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Until the Land Management Planning process and associated consultation has been completed there is no certainty over the level or nature of new planting at Glenprosen and therefore any costings would be speculative.

The Scottish Government will be applying an uplift of 5.6% to the value of the GP contract later this year. This uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2022 and will include funding to cover a 4.5% increase in non-staff expenses. Scottish Government are also adding an extra 20% to all item of service claims made by NHS general dental practitioners in quarter three of this year (October to December), and 10% in quarter four (January to March). The Welsh Secretary and I have jointly written to the UK Government asking it to provide additional funding given that it is their actions that have caused record high inflation. A copy of the letter has been placed in SPICe, bib number 63796.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care in 2022-23.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (2 November), in common with the overall Scottish Budget, the Health and Social Care budget is facing unpreceded challenges as a result of inflation and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

It has therefore been essential to review health and social care spending, with £400 million reprioritised and fully retained within the Portfolio, to ensure that it is directed where it is needed most, including supporting enhanced pay offers.

The Scottish Government has established the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board to oversee the successful implementation of our economic strategy. As part of the Delivery Board’s work, it will engage with key delivery partners like Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) in driving a ‘Team Scotland’ approach to transforming the Scottish economy. A recent example is the involvement of ZWS in the Delivery Board’s Green Economy Jobs deep dive with delivery partners to explore what is being done to secure green jobs in Scotland.

I would be concerned about reports of this nature. I’m happy to take further representations from the Member and I will ask officials to follow this up with the Board.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual report on marketing spend in each financial year, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ .

The Scottish Government ran a smoking cessation campaign in 2017-2018. The costs for this campaign totalled £370,978.50. The total media spend for this campaign was £253,352.78 across TV, radio, digital and outdoor advertising. The digital advertising included £23,252 on Facebook advertising in support of the campaign. No other social media advertising was used as part of the campaign.

Local Authorities undertake tobacco control through tobacco sales enforcement and tobacco and electronic cigarette control.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on tobacco control, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

All of the £830.6 million allocated to Additional Support for Social Care in the 2022-23 budget has been included in the block grant allocation provided to local authorities. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and the information requested on spend would therefore require to be requested from local authorities.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

There have been no discussions between Scottish Government and NHS Highland regarding the sale of Lochbroom House, Ullapool. The statutory duty for care homes resides with the Local Authority.