I have one final question. Rachel O’Neill, you said that colleges could do more if there were a bit of a plan but that there are only two colleges in the whole of Scotland that are doing quite well with regard to the levels of BSL on offer. However, even if there is a plan, how can they train more teachers if they do not have any more funding?

Still on the rural theme, I will touch upon what Avril Hepner said about Aberdeen as well as your experience, Alana, in terms of Deaf Links, which covers not only Dundee but Angus and Perth and Kinross.

The 2022 census shows that, in local authorities in the north of Scotland and the Highlands and Islands, the number of BSL users is slightly higher than the Scotland average. You have talked about the challenges of not having sufficient teachers or sufficient trainers, but is that the main challenge that you find in your area in the north-east?

It is interesting that you say that, because in our notes, it says that in Aberdeenshire, there are only interpreters—there are no trainers. If we look outside the central belt, what you are saying is that there is an issue with interpreters. Another huge issue is that there are no trainers and no training programme. You talk about people having their life chances reduced; for people in Aberdeenshire, their life chances are definitely reduced.

If representatives of colleges were here now, they would say that colleges are on their knees, so—

Thank you. I especially thank you, Lucy. I realise that giving that evidence in front of a committee was probably difficult, but it is a very important topic.

At the current glacial rate of investment, it would take the SNP Government until 2083 to spend the so-called just transition fund. The cabinet secretary will be 114 years old, and the minister will be 112 years old. Against that background, could the minister outline how the SNP Government will meet the remaining commitment for the fund in the next session of the Parliament?

I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement.

Neil Gray visited Aberdeen royal infirmary in February this year. He promised that he would do everything that he could to improve the situation there. However, we have only to look at this week’s ambulance waiting times to see that it is getting worse. With lives at stake, it does not give a single person here any pleasure at all to point out that the Scottish National Party has failed NHS Grampian and its patients.

The reasons for such a dire performance and stage 4 escalation are not the junior doctors, nurses, paramedics and porters—they are trying their absolute level best. No, NHS Grampian is in such trouble because it has been hollowed out by successive SNP Governments. The health board has a history of chronic underfunding, persistent understaffing, the lowest bed base in Scotland per head of population and a national treatment centre on ice. There are massive cuts to health and social care partnership budgets for caring for the elderly and vulnerable. General practitioner practices are folding and major injuries units are on restricted hours.

The Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly warned the SNP Government about this perfect storm. With underfunding of a quarter of a billion pounds, how can NHS Grampian be expected to pay back a Government loan? What is the trigger point for escalation to stage 5?

I have two questions for Mr Lancaster. We have heard that finding a solicitor to help the most vulnerable people in domestic abuse cases, particularly where they are experiencing financial abuse, is almost like trying to find hens’ teeth. Women, especially, have had to look at or approach around 100 solicitors to find help. Are you concerned about that?

I suggest that you have more power and influence than you think. You can sit down with the Law Society and talk to it about the pool of solicitors, and influence the universities. A few weeks ago, we heard how, during the Covid pandemic, places were provided to trainee solicitors for early entry into the profession to undertake the type of work that we are discussing. However, that seems to have dried up. I almost feel that you have given up when you say, “It doesn’t lie with me—I can’t do anything about it.” You actually can do something about it.

The system is broken and overly complex, and there are not enough solicitors. People are having to phone not just 30 solicitors, but more, and we are hearing about women who have experienced domestic abuse, who are homeless and have suffered financial abuse, and who have nowhere to go. If the situation is so bad—as it seems to be, because we are hearing evidence of that—what is stopping you sitting down with the Law Society and looking at the number of solicitors who are being trained? Does that number need to be increased? What areas of work are the solicitors going into? How many of them are doing legal aid? Should we provide certain funded positions, as was done during Covid? I put it back to you that to sit down with the Law Society, and work out some solutions and come up with some ideas, might be a way forward.

Thank you. Back to you, convener.