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The Scottish Government has provided nearly £39 million from 2008-09 – 2016-17 for NHS Board Carer Information Strategies. This is for direct support to Carers Centres, Young Carers Projects and voluntary sector programmes, including the provision of training for carers.

The Scottish Manual Handling Passport Scheme is an initiative designed to improve the standard and consistency of manual handling training, education and the systems that underpin it within Health Boards and local authorities in Scotland. This includes the involvement of unpaid carers. This guidance was endorsed by the Health and Safety Executive and COSLA, and published by the Scottish Government on 8 August 2014.

The Carers (Scotland) Act will be commenced on 1st April 2018. The Adult Carer Support Plan and Young Carer Statement must contain information about the extent to which the carer is able and willing to provide care for the cared-for person, and information about the support available to the carer and cared-for person in the local authority area. This may include any training that the carer requires, including on moving and handling.

The Act also places a duty on each local authority to establish and maintain an information and advice service which must provide information and advice about, amongst other things, education and training for carers.

Scottish Government published Procurement Policy Note 10/2016 on 23 September 2016 requiring public bodies covered by the Scottish Public Finance Manual to include a Project Bank Account in tender documents for public works contracts with an estimated value of at least £4,104,394 for building projects and £10,000,000 for civil engineering projects starting procurement procedures after 31 October 2016. The number of projects using Project Bank Accounts will be defined by the number of projects commissioned by relevant public bodies meeting these criteria. Independent bodies not covered by the Manual were asked in the Policy Note to implement Project Bank Accounts and Scottish Government’s official guidance is publicly available to enable this.

Brexit is by far the biggest threat to Scotland’s jobs, prosperity and economy. That is why the Scottish Government has always been clear that remaining in Europe – and maintaining full access to the world’s largest single market of more than 500 million people – is the best option for our future. Last month the Scottish Government published a detailed set of proposals in “Scotland’s Place in Europe”. This paper was discussed at the Joint Ministerial Committee for EU Negotiations this morning. Discussions are on-going in a bilateral space.

As part of our support for the economy, the Scottish Government announced a package of action to reduce business rates as part of the draft budget. This includes expanding the Small Business Bonus Scheme from 2017 to lift 100,000 properties out of rates completely, while 8,000 business properties will no longer pay the Large Business Supplement, and the overall business rates poundage – the core tax rate that applies to the rateable value of business properties – will also be cut by 3.7% to 46.6p.

There have been 55 inward investment projects confirmed since April 2016.

I warmly welcome the Scottish Veterans Commissioner’s report, “The Veterans Community – Employability, Skills and Learning”. This is an important subject and I am keen that we can respond positively to his recommendations. The report contained a wide-ranging set of 19 recommendations and work is underway to examine these in depth.

In November 2016, I informed the Commissioner formally that I welcome and accept his recommendation to update Parliament on progress on all his recommendations on an annual basis. A response on the full set of recommendations contained in the report will be published before the next cross-party working group on the Armed Forces and Veterans in early-March 2017.

This is yet to be decided as the board of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been clear that they first need to take full account of the recommendations of the National Review of Maternity and Neonatal Services, which we expect to be published in 2017.

The Chair of the Review, Jane Grant, has submitted her report to Scottish Ministers, and we intend publishing it shortly.

Although data on pregnant women treated outwith their NHS board area are collected locally the specific reason for this are not held centrally.

While management of Minor injuries Units and Medical Assessment Centres are operational matters for NHS Health Boards, the Scottish Government has received reassurance from NHS GG&C that the Minor Injuries Unit and Medical Assessment Centre at the Vale of Leven Hospital will continue to function as normal over the winter months.

The £30 million represents estimated repayments from 2017-18 for planned borrowing in 2016-17. To date, no borrowing has been undertaken in 2016-17, but the Scottish Government has indicated that it plans to borrow up to the full amount available this year and it is prudent to budget now for future borrowing repayments. Decisions about actual required borrowing in 2016-17 will be taken nearer the end of the financial year. The estimated borrowing repayments in 2017-18 have been modelled on the basis of a 10 year repayment period, with repayments in equal instalments.