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The works at each of the ports as part of the Skye Triangle Infrastructure programme (Tarbert, Lochmaddy & Uig) are aimed at replacing life expired infrastructure, improving resilience and increasing the range of vessels that can use the ports. The Tarbert (Harris) project is estimated to cost £23million. Our response to the Freedom of Information Request 2022-00297832 published in July 2022 outlined that we have offered a capital funding contribution of up to £19.599million with the remaining contribution to be met by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) as statutory harbour authority.

The works at each of the ports as part of the Skye Triangle Infrastructure programme (Tarbert, Lochmaddy & Uig) are aimed at replacing life expired infrastructure, improving resilience and increasing the range of vessels that can use the ports. The Lochmaddy project is estimated to cost £21million. Our response to the Freedom of Information Request 2022-00297832 published in July 2022 outlined that we have offered a capital funding contribution of up to £15,747million with the remaining contribution to be met by the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CNES) as statutory harbour authority.

No expressions of interest have been received by the Scottish Government as the Community Bus Fund has not launched. Officials have engaged with local authority representatives ATCO and CoSLA, who have indicated the general feedback from local authorities on the Community Bus Fund has been positive.

Data around the number of people taking up interim care placements procured using the additional funding offer announced in January 2023 is published weekly on a Thursday at Interim care placement uptake - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The data is currently not available broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets over this parliamentary term, in order to increase the number of these facilities across the country and to support mobile Changing Places Toilets to allow people easier access to events and outdoor venues.

Our Scottish approach to delivering Changing Places Toilets will respond to local needs in communities across the country. Our Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide makes clear that anywhere the public has access should be considering the requirement of installing a CPT.
We are committed to designing a funding programme that ensures that the Changing Places Toilets which are built are fit for purpose and are installed in appropriate locations to meet the needs of those that will use them.

This investment will be delivered in phases over the course of this parliamentary term.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work to increase provision of Changing Places Toilets, we are aiming to transform attitudes across Scotland so that more organisations, including businesses, are aware of, and understand the importance of, Changing Places Toilet facilities.

The Scottish Government has already introduced Scottish Building Regulations in 2019 requiring the provision of Changing Places Toilets in larger new buildings to which the public have access.

We also published our Changing Places Toilets: Planning Guide and an accompanying easy read in November 2022. This guide, written in collaboration with PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society), details practical considerations when considering installing a Changing Places Toilet in both existing and new buildings. This helpful toolkit has been designed to improve and encourage Changing Places Toilet provision in the immediate term and ensure that new toilets built following our changes to legislation are appropriate and well considered.

The Scottish Government annually update and publish information relating to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) contracts and their associated unitary charge payments. This information is collated from the relevant procuring public sector bodies including local authorities and published on the Scottish Government website at the following link www.gov.scot/npd/pfi

The Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) (most recently published in 2021) ( The Scottish Government's Medium Term Financial Strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) sets out the range of funding available to the Scottish Government to invest in infrastructure, including revenue finance models. As part of the National Infrastructure Mission commitment, the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) were commissioned to examine new privately financed profit-sharing schemes. SFT assessed different funding models (such as evolved Private Finance Initiatives, financial transactions and MIM variations) against their ability to deliver additional investment, value for money, affordability, investor interest and financial risk. More information on the analysis performed by SFT can be found here: sftoptionsappraisalreportlowres.pdf (scottishfuturestrust.org.uk) .

The Scottish Futures Trust also supports the Scottish Government in considering the range of sources of finance and their relative merits for different types of infrastructure investment– a summary of which can be found in Appendix 5, here:

NPF4_Draft_3.QXP_Layout 1 (scottishfuturestrust.org.uk)

Following the publication of the Health and Social Care Winter Resilience Overview I wrote to General Practices on 15 November to set my expectations regarding the need to ensure there is an appropriate mix of pre-booked, same day, face to face and remote appointments that suits individual practice populations.

I also announced the formation of the General Practice Access Group. The group aims to understand the challenges and issues affecting access to General Practice and will establish high level core principles to support and enhance patients’ experience of accessing ‘The Right Care, Right Time, Right Place’. The group has commenced its work and I understand will be looking to consult on a draft document in February.

On 21 December 2022 NHS Forth Valley and NHS Lanarkshire have been allocated £52.565 million and £109.967 million respectively to provide primary medical services.

Circularity Scotland issued the final RVM specification in November 2022. Separately some producers have highlighted that their containers have higher than usual variation in weight. Circularity Scotland have recently met with RVM vendors and drinks producers to discuss tolerance levels in dimensions, particularly with glass, to ensure that the settings in RVMs accommodate these variations. This is a standard approach for deposit return schemes and will mean that return points don’t need to deal with high levels of rejections.