My party promised to focus on steering Scotland through the Covid crisis. We set out an ambitious programme to drive recovery, and we pledged to give people in Scotland a choice over our future when the crisis has passed. We were elected on a clear mandate, with a record number of votes to deliver on those commitments, and that is what we intend to do. We have already started that work. Our most immediate priority is to lead Scotland safely through and out of the pandemic. To that end, we will steer a careful course back to normality, we will support our test and protect teams, we will implement enhanced public health measures when outbreaks do arise, and we will deliver vaccinations just as quickly as supplies allow. We will also work with the business sector to provide as much clarity and support as possible. As we come out of this pandemic, we will recognise that there will be bumps on the road as we are experiencing in Glasgow just now. The vaccine roll-out gives us firm hope that we are on the right track. Over the next three weeks, we will also set out our expectations for the stage beyond level 0, as we hope to return to a much greater degree of normality. We will also act now to learn lessons for the future. We have committed already to a comprehensive public inquiry, and within our first 100 days, we will establish a standing committee on pandemics. We will also lead a wider mission of national recovery and renewal. I have appointed the Deputy First Minister as Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery. He will convene the first meeting of the new cross-party steering group on Covid recovery today. A central part of the Government's programme is to support our national health service. In our first 100 days, we will publish an NHS recovery plan, setting out how we will achieve a 10 per cent increase in activity in key services. We are already implementing a 4 per cent average pay increase this year for NHS agenda for change staff. That increase, backdated to December, will be in payslips from next month. We are on course to open the first three rapid diagnostic centres for cancer. The Dumfries and Galloway Centre opened last week. It saw its first patient on Monday. Centres in Fife and Ayrshire and Arran will open over the next few weeks. As part of our 100-day plan, we are also taking steps to permanently end charges in PFI hospital car parts. We will prepare legislation to remove dental charges for care leavers as the first step towards abolishing dental charges altogether. We will publish a women's health plan. Over the course of the Parliament, we will increase spending on the NHS in Scotland by at least 20 per cent. We will complete construction of the new elective treatment centres and by 2025 recruit an additional 1,500 staff to work in them. Over the next decade, we will invest £10 billion in the NHS estate. That will support the renewal and replacement of health facilities across the country, including the Edinburgh eye pavilion here in our capital city. I can announce one important investment today. We are providing £12 million to take the East Ayrshire community hospital into full NHS ownership, bringing its PFI contract to an early close. We will also increase direct investment in mental health services by 25 per cent over the course of the Parliament. We will deliver on action to reduce the unacceptable toll of drug deaths in our country. The pandemic has brought home to all of us just how much we rely on care services and on carers. I can confirm that in our first 100 days, we will legislate to ensure that all those who receive the carers allowance supplement will receive a double payment, worth £460 in December of this year. In our first 100 days, we will begin the consultation on legislation to establish a national care service. We intend to introduce the legislation during the first year of this Parliament and expect the service to be operational by the end of the Parliament. That will be, in my view, the most important public sector innovation since the establishment of our national health service. During our first 100 days, we will also complete one of the major legacies of the last Parliament. From August, all three and four-year-olds and two-year-olds who need it most will be eligible for more than 1,100 hours of free early learning and childcare each year. In this Parliament, we will expand childcare further by developing, for example, the provision of wraparound care and after-school clubs. We will also continue our work to close the school attainment gap. In our first 100 days, we will publish the OECD report on Scottish education and start to implement its recommendations. We will provide local authorities with the first instalment of our expanded £1 billion Scottish attainment fund. We will fund councils for the first phase of our commitment to recruit 3,500 more teachers and classroom assistants. We will begin work to ensure that all children have access to a laptop or tablet and take steps to remove charges for core curriculum activities and for music and arts education, including instrumental music tuition. We will fund a special £20 million summer programme of support this year and activities for children and young people. We will make free breakfast and lunches available to all primary four children in Scotland as the next step towards extending them to all primary school children all year round. We will increase the school clothing grant and the best start food grant. Before we formally expand the Scottish child payment next year and prepare to double its value, we will provide interim support for eligible children, including a £100 payment near the start of the summer holidays. To support young adults during this Parliament, we will raise the age at which people become liable for council tax from 18 to 22. We will establish a new grant of £200 a year for care experience young people as part of our promise to those with experience of care. We will continue to develop the young person's guarantee, ensuring that every young person has the opportunity of education, training or work. We will fund colleges to deliver 5,000 short industry-focused courses for young people. We will establish a green jobs academy and set out the next phase of our national transition training fund. That support for skills and young people is part of our wider mission to create a fairer Scotland. During our first 100 days, we will provide 40,000 digital devices to households who need them most. We will develop a plan to tackle social isolation and loneliness. We will begin longer-term work to develop a minimum income guarantee. We will also invest the first part of our multi-year £100 million commitment to support specialist front-line organisations tackling domestic abuse and sexual violence. Throughout this Parliament, we will also support safer communities by investing in our police and fire services. We will continue to support good-quality affordable housing. In our first 100 days, we will begin work on a new strategy for the rented sector, as well as a review of student accommodation. Over the Parliament, we will invest a total of £3.5 billion to support our pledge to deliver 100,000 new affordable homes by 2032. We will continue our work to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, and we will invest a further £1.6 billion and introduce new housing standards to support the decarbonisation of heating. We will also work with councils, businesses and third sector organisations to improve local neighbourhoods. That will include legislation to support community wealth building and steps to ensure more local procurement. In our first 100 days, we will launch the Scotland loves local campaign to encourage more support for local businesses. That is just one of the ways in which we will promote economic recovery. During our first 100 days, we will establish a new council for economic transformation. We will support specific business sectors, including food and drink and tourism. We will publish a plan for the safe reopening of cultural venues and performances and work with the event sector to support its full resumption. We will also continue to support our digital ambitions. Over our first 100 days, we will restart the digital boost scheme and open a new 5G innovation centre in Dundee. Over the course of the Parliament, we will fully implement the Logan review. We will also complete our investment in the National Manufacturing Institute, continue to promote our vision for trade and increase infrastructure spending. We will also capitalise the Scottish National Investment Bank with a further £1 billion. We will work to ensure that our recovery is a fair one. We will promote fair work, including through public sector procurement. We will support women entrepreneurs with a £50 million funding for a women's business centre. We will boost a rural economy through, for example, a rural entrepreneur fund. Over the course of the Parliament, we will help willing companies pilot a four-day working week, as we explore whether the changes in working practices brought about by the pandemic can, for the long term, improve wellbeing and productivity. We will also work to ensure that our recovery is a green one. In less than six months' time, Glasgow is due to host COP26, the most important discussions that will take place in the world this year. In our first 100 days, we will publish an indicative national-defined contribution, setting out how Scotland will become a net zero nation by 2045. We will take further steps to decarbonise our transport network, including in our first 100 days beginning the process of taking ScotRail into public ownership. We will work with local authorities to resume low-emission zones in our cities, and we will encourage active travel, which will include a scheme to provide bikes for children. We will also introduce legislation to make bus travel free for young people under the age of 22 and convene a bus decarbonisation task force to remove the majority of fossil fuel buses from public transport by the end of 2023. Over the Parliament, we will also protect and enhance our natural habitats and reduce waste. We will increase woodland creation from 12,000 hectares a year to 18,000. Over this decade, we will invest more than £250 million in peatland restoration. We will ban single-use plastic cutlery, launch a deposit return scheme for single-use drinks, containers and introduce a bill to promote the circular economy. Finally, we will work to seize the economic opportunities that the move to net zero will create. In our first 100 days, we will set out a strategic investment assessment, as we seek to better support the offshore wind supply chain. Over the Parliament, we will invest £100 million to support the development of hydrogen technologies. We will help companies in high-carbon sectors to transition to low-carbon technologies and services. As we do all of this, we will stay true to the principle of a just transition both here in Scotland and around the world. As I very much hope is obvious from the policy initiatives that I have just set out, this Government is focused on steering Scotland through the Covid crisis and on building a sustainable and fair recovery from the Covid crisis. There are many elements of our vision and programme that I hope will command support right across this chamber. Having talked about what we intend to do, I want to say a few words now about how we aim to do it. It is often said and I think that it is broadly true that, at least among some of the parties in this chamber, there is more in a policy sense that unites us than divides us. Indeed, when this Parliament was established, the hope was that a more consensual and constructive way of working would take root. The promise back then was that the old ways of Westminster would not simply be transplanted here to Holyrood. We may not always have lived up to that, but if there was ever a time to renew that promise, it is surely now. In Scotland and right across our world, we have massive challenges to confront and to overcome. A global pandemic, the climate emergency and the need to build an economic recovery that is strong, sustainable and fair. In the face of all that, people across Scotland expect—indeed, I suspect—the demand a grown-up and co-operative approach to politics that puts the interests of the country first. My party, without any doubt, won a substantial mandate in the election, and we have, as I have just set out in summary, an ambitious policy programme to take forward. However, we do not claim a monopoly of wisdom. We want to reach out and find the best solutions to the toughest of problems. Our duty is to co-operate, and to co-operate not to find the lowest common denominator but as a way of raising the bar ever higher. That is how I will seek to govern in this new term of Parliament. Shortly after the election, I met anasarwar to discuss areas where the SNP and Labour may work together. I am keen to develop those discussions further and I extend a similar offer to other parties across the chamber. Most significantly, as I can share with Parliament today, since the election, I have had a series of exploratory discussions with the Scottish Green Party about how we might work together more formally in future. Initially, even though we were not negotiating a coalition, those discussions were supported through the formation of government facility available to all parties during and immediately after an election. Since the new government was appointed last week, the discussions have been supported by the civil service at my direction. I am pleased to advise Parliament that, at a meeting in Butehouse last night, I agreed with the Scottish Green Party that we will now move those informal discussions to the next stage. I can confirm that the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party will enter structured talks supported by the civil service with a view to reaching, if we can, a formal co-operation agreement. Exactly what the content, extent and scope of any agreement will be is, of course, what those talks will focus on. Of course, any agreement that emerges from those talks will be subject to the necessary approval processes of the cabinet and each of our parties. However, what we hope to achieve is potentially groundbreaking. In the coming weeks, we will seek to agree specific policy areas in which we would formally co-operate, and within each, identify the shared objectives and policy initiatives that we would be agreeing to work together on. I am confident that those policy areas will include the climate emergency and how we can accelerate our progress to net zero. However, we are keen to identify other issues, too, and not just where we already have a similar outlook, but also where co-operation will be more challenging for both of us. We will also seek to agree a model of joint working within Government to support progress in the areas of co-operation. That could include formal processes of consultation and, in our agreed areas of co-operation, the involvement of the Green Party in Scottish Government policy development and delivery. It would also include details of any reciprocal support that the Greens would give to aspects of the Government's legislative policy and budgetary programmes. Obviously, we need to see how much progress those talks can make, and we should not get too far ahead of ourselves today. However, as we embark on that progress, we are setting no limits on our ambition. On that vein, let me be clear that, although that is not a guaranteed or a pre-agreed outcome, it is not inconceivable that a co-operation agreement could lead in future to a Green Minister or ministers being part of this Government. The key point for today is that we are both agreeing to come out of our comfort zones to find new ways of working for the common good, to change the dynamic of our politics for the better and give meaning to the founding principles of our Parliament. What we are embarking on will require compromise on both sides, but it will also require us to be bold, and given the challenges that we face, that is a good thing. It is also the whole point. It is worth noting perhaps that neither of us is doing this because we need to. It has not been forced upon us by parliamentary arithmetic. Indeed, we are taking a risk that the talks will not succeed, but we are prepared to do this because if we do succeed, the benefits to the country could be significant. By working together, we can help to build a better future for Scotland. Of course, as we look to Scotland's future, one obvious point of agreement between us is that that future should be in Scotland's hands. As we emerge from crisis, there is a fundamental question that must be addressed. Who has the right to decide the kind of country Scotland becomes after the crisis is over? There is a choice of two very different futures. There is the Westminster choice, a hard Brexit costing jobs, hitting living standards and holding back recovery, trade deals that threaten our rural communities, social security cuts that put children into poverty, callous dawn raids, an increase in nuclear warheads while overseas aid is cut, and all of this against the wishes of most people who live here. Or there is the alternative, not a panacea but a future in which this Parliament has the full range of powers to shape and build a fairer, more prosperous country, a future in which we are an equal partner with our friends in the rest of the UK and across Europe. Which path Scotland takes should not be the choice of any single politician or party. It must be a decision of the people. That is why, once the crisis is over, people in Scotland should have the right to make that choice. The election result delivered a substantial majority in this Parliament for an independence referendum within the current term. There is no justification for the UK Government seeking to block that mandate. To do so would suggest that the Tories no longer consider the UK to be a voluntary union of nations and it would be profoundly undemocratic. To conclude the question of what powers this Parliament should have will always be debated passionately. Our different opinions on that should not obscure our common desire to make the most of the powers that we already have. That task is more urgent than ever. This term of Parliament will be the most important in our devolved history. The past 15 months have been full of sadness and heartbreak, but they have also reminded us of the human capacity for ingenuity, compassion and solidarity. New vaccines developed from a standing start, testing infrastructure established from scratch, people pulling together in ways that would once have been unimaginable. There are fewer changes now that seem unimaginable or unachievable. The plans that I have set out today are unashamedly ambitious. We will tackle the Covid crisis as our immediate priority. We will lead by example in addressing the climate crisis. We will create a national care service to match the post-war national health service. We will widen opportunities for young people. We will build a modern high-tech economy while staying true to enduring values of fairness and compassion. We will seek a better politics, and we will put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands. Our programme is rooted in today's reality, but it also shows the way to a brighter tomorrow. I look forward to working across this chamber as we get on with the job of delivering it. Thank you. The First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow 40 minutes or so for questions after which we will move to the next item of business, and it would be helpful if members who wish to ask questions were to press their request to speak buttons now. I call on Douglas Ross. For most of the First Minister's statement, she spoke of the pressing issues facing Scotland right now. Finally, putting more teachers in our schools. Finally, delivering on child care promises.  On those issues, there are points where we can agree and work constructively with parties across this chamber. Ultimately, as always, this comes down to independence for the SNP. It is there in the third line of her statement. It took just 15 seconds for Nicola Sturgeon to talk up the prospect of another referendum. Of course, we are not going to go back to the old ways of Westminster unless it suits the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon speaks of bringing people together, then pushes the most divisive proposal imaginable. That is not a speech to unite Scotland. It is not a statement of the people's priorities. It is a regurgitation of the SNP's top priority. It sets up the same old us versus them choice, the same bitterness, the same division, the same proposals that the SNP thrive on. That this Parliament does have a choice. Either we can be a Parliament of action that focuses 100 per cent on people's priorities and gets things done using the powers that this Parliament has right now, or another five years, will be wasted as this Government gets more and more distracted as time goes on. The Scottish Conservatives have set out our priorities. At least 15 bills to rebuild Scotland to spread opportunities across the country to restore power to our communities. Will she agree to bring forward a right to recovery to tackle our shameful drug deaths in this country? Will she work with us on a victim's law to put our justice system on the side of victims? Will she bring forward an enterprise bill that delivers economic recovery for every single part of Scotland? Why should any of those pressing issues take a backseat to the First Minister's drive for another independence referendum? In some of the answers to the question that Douglas Rodd has added on there, I am happy, as I said in my statement, to discuss all of those ideas and suggestions as we finalise, as we will do later this year, our programme for government for the first full year of this new Parliament. That invitation is there, the door is open and I hope that we will see parties across this chamber walk through that and work with us as we try to not pretend that we do not have differences of opinion, we live in a democracy, but be prepared to rise above those differences to work together in the common good. I think that I have made clear today my willingness to do that. More generally, in response to Douglas Ross, we have, of course, just had an election, that wonderful expression of democracy. In that election, I said to the Scottish people that, if I was re-elected as First Minister, I would prioritise first and foremost leading us through the Covid recovery. I would put forward an ambitious policy programme to drive our economic recovery. Then, when the crisis was over, I would propose that the people of Scotland get the opportunity to choose our long-term future. My party won that election and I have set out today how I intend to deliver on the commitments that I made in that election and which we are so thoroughly endorsed in the mandate that the Scottish people gave us. Douglas Ross was right to say that most of my statement focused on what we will do just in our first 100 days, building on the progress that we have made. He talked about teachers and childcare. Teacher numbers in our schools have been increasing ever since I became First Minister. We have been taking forward the plans to double childcare, and that has been slightly delayed because of Covid. From August this year, that promise will be delivered in full, and now we are moving on to the next phase. That is our focus. I say to people across the chamber, stop re-fighting the election. The people of Scotland had their say and made their decision. Now let us debate our differences robustly and in a spirit of civility, but let us come together where we can to work on the things that we can agree on in the interests of the people of Scotland.  I am willing to work with anyone in the national interests on the issues that we agree on. Let us be clear that this is not day 1 of an SNP Government, it is day 5136. Retrick is no longer enough. We need action. It is good to see the Greens formalising and accepting their long-standing coalition of cuts as part of the statement, but this country needs a bold and ambitious opposition and a credible alternative, as Scottish Labour under my leadership is determined to build it. This Government must be bolder and more ambitious, so if the First Minister is serious about focusing on recovery, will she commit in the first 100 days to deliver a genuine jobs guarantee scheme for young people and the long-term unemployed, to double the Scottish child payment to challenge child poverty, to remobilise the NHS to confront Scotland's biggest killer, cancer and to take urgent action to avoid a repeat of the SQA exams fiasco? The First Minister is right that this is not day 1 of an SNP Government, it is the beginning of a re-elected SNP term of government. I would say to Anna Sarwar that the people of Scotland had the opportunity to cast a judgement on the 5136 days of SNP Government, and they re-elected this Government with a record number of votes. Everybody across the chamber, if they care about democracy, has to recognise that basic fact, but I want to reach out and work together. I initiated a meeting not long after the election with Anna Sarwar, which I thought was very constructive, and I looked to building on that. In relation to the specifics that he asked me about, we have already established a young person's guarantee, and we are absolutely willing to have discussions about how we build and develop that further. Our first budget will set out how we will proceed with the doubling of the child payment, something that we all want to do as quickly as possible. On cancer remobilisation, the work to remobilise our NHS is already under way. I said in my statement that we have already opened, in Dumfries and Galloway, the first of the rapid diagnostic centres that I committed to during the election. Two more will open over the next few weeks. That work is all under way. The Government will get on with it, whether the opposition parties choose to co-operate with us or not. However, the door is open. Let's genuinely try to do our politics differently. Let's respect differences and debate those vigorously. However, let's come together. Anna Sarwar made much during the campaign of wanting a different style of politics. It's now time to prove whether he's prepared to put that into action. He will find my door open and a real willingness for us all to work together. There is no doubt that the decisions that we make in this chamber over the coming years will shape the future of the whole of Scotland, our society and our place in the world. It's our responsibility to get it right, to come together and take action to secure a fair and green recovery for Scotland. I look forward to our talks progressing. We need to roll up our sleeves and practice the grown-up politics of negotiation, co-operation and consensus building. A green recovery means jobs. It means leaving no one behind. It means reducing carbon emissions and restoring our natural environment. We can succeed, but only if we all pull in the same direction. Does the First Minister recognise that tackling the climate crisis and building a wellbeing economy means leaving our comfort zones and taking ever-bolder action? Will she integrate that objective across all levels of Government decision making? I want to pick up on what the First Minister has said about being bold and taking risks and leaving our comfort zones. The parliamentary arithmetic of this chamber means that my Government could decide to simply govern alone, as we did in the last parliamentary session, and the Greens would have been justified in saying that we don't want to have any more formal co-operation. We are both deciding not to do that, not because we need to, but because we think that it could be in the interests of the country. In doing this, we are taking risks. The talks that we are having, I hope, go well, but they may not succeed. However, we think that it is a risk that is worth taking because of the scale of the challenges that we face and the expectation of the public to see their politicians work together where we can. It is absolutely correct to say that the challenges that we face right now are huge, but they also have implications for every aspect of what we do. We need to see them in that holistic way. For example, I have appointed a Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, bringing together those areas where normally there is tension to recognise the fact that meeting the challenges that we face right now takes cross-government action. I am certainly determined to seek to lead in that way. I welcome the constructive way in which the Greens have entered into those discussions. I hope that they develop positively. However, I think that the Greens are to be commended for taking that risk. I think that the people of Scotland are the ones that stand to benefit. I very much look forward to taking forward our agenda in that spirit. I call Willie Rennie. We will seek to co-operate just like we did in the pandemic last year. In the election, the First Minister rightly promised that she would defer a referendum until the effects of the pandemic were over. By May 2026, will patients wait longer than 12 weeks for their NHS treatment? Will young people wait longer than 18 weeks for their mental health treatment? Will Scotland no longer have the highest drug death rate in Europe? And will the poverty-related attainment gap in schools be closed completely? Will those promises be delivered before the First Minister presses for a referendum? On the issues of NHS waiting times, we will set out—I think that next week in Parliament or certainly over the next couple of weeks—our plans to remobilise the NHS and to get waiting times, not just back to where they were pre-pandemic but where we want them to be. We will also set out more of our plans around education and closing the educational attainment gap. Everything that I said to the Scottish public in the election is what we will now seek to take forward and deliver. Willie Rennie and I disagree on the issue of Scottish independence, but one of the key points here is that, while we will not pursue a referendum until we are out of the Covid crisis, it is nevertheless the case that the issues of what powers and levers we have in this Parliament and the issue of recovery and what we are recovering to are interlinked. They cannot be separated. I do not believe in his heart that Willie Rennie, any more than I do, wants Scotland's recovery to be guided and steered by Boris Johnson. I really do not. However, if we are to avoid that in the long term, we have to take those decisions into our own hands. Fundamentally, we can disagree, but it should not be for me to decide that. It should not be for Willie Rennie to decide that. It should be for the people of Scotland to decide that. That is the proposition that we put before the people in the election and the proposition on which we were overwhelmingly elected. Emma Harper The First Minister has outlined an ambitious plan to take Scotland forward, and I welcome this. However, the UK Government has already passed and proposed bills such as the internal market bill, the levelling up fund and the shared prosperity fund, which means that the UK Government can undermine the powers of our Scottish Parliament, which are set out in the Scotland act. Given that, can the First Minister outline how those UK bills will impact or impede the priorities for our Government in Scotland and what action can be taken to prevent an attack on our Parliament's powers? We have already seen in the last Parliament the variety of ways in which the UK Government is seeking to encroach on the powers and responsibilities of this Parliament. That is undeniable and undisputable. We are starting to see the potential implications of that, the potential for trade deals, for example, to devastate our rural communities. That is not abstract, it is not hypothetical, it is real. It also brings to the fore a key issue. The debate about Scotland's future over the next period is not about a debate between some status quo, some benign status quo and independence. It is a debate about whether we continue to allow a UK Government to take powers away from this Parliament or whether we decide to take more of those powers into our own hands so that we can build the country that we want Scotland to be. I think that people in Scotland have a right to make that decision. Of course they want my focus to be on leading us through the Covid crisis and it absolutely will be for as long as required. However, as we come out of the crisis, the question of what kind of country we want to be and who makes those decisions is absolutely central to what we recover to and the values that underpin it. Auditor General recently heavily criticised the Scottish Government for a lack of clarity and transparency when it came to the spending of public money, saying that much more should have been done to provide value for money and to facilitate the necessary parliamentary scrutiny. What steps has the First Minister put in process to address those very serious concerns for the Auditor General? We respond to all Audit Scotland reports and we set out the steps that we will be taking in response to recommendations that are made and that will be the case in that report. Of course, scrutiny of this Government is a key part of the responsibilities of this Parliament. We are, even after the resounding election victory that we have just enjoyed, we are a minority Government and therefore it is incumbent on all of us to work together to make sure that that scrutiny is robust. We have all got a job to do there, the committees of this Parliament, the opposition parties in this Parliament and us as a Government to make sure that we aid that transparency. On that, as on everything else, the election is over. We have all had our say in the election, we have all had the arguments in the election and the people have decided that this is in many ways the opportunity for a fresh start to respect the differences between us. I say again that my door is open, the door of this Government is open to anybody who wants to come to us with good ideas about how we can make life better for the people of Scotland. I am ready to listen. The question is, are other parties in this Parliament ready to work in that way? Willie Coffey, to be followed by Jackie Baillie. Can I ask the First Minister if she can provide any more details on the £100 million digital boost scheme for small businesses? In particular, what steps the Government will take to quote digital innovation and digital accessibility in Scotland so that we don't lose the momentum on this that has been evident during Covid? Can I thank Willie Coffey very much for his question and, since he is a very good and dear friend of mine, I am going to stay completely clear of the issue of football in the duration of my answer today. On the specifics, we will set out shortly the detail of the digital boost fund and the other funding commitments that we have made to improve the digital connectedness and capability of the country. One of the important commitments that we have given, and I mentioned it today, is to implement and fulfil the Logan review, which is so important to realise the economic potential of becoming a high-tech nation. Crucially, we recognise the work that we have started, but it still has to be progressed to make sure that we close the digital divide. Getting devices and connections to those most in need is critical and key. Of course, the work that we have committed to making sure that every young person in our schools has access to a laptop or a tablet. We need to make sure that we have the digital infrastructure, we need to make sure that people have the skills to use that infrastructure, and that they have the devices and connections as well. That is an exciting programme of work, one that will bring a lot of benefits for Scotland, and one that, if we do it right, will give Scotland a competitive edge in the global economy. Jackie Baillie, to be followed by Rona Mackay. Even before the pandemic, waiting lists for diagnostics and treatment were growing, and the SNP's improvement plans were failing to deliver. At the end of 2019, 26,000 patients were waiting longer than the 12-week treatment time guarantee. That is a third of all patients, and a further 18,000 people waited more than six weeks for a diagnostic test. When the treatment time guarantee was introduced in 2012, 62 people were waiting longer than 12 weeks. Now, that number is 62,000. Can I ask the First Minister? We had an NHS remobilisation plan less than a year ago, and now we have another NHS remobilisation plan announced. However, what patients want to know is when will they be seen? First Minister, how much longer will people have to wait? I think that if Jackie Baillie is seriously saying that a remobilisation plan that was rightly published at the very early stages of a global pandemic should not be updated a year into that global pandemic, I am not sure that she will find many people across the country who agree with her. The remobilisation plan, which is for the longer-term recovery of our national health service, short, medium and longer-term, as we seek to put the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future, is critical in a key part of our plans. Humza Yousaf will set out more detail of that shortly. In terms of waiting times, before the pandemic, our £850 million waiting time improvement plan was starting to reduce the longest waits and have a positive impact on waiting times. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic has set all of that back and more. The job of work and the scale of the task ahead of us is considerable. It is partly about building capacity in our NHS, and there are a range of plans under way to do that. However, it is also partly about redesigning pathways of care. The Centre for Sustainable Delivery in the NHS, a relatively new innovation, will be key to some of that work. This is a big job of work, not just for this Government, but for Governments across the world to get health services back on track and on to a sustainable footing. There are a few more important things that we will do over the next weeks and months than this. Can the First Minister outline how this Government will continue to take forward the actions and the equally safe strategy? Will the First Minister commit to giving serious consideration to the recommendations from Lady Dorian's review so that we can deliver a justice system that survivors of sexual crimes have confidence in? Yes, as our manifesto, and if memory serves me correctly, I do not think that it was the only manifesto to commit to taking forward, obviously with appropriate consultation, the recommendations in Lady Dorian's report. I am very committed to doing that, and I hope that it is an area on which we can build significant cross-party consensus. The equally safe plan is important, and one of the key commitments that we made in the election was to a new £100 million multi-year fund to support the specialist front-line services that would do so much to help and support those who are affected by domestic violence and sexual violence. I have set out today that, within our first 100 days, we will make the first money from that available. The organisations across our country who provide that specialist support do a fantastic job, but their services are under pressure. They are often waiting times for access to those services, and that is something that we are determined to address. We did not hear an answer to Douglas Ross's earlier question, so let me ask the First Minister again. Despite Scotland's appalling drug death figures, many people are being denied the help that they need. Will the First Minister support our proposals for a right to recovery bill to enshrine in law that everyone should have access to the necessary drug or alcohol treatment that they need? I am afraid that Annie Wells, if she had listened, did hear an answer to the question. Yes, I am prepared to discuss that. I am not going to stand here. I do not know the detail of what the Scottish Conservatives are proposing. I do not know all of the detail of that. In Government, it is important that we understand the detail before we give commitments to take something forward. I hope that the Scottish Conservatives can find it within themselves to embrace the areas where we might be able to build common ground. There is a willingness and an open door to discuss that. If Annie Wells can stop mouthing things at me from a sedentary position, we could perhaps genuinely find some common ground. I cannot be more positive and fairer than that. It is up to the Scottish Conservatives whether they choose to respond in an equally positive way. Neil Gray, to be followed by Martin Whitfield. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the First Minister for her statement and appreciate the focus on recovery from the pandemic, but also the clear and bold ambition going forward based on finding consensus. Yesterday, the Social Justice and Fairness Commission that she established published its report, which included a call for the expansion of the Scottish child payment. I welcome the work in that area already under way and coming over the summer ahead of greater expansion. However, can the First Minister outline how many children and families are due to benefit as the roll-out continues and what impact that intervention is expected to have on child poverty rates in Scotland? First Minister, I think that it is the first opportunity that I have had in the chamber to welcome him formally to this Parliament. I have no doubt that he will be a really valuable addition to our discussions and debates here in the Scottish Parliament. The Social Justice and Fairness Commission, which was an SNP, not a Scottish Government initiative that the report published yesterday, has fantastic ideas, suggestions and policy initiatives that I hope will find their way into not just the policy programme of this Government, many of them have already done that, but the policy programmes of other parties as well. At the heart of our efforts to tackle and in time eradicate child poverty, which should be our objective, is the doubling of the Scottish child payment. There are tens of thousands of children already benefiting from that. I do not have the precise figure in front of me and many more will benefit as we extend the reach of the child payment next year and then double its value as soon as possible. That is a really concrete, tangible example of what we can do when we have powers to act here in Holyrood. Unfortunately, we have a UK Government that is still saying that it will take away the universal credit uplift and potentially make changes that will put more children into poverty. That is the argument for having complete powers over social security here in the Scottish Parliament so that we can tackle those problems in a genuinely joined up and holistic manner. Martin Whitfield to be followed by Kenneth Gibson Can I extend my good wishes to you in your new role and can I thank the First Minister for her statement? With regard to the additional teachers and classroom assistance, can she confirm that it will be 1,000 full-time equivalent teachers and 500 classroom assistance? Can she confirm that the local authorities will be given their share of that breakdown as soon as possible, given that next term's planning is already taking place? I also take the opportunity to welcome Martin Whitfield here to Holyrood and Wishamwell for his time here. In terms of the question that he asked, the 1,000 additional teachers, 500 classroom assistance, that is part of our overall commitment to 3,500 teachers and classroom assistance. That is a whole-time equivalent but, of course, the precise balance in each local authority will be for local authorities to judge based on need. We will work with local authorities to get the detail of that to them as quickly as possible to aid with the planning that is under way. Of course, that builds on the additional teachers that were recruited over the course of the last Parliament. First Minister, as you will be aware, our Clyde and Hebrideen ferry services have had to cope in recent days with vessel breakdowns and weather cancellations whilst having 70 per cent fewer passengers due to social distancing. The result is that islanders struggle to travel on tourists. The lifeblood of island economies cannot visit impacting on island recovery. Social distancing restrictions do not apply to those flying to islands, so when can further easing on ferries be expected? Before I address the question on physical distancing, I know that Graham Day, the new transport minister, has just answered a question on ferry provision in the chamber. We recognise how unacceptable recent disruption has been and everyone is working hard to address and resolve that as quickly as possible. On physical distancing, as we come out of this crisis, we need to take care because we do not want to set ourselves back. We are already seeing, as I described earlier, bumps in the road in Glasgow. We want to minimise any potential to set our progress back. I announced a few weeks ago, after the election, that we are carrying out a more fundamental review of physical distancing. We will set out the outcome of that as soon as possible. That is about looking longer term to the time when we are restoring a greater degree of normality to look at whether it is possible in different environments to have shorter distances or, in some environments, ultimately, perhaps no distance at all. However, it is important that we get that work right. It does have a relevance to ferries, of course, but it has wider relevance too, and we will publish the outcome of that as soon as possible. Despite the best efforts of teachers, parents, carers and young people, most pupils in Scotland have lost out on an estimated 16 weeks of classroom lessons over the last year. That disruption follows on from 14 years of SNP failure and the First Minister's broken promise to make education her number one priority. Surely now is the time to put our young people first, so will the First Minister consider funding all 3,500 new teaching and learning assistant posts now so that they can make the maximum contribution to helping our young people to catch up and give those who need it most the best chance of success? Oliver Mundell raises reasonable questions, but in his characterisation of the Government, I would simply say that his assessment is not shared by the Scottish people. I stand here as a re-elected First Minister with a record number of votes. I suspect that if the Scottish Conservatives continue to try to refight the election over and over again, they will end up having the same outcomes. However, on the substance of the question, we will consider how quickly we make the funding available for the 3,500 teachers and classroom assistants. Of course, as Oliver Mundell will be aware, that is not just about funding, it is about how quickly it is practically possible to recruit teachers. That is an important priority for us and we will take that forward as quickly as possible. In our first 100 days, we will make the funding available for 1,000 teachers and 500 classroom assistants. More generally, there is a job of work to do to help young people to catch up, not just in educational terms but also in social and wellbeing terms as well, which is why the summer programme that I mentioned in my statement is important too. I know that the education secretary will be making available more details of that shortly. On the back of our very welcome manifesto commitment to renew every play park in Scotland, could the First Minister give an indication as to when funding will be starting to get distributed out and what consideration has been given to providing sensory play opportunities for children with autism? I welcome Collette Stevenson to Parliament. I am delighted to see her here. The commitment that we made in the election to make available funding to refurbish all play parks across Scotland was one of those election commitments that you very quickly realise has penetrated beyond the political bubble. On the one day of good weather, I think that we had in the whole election campaign, I was in Queen's Park in my own constituency and many young people were talking about that. It illustrates that, during the pandemic, people have realised how important it is to get outdoors and how important it is for children to have good, safe places to play. I think that that is a really special commitment and one that we are determined to take forward as quickly as possible. In response to the two questions, we will start to make that funding available. We will discuss with local authorities the allocation of that and seek to start making that available within the first 100 days of the Government. Yes, we will absolutely ensure that the importance of sensory play parks is recognised. I remember a few years ago opening a sensory play park in Fife for children with disabilities. It is an absolutely wonderful place and we want to make sure that play parks are fully accessible for all children. It is a really important point to have raised. Colin Smyth, to be followed by Clare Adamson. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and congratulations on your new role. Just over a year ago, the Government announced the important bills, the Good Food Nations Bill, the Circular Economy Bill, a proper ban on hunting, reform of the Gender Recognition Act, which would all be paused, not scrapped but paused, due to a lack of parliamentary time paused by the pandemic. So, could the First Minister confirm that all of those paused bills will be brought before Parliament before another referendum bill? All of those bills will be brought before Parliament and we will set out, as is customary, in the programme for government in the first sitting day after the summer recess subject, of course, to the agreement with the Parliamentary Bureau, our legislative programme for the next year. That will set out the timing and the timescales for all of our proposed legislation. However, I repeat a point that I made earlier on. We have had suggestions already in this session from Opposition parties about bills that they would like to see us take forward. So, the door is open if there are people who want to make suggestions beyond those we are already considering. Clare Adamson, to be followed by John Mason. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, your statement on your first 100 days priorities is focused rightly on tackling child poverty and inequality. Part of the raft of measures of this area is the removal of additional charges in school for corculable activities in subjects such as music, technology, science and home economics. Will the First Minister provide an indicative timescales on why we can expect to see those changes in our classrooms? As I said in my statement, we will start the discussions with local authorities within our first 100 days to make sure that we are taking the steps and providing the way with offer councils to do that. Once we have had those discussions, we will be able to set out a firmer timescale for when the charges will be removed. However, that is something that I hope that we see happen soon and in the early stages of this Parliament. For a whole variety of reasons, it will be good for young people to make sure that they can take advantage of, for example, music education without the barrier of cost that I know has held some back in recent years. John Mason Thank you. The First Minister mentioned the first moves to take ScotRail into public ownership during the 100 days. I wonder if she can give any more details on the timescale for this, and is it affected by the UK Government's announcement of the so-called Great British Railways? No, we will take forward that commitment as planned, although it will require lots of planning and lots of discussions. Much of that is already under way. The timescale, of course, aligns with the end of the current contract, which is why it is important to get this work under way within the first 100 days. The Transport Secretary in due course will set out updates. In fact, I would imagine that he will set out regular updates to Parliament on the progress of that work. However, although I do not underestimate the challenges involved in it, I think that this is something, again, I hope, cross-party, that we can celebrate as a really good move, bringing our railways back into public ownership and also taking that opportunity, as I hope we can, to accelerate the decarbonisation of our railway system as well. We will ensure that Parliament is kept fully updated as that work progresses. That concludes the First Minister's statement on Scottish Government priorities. I would like to take this opportunity to remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and across the campus. I ask that members take care to observe those measures, including when entering and exiting the chamber.


You must be familiar with such Bollywood scenes where an elderly person upon receiving a sad news puts his hand on his chest and collapses to the ground as if struck by a bullet. He is then rushed to the hospital where the doctor announces that it was a heart attack. Well here most of us may find it funny and non-scientific about the relationship between a sad news and a heart attack but let me tell you in reality they do have a relationship and we will talk about it later in the video but before that let us understand what is a heart attack. So we call it a heart attack when the blood flow to a part of the heart muscle is blocked and who supplies blood to the heart muscle? The coronary arteries right? So any blockage in them could cause a heart attack but how is it the sad news that caused a block? Let's find out. To understand it better we have enlarged a part of the coronary artery here and if you could recall from our previous video we discussed about plaque deposition. This is a plaque. These plaques are cholesterol rich fibrous fatty deposit on the membrane of the arteries creating some obstruction to the blood flow and these plaques they grow in size over time. Now when this plaque breaks due to high blood pressure it could block the arteries. Let's see how. So this plaque material can flow downstream with the blood and can block smaller arterioles. On top of that this plaque material they have the tendency to generate blood clots. They can create or generate these blood clots as soon as they come in contact with the blood and apart from that this plaque can create disaster in another way. It can partially detach itself from the arterial wall while parts of it still attach to the artery as you can see and it can flip back and forth in the artery okay like a leaf of a plant and it can block the artery for long enough time to cause a heart attack. How notorious are these plaque you see? And the cardiac muscles which are oxygen deficit now if not treated within 20 minutes of blockage will start to die but this condition is totally reversible if diagnosed early but irreversible damage can be caused if not treated within a maximum of 30 minutes of blockage so time is crucial therefore in medicine they say time is muscle. Now anyone who has a heart attack does not necessarily need to have that classic Bollywood style chest pain and collapsing on the floor kind of heart attack. Most heart attacks have very subtle and only mild discomfort in their chest that intensifies over time. People also feel pain in their arms, abdomens, some in their jaws as well along with shortness of breath and sweating and sometimes it could have no symptom at all. So when you rush such a patient to the hospital what do doctors do first? First of all doctors would test if it is a heart attack or not through an ECG. We have made a video on ECG please check that if you want to know what ECG is. Then when the doctor is confirmed that it's a heart attack he immediately gives him certain medications, medication that could dissolve the plaque, medication that could make the blood very thin with the hope that the blood will flow through the little tiny space that the plaque has left for it but if that doesn't help then the doctor goes for something called the angioplasty where the doctor inserts a thin metal rod which is called a catheter into the artery into the blocked artery that has a deflated balloon kind of thing there and when it reaches the exact position of blockage the doctor inflates the balloon. He deflates it back again and brings the catheter out of the artery and that way the plaque reduces in size with the pressure of the balloon and sometimes the catheter leaves a metal stand inside the artery assuring that the arteries will remain open and the plaque will not regrow in that area and sometimes the alternate option is a bypass surgery for example let's say here is the blockage okay in that case the doctor will extract arteries from other part of the body and will attach it in such a way that the blood could bypass the blockage and still reach the heart muscles so these are the treatment options for a heart attack okay now coming back to our opening scene where a person got a heart attack when he heard a sad news or a shocking news okay now how is that possible if you ask i would tell you that our heartbeat is influenced by our mood because at the time of stress there are a number of neurons that releases neurotransmitters onto the heart that influence the heart rate and not just neurotransmitters there are hormones released by other parts of the body during stress or during an emergency situation that can also influence the heart rate and when the heart rate increases the blood flow the speed of the blood flowing through the arteries also increase that means the blood pressure increases right and we just saw how blood pressure can rupture or uproot a plaque and that can lead to a heart attack now apart from such an unfavorable situation age heredity sex can also play a role in heart attack but we have no control over those right on the other hand the factors upon which we have control and we could change them to avoid a heart attack our tobacco smoking consuming a healthy diet avoiding sedentary lifestyle taking control of diabetes and getting regular health checkups