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All £15.5 million plus an additional £4.5 million was spent by Forest Enterprise Scotland (the predecessor to Forestry and Land Scotland) on rhododendron control between 2010 and 2020.

The area treated was in the region of 16,000 hectares. Complete eradication of this highly invasive plant is not realistic due in part to the continued reinvasion of seedlings from adjacent uncontrolled sites. FLS considers successfully controlled sites as those in the ‘maintenance phase’ where rhododendron no longer threatens the conservation interest on a site and recolonisation will be slow.

FLS continue to control rhododendron in priority sites on Scotland’s national forests and land, and where possible in collaboration with other land managers at the landscape scale.

Forestry and Land Scotland accounting systems do not differentiate rhododendron control from other environmental expenditure such as Invasive Non-Native Species control. Therefore, figures of expenditure on a) new rhododendron and b) ongoing treatment cannot be provided.

It is not possible to say how many hectares of land managed by Forestry and Land Scotland rhododendron has been eradicated in each year since 2020.

For FY 2023-24, £1.0 million has been budgeted for INNS and rhododendron follow-up control over a minimum of 440 hectares.

Most of this expenditure will be targeted at ongoing treatment of existing areas of rhododendron.

Monitoring of performance against the nationally agreed criteria in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme, which now includes a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support, allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and supports the implementation of quality improvements.

Demonstrating provision of post-stroke psychological care is a new requirement for NHS Boards and therefore it will take time for implementation to be successful.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to increase performance against the criteria outlined in the review process, and we will work with them to support this.

The new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June, includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is being assessed via NHS Board reviews, which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support for those who have suffered a stroke.

In September, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies to help support improvements in the delivery of psychological care.

Priority six in the Stroke Improvement Plan is focused on psychological care and includes commitments to understand the availability of existing resources and develop strategies for raising awareness of the emotional and psychological impact of stroke on mental wellbeing. Work to appraise the range of resources currently available is scheduled to begin in 2024.

Education and training programmes on post-stroke psychological and emotional impacts are available as part of the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARs) Core Competencies and Advancing Modules, hosted by Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS). These resources were developed with the input of clinicians from across Scotland.

The criteria for NHS Board reviews sets out the Scottish Government’s expectation that all staff potentially dealing with hyperacute stroke patients should have undertaken the STARS Advancing Modules.

The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (“ACCC”) has previously welcomed significant progress made by Scotland in addressing the concerns identified by the ACCC. Officials worked with Defra to submit an action plan to the ACCC on behalf of the UK in July 2022, in response to the ACCC’s decision VII/8s issued in October 2021. Work is ongoing in order to strengthen Scotland’s compliance and address the areas of concern raised by the ACCC. A progress report was submitted to the ACCC in October 2023, again following liaison with the UK Government and in particular Defra.

In July 2022 the Scottish Government introduced an exemption from court fees for Aarhus Convention cases in the Court of Session. The Scottish Civil Justice Council (“SCJC”) is undertaking a review of court rules relating to Protective Expenses Orders. As the SCJC is an independent body, the Scottish Government cannot commit to a timeframe for completion of the rule review. The SCJC have however noted it in their annual report and work programme as a priority for completion in 2023/24. Policy development is ongoing in relation to a new Human Rights Bill for Scotland, which is to include a right to a healthy environment.

The deadline for addressing areas of concern and submitting a report to the ACCC is October 2024.

The Scottish Government delivers support for the historic environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland, which is the lead public body to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment.

Historic Environment Scotland provides a wide range of grants and funding for projects that aim to protect and promote historic places. It provides circa. £14 million each year to local communities to repair and revitalise the historic environment.

The Scottish Government has been engaging with Historic Environment Scotland, Church of Scotland and other stakeholders on the closures of historic and listed churches.

We will continue to work closely with the Church of Scotland and leaders of all faiths and denominations, to regularly discuss issues impacting on their communities.

The audit of the Annual Accounts of a local authority provides essential external scrutiny and assurance that a local authority is managing its finances appropriately. Best Value audits provide further scrutiny of the effectiveness of a local authority’s use of public funds to deliver public services and are essential in order to provide public assurance that a local authority is delivering value for money for council tax payers.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission to secure the audit of all accounts of local authorities and associated bodies (including health and social care integration boards and other joint boards) by appointing either Audit Scotland or firms of accountants as the auditors.

Local Authorities are required to make their audited annual accounts available for public inspection and publish them on their website. Audit Scotland publish all audit reports of local authority annual accounts.

For the current academic year 2023-2024, there has been no Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) spend to date. We hope to confirm the final decision on delivery soon.

Academic year 2022-2023 is still in delivery with any contractually agreed training due to be completed by the end of December 2023. Based on the latest data provided by the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland, the total spend so far is £11.55 million. Spend figures for 2022-23 will be finalised when delivery is complete.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22410 on‎ 7 November 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers