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Deposit Return Schemes operate in 44 territories and many companies have developed Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) for use with these schemes.

The Scottish Government and other organisations engaged with other countries operating deposit return schemes through the design, business case development and consultation process for Scotland’s DRS including schemes in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany as well as organisations with broad expertise in international Deposit Return Schemes, such as Reloop. As part of this work, it was clear that many companies would be able to provide RVMs that would work with our scheme.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the Scottish Ambulance Service and is kept informed of performance against a range of operational processes, including subject access requests (SARs).

The Scottish Ambulance Service deals with a number of SARs every month with the majority of these requests processed within timescales.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is committed to ensuring continued improvement in responding to such requests.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. NHS dental services are provided by independent contractors/high street dentists and any management information on waiting times will be held by each practice. There is no central consolidation of this information.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing opportunities to participate in shaping inclusive policies that promote mitigation of climate change in line with our Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change. We are aiming to engage with stakeholders and members of the public during 2023 to inform the development of the next Climate Change Plan. This is in advance of a public consultation which will commence when the draft Climate Change Plan is laid in Parliament later in 2023 for a period of at least 120 days of scrutiny.

We are engaging on the next Climate Change Plan with stakeholders through a variety of means including the Climate Change Plan Advisory Group (CCPAG) and the Climate Policy Engagement Network. The CCPAG includes representatives of academia, NGOs, business and industry and trade unions, and meetings are planned to take place up to October 2023. The Climate Policy Engagement Network will consist of representatives of key sectors of interest, organisations and relevant experts to enable meaningful participation in delivery of climate change policy. Additionally as the draft Climate Change Plan continues to be developed, we will continue engagement at a sectoral level with stakeholder representatives and we are exploring other opportunities to engage with other relevant interests.

NHS Health Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective and person-centred care at a local level, which includes identifying and monitoring instances of patient misdiagnosis. This will be through a number of processes such as Adverse Event reviews, the NHS Model Complaints Handling Procedure, Organisational Duty of Candour and Scottish Public Services Ombudsman investigation reports, amongst others.

The Scottish Government and NHS Health Boards work closely together to ensure local policy and processes are implemented and improved in line with national policy and frameworks.

The Glasgow Lighthouse Lab is contracted by the UK Government until March 2023 to undertake processing of PCR tests as part of the COVID-19 Infection survey (CIS). The CIS is outwith the control of the Scottish Government but officials are engaging with the UK Government and other devolved nations on its future. While no direct discussions have recently taken place between Scottish Ministers and representatives of the Lighthouse Lab, Scottish Government officials have been in contact with the University of Glasgow and also met with representatives of UNITE on 10 January to discuss recent developments.

The Scottish Government is working with all NHS Boards, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran, to clear long waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the global pandemic, and more recently the disruption caused by a very difficult winter.

Recent statistics show that NHS Ayrshire & Arran has made significant progress in reducing long waits for outpatients since the targets were announced in July 2022.

We continue to work closely with NHS Ayrshire & Arran to address the backlog of planned care. This includes mutual aid arrangements to clear long waits in Gastroenterology and Diabetes & Endocrinology services, and additional support for Dermatology and Ophthalmology.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is also working with Health Boards, including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, to accelerate implementation of high impact changes, including Active Clinical Referral Treatment and Patient Initiated Review. These improvement programmes will not only support delivery of the targets, but they will also provide sustainable solutions for the future.

We are working with CfSD and Health Boards to embed regional and national working to ensure that long waiting patients can access treatment more quickly.

Social Security Scotland routinely produces information at application level and not by household type, such as on behalf of couples or individuals.

Information relating to applications received for benefits is routinely published by Social Security Scotland as part of Official Statistics releases and includes both monthly and financial year breakdowns of data.

These statistics are available at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-15375 on 10 March 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 the requested information regarding interim care plans.