A very good evening aspirants. We have a small announcement for you. We are happy to announce that Shankar IAS Academy is conducting a Free All India Problems Mark Test. As you can see, the test starts on 15th of May 2022. It will be conducted across 13 centres in both online and offline mode. So kindly use this wonderful opportunity and check your progress with our Free All India Problems Mark Test. The registration link for the mark test is given in the description. You can make use of. Welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy. Today is 23rd of April 2022. The list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. Friends look at this editorial. This editorial is an insight into the fishermen issue between India and Sri Lanka. If you remember last month diplomatic deliberations happened between the countries through the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group. But even then proper solutions could not be arrived at and the issue is still continuing. So in this matter, author has provided some workable suggestions. Therefore, let us briefly see the fisherman issue and then the suggestions in detail. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. If you read the editorial, the author mentions the fisherman issue as Park Bay issue because the concern is regarding the Park Strait and an island called Kachatiw. See Kachatiw is a tiny rocky island in the Park Strait. We know that Park Strait is a narrow channel of sea which separates Sri Lanka from India. And the Kachatiw is about 12 km from the Indian coast and about 18 km from the nearest Sri Lankan island. We know that the Strait is rich in marine resources which is why it is a preferred fishing location by fishermen of both countries for centuries. And historically Kachatiw is used by fishermen from both countries. Now what is the issue then? See the issues started with the demarcation of the international maritime boundary line which is IMBL. See IMBL is an invisible demarcation and is still not well defined. That is the problem. This means Indian fishermen will not know when they cross the invisible line and enter Sri Lankan waters right. They may also be drifted to Sri Lankan water in an adverse weather conditions. So they often cross the IMBL. But remember even after the demarcation Indian fishermen sometimes knowingly crossed the line as Sri Lanka was busy with handling its civil war. So no one was paying attention to them. This scenario changed when the civil war ended in 2009. After this when Indian fishermen crossed IMBL they are intercepted by the Sri Lankan Navy and are accused of illegal fishing. Here fishermen get arrested and their boats were confiscated by the Sri Lankan authorities. So this is the second issue. And the issue is further aggravated as the confiscated boats were auctioned off by the Sri Lankan government. But through diplomatic channel there exists a bilateral understanding between the government of India and Sri Lanka on the matter and to finalize the disposal of unsolvable Indian fishing boats. But still the boats are being auctioned. Also the IMBL issue should be seen with the Kachatiwu island issue. Why? Because Indian fishermen particularly Tamil Nadu fishermen has traditional fishing rights on this island. But an agreement was signed in 1974 through which the island was ceded to Sri Lanka by India under Mrs Indira Gandhi's government. We can understand that Tamil Nadu government's opinion was not sought before this action. So overall these affected the traditional fishing rights of Indian Tamil fishermen in the Park Bay. And along with this certain operational issues were also existed. This includes the use of mechanized fishing vessels and practicing bottom trawling by Indian fishermen. See in bottom trawling large fishing nets are dragged along the seabed. This scoops out huge quantity of prawns, small fishers etc on the seabed at one go. Know that this is an exploitative method of fishing and affects the marine resources. Therefore bottom trawling is banned in Sri Lanka. So when Indian side uses this technique it was opposed by Sri Lanka. And these are the important issues in the India Sri Lanka fisherman matter. Before seeing Arthur's suggestion for solving the issue you may have a question. What is the justification by Indian fishermen particularly Tamil Nadu fishermen to undertake the above matters of concern? See first as I already said the Park Bay is rich in marine resources. Therefore fisherman's livelihood depends on it. Second is traditional fishing relationship they had with the Sri Lankan fishermen. And thirdly there is a lack of fishing areas consequent to the demarcation of the IMBL. This means if fishermen only fish on the Indian side they do not get much resources.  These are not ideal conditions for fishing. Now the fourth concern is the distance of IMBL from the Indian side. See the closest place in India to IMBL is in Tamil Nadu. It is the Dhanushkodi in Rameshwaram Taluk of Ramanadaburam district. As you can see in the map Rameshwaram is an island also called the Pamban island. And Dhanushkodi is the southernmost tip of the island and is 9 nautical miles from the IMBL. This distance is an issue because mechanized fishing boards are allowed only beyond 3 nautical miles from the coast. This is as per the Tamil Nadu state legislation called the Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act 1983. So often while going beyond 3 nautical miles the Rameshwaram fisherman crosses the IMBL by mistake. This is why we often hear that Rameshwaram fishermen have been arrested by Sri Lanka. So to deal with issues and genuine problems of Indian fishermen many efforts have been taken. Main effort among them is the India Sri Lanka Joint Working Group. Joint Working Group meetings are being conducted to release the fisherman and fishing boards to discuss the procedures and protocols to be followed during the patrolling. The joint working group meetings also discusses about how to handle the fisherman in humanitarian matter and their release. The latest fifth meeting was held in March 2022. These are the salient points addressed. Go through it to know the efforts taken by the joint working group. This will be helpful in Maine's answer writing. Now what are the suggestions given by the author? Arthur's main suggestion is to include the fisherman of two countries in the negotiations. This is possible in the particular period of April to May. Why because this is when annual 45 day fishing ban is in place to conserve marine resources and facilitate fish breeding. In these negotiations what Indian fishermen needs to do? See they can present a road map for transition to deep sea fishing or alternative method of fishing. They can agree for a short and swift transition. Here the central and state governments can guarantee that the transition happens. Then what Sri Lankan fishermen needs to do? They have to understand that the transition to alternative methods of fishing needs some time. So in the meanwhile they shall refrain from adopting any rigid legal measures that will strain the India-Sri Lanka relationship more. Remember that Sri Lanka is going through an economic crisis and India is helping them. This should not be forgotten by the Sri Lankan government. Now the next suggestion is modifying the scheme on deep sea fishing to include the unit cost of fishing vessel along with running cost. See many schemes of the government are aimed at promoting deep sea fishing which is done by converting existing fish vessels or assisting in buying new one. They also provide subsidy. The problem is the subsidy is provided only for the unit cost. So Arthur is suggesting to cover the operational cost also. This will encourage more fishermen to go for deep sea fishing practices. Now the next suggestion is implementing Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampatha Yojana in Tamil Nadu in a proactive manner. See Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampatha Yojana is launched for a period of five years from fiscal year 2020 to 21 to fiscal year 2024 to 25 after the ending of blue revolution scheme. It aims to bring blue revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in India. This scheme is designed to address critical gaps in the fisheries value chain from fish production, productivity and quality to technology, post harvest infrastructure and marketing. Mainly it covers alternative livelihood measures also like seaweed cultivation, open sea cage cultivation and sea or ocean ranching. So implementing the scheme will enhance the earning of fishermen. Next suggestion is early commissioning of joint research on fisheries which was agreed in joint working group meeting. It will help to cover the issue faced by fishermen and also the adverse impact of bottom trawling. The research will pay way for arriving at scientific solutions. Now the final suggestion is establishing an institutional mechanism to regulate fishing activity in the region. It could be a permanent and multi-stakeholder mechanism which will enable to cover all the matters. Therefore, by adopting these suggestions author recommends to solve the fishermen issue in a more diplomatic and humanitarian manner. So that is all regarding this editorial. In this editorial we saw about Kachativ which is a tiny rocky island in the Park Strait. Park Strait is a narrow channel of sea which separates Sri Lanka from India. Then we have seen some of the issues like the use of mechanized fishing vessels and practicing bottom trawling by Indian fishermen. Then we have seen some important suggestions given by the author. The main suggestion is to include the fishermen of both the countries in the negotiations. Now the next suggestion is to modify the scheme on deep sea fishing to include the unit cost of fishing vessel along with running or operating cost. Now the next suggestion is to implement Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampath Ayojana in Tamil Nadu in a proactive manner. And then the author suggests early commissioning of joint research on fisheries which was agreed in joint working group meeting. And the final suggestion is to establish an institutional mechanism to regulate fishing activity in the region. So with these key learned points we will move on to next news article discussion. Friends look at this news article. The article here says that Pallava style stones were found near Mahmalaburam. The stones are exposed due to the eroding action of the waves. Officers from Archaeological Survey of India have taken some stones to their local office to check their authenticity. We all know about the UNESCO World Heritage Site which is the group of monuments at Mahabalipuram right. And we all know that these monuments were built during the Pallava period. The question is whether these are the only monuments in Mahmalaburam that the Pallavas built. There is a local legend among the people in Mahmalaburam that there once was seven temples in Mahmalaburam that were so beautiful and they invited the envy of the gods. Of the seven temples only one is surviving which is nothing but the shore temple. People believe that the rest of the temples are now under sea due to sea action. So if the Archaeological Survey of India is convinced that the stones that are now discovered in Mahmalaburam are indeed from the Pallava period then the local legend will not just remain a myth but will turn into history. So this is about the news article. In the context of this news article let us learn about Pallava architecture. See Pallavas were one of the ancient rulers of South India. They ruled over mainly the northern part of Tamil Nadu and the northern part of Tamil Nadu was called Tonday Mandalam. Their rule lasted approximately from 560 CE to 906 CE until they were replaced by the Imperial Cholas. Pallavas left behind many inscriptions and monuments. Although the Pallava kings were mostly Shaivite, several Vaishnava shrines also served from their reign. From various inscriptions, Buddhist and Jain influence on Pallavas can also be found. See in the early phase most of the Pallava works were rocket and this in the later phase evolved into structural temples. First let us take the rocket temple phase. Now what is the difference between rocket and structural temples? In case of rocket temples, the temples is curved out of a whole rock block while in case of structural temples it is built using several blocks of rocks. So look at this image here. This is the famous Mandagapattu temple. This was built by Pallava king Mahendraverman. The Pallava king Mahendraverman was a pioneer in rocket architecture and the Mandagapattu temple was the first rocket temple built by him. If you observe the image closely, the rocket cave structure has two pillars in the front. On either side of the entrance you can see two Dwarapallas who are gatekeepers and this is about the Mandagapattu temple. The next famous rocket architecture of this period is the Panchapandava Rathas. The Tamil Dravidan tradition of rocket monuments is perfectly illustrated by the Panchapandava Rathas. The five Rathas are Draupati Ratha, Dharma Raja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, Arjuna Ratha and Nagula Sahadeva Ratha. See the outer walls of the Rathas especially of Arjuna, Bhima and Dharma Raja are decorated with various motifs. The main motif being mythology and the sculptures of gods, goddesses, monarchs and scenes from mythology decorate the outer walls of the Rathas. The last famous rocket monument of this period is Arjuna's penance or the descent of the Ganges. Look at this image here. It is a giant open air rock relief curved on two monolithic rock boulders. The legend depicted in the relief is the story of the descent of Ganges to earth from the heavens led by Bhagiratha. There are more than 150 beautiful life-like figures in this monument. If you see, you can notice a figure in the middle of the monument. This represents the descent of the river Ganges from heaven. You can also note that most of the living beings in the monument are seen facing the river and many appear to be rushing towards it. You can notice here Arjuna doing his penance and you can also see Lord Shiva blessing him. See if you find time just look at this image for some time and you will find so much details in it.  This is why this open air rock relief is very famous. This is filled with many small details and meanings and this monument keeps surprising you with a new detail every time you look at it. Now moving on, the rocket temple architecture stale started going into decline around 700 CE. Around the same period the structural temples came into prominence. The main reason why the structural temples replace the rocket temples is that the structural temples provided a wider scope to the sculptor to use his skill. Now let us see some of the structural temples of the Palava period. Look at this image here. This is the famous shore temple and this was built by Pallava king Narasimha Verma II. He also goes by the name Rajasimha and this temple is oriented to the east facing the ocean. If you study the temple closely you will find that it actually houses three shrines, two to Shiva and one to Vishnu. This is unusual because temples normally will have a single main shrine and not three areas of worship. What does this signify then? This shows that the shore temple was probably not originally conceived like this and different shrines may have been added at different times. Now moving on in the shore temple compound there is evidence of a water tank and an early example of Gopuram. This is all about the shore temple. In addition to the shore temple the Palava king Narasimha Verma II also built the Kanchi Kailasanatha temple and another structural temple of this era which is the famous Kanchi Vaikonta Perumal temple was built by Palava king Nandi Verma II and this is about the Palava period architecture. What have we seen so far? We have seen about Palava architecture and Palava were one of the ancient rulers of South India. They ruled over mainly the northern part of Tamil Nadu which was called Tonday Mandalam approximately from 560 CE to 906 CE and we have seen that most of the Palava kings were shy white and then we saw about the difference between the rocker temple and structural temples that is in case of rocker temples the temple is carved out of a whole rock block while in case of structural temples it is built using several blocks of rocks. Then we have seen Mandagapattu temple which was built by Palava king Mahendra and then we saw Pancha Pandavaratas and Arjuna's penance. Then we have seen some of the details about famous shore temple which was built by Palava king Narasimha Verma II. So that is all regarding this news article now we will move on to next news article discussion. Now look at this news article this news article mentions about a campaign which aims at documenting the title flooding in Kerala. Under the campaign people were asked to take photos and videos capturing the severity of tidal flooding. In this manner let us know what is tidal flooding and its impacts. As you know flood is a natural disaster and it can be caused by a number of factors depending on the factors there are many types of flooding and one among them is the tidal flooding. See tidal flooding is also called as coastal flooding it is the temporary inundation of coastal areas during exceptionally high tides or storm surges. See high tide occurs when tides reach anywhere from 1.75 to 2 feet above the daily average high tide. Here they start spilling onto streets or start bubbling up from storm drains. So it is also called high tide flooding. Nowadays in many coastal cities minor tidal flooding occurs right these are high tide flooding only but are non-life-threatening floods but around the world it is also called by different names such as recurrent flooding, sunny day flooding, shallow coastal flooding or nuisance flooding. Now what about storm surges? See storm surge is also a coastal phenomena it is the abnormal rise in the sea level generated by a storm. This rise is over and above the predicted astronomical tides. Generally a surge is generated due to interaction of air, sea and land. Now during a cyclone or a storm the cyclone provides the driving force in the form of very high horizontal pressure gradient and very strong surface winds. This makes the seawater to flow across the coast along with strong winds and heavy downpour. So ultimately inundation happens. The degree of destructive potential depends on the storm surge amplitude associated with the cyclone. So remember that storm surge is an inherent destructive aspect of cyclones and that is why large number of casualties occur during tropical cyclones. Climate change and the resultant sea level rise worsen the impacts of storm surges. So overall tidal flooding occurs when there are higher than normal water level along the coast which are caused by tidal changes or thunder storms that result in flooding. This flooding can last from days to weeks. The situation becomes much worse if high tide combines with the storm surge. So remember that tidal flooding is not caused by the overflow of inland waters like rivers and streams and also it is not caused by an unusual accumulation of water due to heavy rains or dam breaches etc. One of the important features of tidal flooding is this type of flooding usually occurs over a short period of time. But still it can quickly cause significant impacts to low lying coastal areas. Plus it occurs when coastal defense are unable to contain the normal predicted high tides. Also with rising sea level more and more cities are becoming increasingly exposed and vulnerable to tide flooding. Now what are its impacts? See they affect the low lying and exposed assets or infrastructure. So it affects road, harbor, public storm, water system, wastewater systems and freshwater systems. Particularly private and commercial properties are also affected by the flooding. It also erodes beaches and embankments. It results in invitation of human settlements affecting lives and livelihood. It affects our health also by contamination and spreading of infection or disease. It also inundates the agricultural fields. This damages the crops thereby destroying the vegetation and also reduces soil fertility. So that is all regarding tidal flooding. In this discussion we have learned about tidal flooding. It is also called coastal flooding. It is a temporary inundation of coastal areas during exceptionally high tides or storm surges. Storm surges are nothing but the abnormal rise in the sea level generated by storm. Then we have seen some of the impacts of tidal flooding. With this learning we will move on to next news article discussion. Now look at this article. It says that a webinar on epilepsy management is going to be conducted as a part of the wellness series presented by Naravi hospitals and the Hindu. This is the crux of the article given here. In this context let us learn about epilepsy from Prillim's perspective. First of all what is epilepsy? C. As per World Health Organization epilepsy is a chronic non-communicable disease of the brain that affects around 50 million people worldwide. It is characterized by recurrent seizure. C. A seizure is nothing but a sudden uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain. C. They are brief episodes of involuntary movement that may involve a part of the body or the entire body and they are sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and loss of control of bowel or bladder function. Note that it affects people of all ages and World Health Organization statistics shows that around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy and it is very common in India especially in children. Now with this basic understanding let us see why this is occurring. C. Epilepsy is not contagious. Not contagious means it cannot spread by contact. Although many underlying disease mechanisms can lead to epilepsy the cause of the disease is still unknown in about 50% of the cases globally. See the causes of epilepsy are divided into several categories. They are structural, genetic, infectious, metabolic, immune and unknown categories. Some of the examples include brain damage from prenatal or perinatal causes, example a loss of oxygen or trauma during birth and low birth weight etc.  These are the examples. C. One seizure does not signify epilepsy. This is because up to 10% of the people worldwide have one seizure during their lifetime. A person is diagnosed with epilepsy if they have two or more unprovoked seizures that were not caused by some known or reversible medical conditions like alcohol withdrawal or extremely low blood sugar. Now let us see the prevention measures. C. An estimated 25% of epilepsy cases are preventable. Preventing head injury is the most effective way to prevent post-traumatic epilepsy. Adequate perinatal care can reduce new cases of epilepsy caused by birth injury. The use of drugs and other methods to lower the body temperature of a feverish child can reduce the chances of febrile seizures. The prevention of epilepsy associated with stroke is focused on cardiovascular risk factor reduction. Examples measures to prevent or control high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity and the avoidance of tobacco and excessive alcohol use. C. Central nervous system infections are common causes of epilepsy in tropical areas where many low and middle income countries are concentrated. Elimination of parasites in these environments and education on how to avoid infections can be effective ways to reduce epilepsy worldwide. C. Epilepsy has significant economic implications in terms of healthcare needs, premature death and lost work productivity. Although the social effects vary from country to country, the stigma and discrimination that surround epilepsy worldwide are often more difficult to overcome than the seizures themselves. People living with epilepsy can be targets of prejudice. The stigma of the disease can discourage people from seeking the treatment. Keeping all this in mind, World Health Organization and its partners recognize that epilepsy is a major public health concern. World Health Organization and the International League Against Epilepsy and the International Bureau of Epilepsy let the global campaign again epilepsy to bring the disease out of the shadows. And this is to provide better information and raise awareness about epilepsy and to strengthen public and private efforts to improve care and reduce the disease impact. So that's all regarding epilepsy and this news article. Now with all these key learned points let us move on to next part of our news article discussion which is nothing but preliminary practice questions discussion. Now look at the first question that is regarding tidal flooding. Which of the following statements is or are correct with reference to tidal flooding? Option A, it occurs as a result of water overflowing from river channels. Option B, it is caused by exceptionally high tides and not by storm surges. And option C, it results in inundation of agricultural fields and reducing soil fertility. Option D, it is a minor type of flooding and always non-life threatening. See here, the correct answer is option C. Option A is incorrect because flooding that occurs as a result of water overflowing from river channels is called river flooding or fluvial flooding. It happens due to high rainfall and due to the low capacity of the ground and rivers to observe and transport the water. And statement B, it is incorrect because tidal flooding is caused by both high tides and storm surges. And option D, it is also incorrect because not all tidal flooding are minor. Only the high tide flooding is minor and is often non-life threatening whereas storm surge results in high casualties. So, our final answer here is option C. Now look at the second question. Consider the following statements with reference to epilepsy. Statement 1, it is a neurological disorder but is contagious. Statement 2, it is caused due to generic factors only. Now you have to find the correct statement. Here, the statement 1 is incorrect. See, the first part is correct. Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain. It is characterized by recurrent seizures. But the second part of the statement is incorrect because epilepsy is not contagious. Statement 2, it is also incorrect. The causes of epilepsy are divided into structural, genetic, infectious, metabolic, immune and unknown causes. We saw examples of it also. So, it does not occur because of generic factors alone. So, both the statements are incorrect. Here, our final answer is option D, neither one nor two. Now look at the third question. Consider the following statements about Mahendra Varman 1. Statement 1, he is also known as Mamalla. He built the famous city of Mamallapuram. Statement 2, he defeated Chalukya king Pulikesh into in the famous battle of Vattapi. Statement 3, he wrote the Sanskrit play, Matavilasa Prahasana. Now you have to find the correct statement. See, the first two statements are wrong because both the statements are not about Mahendra Varman 1 but his son Narasimha Varman 1. See, Narasimha Varma 1 is also known as Mamalla and he built the famous city of Mamallapuram. Mahendra Varma was defeated by Pulikesh in 2 in the battle of Pulallur. To avenge the defeat of his father, Narasimha Varman 1 defeated Pulikesh in 2 in the battle of Vattapi. Since he captured Vattapi from the Chalukyas, he is also called Vattapi Kundan. Now moving on to the third statement. See here, the third statement is correct. Mahendra Varma 1 wrote the Sanskrit play, Matavilasa Prahasana. So here, our final answer is option C, three only. The main question is displayed here. Write your answer and post it in the comment section. If you like the video, hit the like button, post your comments and share the video with your friends. 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So you just want a split, not a problem. The split action will let you expand a circle from the point. If you tap alt, you can change the color of the new polygroup. Normally it will default to quads, but if you triangulate the center, instead of quads, it's gonna use tries. If you don't like the crease on the outside, you can change it to do not crease here. And if you don't want it to make a new polygroup, you can tell it not to make a new group like this. If you set mode to ring instead, it'll make a much smoother circle. And unlike the point, if you do it on an edge, it will change the shape of the object to match itself. And just like the other mode, you can take the creases off with this and decide whether or not to regroup the different colors of the polygroups. And if you don't want the edges to have equal distances from the center, you can turn that off here. So here's what it looks like without equalize, and here's what it looks like with it. This is a really easy way to just make circular extrusions or intrusions in a hard surface shape. Anyway, hope that helps Santa as always. Hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you around. Okay. I'll see you around. Bye.


My name is King Fitzgerald. I am the security and defence researcher here at the Institute for International and European Affairs. My research generally focuses on great power competition and its implications for the R security environment. I am delighted to welcome you here to this IIA webinar where we are joined today by Professor Nicholas Timiades, Professor of Homeland Security at Penn State Harrisburg and author of Chinese Intelligence Operations, who's been generous enough to take time out of a schedule to speak to us today. Professor Timiades will give a presentation to us for about 30 minutes and following this we will proceed to a Q&A with the audience. You'll be able to join the discussion using the Q&A function on Zoom, which you should see on your screen and then please feel free to send your questions in throughout the presentation as they occur to you and we'll come to them once Professor Timiades has come to his presentation. Just a quick reminder to everyone that today's presentation and Q&A are both on the record and if you'd like to join the discussion on Twitter please use the handle at IIA. So I now formally introduce Professor Timiades and then I'll hand over to him. Nicholas Timiades is a professor at Penn State University and author of the book Chinese Intelligence Operations. He's a member of the Graduate Faculty teaching Homeland Security, Intelligence and National Security Policy. He conducts research on China's economic espionage, intelligence and immersion threats and disruptive technologies. Mr. Timiades retired from a 34-year government career in intelligence and diplomacy and has extensive experience and has published widely on China and the national security space. Mr. Timiades held senior appointments to the Department of Defense Science Board, the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Council. He's also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Auburn University, McCray Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. Professor Timiades, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Let me just start out by just saying one thing that my comments do not represent Penn State University. So I'm speaking as an individual today. What I'd like to do is take the next 25 minutes or so to give you an overview of Chinese espionage. Okay, sorry about that. Sorry for the slow start. I only have 30 minutes to share a lifetime's worth of knowledge. I've been tracking the subject for the better part of 30 years. And it's only the past couple of years anyone around the world has really cared about it. And it's a good thing because people are starting to wake up and understand the significance of exactly what China's been doing, what it's been doing for decades and actually escalating in tempo and capabilities over the course of the past decade. So let's just jump into this and take a look at the overview. There are a couple of ways of cataloging what the media will typically call espionage. Right? You know, there is covert action, which is covert influence. And I think actually you've recently had a case of that of spying against the diaspora and influencing parliament, things like as we see in the UK on now it appears multiple occasions. So there's traditional espionage, which in the United States is coded 18 USC 790 series. It's an actual series of espionage violations that you do against governments in secret, you know, taking out secret materials. Economic espionage, which is probably one of the more extensive activities that China conducts. And that includes technology and trade secrets. The United States estimates its losses anywhere between four to, or you know, four to 600 billion a year due to this type of technology and theft of trade secrets. I probably put that a bit lower at 386. 87% of even all the fake products that are coming into the US come from China. 82% from Europe, or rather 82% of the fake products coming into Europe, you know, come from China and 80% to Canada has that figure of 80%. So we get a lot of theft of trade secrets, reproduction of items and things like that that come into the country, which really affects the economic base. This all comes under one category of economic espionage. Illegal exports. In addition to just stealing technology and trade secrets, we have stealing, stealing physically items that are not, you know, set for export, not releasable for export. As an example, semiconductors, which I know you have production there. And a lot of other items that China just steals and in fact has been able to support its military that way. Research violations. Lastly, research violations. We had quite an aggressive campaign against this in the United States to actually look at the theft of research done out of universities, primarily out of universities and research institutes. I'll give you a bottom line up front. And the bottom line is that foreign technology is highly prized, you know, for Chinese intelligence collectors. Covert influence is also top on the list of their activities. Their commercial selection efforts in, you know, stealing technology and trade secrets are primarily technology are really identified in PRC's national planning documents, such as made in China 2025, 50 year, 50 year plan for development of space technology and a number of agricultural technology and a number of seminal documents produced by the party at the highest levels. Over the last 20 years, I can tell you because I'm watching this and show you a trend line that China has aggressively expanded its espionage networks. That much I think is, sorry, pretty obvious. Lots participate in Chinese intelligence activities, which is why we call it a whole of society approach. Okay, differing from Western services where you generally just have, you know, in America, the CIA, maybe the FBI and a few other agencies that are engaged in espionage, that's not the case in China. In fact, in China, you have state-owned enterprises, private companies, individuals and select universities all conducting espionage activities. If you want to think about the vastness of this state-owned enterprises, there are, used to be 300, but there are 150,000 of them in China. 50,000 of them are which are at the national level and about 120 or so are prized national economic security state-owned enterprises and many of them have well over 100,000 employees each, research institutions, etc. All this is levied as part of the collection apparatus that China has specifically towards foreign technology and trade secrets. Lastly, it's interesting because because you have so many players in this whole of society approach, you have a wide variance in what we call trade craft, the espionage techniques that are used. Sometimes you even have that you see that variance within agencies, like within the Ministry of State Security. So there's a wide variance in how they conduct and you can actually catalog it against specific industries. Cyber is probably exception and they show pretty standard techniques in that. So if you're looking at economic espionage along a continuum, you see just the vast number of capabilities that they bring to bear. Starting on the left, you go from open source literature to science and technology exchanges, trade fairs, Chinese scholars and students, buying foreign experts, acquisition and mergers all the way up to economic espionage and that and all these are leveraged in support of the state. These are the ones that we'll look a little more seriously at today. The types of collectors, whereas again, I pointed out that we in the US are, are, you know, I think in the West, I should say rather, you know, typically have our government agencies involved with this with China, the Ministry of State Security and Public Security are the traditional collectors, the Joint Intelligence Bureau under the Central Military Commission. They're military collectors. They had the Political Work Department Liaison Bureau, again, military entity, traditional collectors, but they also use, and this is a Western definition, right? It's not a Chinese definition. They also use non-traditional collectors, state-owned enterprises, CCP organizations, as I mentioned, such as United Front Work Department, university scholars companies. Now these can operate independently of the PRC intelligence services. So you look at just the vastness of the enterprise that they have actually out collecting and it's a pretty, pretty formidable, formidable collection of organizations. Let's look at some of the espionage categories, overviews. Now what you're seeing now is a compilation of information out of my database. And my database has about 770 something cases, details on 770 cases of, quote, espionage. That's the big word, espionage, but all the economic and trade theft and espionage and covert influence operations all under that. So we have about 772 cases and it's very, very detailed for each one. And what that allows you to do is to really understand what is going on and who's doing what with relative to, sorry, China's activities. So if we were to just look at economic espionage, you would have state-owned enterprises conducting a total of 174 cases out of that database. You would have 24% being done by state-owned enterprises, more than half of them done by private companies. You have 11% done by the Ministry of State Security. The PLA very marginally involved in economic espionage and others such as universities and research institutes at 10%. So if you're looking at this from a defense of posture or from a posture or from a legislative posture even, your primary problem here are Chinese companies that are stealing. And this doesn't even include the forced transfer of technology. It's just the stealing of technology from your own companies, from Western companies. I should also make it a point that I don't do a lot of cyber tracking. And the reason I don't do a lot of cyber tracking is there are a lot of experts out there that do. And it's difficult to get real details on the actual cases. No one likes talking about them, certainly not the least of which are people who've been penetrated and lost their intellectual property. Here we have a great way of looking. There are some cases that I do track, as you can see on the left. But here we have a great way of looking and understanding the trade craft involved. And this I do primarily for security services and such, and actually to such greater lengths. But we have tailor made devices of third country meetings. Sorry about that. On the left, or rather on the far right, you can see no trade craft and open communications and true names is the preferred type of technique that's used for this. So it means we're just looking at straight theft. And yet we do have also a notable amount of false names that are used for this type of thing, or use of third parties to steal technology and intellectual property encryption standards or meetings held in China. So for an insider threat specialist or for security specialist, you can start to determine, well, if there are a lot of meetings held in China, this is what I'm looking at. I'm looking at a lot of this person keeps going back and forth to China. It's what they would call as an indicator in that world that something might be missing something to start to look at, but specific components of the trade craft and what is actually used to collect information. Okay, if we, sorry, move a little more towards our understanding, if we move a little more towards our understanding of PRC organizations conducting espionage, and this gives you a breakdown of what you're looking at. This is espionage, espionage, across the whole board, not just economic. So if you take a look, you can see that private companies of about 150, in cases like that, state-owned enterprises, 123, Ministry of State Security, you can see 126, the People's Liberation Army, 134, and other elements, meaning universities and research institutes at 148. So if anything illustrates the case for a whole-of-society approach, this does. You see, and the MSS alone has 100,000 employees, it's estimated at. And it's not by only means the only one playing in this game. So there are a lot of organizations playing on a global collection effort, and this is one of the reasons that China is able to build its military and to build its economic wealth. It's one of the reasons it makes it almost impossible to compete, because all those decades and billions of dollars that are invested in R&D are lost because they're stealing it. And I'll give you an example of one company that I worked with, which had a $400 million loss in energy company when one of their employees had been going back and forth to China, allegedly visiting family, and ultimately they were able to discover the fact that he was uploading that information onto a server on the web and it was being accessed in China. So for them, now they have a competition and a loss of $400 million or so in research, research dollars. Once again, just their use of espionage tradecraft. And this is not economic espionage, but this is espionage sort of as a whole. And you can kind of take a look when you look across the board where no tradecraft, no espionage tradecraft or techniques are employed, what are simply false names or documents and third party usage and just basic encryption standards and meetings held in China. So the tradecraft differs depending on what type of theft that you're actually looking at, whether you're looking at economic espionage and dealing with corporations or whether you're taking a whole swap and looking at including national espionage against government secrets and influence operations. The type of tradecraft differs depending not only that, but the industry that you're looking at that you're assessing in the case of covert action. And let me clarify here for our purposes, for our purposes, covert action are, I mean, not everything is espionage, right? So the example of Christine Lee with the UK, and I'll go into that just a moment where a person was influencing parliamentarians and giving money. And of course, you know, they probably don't know where that money is coming from, but she's actually being paid to influence them. That's a covert action because it's not really espionage, but it's a covert activity done at the behest of a nation state. So in that case, when you take a look, again, you see massive players, the United Front Work Department, tens of thousands of people in the United Front and offices and associations span out globally. The People's Liberation Army, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are all engaging in covert action or covert influence. This is a slide which just shows the number of cases tied to the specific type of espionage, as I mentioned earlier. In the U.S., ITAR, IEPA, EAR, and ACA are all illegal export of technology, military-related technology. So you could actually combine those into one and you get 140 cases that actually having occurred. EAR, Export Administration Regulations, is the illegal export of dual-use technology, and I hope that's separately. And then we have kind of the standards, research violations, 31 cases, espionage cases, 128 economic espionage cases, 124, and civil actions, 24. So you can kind of get a spread of what China's doing across all boards relative to a whole-of-society approach and their massive collection apparatus. We'll just take a quick look at a couple of cases. This is Christine Fang, otherwise known as Fang Fang. She was in 2015, she fled the country because it was an FBI investigation. There she is in the center with Congressman Swalwell, who she worked closely for and even up to the point that he was running for presidency. She had built a number of relationships. She was a student at the college in San Francisco and she became president of the Chinese Student Scholars Association, president of the Asian Pacific Islanders, American Public Affairs Association. She used these for what we call cover for status and cover for action. She used these to allow her access into the Chinese American community and having influence and action in the Chinese American community. She was able to turn around to U.S. politicians and say, hey, I had this type of access and immediately she was accepted into political ranks as support, as an advisor. But in the meantime, the reason the FBI identified her was because that she had been meeting with an intelligence officer out of the San Francisco consulate. Ultimately, they picked up on her and said, well, wait a minute, who is this person? And they tracked her down and saw that she had a relationship of undisclosed sorts with Congressman Swalwell. In addition, she was also having, which they did announce, multiple affairs, two of which were with mayors in the Midwest of the United States. So she would travel out there and the FBI would follow her. And then she would report back to the San Francisco consulate. At the same time, the MSS officials were also running the staffer, the driver and local representative for Senator Diane Feinstein, who was also reporting to the Ministry of State Security. Christine Fong had access to Representative Swalwell, Mayor Harrison, and Representative Kana, all of which he was doing volunteer work and even actually placed an intern in the office for Swalwell. So as we say, she had access, she had close access, she had good cover for status and action, was doing reporting. As far as we know, going back to the Ministry of State Security, potentially influencing every one of those individuals that she had access to in contact. And we saw some of that in their trips going to China. And when the FBI approached at that time, Congressman Swalwell, she fled the country. Christine Lee, who was actually originally identified in 2015, was only recently that the Brits took any action against her. Christine Lee, the MI5 put out a notice of security service, put out a notice to Parliament about her, the affiliations that she had, and the fact that she was working in the embassy, she was a UK citizen, but working, actually dual with China as well, but working in the embassy for the United Front Work Department located in the embassy. And meanwhile, she was controlling a number of, not only associated with the Overseas Friendship Associations, which are elements of the United Front, but she had established a British-Chinese project, had a number of parliamentarians under it, was allegedly representing the Asian population in the UK. But the reality is that she was taking orders from the United Front Work Department. So they put out a notice about her, and everybody cut contact. She had contributed 600,000 pounds to primarily one British parliamentarian, but to other parliamentarians as well from both parties. So you can see her background here, that Barry Gardner, an MP, which she made 200,000, rather 600,000 in donations to him, her son was working for her, she placed her son in the office working for that, working for him, her finances, and this is where I'm guessing the MI5 came on to this, her finances were illicit or shady finances that were coming out of China and Hong Kong to her office, you know, to turn around and to give to her members of parliament, whereas in the meantime she had local regular contact with the PRC embassy in London. So you can see the British-China project, the British-Chinese project to the top, top left is that was actually run by her other son, Michael Wilkes. So she got pretty well, she had her reach that went out to Scotland and to Scotland Parliament as well. So we have a similar problem in the Congress, and I've had members of Congress tell me that, look, someone comes in my door and they're from my district, and I have no idea who they are, what background they are, I have no idea what the connections are with my companies. So this is a problem that I know we wrestle with, and I'm assuming it's going to be the same pretty in democracies all over the world. You want to serve your constituencies, but you don't know who's walking in your door at any given point in time. Okay, so we've looked a little at the covert influence cases. Let's look at some real hard court cases. This is one of my favorite ones. Shu Yan Jun, he was a MSS officer, he was an actual MSS case officer, and he was lured to come to Belgium. This is his, his, his, his forms from being in the MSS, and on the right you see a translation for his appointment form. So he was originally worked at a Jiangsu province, and he was with the Jiangsu State Security Bureau, and he lured through Nanjing University of, of aviation and aerospace, he lured a US scientist, David Zhang, out of, you know, the US and came to, came to China to speak. He was introduced under the cover of a, of a local, the Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, and in other words, that's a daisy chain, what we call the university brings him over at the heads of the Ministry of State Security, so they're closely cooperating, they bring him over and then they turn around and pass him off to, to that, you know, to the local department, to the, you know, to the local Ministry of State Security undercover as the, as the National, as the Science and Technology Association, Nanjing Science and Technology Association. So what we have in the center here is Shu and his contacts, and this trick, I'll call it, but this work where universities inviting them and then introducing them to the local Nanjing Science and Technology Association work, and you can take a look at the individuals that he went and, and actually entertained and brought over to give speeches at Nanjing University. Now, really, while he was there, if you take a look at, you know, not only did they try and bring people over repeatedly, so they eventually could put them on a recruitment path, but while they were there and he was entertaining them as that representative of the Science and Technology Association, these are the people that he had the eighth division actually attacking their laptops. So, you know, I, I read the text that he was sending back and forth to people and in the Ministry of State Security, those individuals you see on the left, Shu Hong and Chen Feng, and as they are, as they're having a party toasting the person, toasting the invited guest who's giving a speech, he's up inside your hotel room with others trying to break into their laptops and with other technical experts trying to get into their laptops, and the emails going back and forth are extraordinary. Now, you know, we're going to need at least three hours to get into this laptop and they're literally, as their, you know, as their host is sitting there, you know, drinking and eating right next to him saying, no, no, no, we can only keep this guy here for another hour. It's, you know, you've got to make it happen within that time. And in several cases, they're inserting a virus. There's some interesting work that was done against saffron aviation. On the upper left, Gu Zhen and TNC were locals working inside of saffron in China, and they were both recruited. Gu Zhen was a, in charge of cyber security for saffron in China, and he was recruited. And of course, they, they tried to put a virus, actually, they didn't plant a virus into Frederick Haskell's laptop when he went, he went to actually present in China. And as his pictures, as the slides came up, they didn't seem to be working. And they said, well, what's, no, no, no, you need a codec upgrade. And they gave him an upgrade. And that was about, oh, it was a virus that they had implanted into his computer. So we have a number of cases where there are invitations that come out, paid invitations that come out for, for lectures and presentations or cooperation, you know, within China, that is used as a stepping stone for eventual recruitment of the individual. And lastly, it's also used to, to do technical penetration. So they're pretty comprehensive in, and how they approach their target set. I'll note, lastly, on this slide, Xu Yanzhong was using a cover name of Zhang Hai, and he was using that on LinkedIn, which he did a lot of approaches on LinkedIn, specifically Linda Lee on the lower left. But Ji Chaochun was a US Army reservist. He was actually recruited in China. And he recently got convicted for, and Xu Yanzhong was his case officer handling him. He was actually became a Mormon, which is interesting and was targeting people who were in the Mormon church, Chinese or in the Mormon church who were traveling to China, specifically aerospace engineers. So really interesting the way their intelligence service works. It kind of branches out and uses local context to be able to conduct tradecraft. Okay. I think that's actually done a bit early. But that's sort of my baseline. I'll just give you, I didn't want to go over. So, but if you take a look at my website, I have, like this presentation will be on, I have a lot of presentations that are on a lot of reports, a lot of articles, it's all in the library section, or a publication section, and you can just, you know, go. And if it's useful for you, great. You'll also see things like online courses and stuff that on this subject that you can look at as well. Anyway, that's all I have immediately. And I'm guessing we have a fair amount of time for questions and answers.


Rwy'n credu i chi'n gael eich gwirio cydweithiau oedd yn ei cyflidrach i яw y До mor Llywodraeth i chi'n ymgyrch yn ei gwybod a'u gael eich cydweithiau oedd yn eich gwellio cydweithiau. Yr eich cyflidrach oedd o'r選ffau i chi i chi'n gwirio cydweithiau, oedden nhw'n mynd i chi'n gael eich gwirio cydweithiau. Y rhyf, mae'r cydweithiau i chi'n gael eich gwirio cydweithiau a'r cydweithiau oedd iser health and social care. Can I ask members who wish to request a supplementary question? They should press their request-to-speak buttons or put an R in the chat function if they are joining us remotely during the relevant question. I call question number one, Donald Cameron. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on NHS Highland's independent review into allegations of staff bullying in our Garland butte. Many improvement actions have already been delivered in response to the independent review of culture in our Garland butte and that was recommended by John Sturrick, who sees in his review into cultural issues in NHS Highland. NHS Highland has reported that there has been significant discussion at the board and within health and social care partnerships to explore how they may work together to support staff from across both health and social care who have experienced bullying. The leadership team has held a number of staff engagement events to tell staff about the actions taken and listen to staff feedback. The actions include an independent helpline for staff to discuss concerns, an independent review of disciplinary, grievance, bullying and harassment procedures, a wider roll-out of the courageous conversations programme, a monthly assurance panel to review hiring decisions and to build trust. The Scottish Government continues to support NHS Highland as it takes forward actions in response to this report, the report by John Sturrick QC and the recent independent listening and hearing survey. I am very grateful for that update from the cabinet secretary. He may be aware that there were calls in the last session of the Scottish Parliament to hold a debate on the findings in the STIRIC report. The First Minister herself said that she was broadly sympathetic to the issue. Will he commit to holding a debate in Government time on this important issue so that victims of bullying across the NHS, wherever they are in Scotland, feel that they are being listened to and that we do not abandon them? First and foremost, I thank Donald Cameron for raising the issue. I should also mention that Emma Roddick MSP and Edward Mountain MSP have raised those issues, and they are incredibly important issues that the Government takes seriously. I suspect that for all of our political differences, we are united on the fact that there should be a zero-tolerance approach to any bullying and harassment anywhere in the workplace, let alone within our NHS and social care. I would say about a debate that has not been ruled out, but he knows that we are currently in the midst of a global pandemic. He would have heard the priorities from the programme for government yesterday. That will be our immediate focus in terms of parliamentary debates. I would not rule it out in the future. I also note that the Conservative Party might have an opposition debate next week, so it could also bring that debate forward if it so choose to do so. If it did, I would respond on behalf of the Government. To ask the Scottish Government what importance it places on recognising and addressing the societal issues that contribute to poor mental health. Poverty is the single biggest driver of poor mental health, and that is why we continue to urge the UK Government to reverse their decision on cutting the uplift of universal credit. We know that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing structural inequality in our society and that the adverse impacts on mental health are felt disproportionately by disadvantaged groups. In our mental health transition and recovery plan, we have committed to making the mental health of those groups a priority. We also know that other social determinants, including employment and debt, can impact on mental health and wellbeing. We are working with employers, trade unions and other organisations, including the money and pension service and Citizens Advice Scotland, to better understand and tackle those issues. Recent summary carried out by the medical and dental defence union of Scotland showed that 47 per cent of Scottish GP members and 58 per cent of dentist members reported higher levels of stress because of the pandemic. Can I ask the minister what measures have been put in place to support the mental health of all NHS staff? Our health recovery plan, published on 25 August, outlines that recovery of staff is intrinsic to our collective ambitions for renewing our NHS. The Government is providing £8 million this financial year to support the mental health and wellbeing of the health and social care workforce. That includes targeted support to the primary care and social care workforces of £2 million. A range of national resources are available to support the mental health and wellbeing of those who are working in health and social care. That includes the national wellbeing hub, which provides self-care and digital resources, the national wellbeing helpline, which provides a 24-7 service to those who require psychological support and can offer advice, signposting and onward referral to local services where required. We also have coaching for wellbeing, a free-to-access digital coaching service, and we have the workforce specialist service as well. Additional capacity within boards has been put in place to provide psychological therapies and interventions to support staff's mental health. I have a number of supplementaries. I want to take all of them, so I will need brief questions and brief answers. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport conceded yesterday that waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services are, I quote, unacceptable, and he admitted that the targets were being badly missed before the pandemic. We found out this week that camera referral rates are now the highest on record, with one in every 100 children being referred for specialist care. So will the minister now outline what he intends to do to honour its commitment, the Government's commitment, to increase the CAMHS workforce by 320 new staff? First of all, I would outline to Mr Hoy that, since this Government came to power, the CAMHS workforce has risen by some 80 per cent. We will continue to ensure that we do our level best to reduce waiting times and to do what is required to improve services for those in need. What would be helpful in all of this is if we did not have that continued austerity agenda, so we could employ even more staff. What I would say to Mr Hoy and to his Conservative colleagues is that we should try and persuade the UK Government to reverse their austerity policies so that we can invest even more in our public services here in Scotland. The reality is that societal issues such as poverty have a major impact on children and adolescents. The waiting times in Fife for carms are at an unacceptable level and rising. Will the minister agree to meet me so that we can have a discussion on those issues and see what the Scottish Government can do to support Fife NHS by trying to get those waiting times down? As always, I am more than happy to meet Mr Riley to discuss this or any other issues. I recognise that there is a difficulty in Fife. As members will know, I have spoken to a number of health boards about actions that I feel that they need to take to improve services further. We have given some £29 million of additional support to bring CAMHS waiting lists round, but I am more than happy to discuss those issues further with Mr Riley in a constructive manner. The minister listed a lot of contributors to poor mental health, but I did not hear or mention the fact that we have enormous long lists and the contribution that that makes to the worsening mental health in this country. If people have to wait up to two years to get treatment, it is no surprise that their mental health does not improve. Is he going to do something about it at last? We have laid out what we are going to do in terms of our action plans. I am determined, the Government is determined to ensure that the additional resources that we have put in play are used effectively to do the best for the people of this country, particularly the young folk who are waiting on treatment. To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for cataract surgery. Public Health Scotland published the most recent stage of treatment data on 31 August. It showed that the median weight during the quarter ending 30 June 2021 for ophthalmology treatment was 52 days. Over half 54 per cent of those waiting for ophthalmology treatment had been waiting nine weeks or less. The Scottish Government does not hold subspecialty information, which would cover cataract procedures. We recognise that a backlog of care has emerged during the pandemic as a result of services being paused. However, cataract procedures have still continued during this challenging time. To support that, the Scottish Government has made £1.75 million available to NHS Golden Jubilee to support additional cataract procedures this financial year. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Obviously, all of this is with the pandemic as a backdrop. I have been contacted by a constituent who has been advised by NHS Lanarkshire that she will have to wait at least 70 weeks for cataract surgery unless she pays for private healthcare. My constituent's eyesight is deteriorating rapidly and she is terrified that she will soon be unable to drive or perform her duties as a teacher. Can the cabinet secretary advise what support the Government can provide to NHS Lanarkshire to help to reduce its waiting time for cataract surgery? I share Gillian Mackay's concern. I know that she has corresponded with me, but I would ask Gillian Mackay to provide the details of the constituent. I know that she has corresponded with the general, but if she could give details of the specific constituent that I am more than happy for that case to be investigated. Like her, I would have also nervousness about somebody having to wait 70 weeks for a cataract operation. We are giving additional funding to the Golden Jubilee, their plan on delivering 12,000 cataract surgeries in core sessions this financial year. That is 4,000 more than they delivered the previous year, but we know that there is a significant backlog across all procedures, and that is why we published our NHS recovery plan at the end of last month. I was trying to go too fast, but I tripped up. Across my health board with her heroic front-line staff under unprecedented pressure, we are seeing cancellations of elective surgery appointments, leaving thousands to wait and pain before they can get the surgery that they need. That is having a brutal knock-on effect on A and E being the fourth week in a row where waiting times have hit the worst level on record. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what reassurances can be given to staff and when will our winter preparedness plan be published? I did not catch the very end of that question, but what I would say to Annie Wells is that we take that significant challenge extremely seriously. As the Secretary of State in England and as health ministers do in Wales and Northern Ireland, we are facing this collective challenge that has been exacerbated, extremely significantly exacerbated, by the effects of the pandemic. Our recovery plan, which is backed by £1 billion worth of investment, goes into significant detail about how we will increase in-patient activity by 20 per cent of the lifetime of this Parliament, outpatient by 10 per cent, and diagnostics significantly by more than 70,000 by 2022-23 in its detail. I am more than happy to meet the member to discuss that in more detail. Those are challenging decisions that health boards are making, and we will continue to fund them and give them the investment that they need, but we will also take care of our staff's mental and physical wellbeing, because they are crucial to helping us to meet those targets in our recovery plan. I note that we have supplementaries for most of the rest of the questions, so I want to get those supplementaries in, so I would appreciate brief questions and ministerial cabinet secretary's brief answers. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the National Autistic Society, in light of its reported concerns regarding support for families during the Covid-19 pandemic. I fully recognise the incredible pressure that the pandemic has had on autistic children, their families and carers. The Scottish Government meets with the National Autistic Society regularly. Officials last met with the National Autistic Society on 23 August, and I will meet with the director of the National Autistic Society shortly. The Scottish Government has provided significant additional funding to help to meet those pressures, including £170,000 to national autism charities, £28.5 million for local carer support and a further £1.1 million last year to the voluntary sector short break funds. We also published our towards transformation plan in March. The director of the National Autistic Society Scotland has warned that the pandemic has removed critical support for families that have left carers and young people struggling. Homeschooling was difficult for children with autism to adjust to, with statistics showing that 63 per cent of autistic young people missed attending school. In addition, figures from the Autism Centre for Education also revealed uncertainty around education, which caused high levels of stress and anxiety. What progress has been made on the Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill? When will families and people with autism receive the help and support that they deserve? Families will continue to receive the support, some of which have already outlined. As I say, I am sure that some of that will form part of the discussion that I have with the director of NAS when we meet shortly. I should say that the Scottish Government, in terms of the Bill and the Learning Disability and Autism Commissioner, will carry out the scoping work for all that, the remit and powers, very soon within this parliamentary year. Following the successful passage of the Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill, a commissioner will be appointed as soon as possible. I know that there are some very diverse views around how we should move this forward. I aim to talk to as many stakeholders as possible about that so that we get the scoping work and remit and powers right. What action is being taken to support young children who are effective in masking or hiding their autism, causing delays in receiving a timely diagnosis in their early years of education? Specifically, what action is being taken to support young girls who are more likely to mask their symptoms and how will they adapt pre-pandemic plans to do more to work with the affected families to focus on identifying and supporting those children? I thank you. I will start by saying to Ms Hyslop that I will write to her because there is a lot of work going on here, but very briefly, new guidance commissioned by the Scottish Government and published by the National Autism Implementation Team in May this year supports areas to develop local children's neurodevelopmental pathways. We know that there are challenges and diagnosis, particularly with young females who are able to mask the condition. We will do more in terms of developing the guidance to get this absolutely right. As I say, this is a complex area, and I will write to Ms Hyslop in some depth and any other member who requires that information. To ask the Scottish Government what support is available to dental practices to alleviate pressures specifically related to Covid-19. Minister Marie Todd joins us remotely. The Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting the NHS dental sector, which is why, from the beginning of the pandemic, we have put in place emergency support payments for NHS practices and dentists, which includes £33 million of additional funding per year. We have also recently announced £7.5 million of funding for dentists to buy new equipment to help to reduce the impact of UK-wide Covid restrictions. That builds on the £5 million that we have already provided to the sector for ventilation improvements. National procurement continues to provide around £1.5 million of PPE per week free of charge to dental contractors providing NHS care. We expect those measures to increase the productivity of practices, enabling them to see more patients within the current infection prevention and control constraints. I thank the minister for that. In my constituency, plain street dental practice has the responsibility for 6,000 patients, yet due to funding structures in place for Covid support, when one dentist left during the pandemic, the practice lost 25% funding, despite patient numbers remaining the same. Balancing reduced staff and physical distancing while ensuring dental care for thousands of patients places increasing demand on practices. Will the Scottish Government agree that the anomaly is unfair on practices in such situations? Will the Government commit to evaluating how that policy can be adapted to ensure proportionate funding is maintained? I thank the member for that question. We are certainly interested in working with dental practices to ensure that they are financially sustainable. Our commitment in programme for government to providing free dental care shows absolutely the priority that we give to dental care for the population. We have provided significant funding for contractors to provide NHS dental services. Dentists have received a top-up payment of 80 per cent of their average monthly earnings from 2019 to 2020, and from November 2020 we increased that to 85 per cent. That remains in place. I am more than happy to hear more details of the situation in the that the member raises in his constituency. If he could write to me, I can certainly look into that particular situation and give him a fuller, more individual response. With dental practices across Scotland currently operating at restrictive capacity in line with those Covid restrictions, there have been worrying reports that, while NHS patients are having to wait months to see a dentist, those who can afford to go private are being seen within days. Is the minister not concerned that we are seeing the development of a two-tier dental system in Scotland? What steps will be taken to ensure that NHS patients who cannot afford private dental care still receive timely treatment that they need and are entitled to? I thank the member for that question. We are absolutely committed to NHS dental care and we are absolutely committed to supporting and protecting NHS dental care for all patients in Scotland. By the end of this term of Parliament, everyone in Scotland will be able to access free NHS dental care. There are particular challenges for the dental sector because of Covid, because the majority of procedures involve aerosol generating procedures. We have put in place funding to support enhanced ventilation in NHS practices, and we have also put in funding to support different types of hand-held instruments that are less likely to generate aerosols. We are doing what we can within the constraints of the pandemic to increase capacity for NHS dental care. Our commitment to NHS dental care is absolutely, fundamentally strong. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported backlog of the NHS operations. We published our NHS recovery plan on 25 August that outlines our ambitions of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10 per cent as quickly as possible in order to address the backlog and meet the on-going healthcare needs for people across the country. That is, of course, backed by £1 billion of additional Scottish Government investment. For this year alone, we have made more than £80 million available to support health boards, specifically to target the backlog of treatment and care. However, we need to remember that the pandemic is not over and that Covid-19 and other pressures will impact on the NHS for some time to come. Health boards' elective activity is being monitored through daily and weekly returns to the Scottish Government and support provided where required. I thank the cabinet secretary for the answer. We have ambulances queuing out the door of A&Es, record waiting times, all of which putting patients' lives at risk. In my own region, I have constituents reported a stroke, a heart attack. In one example, an ambulance— We need a question, Ms Gosum. One ambulance was called at 2.30am and came at 4.45am next morning. I contacted you about this, cabinet minister, and I am still waiting for a response, and that has been over a month. Can I therefore ask the cabinet secretary how he can help patients like my constituents to get the help and support that they need from the paramedics who are desperate to deliver it? I first start by thanking the ambulance service for the incredible work that they are doing when they are facing such significant pressures—pandemic pressures—that have built up the demand that Pam Gosall and all of us are seeing in the constituencies and regions that we represent. For the ambulance service specifically, we have given an additional £20 million that was already invested, and now we are starting to see recruitment come on board. In fact, last week, additional recruitment of 60 odd paramedics and ambulance staff into the north and northeast of the country. We will back that by £1 billion of additional investment. That will help to increase our capacity. However, what we will not do is when it comes to that additional £1 billion to aid our recovery, which is, by the way, £400 million more than the Conservatives are looking to spend, we will not hammer the lowest paid in order to pay for that recovery. We will make sure that that recovery, that additional investment that we bring forward, does not hit those who have already been hit hardest by the pandemic. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support rural health services following the end of Covid-19 pandemic. Our NHS recovery plan sets out key ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next five years, and that includes in rural areas. The recovery plan, as I say, has been backed by £1 billion of targeted investment. Scottish Government remains committed to the recommendations set out Sir Lewis Ritchie's shaping the future together, remote and rural general practice working group report, which aims to enhance primary care across remote, rural and island communities by ensuring stability for rural GP incomes alongside other measures that support innovative approaches to the use of IT and physical infrastructure, as well as supporting recruitment and retention practices in rural areas. Following the 2021 Scottish parliamentary elections, the recommendation to create a centre for excellence for rural and remote medicine is now a Scottish Government manifesto commitment that we will deliver in this parliamentary session. Yesterday it was revealed that more than 1,600 children have been waiting over a year for mental health support. Alarmingly, in my constituency, nearly two thirds of young people seeking help have not been seen within the 18-week NHS target time. That is absolutely shameful, I am sure that the cabinet secretary will agree with me. It is a lost generation of vulnerable children and young people, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Despite promises from the Scottish Government, services still remain under the doors. Can I ask when the Government will finally act and provide adequate and timely support from my constituents? We are acting, as my colleague Kevin Stewart outlined in a previous question. An 80 per cent increase in CAMHS staff under this Government increased spending on mental health, promised by this Government—a billion pounds of additional spending on the recovery plan by this Government—a 320 increase in CAMHS staff. Where there are specific issues in rural areas, as I am happy to work with the member to help to address those, I would give him an absolute and categorical assurance that the mental health, particularly of our children and young people, is a Government priority. Before inviting question 8, earlier in this session I asked members to be brief in their questions and ministers to be equally brief in their responses. I think that we have not seen any evidence of that this afternoon and so forth. I am going to have to consider how we go about trying to trim this back. We have three supplementaries on this question alone, none of which we will be able to take. Question 8, Mercedes Villalva, please. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that patients and staff at Old Aberdeen medical practice are consulted on the future provision of its GP services. Patient safety is absolute paramount in any changes to service provision. Integration authorities are legally required to engage and consult with staff, but it is also crucially patient to ensure the best outcomes for local communities. Aberdeen City partnership has extensively engaged with staff in the proposed changes and communicated their plans to patients, assuring them that they will continue to receive medical care at the practice. Mercedes Villalva. I thank the minister for his response. Until recently, Old Aberdeen medical practice was publicly run and it served the community well. I have met campaigners who are angry about the way in which it has been put out to tender and the previous minister ignored requests to intervene. Will the cabinet secretary agree to meet with the campaigners to hear their concerns? Of course, I absolutely consider that request. I would say that it is often from the Labour benches that we are told that government interferes and intervenes too much when it comes to local decision making. Those are local decisions to be made by local integration authorities. Now you are asking for central government to now intervene and interfere in that decision making against the best judgment of the integration authority. However, if Ms Villalva writes to me, I will consider meeting her and indeed campaigners about what I know is an important local issue. Thank you. There will be a brief interlude before we move to the next item of business.