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The Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) which accompanies the Revised Draft NPF4 considers the potential benefits and costs to businesses and other stakeholders of each policy. The BRIA can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework-4-final-business-regulatory-impact-assessment .

The Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board (ESSB) has met once over the past year, on 25 March 2022. As set out in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET), published in March 2022, the ESSB has been restructured to become the new NSET Delivery Board which was announced in May 2022: https://www.gov.scot/groups/national-strategy-for-economic-transformation-delivery- board/ .

Further to the list of active groups and sub-groups within the Finance and Economy portfolio provided in answer to question S6W-12330, the last meeting dates for these are set out in the following table:

The Joint Working Group, which includes COSLA and the Scottish Green Party commenced it work, initially focussing on targeted changes to Council Tax to reflect the current circumstances created by the cost crisis. The group will also consider approaches to longer term reform, utilising the development of effective deliberative engagement, on sources of Local Government funding and Council Tax. I will ensure that Parliament is kept appraised of this work at suitable junctures.

Scottish Water is required to test both drinking water and wastewater in line with legislative requirements and to submit these to the relevant regulator. Annual reports are provided by both the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency which provide a commentary on the levels of compliance with mandatory standards. Scottish Water also publishes water quality information which is searchable by postcode.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12970 on 20 December 2022. 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

After competitive tender, a contract was awarded to Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP to obtain expert independent advice on the implications of VAT on the NCS and associated Care Boards. This work is ongoing. We are also engaging with HMT. No decisions have been made at this point and a full understanding of the impact of all options will be considered after the co-design process has been completed. The co-design will involve COSLA and Local Authorities as well as people accessing care and support and care workers.

We are confident in local authorities’ ability to deliver unpaid work and other community orders but we recognise the huge impact which the pandemic had on justice social work and the ongoing efforts to ensure an effective and sustainable recovery.

We continue to work with key partners including Social Work Scotland, COSLA, and Community Justice Scotland to monitor recovery work, including measuring the level of outstanding unpaid work hours regularly and exploring any issues arising.

At present, management information indicates that the number of outstanding unpaid work hours across Scotland is close to pre-pandemic levels, at around 720,000 hours in November 2022 compared to around 690,000 hours in April 2020. Having some outstanding hours in the system is normal, as it takes time for individuals to undertake the unpaid work they have been sentenced to.

The ongoing recovery work is also supported through the draft budget for 2023-24, which maintains the additional funding of £15m provided in 2022-23 for justice social work services.

The Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board was supported by an independent Analytical Unit which monitored the impact and outcomes of the enterprise and skills system through a Performance Framework. Details of the Board’s Performance Framework can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/enterprise-and-skills-strategic-board-january-2020/ . The final evaluation undertaken for the Board was measuring the return to post-school education and skills, which was published on 2 December 2022.

The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university, have been provided in the following table.

The tables only cover those entering ‘pre-clinical medicine’ and do not include other students entering medical schools on ‘clinical medicine’ or students in continuing years of study.

Data has been provided in two tables due to a change in the subject classification coding used by universities in 2019-20.