Seòmar agus comataidhean

Will the forthcoming retail strategy address the marked decline in retail and customer service modern apprenticeship starts that Skills Development Scotland has highlighted? They are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. They are stark reminders of just how interdependent the world has become. By combining the resources of our union, we can respond to those global challenges. Let us work together, not apart.

I recognise, as other members have done, the importance of co-operation between nations to address global challenges. Nothing has underscored that point more than the Covid-19 pandemic.

The SNP would have us believe that post-Brexit Britain is a silo and that we have turned away from the world, but the UK Government has helped to lead international efforts in response to Covid-19, with its pledge to donate 100 million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses overseas by June 2022, 80 million of which will go to COVAX, which guarantees fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccine for people in all countries. The UK Government ensured that funding for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was based on its being affordable around the world. The vaccine has the greatest global reach of all of the vaccines—175 countries and territories use it. That is the United Kingdom being a force for good in the world.

In less than a month, Glasgow will host the COP26 summit as a direct result of the UK’s COP presidency. Together, if we can work as one, we can recover and build back better, and we can save our planet. That is global Britain in action.

At the height of the pandemic, about 1.6 billion children were not able to attend school or access education. Together with other G7 countries, the UK has committed to helping 40 million more girls into school and to getting 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10, in the next five years. It has also pledged £430 million to the global partnership for education in order to fulfil that ambition. That is “championing progressive values”.

Against that background of international engagement, the SNP keeps returning to Brexit. It seems to believe that EU membership is the only form of internationalism. The new trilateral defence partnership between Australia, the UK and the US will help to create hundreds of highly-skilled jobs across the United Kingdom, including in Scotland.

The SNP-led Scottish Government is choosing to ignore the scores of trade deals that have been secured by the UK as an independent trading nation, even though they will help to drive forward an exports-led and jobs-led recovery for Scotland. Instead, the First Minister announced in this year’s programme for government that the Government is planning to open new offices in Copenhagen and Warsaw, in addition to the eight international hubs it already has. They have cost the public purse more than £8 million in just one year. The NHS is in crisis, our schools are underfunded and local authorities are struggling.

I am in my last minute. The public will understandably question the cost of those offices, given that international relations is a reserved matter.

The climate change crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic are stark reminders of just how interdependent—[Interruption.]

The head of health intelligence for NHS Grampian commented last week that there has been a reduction in the use of lateral flow tests, with many people using those tests only once they have become symptomatic. What action is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that the public is aware of the clinical guidance on lateral flow tests and to encourage the uptake of that guidance?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the dualling of the A96. (S6O-00229)

Police Scotland data shows that, in the last three years, 195 people in the north-east have been involved in a crash involving a least one fatality. Despite the review and the safety concerns of local communities, and the minister’s comments, Green MSP Maggie Chapman has said that it will not be “viable” to fully dual the A96 route. Does the minister agree with Green MSP Maggie Chapman?

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to prevent cyberattacks on public bodies. (S6F-00250)

Audit Scotland has warned that cybercrime is a

“serious risk to Scotland’s public sector”.

Twenty-seven separate attacks have been recorded since 2017. Given the considerable cost to the public purse of the ransomware attack on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in December 2020 as well as the on-going impact on its operations, is the Scottish Government satisfied that public bodies have achieved the standards that are set out in the Scottish public sector cyber-resilience framework?

The working group’s whole-school approach framework includes access to school counselling services. However, Aberdeenshire Council has identified a shortage of qualified and accredited counsellors in the north-east, which means that the counselling service will not be at full capacity until January 2023. Given the pressures on children’s mental health, what action is the Scottish Government taking to support the delivery of school counselling services?