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As the Deputy First Minister made clear in parliament, given the inflationary pressure on our budget it is currently difficult to identify at this stage where underspends will emerge.

Full details of all 2023-24 funding assumptions, including the Scotland Reserve, will be detailed in the Scottish Budget document when it is laid before parliament in December.

(a) CalMac Ferries carry out bi-annual timetable consultations with nominated ferry groups ahead of each timetable period (summer/winter). During this community consultation the groups are expected to liaise with their respective communities and submit the consensus view from that community.

(b) On Serco NorthLink Ferries (SNF) services, island communities can influence changes to both the passenger and freight vessel timetables through regular stakeholder engagement with SNF and Transport Scotland, such as the Shetland and Orkney External Transport Forums, or they can contact SNF directly with any proposals.

The Scottish Government is not removing funding for Primary Care implementation plans. Reserves that have been built up over four years by HSCPs are now being used so that recurring funding for recruiting multi-disciplinary teams can be maintained. It is prudent to reinvest these public funds given that these reserves have been steadily accumulating over a number of years, especially at a time of considerable inflation. At the same time, we have increased the recurring funding for primary care improvement to £170m in 2022-23.

Reserves held by Integration Authorities, comprising Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) funding from previous years, have been utilised in funding this year's PCIF allocation, resulting in a one-off benefit. The distribution of these reserves is set out in the following table:

NHS 24 has received £15.1 million to support improvements that lead to sustainable delivery across the Redesign of Urgent Care pathway and contribute to the wider ambition to reduce attendances at acute care.

This funding is largely committed to the recruitment of additional workforce to support the NHS 24 -111 service which includes increasing their call handler and clinical supervisor capacity which will support improvements in call answering times.

Funding will also be used to further develop public information through NHS Inform, develop public messaging about access to services and improve data sharing and digital support to optimise the continuity and co-ordination of care.

NHS 24 will have recruited an additional 41.81 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff by 1 December 2022. These additional posts support the recruitment priorities set out in the Winter Resilience Plan.

The following table shows the breakdown by role of the total number of WTE staff joining NHS 24 through to 1 December 2022. The role of Call Operator was re-created in September 2022 to supplement NHS 24's call handling capacity.

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent radiographers who were fully qualified to undertake MRI scans working in the NHS in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22 and 2022-23 to date, broken down by NHS board is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent Radiographers (Diagnosis and Therapy) working in the NHS since 2012, broken down by NHS Board can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Estimates of marine carbon sequestration rates have large uncertainties and are difficult to calculate. There are few direct in-situ measurements of carbon sequestration by any marine habitat. Estimates of sequestration rate primarily depend on modelling which uses parameters derived from laboratory experiments and theoretical relationships, many of which are not fully tested.

The current estimate of carbon sequestered by Scotland’s marine environment is 6,485,000 tonnes CO ₂ -eq/year. (Details are set out in the table in response to S6W-12149).

There are currently no estimates of emissions from Scotland’s marine carbon stores, research suggests blue-carbon habitat degradation can result in emissions.

Table 1 presents the latest published number of patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) that were waiting within an inpatient or day case setting in Scotland at 30 June 2022, and the number waiting over two years (104 weeks), 2 years and six months (130 weeks), and 3 years (156 weeks) for an Orthopaedics procedure.

Table 1 - Number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case admission for Orthopaedics by length of wait in NHSScotland, at 30 June 2022

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21 and (d) 2021-22, including a breakdown by (i) call handlers and (ii) nurse advisers is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 since 2012 can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

As advised in the letter I wrote to you on 26 October 2022, funding will be made available to health boards to boost workforce and recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. Early indication from Boards suggest the breakdown will be 634 nurses, 17 midwives and 99 allied health professionals. These numbers may vary as pipelines are developed and dependant on Boards service requirements. We will continue to work closely with Boards to monitor progress and provide support where required. Health boards are currently building their pipelines for international staff and will negotiate start dates with candidates and agencies.

In addition, 250 band 4 non-registrant posts have been identified and we are working with Boards to support the recruitment and training of staff into these posts, which are across acute, primary care and mental health settings.