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This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Statistics on registration and participation can be found on the Public Health Scotland website ( Publications - Public Health Scotland ).

The Scottish Government continues to engage with the UK Government as part of the forthcoming Fiscal Framework Review. The scope and timings of the review are subject to agreement with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The review must ensure the Scottish Government and Parliament has the necessary powers to manage the risks we face within our devolved responsibilities, and to support economic recovery.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to provide high quality, person-centred care for all people, including those with postural tachycardia syndrome.

There are a range of treatment options available on the NHS in Scotland, including self-management and a range of medications based on individual circumstances. The recommendation of any particular treatment is a matter for discussion between a patient and their clinician.

Although guided by the missions set for it by Scottish Ministers, the Scottish National Investment Bank is operationally independent and makes investment decisions based on its own investment process and strategy.

On the specific matter of North Star, it is for North Star as a private commercial company to make its own decisions in respect to where it sources it vessels. The Scottish Government recognises the opportunity that requirements for offshore wind service vessels presents for Scottish industry going forward and will seek to work together to support this.

Although guided by its missions, which are set by Scottish Ministers, and the legislation within the Scottish National Investment Bank Act 2020, the Bank operates independently. So, any potential future investment roles or opportunities would be a matter for the Bank to decide.

Work is ongoing to develop our infrastructure improvement programme. As part of that improvement work we have been engaging across government and, at this stage, with the Scottish Futures Trust to understand some of the issues that have affected previous capital investment projects and how we can best take action to improve delivery, as part of our work to develop options for a national infrastructure company.

Local authorities determine their own programmes for capital investment and are required by legislation to comply with The Prudential Code for Capital Finance in Local Authorities, which was developed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). The Prudential Code requires local authorities to ensure that all capital investment decisions are prudent, affordable and sustainable.

The Scottish Government have no plans to propose the use of private finance for any new local authority led infrastructure projects. As a government however, we are committed to ensuring that existing private finance contractual obligations are delivered and that contracts are affordable. That is why we have asked the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to work with public bodies to realise contract management improvements including re-scoping services, sharing in insurance cost savings, and optimising the risk transfer in contracts. SFT have published several guidance notes in relation to operational contract management which are available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/operational-ppp

The Scottish Government annually update and publish information relating to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) contracts which is available from the following link www.gov.scot/npd/pfi .

In addition, the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) have published several guidance notes relating to the operational management of these contracts which are available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/operational-ppp

The Scottish Government also has a transparent approach to the delivery of infrastructure projects that reports on the progress of major projects every six months to Parliament. Our major projects reporting shows how projects progress from proposal to detailed design and costing to procurement and subsequent delivery. Our major projects reporting is published and available from the following link www.gov.scot/infrastructure/projects

The NPD model replaced the PFI model in 2010 and although not used for new projects since 2018, NPD improved documentation as unlike PFI, most commercial information in NPD contracts was published two years after the asset was completed rather than the twenty-five years that older PFI contracts envisaged. NPD standard contracts were also more flexible than PFI allowing public bodies to make small changes or use agreed contracted rates to price changes. Further information on NPD contracts is available from the SFT’s website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/contracts

The only private finance approach currently available is the Mutual Investment Model (MIM), which will be restricted to deployment by the Scottish Government, its agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. This route was identified by SFT in response to the request to identify a profit sharing, privately financed infrastructure investment route that could be added to the range of public sector funding and financing routes. SFT published the Options Appraisal on the use of MIM which is available from their website at the following link www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/mim .

The deployment of MIM is currently being explored by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish National Investment Bank’s investment portfolio is funded directly by the Scottish Government through the use of Financial Transactions. Financial Transactions (FTs) are loans from HMT with interest and repayable over an agreed period. They must go ‘beyond the public sector boundary’ and are used for by a variety of Scottish Government portfolios, such as Higher Education, Enterprise bodies, Transport, Energy, Housing and Digital, etc. Due to the structure of these transactions, the Bank currently cannot lend to any aspect of the public sector.

There are no immediate plans to alter from the existing model operated by the Bank towards either investing into the public sector or issuing bonds.

The Scottish Government established the Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of violence against women and girls services to develop a new funding model to ensure victims have access to high-quality, accessible specialist support.

The call for written evidence is one part of the overall data collection process undertaken by the Review team, which includes around 80 engagement sessions with stakeholders. The final report will be considered by Ministers once complete, and it would be premature to comment on the views expressed by those who submitted responses before the Review has analysed all data collected and made recommendations.

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place, including in education settings. That is why we provide over £900k per year of funding to support education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing gender-based violence including Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Sexual Violence Prevention Programme, Equally Safe at School, and the Mentors in Violence Prevention peer education programme. Our Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group is also developing a framework to carry forward this work.

Applications for the 2022-23 School Libraries Improvement Fund were accepted from 29 August 2022 to 29 September 2022.

We are engaging with the Scottish Library and Information Council and will set out future plans in due course.