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We have always been clear that we want the work of the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry to be delivered at speed, addressing the range of questions that people have, so that we can learn and benefit from lessons as early as possible.

It is for the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry itself to comment on its work.

Section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005 gives an inquiry Chair alone, rather than Ministers, responsibility for deciding how an inquiry should operate. Operational matters such as the timetabling, procedure and conduct of hearings are for the Chair to decide, entirely independent of government.

It is for the Chair to determine how to strike the right balance between addressing the wide range of questions people have and making sure that the inquiry can be delivered at speed, so that we can learn and benefit from lessons as early as possible.

The Scottish Government remains committed, in its role as sponsor, to providing operational support as the Chair considers necessary and appropriate, in order to enable the Inquiry to carry out its independent work and help ensure the progress made so far is continued.

The Green Jobs Fund was created to support new and increased opportunities for green job creation across Scotland, by providing up to £100 million capital investment over a five year term.

Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise are working to deliver £50 million to businesses which provide sustainable or low carbon products and services to help them develop, grow and create jobs. Up to a further £50 million is aimed at supporting businesses and their supply chains create and safeguard jobs by investing in equipment, premises, research and development.

The aim is to fully utilise all available funding, where possible, and this twin aim of supporting existing businesses to transition to a low carbon environment and looking to fund new and innovative projects, which will take time to develop and deliver, could result in more funding being required over the latter part of the five year term, as these newer markets grow and mature.

Updates from the external support team and other matters relating to the escalation of NHS Forth Valley are discussed at meetings of the NHS Forth Valley Assurance Board.

The Assurance Board was established by the Scottish Government to support NHS Forth Valley in determining what steps are necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality governance, leadership and culture, and in doing so support improvements in performance in out of hours, unscheduled care, mental health, and integration.

The minutes of the Assurance Board meetings and other information relevant to the escalation of NHS Forth Valley are published here: NHS Forth Valley Assurance Board - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

I have lead responsibility for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

The Scottish Government is working closely with NHS Ayrshire and Arran to increase capacity and reduce cancellations. A number of improvement actions to enable the prioritisation of resources to areas where the capacity gap has the greatest impact are already underway, including:

• A bottom-up review of operating capacity within surgical teams;
• Increase resilience of the planned care service through protection of planned care beds to ensure that operations are not cancelled as a result of bed capacity; and
• Introduction of new enhanced roles across the wider multi-disciplinary teams to increase capacity and improve sustainability, such as surgical care practitioners, anaesthesia associates and theatre assistant practitioners.

These actions will help NHS Ayrshire and Arran deliver its plans to increase capacity which include targeted recruitment, extended workforce roles and new models of service delivery.

The Scottish Government recognises that a diverse and successful ports and shipping sector contributes significantly to the national, regional and local economies in which they operate. Ports and harbours are crucial gateways to Scotland and Scottish Ministers continue to support a market-driven approach to ports policy, and recognise the contributions of port and shipping operators to the economy of Scotland.

The Green Freeports model in Scotland has been carefully designed by Scottish and UK Government Ministers to build on the existing strengths of local areas, minimise displacement of local economic activity, and create new opportunities for disadvantaged areas within Scotland.

To track the impact of the Scottish Green Freeports against these aims, we are developing a monitoring and evaluation framework in partnership with the UK Government and a consortium of external evaluation experts. This framework will also monitor and evaluate the impacts of the wider English and Welsh Freeports within the context of the UK. Once the framework has been established fully, Scottish Government and UK Government will publish findings from data collected.

In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with the Scottish ports sector and trade associations going forward, to understand any issues affecting the sector, including – where relevant – any concerns around the impact of Green Freeports or Freeports.

The consultation on extending the scope of the 2021 animal licensing regulations closed on 26 September. We are considering all the responses received and will publish a consultation summary report in due course. This report will provide a breakdown of responses and set out our proposed next steps.

An Assurance Board was established in December 2022 to monitor and scrutinise NHS Forth Valley against an agreed Improvement Plan. The Assurance Board has met 13 times and continues to meet monthly to review progress.

A copy of the latest Improvement Plan along with the minutes of the Assurance Board meetings are published here: NHS Forth Valley Assurance Board - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Under extended producer responsibility for packaging, local authorities will receive the full net cost of operating an efficient and effective collection service for household packaging waste, paid for by producers. This is estimated at £1.2bn per annum UK-wide in the government response published by the four UK governments on 26 March 2022.

Between Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Ministers, grant funding of up to £20.1 million has been allocated through the Green Jobs Fund.