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The Scottish Government continue to invest in policing, investing £1.45 billion in policing in 2023/24, increasing the resource budget of Police Scotland by an additional £80m.

Police Scotland have utilised this additional funding to invest in their workforce - recruiting around 600 new officers this year alone and around 1,480 since the beginning of 2022. A 7% pay increase for 23/24 recognises the hard work and valuable contribution that officers and staff make each day and means that our officers remain the best paid in the UK, with the minimum and maximum salary higher for all ranks compared to their counterparts in England and Wales.

A total of 9 active working groups sit under the remit of the Social Justice portfolio. This includes the following:

• Building Standards Futures Board Working Group
• Disability Equality Immediate Priorities Plan Short Life Working Group
• Housing Affordability Working Group
• Human Rights Bill Implementation Working Group
• Managing Cost Pressures Working Group
• Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety
• Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) Cross Sector Working Group
• Section 3.3 Flooding and Groundwater Working Group
• Social Security Independent Advocacy Short Life Working Group

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This Government understands the critical role of rehabilitation in supporting people affected by chest, heart, and stroke conditions, long COVID and other long-term health conditions. We are committed to ensuring that all adults who require rehabilitation have timely access to the right information and services by the end of 2025 through our Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach.

Our Heart Disease Action Plan, Respiratory Care Action Plan and Stroke Improvement Plans recognise the importance of timely and equitable access to care for people living with chest, heart and stroke conditions. We are working closely with NHS Boards and people with lived experience, as well as our national advisory groups as we implement these strategies. We have also established a £10 million long COVID Support Fund to support NHS boards to increase the capacity of existing services, develop these into more clearly defined local pathways and provide a more co-ordinated experience for people living with long COVID.

We are aware that people living in remote and rural areas may face disparities in access to health care. To address this we are committed to publishing a Remote and Rural Workforce Strategy and have recently established a National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Social Care.

We are acutely aware that energy consumers, and especially consumers that receive treatment at home, are feeling the impacts of recent price hikes in the cost of electricity. We are aware of a variation in practice surrounding reimbursement policies for electricity costs relating to home dialysis. We are working with health boards to understand how best to achieve national consistency so that patients undergoing home dialysis are protected from the impact of high electricity prices, wherever they live.

The Scottish Government is considering all of the recommendations made as part of the Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland.

We will provide an update to Parliament on next steps in due course.

On 17 October the First Minister announced plans that will see Scottish Government investment in arts and culture more than double, so that in five years investment will be £100 million higher than it is now. Ministers will take decisions about where the funding is allocated in 2024-25 and future years subject to the outcome of the Scottish Budget process and associated approval by the Scottish Parliament. The draft budget will be published later this year and will be the subject of Parliamentary scrutiny in early 2024. The Scottish Government intends to present the Draft Budget 2024-25 to Parliament on 19 December 2023.

The Scottish Government expects that where Health Boards are aware of any patient who has been adversely affected by any poor-quality infant auditory brainstem response (ABR) assessment, the relevant Health Board follows up with the patient and their family to provide appropriate support, reassurance and advice on next steps.

Since the launch of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) in December 2018, the group have engaged mainly through online events. Two in-person policy lab events have been held in Scotland with officials attending from WEGo member governments - in Edinburgh on 1-2 May 2019 and in Glasgow on 21 November 2022.

Two Scottish Government officials took part in a short WEGo meeting with officials from other governments in Reykjavik, Iceland on 15 June 2023 whilst attending the Wellbeing Economy Forum held by the Icelandic Government. The cost of the officials attending the Forum was £2,415.02. I spoke to the Forum on 14 June 2023 in my role as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, but did not attend the WEGo meeting. My expenses for the visit are published here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts: June 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .