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The Scottish Government is working with the energy sector to plan for a multi-skilled workforce, one that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system. Our oil and gas workers, and their vital skills, will be essential to the transition. Workers, and trade unions, will be at heart of everything we do.

Scotland’s green jobs revolution is underway and a recent report from the Universities of Strathclyde and Warwick provided an initial estimate that up to 100,000 roles are ‘new and emerging’ green jobs in Scotland. Although the researchers regard this as an upper estimate, it is encouraging to see a strong indication of green jobs in Scotland.

While we do not hold data on job flows from the oil and gas sector to the renewables sector at present, the Office for National Statistics undertakes an annual Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy survey. This provides estimates of renewable FTE employment statistics in Scotland.

As the table below shows, there were 28,300 full time equivalent jobs in Scotland in the low carbon and renewable energy sectors in 2021.

The total cost to the Scottish Government, in the 2023-24 financial year of the teachers’ pay deal agreed in March 2023 is £205 million.

The figure of £188 million quoted by officials at the Education, Children and Young People Committee meeting on 17 May 2023 represents the cost to the Education and Skills Portfolio of funding overall teachers’ pay costs in 2023-24. This figure also includes recurring costs relating to the 2021-22 teachers’ pay deal but does not include the proportion of costs relating to the teachers’ pay deal agreed in March 2023 that are being met directly through the local government finance settlement, as these costs do not sit within the Education and Skills Portfolio budget.

Scottish Government has developed guidance on Protective Security at Publicly Accessible Locations. The aim and purpose of the document is to increase knowledge of what counter terrorism products are available, and it includes first aid provisions and the hyperlinks to access them. This guidance was issued to key stakeholders in June 2023.

The UK Government in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) developed a website “Protect UK”, which is available to members of the public and organisations. This website includes guidance on First Aid preparedness for organisations. This was in response to the Manchester Arena Inquiry recommendations to create a central library for guidance and advice that organisations and members of the public could access.

Scottish Government has promoted the use of the guidance and advice available through this platform to all relevant Scottish stakeholders.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also provides dedicated guidance on first aid and on events, which is available on the HSE web site.

The following table provides a breakdown of CSO funding in dementia research through project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the NRS Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. Project and fellowship funding is allocated to the year in which the funding commitment was made. Data was extracted from the CSO database and covers research on Alzheimer’s Disease, other cause dementia and studies on cognitive ageing / decline. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.

Breakdown :

Following publication of the Capital Spending Review and a subsequent review of the health portfolio’s capital programme, all projects that were in construction at the time of the review have continued to be progressed, including:

• National Treatment Centres at Forth Valley, Golden Jubilee (Phase Two), Fife and Highland Health Boards
• The Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre project
• The upgrade of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre and the new national secure adolescent inpatient service in Irvine
• The Glasgow Primary Care Hub project

The review also included a commitment to a doubling of expenditure on maintenance for the health capital programme, in line with the recommendations of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Medium Term Financial Strategy will be reviewed in Summer 2023 to deliver an overall, affordable prioritisation of the capital programme to 2026-27. The outcome of this review will inform any reprofiling of capital projects for health and social care infrastructure.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the Fracture Liaison Service audit and, have provided Public Health Scotland with funding to undertake a provisional organisational audit and scoping exercise.

Following completion of this scoping exercise the Scottish Government has advised the Royal Osteoporosis Society that the funding will be made available for a national fracture liaison service audit. The reporting timescale is expected to be finalised soon.

The statistics are disappointing, and we are working with NatureScot to identify the contributing factors. Key to progress will be tackling negative pressures in areas surrounding protected sites including the proliferation of invasive non-native species and overgrazing. Only through collaborative working at a landscape scale will negative pressures on protected areas be effectively tackled and biodiversity restored.

Later this year we will publish Scotland’s new Biodiversity Strategy. This will set out our vision to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and restore and regenerate biodiversity by 2045. The delivery plan will include a range of actions in support of this vision including actions to drive landscape change and actions to expand, connect and improve our protected areas.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-19074 on 23 June 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 .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many GPs in Scotland are able to assess seafarers for an (a) ENG1 and b) ML5 medical certificate, broken down by NHS board. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is a UK Government agency.

It is for Healthcare Improvement Scotland's Community Engagement Team (HIS-CE) (formerly the Scottish Health Council) to answer questions on what proposed service changes NHS Boards have consulted them about.

The Scottish Government would expect that all health boards, including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, follow the national Planning with People guidance, which includes the need to engage with HIS-CET when considering service change.

The guidance is available at the following: https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-people-community-engagement-participation-guidance/