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Information on total spend on suicide prevention activity by individual Health Boards is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Information on net mental health expenditure by individual Health Boards is published on the Public Health Scotland website Scottish health service costs under data files mental health expenditure Excel workbook . Note, however, that expenditure data is collected by broad specialties and does not identify suicide prevention work specifically. Suicide prevention will be an aspect of work across all mental health specialities.

Cost estimates are contained in the Financial Memorandum for the Bill. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16266 on 21 April 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 requested information is not collected or held by the Scottish Government. This is a matter for NHSScotland Health Boards.

We recognise that accurate local data on long COVID prevalence, distribution across the population and symptoms are needed to forecast and plan for the need for NHS services and specific specialties arising from long COVID.

a. Diagnosis of cases. We do not anticipate that the pausing of the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey will have any impact on the ability of clinicians to diagnose individuals with long COVID (which includes the case definitions of ‘Ongoing symptomatic COVID-19’ and ‘Post-COVID-19 syndrome’). The identification, assessment and management of patients with long-term effects of COVID-19 in Scotland is guided by the UK-wide clinical guideline developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Further information can be accessed at Overview | COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 | Guidance | NICE .

b. Monitoring of cases. The ONS survey data has provided a valuable means of estimating the prevalence of self-reported long COVID over time in Scotland. While a pause in the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) will create a gap in the tracking of time-series data on long COVID, long-term trends in prevalence estimates are unlikely to change markedly within a short timeframe. Further, to improve local data collection, we are already supporting activity with NHS National Services Scotland’s long COVID Strategic Network. The Network is taking forward a dedicated workstream to agree outcomes, indicators, monitoring and evaluation to accelerate progress on capturing data to inform the planning of health service provision for people with long COVID.

The statistics in Bib number 64128 provide a total count of elective and emergency hospital activity for inpatients stays and day cases; and elective new and return outpatient appointments, for patients resident in NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles, by NHS Board of Treatment and Specialty.

The Director General and I had a constructive meeting in November last year during which Mr Garcia Montero shared the Cervantes Institute’s plans to open their first International University Chair at the University of Edinburgh in the coming months.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions. However, Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.

The Cabinet Undersecretary and I had a constructive meeting in November last year during which we spoke about the shared challenges that the COVID19 pandemic had brought to the culture sector and our Culture Strategy for Scotland, setting out our vision on how to protect and empower culture.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions. However, Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.

Investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge is available in a number of publications. In June of last year we published the Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Fifth Interim Report - Year 6, detailing the funding streams and allocations for the first six years of the Attainment Scotland Fund: Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Fifth Interim Report - Year 6 (www.gov.scot) .

Investment in 2021-22 was published in the Education, Children and Young People Committee ‘Scottish Attainment Challenge Report’, having been provided by the Scottish Government, and may be accessed here: Scottish Attainment Challenge Report .

For the 2022/23 financial year, final spend figures are not yet available. However, the Pupil Equity Funding and Strategic Equity Funding allocations to schools and local authorities are all available on gov.scot here: Pupil attainment: closing the gap - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . 2022-23 allocations for the Care Experienced Children and Young People funding stream are provided below:

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Local authorities are responsible for decisions around the enforcement of parking restrictions and the consideration of any exemptions is at their discretion. Their powers are set out in statute and, as long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority to manage its day-to-day business including the management of any parking permits.

The Secretary of State and I had a constructive meeting in November last year during which we spoke about areas of collaboration with Spain, in particular depopulation, culture and the challenges of the cost of living crisis.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions. However, Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.