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Provisions contained in a Bill at introduction will be informed by analysis of the current public consultation exercise which will run until 25 April. As the views of all stakeholders need to be considered in detail, it is not possible to confirm any potential Bill content at the current time.

The consultation outlines that anchor organisations are typically large public sector employers with a strong local presence in an area, such as local authorities, health and social care bodies, further education institutions and enterprise agencies. The Consultation includes a proposal for a duty to advance CWB and the Scottish Government would welcome views on who this duty should or could apply to.

The Scottish Government is open to exploring how it can support land reform objectives using its limited powers over taxation and included a question on how these powers could be used in the consultation for the upcoming Land Reform Bill.

All responses to the consultation are currently being considered and a full consultation analysis will be published later in the spring. Any proposals on taxation will be considered in the context of the current devolved settlement and against the Scottish Government’s Framework for Tax.

The Scottish Government remains opposed to the forced installation of pre-payment meters, and we welcome Ofgem’s recent announcement that suppliers will not be restarting prepayment meter installations next month, as previously intended. Scottish Government officials are engaging with Ofgem on its current review of guidance for suppliers on the use of pre-payment meters to ensure that the rights and interests of Scottish consumers are fully considered.

We recognise the importance of Junior Doctors to NHS Scotland and the important work they contribute. Their demands for an above retail price index pay increase, plus an additional ask of 23.5% – meaning a pay raise of more than 35% - are unaffordable.

We have written to the independent Doctors and Dentist Review Bodies and asked them to consider a separate and specific recommendation for Junior Doctor pay in 2023. BMA Scotland have confirmed they wish to remain within the DDRB process this year.

Junior Doctors earn a basic salary plus a pay banding on top of their salary, meaning that the majority of Junior Doctors in their first year (FY1) are earning a salary of £40,000 plus a year. Their salaries continue to rise every year, and in their second year of training the majority will be earning £49,000+ per year. They are on a career journey towards becoming a senior doctor such as a Consultant or GP, with salaries in excess of £100,000 per year.

I last met with the Chair of the BMA Scotland Committee on 11 January to discuss their request for a national conversation, and met with Chair of the BMA Scottish Junior Doctors Committee on 15 December to discuss their concerns around pay for Junior Doctors.

In addition I wrote to the Chair of the BMA on 21 February offering to meet with both him and the Chair of the BMA Scottish Junior Doctors Committee to discuss further.

The Scottish Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development met with the UK Minister for Development and Africa on 15 March, where they discussed a number of key international development issues including climate justice. In particular, in relation to loss and damage, the Bridgetown Initiative and the Scottish Government’s recently published report , Practical Action for Addressing Loss and Damage were covered. Additionally, Scottish Government officials meet on a semi-regular basis with UK Government officials to discuss international climate change matters, including loss and damage.

The Scottish Government thanks all those who submitted proposals in response to the Climate Just Communities invitation to tender. The Scottish Government anticipates announcing the contract winner early into next financial year.

Up to £24 million will be awarded from the Climate Justice Fund (CJF) to the Climate Just Communities programme, making it the largest programme launched under the CJF. This will be split across the three countries of Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia through three separate contracts equalling up to £8 million each over 3 years.

There was no Scottish Government process to contract dualling for ‘Tomalin to Mor’.

The procurement for the A9 Dualling: Tomatin to Moy contract, however, involved a 10-month procurement process using a Competitive Dialogue procedure in accordance with Regulation 31 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. During this process two tenders were invited to submit a Final Tender, however only one tender was received.

In accordance with the above procedure, the tender evaluation followed a pre-defined methodology which included an assessment of the technical, quality and financial aspects of the tender submission received.

Following this evaluation, Ministers concluded that the tender received did not represent best value for the taxpayer at this time and made the decision not to award the contract.

The Scottish Government holds some of the information asked for and this has been provided in the following table.

Table - The number of Significant Adverse Event Reviews commissioned for a Category I event – data held by Scottish Government .

The information has been provided with the following caveats:

• This table shows Category I adverse events receiving a Level 1 review, or Significant Adverse Event Review (SAER), as reported to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) through the national notification system. This does not include ‘never events’ (defined as: “serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if relevant preventive measures have been put in place”).
• It covers the period January 2020 to February 2022. Prior to this date, this information was not collected centrally.
• The Scottish Government does not routinely request the information from HIS. Further information will be held by HIS.

Data on SAERs commissioned before January 2020 will be held by individual NHS Health Boards.

The Scottish Government is developing a new Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy, which aims to ensure that everyone in Scotland receives well co-ordinated, timely, and high quality palliative care based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers. We have appointed a National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care to drive this, supported by a Clinical and Practice Advisory Group and a wide-reaching Strategy Steering Group. The Steering Group is currently reviewing the information and evidence we have and need to develop the strategy, including mapping services and support across Scotland across all care settings including people’s own homes. We will develop a strategy that reflects what matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement, and are therefore also reviewing the information and evidence we have about people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care, and bereavement, in order to inform our strategy going forward.