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Against the backdrop of continued impacts from Covid-19, public spending constraints and the cost of living crisis, we are doing all we can to protect Scotland’s culture and historic environment, to ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive, delivering on the vision of the Culture Strategy.

The Scottish Government will invest £278m in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector in 2023-24 which will support a range of actions set out in the Culture Strategy. Further information about the breakdown of individual budget lines will be shared in the coming weeks. Additionally, we will publish a refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan in spring 2023, which will set out how we will continue to deliver on the aims of the Culture Strategy.

Person-centred, safe and high-quality care for mothers and babies throughout pregnancy, birth and following birth can have a marked effect on the health and life chances of women and babies, and on the healthy development of children throughout their lives. This can help to mitigate the impact of inequalities and deprivation and their long term health and other consequences for families.

We continue to prioritise improvements to maternity and neonatal care through the implementation of The Best Start programme, in partnership with senior leaders and clinicians. For women who experience multiple disadvantage, as well as those with additional complex needs, we know that continuity of carer from a primary midwife is likely to be particularly important. That is why we have included women and families from lower Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles, as well as those from minority ethnic communities, as priority groups for the introduction of continuity of carer.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to lead a national review to understand any contributing factors to the increase in neonatal mortality during 2021-22. This review will assess and determine whether there are any themes, underlying causes or safety factors that have contributed to the increased neonatal mortality rate from both a clinical and system perspective.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that that, as of 31 January 2023, there are 88,826 dispositions undergoing registration.

RoS received and processed over 655,000 applications in 2022, of which 90% were completed in 20 days.

In the Land Register the legal effect of registration backdates to the date on which the Keeper entered the application onto the application record (the date of receipt) and properties undergoing registration can still be transacted upon in the usual way.

Since the Best Use of Timber Awards were established in 2012, Scottish Forestry has allocated £6,000 each year towards the delivery of the awards, with the exception of 2020 when the awards did not take place due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Architecture and Design Scotland does not allocate funding for the project other than staff resource.

The Scottish Government discussed with National Museums of Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023. NMS opened the 1st floor of the National Museum of Scotland – which includes Animal World, Kingdom of Scots, Discoveries and Imagine galleries. The National War Museum was closed. The National Museum of Rural Life was open as usual. The National Museum of Flight is currently closed during the week during winter and so was unaffected by the industrial action.

The cost of closing facilities managed by National Galleries of Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by National Galleries of Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The cost of closing sites managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by Historic Environment Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The cost of closing facilities managed by National Museums of Scotland as a result of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action on 1 February 2023 is not currently estimated. This estimation would be carried out by National Museums of Scotland themselves rather than by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government provides investment to assist housing partners to deliver social and affordable homes. Over £327 million has been made available to Local Authority areas in the Highlands and Islands for the current parliamentary term. Local Authorities, through Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs), identify their housing priorities and use the Scottish Government funding to address housing need. Figures on actual homes completed, in 2021-22 and to the end of September 2022, are available on our webpages Affordable Housing Supply Programme: quarterly updates on completions - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Planned homes, for years 2023-24 to 2025-26 within the Highland, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney SHIPs exceed 1,800, but a split between social and affordable homes on some projects are unlikely to be determined, so accurate figures are not available. SHIPs are published documents and should be available on local authorities’ webpages.

The Scottish Government discussed with Historic Environment Scotland the effect of the Public and Commercial Services Union industrial action.

Although four Historic Environment Scotland sites could not open due to the industrial action, the vast majority of Historic Environment Scotland’s visitor attractions, including the most popular sites - Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle, remained open to the public on 1 February 2023.