 170. Now, if you want to stay well done, then it's a little bit extra. Right. But it just depends. The reason why they turn around and they instill temperatures a lot, is because they just don't want to keep them sick, period. Right. She does not mix vegetable with meat. Pork and... Yeah. I was thinking about the harvest meal. What exactly is that? So this will be our fourth year. Every year, we donate the money to the Coke Committee to help people during the holiday season. What the Coke Committee does is they take a list from each case manager of the most neediest consumers that they have, and then they try and help them with a meal for the holiday. If there's kids in the family, they try with presents also. Can you deliver meals to people? No. We actually give the money to the Coke Committee and they go out and buy it. Last year, we were able to help 19 families. Yeah. The first year we donated $636 free and clear that's after her costs. The second year was $856 free and clear after her costs. We're not really going to mention prices because this is public access. Right. Yeah. And actually last year we were able to do $1,031. Oh, yeah. We can mention that. It's donation, yeah. Yeah, it's just a donation to the Coke Committee to help these needy families. Yeah. Yeah. Because warm clothes and food is a... Unnecessity. Yeah. Yeah. You can't do without it. You got people that are buying these cell phones, huge bills on cell phones and not putting food on the table. Yes. That's something. Yes. That's... That's a... Oops. Keep rolling it over. You're good. Just roll it over. There you go. There's that one. I'm sure kids have a little burnt corn. Oh, yeah. That's a good thing. Okay, so roll it. Yep. Now the next one. I'm always K-formed with this one. Yeah. Okay, the next one. Oh, I'm handling good. You can do it. I'm doing good so far. That's okay to have a little burnt. Yeah. Actually, you want it too because you want more char on the outside of the husk. Yeah. The more it's done. Yes, the more it's cooked inside. So we tend to char both sides and then put it in the food. That one's kind of... So roll it the other way if we can't do this that way. One of my ultimate goals on TV is to... There we go. Look at that. Mindy has actually catered the GMSA board meeting. Yeah. This one? Yep. Roll that one too. That one fall. Yep. Stay. Don't be fine. In a lot of different countries like Israel, for example, they teach culinary and hotel management for people with disabilities. There we go. Okay, then close it up and you're good. Your name and spell of pleasing your retirement? Okay, my name is Janet Furmeister and I am a case manager at Washington County Mental Health. Mindy has been doing a bunch of here for a few years now and it has been great for her to learn independent living skills so that she might someday be able to live on her own. But she's learned how to use the stove in oven when she had not been able to do so in the past. So it's been really great for building her self-confidence. Plus learning how to cook more responsibly. She has been cooking really healthy meals. Today might not be an example of that, but it's been great. Don't say that. It's a meal. So anyway, what else would you like to know?  Within this program? I don't know really how to answer that. I guess we deal with social work, but... No, what is your title? Case Manager. Your case manager. So before that, I was a community support specialist. What? Or residential support specialist. So working one-on-one, we really want to engage our consumers in the community, doing what they want to do, and being a part of the community. So also we help out. There are some of our consumers who live on their own, so I would help out on a daily basis with preparing meals, maintaining a household. Or basically ADL skills. Teaching ADL skills. Yes, independent living skills and also accompanying somebody to the doctors to help explain whatever procedure is happening. As far as Mindy's capabilities, so you've seen her, you know, reaching for the stars, because I mean from what I understand, she used to be afraid of the kitchen. Can you explain a little bit more about that? So using sharp objects such as knives, she was very worried about doing that. She was worried about burning herself. So she is now able to use a grill, which is absolutely amazing, in addition to the stove and the oven. So her skills, her self-confidence have just blossomed. It's been great. Okay. Just to help put more on the grill. Yeah, I know. So sugar, sugar. Yeah, I'm just letting her. Sugar, sugar. Just a thought, just trying to help. Yeah. I don't know everything there, but you know, he stays, stays, stays. Well, yeah. It's nerve. Yep. Somebody's like watching. You got hot dogs too? Yes, we have hot dogs too. Hot dogs are in the refrigerator. Yeah. Do you want to get hot dogs too? Sure, want to get hot dogs too? Here, I'll take this.  Hot dogs are in the refrigerator. Yep. I'm just going to move these around then. Yep. Sorry about making you guys nervous. Making you guys nervous? You're not making me nervous. Making you nervous? A little bit. Because she wants to have everything perfect. And it's okay. It's okay. And I tell her there's people all around. Yep. Well, trust me, when I get coming in and see I am... Well, there's nothing in there. I mean, you could make mistakes, you're good, but... Nobody's perfect. And I have to leave that program, because my wife works in a studio. So we have problems with houses and so you hear. Yeah, good payment. So we need something to open. Do we have a knife? Can you get one? I can get a sharp knife for it. Okay. Make sure you carry it down. Hey, Miss Dottie. Hi, Dottie. You having lunch today? I don't know if I'll have time. I would like to, but I can't say that I am. Okay. Well, depends what you're cooking, so what time? 1130. Yep. Okay, then I'm going to try and make it back. Dottie, if it goes over. I just flipped over four of them. All you did? What you can do is you can put the hot dogs on the top. And Tom, I can do that. And I'll definitely take a plate of stuff. No, you can. You can. Yeah, I was late. Yes. You can have some. Put it right on the top rack. Get closer. You can get closer. Yep. Kind of slimy. That's okay. There you go. And if you want me to show you something? What really? If you turn them... Like that. Oh, do it like that. And set it in that way to get a little more on there. Do it like that. Yeah. Take this and just go just like that. And we also have cheddar cheese or an American cheeseburger. Yeah, we do. And the cheese is all around. That's okay. Don't worry about it. It's still on there. It is. Even if it falls on the next rack, it's still on the grill. It is. Yeah, one of the things that when I was going through and going through my Wednesday, it tried to have gloves near a grill because they would be part of the grill. Yep. They become part of the grill. One more I would do. Last one. Okay. Oh, like that. I think do you have one more in there? Yeah, I do. Yep. You can do the last one on there. And this... Oh, that's too close. That's okay. So we can take this. Take this one. And just go like that with it. Okay. Just space them out a little bit.  Well, if they're touching, they steam instead of cook. Oh, they do. Instead of grill. All right. We're getting grill marks already. So, see how the blood is pulling on top? The blood. Yep. See the redness on top? Oh, yeah, I see it, yeah. That means the meat is cooking through on the inside. Oh, it is? Yep. It is? Yep. See, like right here? See how it's all pulled on top? Oh, see right here? That's blood. Yep. And you can take this and flip that one over. This one? Yep. Slide it under. Can do it? You can do it. Slide it right under and flip. Get it ready to reel. Oh, wait. Flip it in towards. Yep. You got it. You can actually do the middle one. There's one? Nope. The middle one. Yep. Try and do it? Yep. You can. Uh-oh. Let me help you. That was a nice pull. That's okay. We'll just get it right back on there. The strokes are easily eaten. Oh, yeah. Don't flip those over yet? Nope. They're not quite ready. See how they're just starting to pull? Oh, yeah. By these, we can flip over. Right. All right. So it always has to cook. When they're just starting to pull, that means on the back side they're gonna be cooked. Forcing the meat up there. Forcing the meat up to it. The blood up there. Okay. Yep. The light right here. These are almost. Are they almost done? Those are almost. You can tell when they're almost done, Rosie. Yep. They're almost done. They're almost done. Remember those. Okay. And if you, with hamburgers, if you flip them over too much, they dry out. Oh, they do, Rosie? They do. Oh, that's good. So we can probably turn this down a little bit. Yep. So, and we need to have another take. Yeah, we do. We do, yeah. Yeah, I don't, what time is it? 11, 31. Okay. So why don't we see if we can get it to. Okay. So those two in the back, they look very well done. Oh boy. You can do it. Yeah, they've been flipped. I flipped those. I got it. Okay. And that one there. I can do it. Yes, you can. I turned it down. We're just, it's just a flare up from the green. You can do it. You can do it. Remember these chefs burn themselves when they flip. Yep. You're underneath the grill. So, see right here? Slide it there. Push. And bring it out. Good. You're fine. You're fine. You're fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. One more. See if I can do it. I know you can do it. Look at the back one. Mm-hmm. Flip it. Flip it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You got it, girl. See, go me a thumb's up. Okay. So do you want to get some cheese? Michael, do you want cheese with your hamburger? You got it. Okay. Do you want cheese? So there's American cheese and cheddar cheese. Both of them are in the fridge. So bring them both out. All right. Cool. Go for it. Do you want cheddar or American? And you're gonna have it all, right, cut? And did you say American on yours or you didn't care? That's my brother's brother. What is your opinion on the whole cooking thing and Mindy's capabilities? Yeah. I've been very impressed with what I've seen today and what I've heard today. So I heard that to begin with Mindy was uncomfortable around any sort of stove at all, wouldn't touch it, was afraid to try and cook where there was heat. And now I've just watched her cooking on a grill with pretty big flame flare-ups and just simply stepping away. And then as soon as she was told it was fine, stepping right back in and demonstrating that she has made leaps and bounds towards, you know, feeling comfortable with the work she's doing. So with your opinion, she can go farther and possibly maybe even do a catering, but more catering? I mean, yeah, obviously with the work that they're doing when they do their harvest meal and they serve, you know, 40 pounds of turkey and equal or more, I'm sorry, 40 pounds of pork and equal or more of turkey, it's obviously something she can do and do more of. Yeah, let's put it here. Go, sir. I'm all about the bright colors, love it. He's getting the food. Any butter for the corn? They're getting it out of the fridge. Hey, Missy? I mean, Rosie?


We turn now to First Minister's Questions. Question 1, Ruth Davidson. Thank you to ask First Minister what engagement she has planned for the rest of today. This week we mark an auspicious occasion. It is two years since this First Minister took over office, and I congratulate her on doing so. But I wonder if today I could raise a few individual cases that have been sitting in her inbox i gyd. Firstly, on apprenticeships. This week, the UK Government confirmed the sum that the Scottish Government will get to spend thanks to the new apprenticeship levy. It is £220 million. We said what we would do. We would ring fence those funds for training and apprenticeships. We, and most importantly Scottish employers, still don't know what the Scottish Government would do. Why the delay? First Minister. There is no delay whatsoever. The UK Government decided to introduce the apprenticeship levy without consulting the Scottish Government in any way, shape or form. We have been waiting to find out their plans. We have, as Ruth Davidson is aware, been consulting with employers and others about how we best use the apprenticeship levy. Of course, the detail of that will be made clear when we publish the budget in a few weeks' time. Two points are worth making to Ruth Davidson. First, she stood up today and crowed about the fact that the Scottish Government is going to get £221 million. That is indeed true, but it is only two weeks ago since Ruth Davidson was telling us that we were actually getting £300 million. The amount has reduced since Ruth Davidson last spoke about this issue. The second point is more fundamental. It is important that all members understand that. Although it is important that we use that money and that we will use it to support skills, training and employment in Scotland, that is not additional money. The apprenticeship levy is substituting for money that the UK Government was previously using to support apprenticeship. It is not additional money, but it comes through the block grant. It will replace money that was previously coming through the block grant. That said, we will make sure that we use that money to support training and skills in Scotland. That is exactly what people would expect us to do. Ruth Davidson. If it is all Westminster's fault, First Minister, why are Scottish trade bodies accusing you personally of a leadership vacuum on this issue? And why have just this week, both the construction industry and the oil and gas industry, said that they had no idea from you what was going on? Anyway, secondly on education, back in 2015, back in February of 2015, that is 21 months ago, I challenged the First Minister about giving more autonomy to schools. When she replied, I quote, I'm very happy to discuss the issue with the parents. We were talking specifically about the parents of St Joseph's primary and Mulgai who want to run their own school. Nearly two years on, they're still waiting for an answer. Can I ask again why the delay? First Minister. First lady, before we do the anyway, let's move on from the first subject she raised. Let me just remind Ruth Davidson, I'm not sure if she was aware of this, that the Scottish Government has carried out and recently concluded a consultation specifically on how we use the apprenticeship levy funds and we will come forward with the detail of that when we publish the budget in a few weeks time. But let it not simply be allowed to slip away that Ruth Davidson previously claimed £300 million, it's now £221 million but it is not additional money, it is substitute funds. Let's move on now to education and to St Joseph's. First lady, again, let's not ignore one important fact that I know that Ruth Davidson will not want to share with the chamber. The reason we've been talking about St Joseph's is that Conservative councillors in that council voted to close St Joseph's. Ruth Davidson's approach is that Conservative councillors vote to close schools and then she comes and looks to the Scottish Government to clear up their mess. That clearly is Ruth Davidson's approach to politics. On the specific question of autonomy for schools, Ruth Davidson presumably, although given that she doesn't appear to have been aware of the consultation and apprenticeship levy, shouldn't take this for granted. Presumably she is aware of the consultation underway right now, concludes on January 6, into the governance review where we are specifically looking at how we change the balance of responsibility in education to move to a presumption of decisions being taken in schools and a decision on St Joseph's will be taken in the context of that governance review. That is the right and proper way to do things. Not doing what Ruth Davidson is appearing to do today, to turn a blind eye to what her Conservative councillors are doing and then come and ask the Scottish Government to clear up their mess. Ruth Davidson's approach is that there is your modern SNP need a complaint on the size of a chocolate bar that is right on it, but a decision on a school waits two years for a decision on a school. Third, on welfare, just after the Smith agreement was signed, again two years ago, the First Minister stood there and demanded of me, of Labour, of the Lib Dems, that Westminster transfer welfare powers as soon as possible. They would be outraged if they were not delivered immediately. Those welfare powers are ready to go, but now we learn that SNP is not anywhere near ready to take them. They have pleaded with Westminster to hold on to them for another three years. They are good at demanding, but they are not very good at governing. Let me ask again, for a third time on welfare this time, why the delay? First Minister. First Lady, before Ruth Davidson gets away with moving on from St Joseph's, let me remind her that there would not be a decision to be taken on St Joseph's if Conservative councillors had not voted to close the school. The accuracy of it, yet again this week, is really quite breathtaking. Let's turn to welfare. There is no delay on transferring welfare powers. We have to build a system to ensure that we can safely and securely deliver welfare powers. That is what we will do. We will do that on the timetable that we have always said. When we have a Scottish social security agency delivering only 15 per cent, it is better than nothing of welfare. We will take better decisions on welfare than the Government in London that Ruth Davidson supports. On welfare interestingly, Jeane Freeman laid out this in detail to the relevant committee on 29 September. Anybody, which I hope is everybody in this chamber interested in this, should go and read the official report. When she set out the process of doing this, one Adam Tomkins said that he welcomed what she had said, particularly he welcomed Jeane Freeman's remarks about not using this issue as a political football. Perhaps Ruth Davidson should listen to Adam Tomkins once in a while. Ruth Davidson. The timetable that we have always said. Read the official report. I will read the official report. The official report, November 27, 2014, Nicola Sturgeon. I say genuinely to all parties, as a Parliament, ask the Westminster Government to transfer the powers as soon as possible. Today's official report, massive screeching u-turn, waits three more years. Here's the First Minister's record. On apprenticeships, no clear plan to tell employers. On education reform, wait and see. On welfare, a three-year delay. On frank's law, clear as mud. On NHS reform, coming soon. An investment deal with China, a Scottish shambles. Decision on fracking will get back to you. The SNP dithering, not delivering. Two years ago, when the First Minister accepted the role bestowed on her by this Parliament as First Minister for all of Scotland, she stood up and said, I intend to lead a Government with purpose, a Government that is bold, that is imaginative, that is adventurous. First Minister, what happened? The only real question that has to be asked about today's First Minister's question so far is how many own goals is Ruth Davidson going to score. She's just stood up, and I think this is a direct quote. She's just stood up and accused me on, I think, the apprenticeship, Levy, wrongly, of having no clear plan. Imagine a Tory having the nerve to get up and accuse anybody right now of having no clear plan. That sums up the entirety of Theresa May's Government right now. On welfare, what Ruth Davidson apparently appears to be saying is that we should take responsibility for delivering disability, benefits, carers allowance and other important benefits before we have the system in place to actually ensure that these benefits can be put into people's hands or bank accounts. She may want to act irresponsibly in that respect, but I'm going to act responsibly so that we can have in Scotland, not for the entirety of welfare, unfortunately, but for those benefits that are going to be devolved, we can have a fair, humane and dignified welfare system. How much of a difference will that be to the one that is being presided over by the Conservatives in London right now? Question 2, Kezia Dugdale. To ask the First Minister when she'll next meet the Auditor General for Scotland. First Minister. I have no current plans, but the permanent secretary meets the Auditor General on a regular basis, and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance last met the Auditor General on 30 August. Kezia Dugdale. This morning, Scotland's rail network was thrown into chaos, a broken down train disrupted the travel plans for tens of thousands of commuters across the central belt.  The Transport Minister, Hamza Yousif, who crosses the country in his ministerial car, took to Twitter this morning to admit that the ScotRail performance is not good enough. Does the First Minister really understand just how angry Scotland's commuters are today? First Minister. Yes, I do. I and indeed Hamza Yousif took part in a conference call with ScotRail earlier this morning. I know they are extremely sorry for the disruption that passengers have experienced this morning, and I share that sentiment. The problem this morning, as Kezia Dugdale has alluded to, was caused by a train breaking down between Waverley and Haymarket station just at Princess Street gardens. All the lines into Edinburgh were blocked by the train that had broken down.  The train was removed at around 8.30 this morning. There has been a restricted train service running on many routes since then, while the network returned to normal. I was advised by ScotRail just before I came into the chamber that the service is more or less returned to normal right now. It has caused significant disruption. What I would say and say this seriously is that there are wider performance issues around ScotRail right now. We have discussed them in this chamber before. That is why there is in place an improvement plan that Hamza Yousif is monitoring very closely. I hope that all members would accept that, however regrettable it is and deeply regrettable, on occasion trains will break down whatever party is in government. The priority when that happens is to get services back to normal as quickly as possible. That is what ScotRail has been focused on this morning. Kezia Dugdale I can accept that today's disruption might be a one-off. Yesterday was considered just a normal day on Scotland's rail network, and you can bet that there are wider performance issues. Scottish Labour can reveal that the performance figure for yesterday was 79 per cent. That means that on a normal day more than one in five trains failed to arrive on time. In rural areas, yesterday's performance figure was 60 per cent. That's against a target of 91 per cent. It's not even close, First Minister. Passengers deserve better, and it is this Government's responsibility to fix it. When I challenged the First Minister on this six weeks ago, she said that the Government had an improvement plan. Hamza Yousif said that he had confidence in that improvement plan, while passengers are fast losing confidence in him. How bad does it have to get before the First Minister steps in and sorts out this mess? The First Minister The Government does accept our responsibility in this matter. We are working with ScotRail to make sure that train services are of a standard that the travelling public has a right to expect. I repeat the apology that ScotRail has expressed for the disruption this morning, which was caused by an extraordinary set of circumstances. As I have said in this chamber before, the standard that ScotRail is expected to meet is 91 per cent against punctuality standards. That generally at the moment is about 89 per cent, although, as Kezia Dugdale has just narrated, there will be variations to that. That is not good enough. That is why the improvement plan is in place. That is why Hamza Yousif continues to work with ScotRail to improve it. This week, we heard plans about additional trains coming into services, about ScotRail rightly ceasing the practice at peak hour time of missing stops where trains are running late. Those are serious issues that affect the travelling public on a daily basis, and we are absolutely determined to make sure that we work with ScotRail to rectify them. On a wider sense, as I again have said in this chamber previously, there are options for the contract to be broken early, and we will keep that option under review. Thanks to the pressure of this Government, in future we will also have the option of having a public sector organisation bid for the rail franchise, and I think that is a step forward. I think that we have had an apology from ScotRail, but I think that commuters would like to hear an apology from the First Minister. Rail passengers do not feel like they have seen any sort of improvement over that six-week period. Last week, ScotRail cancelled trains because it expected the rails to be slippery due to excessive moisture. Rain in Scotland, Presiding Officer, who could have predicted that? For Scotland's rail passengers, this is not a laughing matter any more. Overcrowded trains delayed trains. That is the SNP's idea of a world-leading deal for passengers. Isn't it clear, more than ever, that Labour's policy for a people's ScotRail run for passengers, not for profit, is the best solution for Scotland? Firstly, people watching this will have heard me say that I am sorry for the disruption that was caused this morning, and also sorry for the disruption that any passenger faces on any day of the week. That is ScotRail's position, and it is also mine. In terms of some of the decisions that Kezia Dugdale alluded to, ScotRail has a responsibility to ensure the safe running of trains. It is easy to make jokes about moisture, but they have that responsibility, and it is important that they discharge that responsibility. In terms of the wider issues, I absolutely accept that things are not good enough. That is why the improvement plan is in place, and that is why we will stick with that until things are running to a standard that the public have a right to expect. On the wider issue of a people's railway, let me point out again that the reason it was not possible for a public sector organisation to bid for the rail franchise when a bellio bid and won that contract was that we did not have the power to do that. We had asked the previous Labour Government at Westminster to change the law or to give us the power to change the law here, and they refused point blank to do that. Kezia Dugdale can shake her head, but I am afraid that that is the reality of the situation. We are going to have that power, and we have made it clear that, by the time that contract comes up for renewal, whether that is on schedule or early, there will be the ability of a public sector organisation to bid for it. That is the progress that we have made, progress that was impeded by Labour for a long, long time. The First Minister will wear the announcement by Shell to close its finance operations at Walthill Street in Glasgow, in my constituency, with the loss of 380 jobs. I have phoned up Shell and have asked to have a meeting as urgently as possible. Can I therefore ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Government can give to those 380 workers at this very difficult time? I am very disappointed. I was very disappointed yesterday to learn of the closure of Shell's finance operations office in Glasgow. I know that this will be a difficult time for the employees who are affected by the families and, indeed, for Glasgow as a whole. Scottish Enterprise is engaging with Shell to offer its full support. The Scottish Government's pace initiative stands ready to help those affected through providing skills development and employability support. The Transition Training Fund, which we set up specifically to help to respond to the downturn in oil and gas, is available to support individuals who wish to retrain and secure new opportunities in the oil and gas or wider energy and manufacturing sectors. Sandra White has said that she has sought a meeting with Shell. The Economy Minister would also be happy to meet her and keep her updated on developments in this case. Jamie Greene Mr Randall is 78 years of age and lives on the Isle of Arran. He was diagnosed this year with a heart condition in May of this year. He received a letter saying that the next available consultation to see a cardiac consultant is in December 2017. Unfortunately, that was not a typo. He wrote to the health minister to complain about the waiting time, who said that, while she could not intervene on the case, it was not because, I quote, we are uninterested. What does the First Minister have to say to people like Mr Randall who have to wait up to 19 months to see a consultant because I am very interested? The First Minister Not surprisingly so am I. I am very happy to look into the particular circumstances of that case. I do not say that to avoid answering it in the chamber, but it is important in those cases that we get the opportunity to look at the details. There was a case raised by Anas Sarwar last week that, on the face of it, appeared to be completely unacceptable, but when we looked into it, it turned out to have very particular circumstances attached to it. I am not saying that that is the case in this situation, but I will look into that and the health secretary will liaise with the member once we have had the opportunity to do so. On the face of it is a completely unacceptable waiting time and one that I would expect the health board to rectify. Question 3 To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. Around the world, the vast majority of developed countries and health organisations recognise that access to safe legal abortion is absolutely critically important to a great many women's health and where that is not available, women's lives and women's health always suffer. And yet, within the UK tragically, there are women who do not have access to this important right. Many women in Northern Ireland find themselves left with no option but to travel elsewhere in the UK to access legal and safe abortion. The time and the stress that this costs them is bad enough, but there are also significant financial barriers with some organisations supporting these women estimating that at the low end it costs at least £400 and in many other cases more than £2,000. Does the First Minister agree that the NHS in Scotland should be exploring what can be done to ensure that these women are able to access abortion in Scotland if that is where they choose to travel to without facing these kind of unacceptable financial barriers? I'm very happy to explore that with the NHS to explore both what the situation would be right now in terms of accessing safe and legal abortion for women from Northern Ireland within NHS Scotland and whether there's any improvements that are able to be made. I believe, like Patrick Harvie, that women should have the right to choose within the limits that we currently set down in law and I believe that right should be defended. When any woman opt to have an abortion and let's stress that that is never ever an easy decision for any woman, then abortion should be available in a safe and legal way. That is my view on the matter. Patrick Harvie has asked me to explore a particular issue around NHS Scotland and I'm happy to do so. I'm grateful for that answer and I look forward to hearing an update once that issue has been explored. Does the First Minister agree with me that abortion should be regarded as a part of the normal range of healthcare provided and should not be stigmatised or treated as something exceptional? In that context, is there any other part of the normal range of healthcare provision where the NHS in Scotland would turn people away simply because of where they happen to live if they are in Scotland and seeking to access that service? Should we not regard abortion as a normal part of the range of healthcare rather than stigmatising it? I certainly agree that no woman should be ever stigmatised for having an abortion. No woman ever wants to have an abortion. There will be a variety of circumstances in which a woman will find herself in that position and I absolutely agree that safe abortion is of paramount importance. I also agree that abortion should never be seen in isolation. It is a part of healthcare and delivering abortion safely is a fundamental part of healthcare. As I say, I'm happy to go away and explore the particular issues about how NHS Scotland would deal with women coming from other parts of the UK and right to Patrick Harvie whenever the opportunity to do so. To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the cabinet. Matters of importance to people of Scotland. During the election campaign just a few months ago, the First Minister agreed with me that big changes were required in mental health services. Now leading health campaigners have serious concerns about the new draft strategy. Children in Scotland say that there is widespread concern that the proposals are too narrow in their focus. The Royal College of Nursing says that the strategy is not aspirational. The psychiatrist says that it does not amount to transformation and support in mind says that it is neither visionary nor ambitious. Does the First Minister accept that the draft strategy is just not good enough? No, I don't accept that, but it is a draft strategy. If there are views from organisations such as those very respected organisations that Willie Rennie has cited here today, then those are views that we should take seriously and we should work with those organisations to make such improvements as they think should be made. I give an undertaking today that we will do that. Despite the disagreements that we have on that, on a range of other issues, I think that we have managed to obtain and achieve a degree of consensus across this chamber about the importance of mental health and about the importance of improving mental health treatment, prevention and care in this country. The Government is serious about doing that, and the mental health strategy is an important part of doing that. We will work with organisations on the basis of the draft strategy to look at ways in which we can strengthen it further. Willie Rennie says that there is a degree of consensus. There will never be consensus when you get health organisations like that saying the things that they did. The signs are not good enough. The Government failed to renew the mental health strategy on time. However, there has not been one for almost a year, and now those health campaigners are unhappy. If you look at the use of mental health drugs, it has reached a 10-year high. New figures show that almost 1 million prescriptions were issued last year, which is up 50 per cent. A majority of health boards do not meet the 18-week target for non-drug psychological therapies. The Government has let the strategy lapse. The use of drugs is up. The alternatives are not available for everyone. Charities say that there is not a community focus. This is a serious set of concerns. What chance has the Government got of getting the services right if it cannot even get the strategy right? I ask her this. What will she do differently to meet those aspirations that she set out during the election campaign just a few months ago? I agree with Willie Rennie that there is a great deal of improvement that we need to make around mental health services. Scotland is not unique in that. Some of what he narrates here today—the increase in drug prescriptions, for example—is partly down to the fact that more people are coming forward with mental health difficulties. While that puts a responsibility on us to make sure that the services are there, we should welcome the fact that the stigma is reducing and more people are coming forward. It is also why we are seeing pressure on waiting times, although waiting times for CAMHS are improving, but there is significant work still to be done. The Mental Welfare Commission published a report just this week, in fact, where, yes, there is work to do, but it welcomed the sharp reduction in the number of children being treated for mental health in non-specialist wards. There is progress being made, but I readily accept that there is much work still to do. We published strategies in draft form for a reason, because we want to engage with the experts on the front line so that we can strengthen those strategies and publish the final strategy in as good a shape as we possibly can. It is not unusual for organisations at the draft stage of any strategy to push us to go further. That is why we publish in draft, and that is why we engage with those organisations. We will do that, and indeed, if Willie Rennie wants to submit specific suggestions for how we could change the draft strategy, we are very happy to listen to those suggestions from him or anyone else. Kate Forbes Tori Bacbenchers at Westminster have supported SNP calls to halt cuts to employment and support allowance and universal credit. Will the First Minister join me in extending an open invitation to reasonable Tories in this chamber who recognise the worrying impact of these cuts and wish to add their voices to demands for the Chancellor to postpone changes until alternative support for sick and disabled people is in place? The First Minister I was struggling with the term reasonable Tories in this chamber, but once I got over that, this is a really serious issue. The autumn statement is next week that the cuts to ESA will impact on many, many people. I hope that the new Prime Minister has said that she is anxious to help people who are just managing. At this group of people that we are talking about, in many respects, are not even just managing, so I would hope that the Chancellor will suspend those changes. I hope that he hears the views of this Parliament when he is making the decisions on the autumn statement. Clare Baker I know that the First Minister takes the issue of domestic abuse very seriously and that she would welcome the positive work that has been done by Police Scotland and the Procurator Fiscal in recent years in taking forward tackling the crime. Will she then agree with me that the way in which Callum Steele of the Scottish Police Federation has expressed his concerns, describing court cases as a rigmarole and a charade, and saying that the police hoover up everything in the hope that we miss nothing, is deeply upset? Will she join me in supporting the approach that is being followed, which has resulted in a conviction rate for domestic abuse that is upwards of 80 per cent? Yes, I agree with that. Of course, police officers must have discretion when they are called to any incidents in terms of the action that they take, but I do believe that we should have a zero-tolerance approach to domestic abuse. I think that the police and, indeed, the Crown Office are to be commended for the fact that more perpetrators of domestic abuse are being brought to justice and convicted and I think that is something that we should all welcome. We are investing more resources in tackling domestic abuse, which we are about as a Parliament to look at new legislation around domestic abuse. I think that it is really important that a united message goes from this Parliament that domestic abuse is never, ever acceptable and it should always be treated with the utmost seriousness. In 2011, the Government took the decision to remove business-related travel from air discount scheme support. This decision, taken without any prior consultation, pushed up transport costs for businesses and the public sector in our islands, including in Orkney. Hytrans have now made a compelling case for reversing the decision and allowing island businesses to compete on a more level playing field. Does the First Minister accept that case and will she agree to overturn this earlier wrong-headed decision? I am very happy to ask the transport minister to look at the case that has been put forward by Hytrans and to correspond with the member. Of course, we want our islands to be as accessible as possible for business travellers as well as for others, so we will look at the case that Hytrans has put forward and the transport minister will respond in due course. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recent survey by Neilson, indicating that 69 per cent of spirits sold in Scotland fall below a minimum unit price of £50. One of the reasons that we have pursued a policy of minimum unit pricing is that we have been well aware for some time how much alcohol is sold very cheaply relative to strength. Minimum unit pricing is precisely designed to target that issue. Very cheap, very high strength alcohol does real damage to individuals and to our communities, and that is why I look forward to the implementation of this life-saving policy as soon as possible. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Minimum unit pricing is clearly the most effective and proportionate way to reduce the harm caused by cheap, high strength alcohol. Now that the Court of Session has ruled in favour of the Scottish Government following the Scottish Whiskey Association's legal action on the issue and assuming that there is no appeal by tomorrow's deadline, can the First Minister advise the chamber when she envisages this policy being delivered as agreed by this Parliament? Well, Kenny Gibson correctly identifies that the main, the only stumbling block to minimum unit pricing now being introduced is whether or not the Scottish Whiskey Association and its co-litigants in this case seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Kenny Gibson says that the deadline for that application is tomorrow, although I think it's important to say that even if such an application seeking leave to appeal was put forward, that doesn't make it inevitable. That appeal will proceed all of the way to the Supreme Court, but the SWA can still now, even at this late stage, choose not to apply for leave to appeal, and I hope very much that that's the course of action that they choose to take. I hope that they and others will reflect that minimum unit pricing was passed with the overwhelming support of this Parliament. It has been tested in Europe, it has now been approved twice in the Scottish courts, and I think that industry itself would receive widespread and very justified approval and respect if it accepts that the time has now come to implement this measure, a measure that will save lives across Scotland. Question number six, Annie Wells. Thank you. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to tackle cyberbullying. As we mark anti-bullying week, I want to make clear that all types of bullying are unacceptable no matter where the bullying takes place. We need to protect young people from harm and ensure that practitioners have the skills to prevent and respond to online and offline bullying. We already have an internet safety action plan and work is under way to update it. The refresh plan will recognise the impact of online bullying and how it can be addressed and prevented both in schools and at home. At the same time, respect me Scotland's anti-bullying service continues to provide advice and training on bullying and internet safety for local authorities, parents and carers and all those working with children and young people. Annie Wells. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Can I ask Police Scotland to play a front-line role in reporting of cybercrime? What specific conversations has the Scottish Government had with the police in their dealing with this issue? The Scottish Government will have discussions on a whole range of matters with Police Scotland. I am happy to write to the member to set out any interactions that we have had with Police Scotland specifically on the issue of cyberbullying. With cybercrime, as with any other crime, it is down to the discussion of the police, how they investigate and take forward allegations of criminal activity and, of course, down to the Crown Office in terms of what crime is prosecuted. However, there is absolutely no doubt that cybercrime is an important issue. It is an issue that is increasing and one that we all have to take seriously. I know that the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of this Parliament has shown a great interest in the refresh strategy that the Scottish Government is working on. We look forward to working with them and others to make sure that we have the right policies in place to tackle this growing problem. Julian Martin. Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to reveal a £100 billion Brexit hole in his budget. What representations has the Scottish Government made to ensure that Scotland's finances are protected and we do not pay the price for the Tory's Brexit mess? First Minister, we won't take that question if you don't mind. Supplementaries have to be on the same topic of outlining the written question. Question 7, Donald Cameron. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that people with diabetes receive regular monitoring of their condition. First Minister. Well, this week marked World Diabetes Day, which reminds all of us of the need to ensure that everyone living with diabetes receives vital healthcare checks. Those checks are essential in reducing the risks of complications from diabetes. New quarterly monitoring processes were introduced at the start of this year as part of our diabetes improvement plan. This monitoring ensures that we continue to increase the number of people who have regular checks, including blood sugar levels, weight, foot ulceration and diabetic retinopathy screening. Donald Cameron. Two years ago, the Scottish Government released its diabetes improvement plan, which stated that monitoring diabetes was a clear objective. However, the First Minister may be aware that the recently published NHS Scottish Diabetes Survey highlighted that in 2015 fewer than 40 per cent of Type 1 diabetes patients received the full number of check-ups and around half of people with Type 2 didn't receive the full number of check-ups. Will she accept that, two years on, the Scottish Government's current strategy on monitoring diabetes just is not working? First Minister. No, I don't accept that. As I said in my original answer, the quarterly monitoring processes were introduced at the start of this year. That was part of the diabetes improvement plan. What the quarterly monitoring does is look at measures, specifically among other things, for the number of people receiving the nine care processes and also receiving structured education. The member, of course, is right to underline the importance of people getting all the checks that they should be getting. That is why this monitoring has been introduced to ensure that that is the case. Of course, there are other important actions that we are taking around with diabetes, for example increasing access to insulin pumps. We will continue to take all of that action to try to prevent diabetes and make sure that people with it have access to good services and in particular services that reduce their risk of complications. That concludes First Minister's Questions. We will now move to Members' Business. I would ask Members to say a few minutes to change seats.