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The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry is a public inquiry established in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005 and is entirely independent of the Scottish Government. It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government or Ministers to comment on the Inquiry’s proceedings while the Inquiry is ongoing.

Bullying and harassment is unacceptable in any circumstance. We expect all staff, regardless of position, to act in line with the values and behaviours expected of everyone in NHSScotland.

Staff must be confident in raising any concerns they may have, and when they do, that these concerns are fully investigated. The NHSScotland Bullying and Harassment Workforce Policy provides a supportive environment for employees seeking an early resolution to bullying or harassment concerns. It is also a formal mechanism to address unresolved, significant or persistent bullying or harassment, or both.

We emphasised the importance of good workplace cultures with the publication of Improving Wellbeing and Working Cultures (IWWC) in July 2024. IWWC sets out our ambition to enhance working cultures across our health, social work and social care workforce, through programmes of work at a national level that focus on the pillars of: wellbeing, leadership and equality.

Affordable housing has a clear priority in this year’s Programme for Government. We are investing nearly £600 million in affordable housing in 2024-2025, which includes the additional £40 million capital announced earlier this year, and will deliver social and affordable homes across Scotland, including new build, rehabilitation and acquisitions. We have also committed £100 million over the longer term to grow institutional investment to at least £500 million and support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes.

We also recognise the key role that planning plays in supporting the delivery of housing and are working collaboratively to introduce new approaches to performance reporting and improvement action by planning authorities – as well as taking action to improve skills and increase recruitment and retention of planners.

We have supported the delivery of more than 133,000 affordable homes since 2007, over 94,000 of which were for social rent, including 26,000 council homes. Of these, between 23 March 2022 and end of June 2024, we have delivered 22,743 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 17,000 have been homes for social rent. We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Offshore Energy Skills Passport is an initiative led and driven by industry.

The most recent statement from the key industry delivery bodies, Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK, indicates that an initial version of the Passport will be available for workers to access later this year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the Passport’s successful implementation. Ministers last met with Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK to receive updates on progress on 10 September 2024.

Supporting communities to build resilience to emergency events is an established and integral part of the Scottish Government's approach to resilience and will remain so going forward. Scottish Government promotes community-led action, based on local priorities, and provides a combination of investment and other forms of support in ways that build on the strengths and resources of individual communities. Scottish Government works to embed community resilience through a number of connected policy areas which enables collaboration between community resilience groups, voluntary sector organisations, Government and statutory responders, through established networks and relevant meetings at the national and more local levels. As part of Scotland’s National Adaptation Plan and wider Just Transition commitments, the Scottish Government is developing a Flood Resilience Strategy, due to be published by the end of this year, which will set out what needs to be done to make Scotland’s communities more flood resilient over the coming decades. We continue to fund the Scottish Flood Forum’s vital work to support flood risk communities. Scottish Government has also committed up to £5.5 million, in 2024-25, to fund a network of Climate Action Hubs so that, by Autumn 2024, every area of Scotland will have access to a Hub, alongside a support package for delivery. The Hubs will empower communities to take further collective action, shaped locally, to transition to low carbon, reduce emissions, and improve resilience in the face of ongoing climate change and extreme weather events. The Ready Scotland website and associated digital campaigns also provide a range of advice and support to individuals and communities to help them to prepare for and respond to weather-related disruption.

Routinely collected data on the waiting time for a diagnosis of endometriosis are not available.

Through the actions set out in our Women’s Health Plan we have taken steps to support both women and health professionals to learn more about endometriosis, the symptoms and treatment options. Our Women’s Health Plan Final Report on Progress will provide more detail.

Following his appointment as First Minister, Humza Yousaf met with James Hamilton on 27 July 2023 and with Lady Dame Elish Angliolini on 2 August 2023. Scottish Government officials have also engaged with the First Minister's independent advisers on a number of occasions in the course of routine business, including to consult them on the 2023 edition of the Code prior to its publication.

The Scottish Government provided funding in 2023-24 to carry out a piece of quantitative research to establish a baseline measure of public awareness and understanding of the symptoms and risk factors for cardiovascular disease (including awareness of FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time), to track progress over time should communications activity be undertaken in this area, and to inform and consider the case for public information campaigns in relation to cardiovascular disease.

This research did not provide any evidence to support the use or not of BE FAST. The decision not to adopt BE FAST was based on existing research and the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke for the UK and Ireland and is aligned with the stance of Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, Stroke Association and the rest of the United Kingdom’s health services.

As confirmed in the Programme for Government, we will shortly publish the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan to support Scotland’s just transition to a green economy.

Scottish Government capital investment is primarily focussed on the demand sectors of heat, transport and industry.

In support of the delivery of our energy ambitions this financial year (2024-2025) we have allocated:

• over £145 million for active travel, in addition to the over £2 billion we invest in public transport annually.
• £266 million budget for Heat in Buildings.
• £12.2 million for hydrogen projects.
• £9 million to Scotland’s manufacturing industries through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
• £2 million to support the Acorn Carbon transport and storage project.
• Our Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray continues to support a range of pioneering projects with an allocation of £16.4 million

Funding for future years will be subject to annual budget allocations.

The Scottish Government does not hold any data on the area of renewable energy projects, as described.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes a quarterly Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD)[1] that lists renewable energy projects at the following stages: inception, planning, construction, operation, and decommissioning. This dataset is limited geographically, in that it provides a single grid reference point for a site. And while it does provide significant data on the planning, commissioning and construction of the site, it provides no information on the area covered - as indicated in this interactive map[2].

Prime land for agriculture is defined by the James Hutton Institute’s Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) measure[3]. LCA 1 to 3.1 is considered ‘prime’ land suitable for arable production. LCA 3.2 to 7 ranges from land considered suitable for mixed agriculture through to land suitable for various types of grazing.

It is possible to plot renewable energy project sites in relation to land capability for agriculture, but such analysis only gives the number of sites registered on prime agricultural and other agricultural land, not the specific locations of the infrastructure and the areas involved. The Scottish Government has explored this for ground mount solar and onshore wind using 2022 data. For operational onshore wind and ground mount solar the number of sites on different types of land and their generation capacity is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Onshore Wind and Ground Mount Solar by Land Type, 2022 1

As set out in question S6W-29963 which was answered on 24 September 2024, there are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings.

Only a Single Building Assessment meeting the Scottish Standards can identify what cladding if any, a building has and further identify whether the cladding is unsafe.

Developers, homeowners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government. Therefore, the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

In terms of the health service, there are no hospitals in Scotland with significant evacuation challenges and unsafe cladding.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.