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We are working with Walking Football Scotland to encourage more women to take up the sport. Most of the walking football sessions across Scotland welcome men and women, and there are also many female-only sessions. The Walking Football Festival being held in June at Glasgow Green will feature women and men competitors.

Walking Football Scotland has female representation at board level and Scotland’s only football World Cup winner Rose Reilly is an ambassador – which I hope will encourage more women to participate.

The Scottish Government funds Paths for All to deliver against national physical activity priorities, including walking for health. Paths for All, Age Scotland and other partners initially developed walking football in Scotland to establish the Scottish Walking Football Network. This led to the creation of Walking Football Scotland which I helped launch on 6 December 2017.

The Scottish FA is also supportive of Walking Football Scotland, with much of the local delivery already coordinated by the community clubs and partners the Scottish FA invests in.

The sport has grown rapidly across Scotland by allowing people to reignite their passion for football – despite injury or illness – simply by slowing the sport down. The new organisation already has more than 45 member organisations which run more than 70 sessions every week. As well as physical and mental health, the additional social benefits that come from playing in a football match make this an excellent and inclusive game which I am proud to support.

We have no plans to enable planning authorities to designate areas where an applicant’s right of appeal against a planning decision by the authority would be removed.

It is the role of Scottish Government to to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards to support them to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. Within this context, the actual provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of local Boards, taking into account national guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment.

In 2017-18, £50 million was made available to NHS Boards to reduce waiting times across services. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde received £11.2 million of this funding. Each Board decided where this funding would be invested within their area, based on local service needs and priorities for investment.

Further to the answer provided to question S5O-01938 by Derek Mackay on 28 March 2018, the following table presents the total number of appeals received and number of appeals resolved against the 2017 business rates revaluation, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government has regular contact with its major animal welfare stakeholders. Scottish Government officials have discussed, and corresponded on, an increase to the penalties for animal cruelty offences with a number of animal welfare organisations, including the Scottish SPCA, and a number of representatives from Scottish local authorities.

I wrote to Vertex Pharmaceuticals last year to encourage them to take forward discussions with National Procurement colleagues in NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). National Procurement have advised that these confidential talks are ongoing and we hope that, as a result of those discussions, the manufacturer will re-submit an application for Orkambi® to the Scottish Medicines Consortium for their consideration at a price that is fair, transparent and represents best value.

As a national Government we would not typically respond to such consultations. The Scottish Government agrees that smart charging and related technologies will help ensure that we capture in full the benefits of ultra-low emission vehicles. We are taking a coordinated “whole system” approach, involving our existing transport sector and its suppliers, electricity network owners and generators, and consumers. This will help us to understand and tackle these opportunities and challenges in the best way possible.