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We remain committed to delivering a National Care Service to improve quality, fairness and consistency of provision that meets individuals’ needs. We are designing the NCS in partnership with stakeholders and experts, including NHS management and clinical staff.

The new national shared accountability framework agreed with COSLA and NHS will improve the experience of people accessing services by introducing a new structure of national oversight to drive consistency of outcomes and maximise the benefits of a reformed local service delivery.

The approach agreed provides that local authorities and Health Boards will retain delivery functions, staff and assets. NHS staff will continue to deliver those health services that are in scope for the NCS, together with existing community health providers.

During regional summer co-design sessions, we asked people with lived experience, third sector and statutory stakeholders about how community health services work with social care support and healthcare services. We will use what we have learned during these forums to continue to develop our approach to community healthcare in the NCS and how the National Care Service and NHS should work together.

The Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion Redevelopment Project, along with a large proportion of live construction projects across the NHS Scotland Estate, is currently on a period of pause, pending a holistic review by Scottish Government of funding availability. NHS Lothian remains in continual communication with Scottish Government to establish when this review will be concluded and when it will be possible to recommence project delivery. This project remains a priority for NHS Lothian, which has a dedicated Project Team mobilised to progress at the earliest opportunity.

The Scottish Government has advised that while they remain committed to the delivery of the new eye hospital, timescales for delivery have still to be determined.

In a meeting between myself and Lord Brodie on 15 November 2023, Lord Brodie provided an update on the Inquiry’s progress and the forthcoming hearings on both Edinburgh and Glasgow hospitals. Whilst no date for presenting recommendations has been published, the Chair provided assurances of his dedication to concluding the Inquiry promptly whilst ensuring the focus remains on fulfilling the Inquiry Terms of Reference.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate, and Scottish Government funding is intended to augment, not replace, local authorities’ own investment in their schools.

East Lothian Council have been awarded financial support through the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) for their Wallyford High School and Whitecraig Primary School projects.

In addition, through the previous Scotland’s Schools for the Future Programme, the Scottish Government awarded East Lothian Council with funding of £9.5m towards 2 school projects.

As a result of investment by this government, the proportion of schools in “good” or “satisfactory” condition in Scotland has increased from 61% in April 2007 to almost 91% in April 2023. LEIP investment will build on this progress.

We will continue working with COSLA, local authorities and Scottish Futures Trust to explore how we can deliver further improvements in the school estate.

Nobody in our society should ever be subjected to Islamophobia, and we recognise we need to do more to tackle it in Scotland.

We previously consulted with communities affected by Islamophobia on whether adoption of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) or some other definition of Islamophobia would be helpful. Although communities were broadly supportive of a definition, there was no consensus on the APPG definition.

Our Hate Crime Strategy sets out our strategic priorities for tackling hate crime in Scotland, including Islamophobia. It was informed by communities with lived experience of hate crime, including Muslim communities.

Our Hate Crime Strategy Delivery Plan, published this week, commits to a range of meaningful, ongoing and participatory engagement. We will continue to engage with Muslim communities in Scotland to understand the issues of importance to them as we move into strategy delivery.

The general policy of the Scottish Government is to advise MSPs to directly approach public bodies and organisations for information held by them which is not held by the Scottish Government, and although acting to collate non-Scottish Government held information may have happened in the past, it is not currently viewed as practicable.

Boats that are moored in one location for weeks or months, primarily as a safe haven, will not be liable for a visitor levy, if a local authority introduces one. We continue to discuss and explore with all relevant stakeholders the full implications of a visitor levy applying to boat moorings and berthings.

The Scottish Government is continuing the phased implementation of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019. A presumption in favour of pre-recording the evidence of child witnesses in cases which involve specified offences is already in place in the High Court, unless specific exceptions apply. We remain committed to extending this presumption to children giving evidence in relevant cases in the sheriff courts and will publish a revised Implementation Plan by the end of March.

We continue to support national rollout of the new Scottish Child Interview Model for Joint Investigative Interviews with over £2 million funding and have committed further support through the Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder Phase. The model aims to secure a child’s best evidence at the earliest opportunity, while minimising retraumatisation. We have commissioned an independent evaluation of the model and its expected outcomes. It is anticipated that the model will be available across Scotland by the end of 2024.

Decisions on the national designation of services are considered by NHS National Services Division (NHS NSD) as part of NHS National Services Scotland.

NHS NSD have encouraged the MRgFUS team in NHS Tayside to submit a formal application for national designation of the MRgFUS service in Dundee, supported by the health board’s Executive Leadership Team, for consideration and scrutiny. NHS NSD hopes to receive such an application from NHS Tayside for 2024-25.

As noted in the answer to S6W-22430 by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2023, we do not hold specific data on the frequency or average duration of road closures for the purpose of crime scene investigation. This is consistent with the answer to S4W-23569, answered by Derek Mackay in 2015, which noted that Transport Scotland does not hold definitive data that indicates when Police Scotland have carried out a crime scene investigation.

The information provided with the answer to S4W-23569 sought to be helpful by providing what information was held by Transport Scotland i.e. the number and duration of closures on specific routes. However the answer clearly advised that the information provided represented where police attendance was reported and which may or may not have involved a crime scene investigation. It also noted that Police Scotland do on occasions close roads for crime scene investigation without notifying Transport Scotland.

We would therefore reiterate that the closure of a road in the aftermath of an accident is a matter for Police Scotland, who liaise with NHS colleagues as appropriate to understand if accident investigation is merited. The decision to reopen a road after an investigation is also a matter for the Police in their operational capacity.