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Evidence and data play an important part in efficient policy delivery. Our commitment to continue to improve on our data and evaluation efforts is highlighted as part of the revised evaluation strategy to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Government publish child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group and since March 2022, time series for ethnicity breakdowns have also been published, including for child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group. The Scottish Government is happy to support CRER – and any stakeholders – with finding our published data and producing ad-hoc analysis.

Whilst recognising the important role of detailed statistical data, our tackling child poverty delivery plan is clear that an intersectional approach is needed to support priority families. Beyond statistical analysis, our action to tackle child poverty is based on a strong evidence base identifying the main drivers of poverty, as the CRER report acknowledges. To design policies that specifically help minority ethnic families, further evidence has been published to widen our understanding. This includes a detailed focus report on minority ethnic families, a summary update on drivers of poverty for all priority family types which fed into the development of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ and detailed understanding of what works to tackle child poverty.

I refer the member to the Parliamentary Statement I made on Tues 8 November 2022, which set out the Scottish Government's pathway for the future of agricultural support including the conditionality of that support. This is in line with our Vision for Scottish Agriculture, published in March 2022, in which we committed to integrate enhanced conditionality of at least half of all funding for farming and crofting by 2025. We are seeking views on that conditionality in the public consultation “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture”, which closes on 21 Nov 2022.

Agriculture support is already conditional, the current Basic Payment Scheme requires Farmers, Crofters, etc to meet Cross Compliance and Greening measures, to qualify for that payment. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11606 on 10 November 2022 in relation to future conditionality of agricultural support. 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 .

We have approached local authorities seeking data covering quarters one and two of the current financial year, or confirmation that the fund has been used in full and is now closed. This information is currently being quality assured before it is published on the Scottish Government website.

Local authorities, as both the statutory housing and planning authority, are responsible for assessing housing requirements.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) process seeks to use the best available data to reach robust and credible outputs.

The HNDA Tool which forms part of the assessment enables the use of quality assured recognised national datasets. The HNDA tool also provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers.

Any decision by a local authority to use local information should weigh the value of the data with sourcing, cleaning and inputting the data into the HNDA process bearing in mind HNDAs aim to provide a broad range of housing estimates rather than a single precision, or actual, housing estimate. The methodology used by local authorities should be included in the HNDAs allowing for transparency.

Today the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has issued a Caution in Use Notice alert, reporting that a number of injectable naloxone kits have been supplied across the UK, including Scotland, which may have missing needles.

The product, Prenoxad ® , is an injectable form of naloxone. A pack normally contains two needles. The problem emerged when it was reported that a very limited number of Prenoxad ® packs in a batch marketed in France were missing needles. This was the case in three packs out of a batch of 9,000.

Although I have received no reports of UK packs with missing needles to date, the potential for packs to contain fewer than two needles in all distributed batches cannot be ruled out. We do know, however, that kits from batches that could potentially be affected have been distributed in Scotland and we are therefore advising people to check their kits and to replace any that are incomplete.

In response to the Caution in Use Notice, the Scottish Government has taken immediate action to advise healthcare professionals on how to identify and replace kits which may have been supplied without needles.

In addition, we have issued guidance on this to third sector partners who have been distributing kits to individuals. We are also working with stakeholders to produce clear, illustrated guidance on how people can check their kits, for third sector partners and others to share with people who carry their own naloxone kits.

I am acting quickly to ensure that kits are complete, because the wide supply and carriage of naloxone is a key part of our National Mission to improve and save lives. Naloxone remains a safe medication to use in response to a life-threatening overdose and I am determined that this potential defect should not disrupt its use in Scotland or reduce public confidence in the naloxone programme.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-11493 and S6T-00915 answered on 26 October 2022 and 25 October 2022 respectively.

The answer to Topical Question S6T-00915 can be found here: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-25-10-2022?meeting=13939&iob=126317#16180

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 .

( A)Within the Scottish Government funding of health and care research falls under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

As part of the Scottish Government response to the pandemic, in October 2020 CSO launched a funding call seeking applications which aimed to investigate the longer-term effects of COVID-19. Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded with a total funding commitment of £2.5 million. The funding outcome was announced in December 2020.

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funded-research/long-covid-call/

All of the above 9 projects have completed their 6 month and 1 year progress reports. On 31st March 2022 CSO hosted a virtual symposium where the lead investigators for each of the 9 projects presented the results obtained to date to an audience of researchers, policymakers and patient groups.

(B)Currently, there is no single diagnostic test that health professionals can use to identify long COVID. In the first instance, clinicians will try to rule out any other possible causes for symptoms as part of a thorough clinical assessment, tailoring tests and investigations in line with the person’s presenting signs and symptoms.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID, delivered across the full range of services provided by our NHS. This includes local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where needed.

We are providing NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to deliver the best local models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms.

Public Health Scotland’s surveillance programme monitors the progress of COVID-19, flu and other respiratory infections, (including RSV), and reports regularly on the ongoing impact of those infections during the winter months. This has been incorporated into detailed modelling that has been used to support development of our winter resilience plan.

For all scenarios we know that effective and timely delivery of the seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines is crucial, and our winter vaccination programme is now well underway. The degree of protection wanes over time, which is why booster vaccination is needed to maintain the best protection against COVID-19 and flu, especially for those at highest risk. We continue to do all we can to encourage and support every single eligible person to come forward, ultimately, the decision to get vaccinated has always been, and remains, a matter of personal choice. We are working to ensure that more than two million eligible people in Scotland are offered and able to receive vaccines, in turn helping to protect the public and relieving pressure on the NHS.

Introduction - Winter Vaccination Programme 2022 to 2023: COVID-19 and seasonal flu deployment plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

An explanation of how the Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirements (MATHLR) for each planning authority in Scotland have been arrived at is set out in the Housing Land Requirement Explanatory Report, which was published alongside Draft NPF4 and is available from the Scottish Government’s website: www.gov.scot . The MATHLRs are broad, reasonable and long-term figures based on evidence of need and demand for housing.

In keeping with our statutory and other assessment requirements, we published our Integrated Impact Assessments (IIA) alongside Draft NPF4 and invited comments. This included an Environmental Report, setting out the likely significant environmental effects of Draft NPF4, including on climatic factors. Our assessment findings and the comments received have been taken into account in finalising the Revised Draft NPF4, which was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 8 November 2022. The NPF4 IIA is available from the Scottish Government’s website: www.gov.scot .

Whilst a more specific quantitative assessment against the Scottish carbon budget has not been made in arriving at the MATHLRs, future proposals for new homes will be considered against NPF4 as a whole including its policies on climate and nature crises, as well as on quality homes. These will influence both the location and design of individual proposals for new homes. As land is allocated for housing development in Local Development Plans, further impact assessment will be required.