Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh expresses disappointment about leaks to the press about this afternoon's GIRFEC statement, understood to be about the Named Person policy.

Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw gets proceedings underway by asking about that very policy, saying it "has been utterly discredited.

The deputy first minister will make a statement on this later this afternoon, replies Nicola Sturgeon and she says she will not preempt this.

The first minister does offer a brief preview of this afternoon's statement, which gets underway at 2.50pm, join us for extensive coverage.

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse says he met with ExxonMobil on 12 September to discuss investment in Mossmorran.

He says it will support employment, the transition towards a net zero economy and efforts to reduce the frequency of flaring.

Mr Ruskell welcomes the investment announced by the company, but suggests they were forced to do so.

The minister says a considerable part of the money will go towards improving the efficiency of the plant.

Green MSP Mark Ruskell asks about discussions with the operators of the ethylene plant at Mossmorran regarding the climate emergency and the need for a just transition.

A total of £140m is to be spent reducing flaring and improving the reliability of a Fife chemical plant.

ExxonMobil said it had started recruiting 850 temporary workers to carry out the work over the next 12 months.

The operator said the investment was on top of the £20m it spends annually on maintaining its Mossmorran site.

Residents have complained of light pollution and noise often disrupting their sleep during flaring events.

Read more.

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Click here for the full list of general questions., external

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We'll bring you extensive coverage of first minister's questions from noon.

Tory MSP Liam Kerr asks how much public money has been spent.

Gordon Smail says in 2018-19 the cost incurred was £3.7m.

This is broken down into £1m for snow making equipment, £2.4m for the set-up of Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Limited and £0.3m on HIE officers' involvement, he explains.

That ends this morning's session and the convener closes the meeting.

Tory MSP Edward Mountain asks if Audit Scotland are satisfied that £10m was spent on repairs in the last year of Cairngorm Mountain Ltd operations, as he is does not believe that level of repairs happened in 2019.

Ms Gardner points out the £9.6m in the Audit Scotland report is the HIE provision.

Mr Smail explains the provision by HIE is there and meets accounting rules, but he accepts there are uncertainties there.

The agreement between HIE and CML must be examined more closely, he adds.

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Mr Mountain asks about payments from CML to Natural Assets.

He later asks if the people who perhaps took money out of the assets and allowed it "to crumble before their eyes" will be chased.

Ms Gardner says her responsibility is to report to parliament, but adds Audit Scotland will certainly be looking at issues of accountability and liability as far as it is able to do that.

SNP MSP Willie Coffey questions why responsibility for design and maintenance was not built in to agreements in the early stages of the funicular.

The auditor general says these questions will be looked at in the Spring report, agreeing that these provisions should be monitored and the investment should be made.

Is there a dispute about responsibilities, Mr Coffey asks.

Mr Smail says HIE own the funicular but there are questions about the relationship between HIE and the operators.

Fiona Walker
BBC Scotland

The private company that ran CairnGorm mountain went bust in November, leaving behind a broken mountain railway and a failed plan to bring millions of pounds of much-needed investment to the snowsports centre near Aviemore. What went wrong?

From the beginning some people said what was promised at CairnGorm Mountain was too good to be true.

When Natural Retreats - a company until then most identified with running a holiday rentals company - took over, it promised a transformation.

That would have represented a major turnaround for any Scottish resort - never mind one that had struggled to overcome problems caused by the unpredictability of the weather and the need to find a revenue stream that could support a £20m mountain railway.

Read more.

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Tory MSP Liam Kerr begins saying the committee has just finished a session on transparency so he must confess to having been married in the Cairngorms resort.

The Tory MSP pivots to the structures around the operating of the funicular railway.

Gordon Smail from Audit Scotland says it is a complicated structure with the assets owned by HIE in public ownership.

The structure over time has changed with different companies being responsible for operating the business on the mountain, adds Mr Smail.

He says HIE owns the assets on the mountain and is looking at what further assets are needed.

Image source, Getty Images

"Tough decisions" will have to be made on the cost of repairing the Cairngorms' funicular, a public spending watchdog has warned.

Managed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the UK's highest railway has been shut for almost a year due to structural problems.

HIE has said it would be cheaper to repair the funicular than remove it.

But Audit Scotland said it was still not clear how much repairs would cost or how they could be afforded.

Read more.

Auditor General Caroline Gardner says an updated report on the funicular will be published in Spring 2020.

She says it is still not clear how much repairs of the funicular will cost or how long it will take.

However, she says the decision making of HIE was well founded over recent years in terms of dealing with Natural Assets Investments Limited (NAIL) going into administration and the fallout from that.

Committee convener Jenny Marra introduces:

• Auditor General for Scotland Caroline Gardner
• Gordon Smail from Audit Scotland
• Maggie Bruce from Audit Scotland

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The committee evidence session on FOIs draws to a close with Jenny Marra thanking the witnesses.

Image source, Scottish Information Commissioner

The Scottish Information Commissioner submitted written evidence to the committee as part of its inquiry into FOI legislaiton.

The key points made by the Commissioner were:

• The statutory provisions in relation to interventions should be strengthened

• The requirement for public authorities to adopt a publication scheme should be removed and replaced with a simple statutory duty to publish information, supported by a new legally enforceable Code of Practice on Publication
• The First Minister's veto should be removed
• The exclusion that excludes appeals in relation to requests from the Lord Advocate, Procurators Fiscal and the Commissioner should be removed
• A prohibition on authorities relying on a confidentiality clause between them and their contractors which provide public services should be considered

Read the submission here. , external

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Labour MSP Anas Sarwar asks if people are avoiding writing things down on paper to avoid being caught out by future FOIs.

Rob Edwards says he would be hard put to prove that in a court of law, but in his personal opinion he thinks yes that is the case.

He points to special advisers saying don't e-mail me, call me.

The Ferret journalist adds: "You could knock me down with a feather it is not happening."

Nick McGowan-Lowe agrees journalists are under so much pressure they don't have time to put in silly requests.

Providing information that should be in the public domain should be part of the day job for organisations spending public money, adds the NUJ representative.

Rob Edwards from The Ferret says the information commissioner points out the current Act gives people enough leeway and should not be changed in terms.

Mr Edwards points out daft questions can sometimes reveal things of great public interest, which is the point of the Act.

Dr Craig Dalzell says he often feels responses have sought to answer the letter of the question rather than the spirit of it.

Tory MSP Liam Kerr wonders about the cost barrier of dealing with FOI requests.

Severin Carrell says the right to information is a statutory right and a public good.

We all face resource pressures, he states, but he questions why bodies are not seeing transparency and accountability as core to their purpose.