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The Scottish Government deliver assistance and funding to local volunteer groups for the procurement of electric vehicles, e-Bikes and associated electric vehicle infrastructure through the Plugged-in Communities and eBike grant funds. This scheme is administered on behalf of Scottish Ministers by the Energy Saving Trust (EST). Some of the groups provided assistance through this scheme may not be full volunteer organisations but will have volunteers and volunteer drivers.

Table 1 – Funding for Electric Vehicles and e-Bikes procured through Plugged-in Communities and eBike Grant Fund in each Financial Year since 2016.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publishes information on college withdrawals, as well as retention statistics for undergraduate courses at colleges and universities.

These statistics are measuring different things and are not comparable.

College withdrawal statistics (Chart 10) : College Performance Indicators 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)

College and university retention statistics (Background Table 3) : Report on Widening Access 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy (December 2022) sets out our cross-government approach to carer support and recognition, including through collaboration with different partners spanning local government, the Third Sector, the NHS and the wider public sector. The Strategy specifically considers the importance of all employers being positive about carers in the workforce, and sets out our intentions regarding carers and employment at chapter 4. This includes our commitment to fund and promote the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme.

The Scottish Government funds Carers Scotland to run the scheme, raise awareness and engage with public services and other prospective employers, for example through direct engagement, speaking at networks and events and one-to-one support. The Scottish Government Ministers will continue to promote the scheme, working with Carers Scotland.

A full list of Carer Positive employers, including a significant proportion of public bodies is published on the Carer Positive website .

The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive at least two hours of physical education per school week in primary schools, and at least two 50-minute periods of physical education per week in secondary schools - between secondaries 1 and 4.

Under the provisions of Curriculum for Excellence, schools and education authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of their lessons at the local level by taking into account the needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. This includes taking decisions locally about the content of their PE lessons, where they can offer swimming lessons to their pupils if they wish to do so.

However, I recognise the importance of ensuring that all children can have equal opportunities to access swimming lessons, regardless of their families' social or economic circumstances. Therefore, we have been working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sportScotland and Scottish Water to pilot bespoke interventions and approaches within local areas to provide opportunities for more children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers.

The Scottish Budget for 2023-24 confirms funding of £4 million to deliver the Young Patients Family Fund.

I have written to the Scottish Funding Council, copied to Colleges Scotland and Universities Scotland confirming an additional allocation of £2.205 million (for the period April to July 2023), on top of our allocation of £2.025 million announced last year (for the period August 2022 to March 2023). This makes a total 2022-23 AY allocation of £4.23 million.

This means that the total AY 2022-23 award would for Colleges is £2.424 million and Universities is £1.806 million. This is in line with last year’s award of £4.229 million and sector allocations. The Scottish Funding Council will prepare guidance on the additional allocation together with details of institutional awards.

The following table shows the number of people killed in injury road collisions in the Mid Scotland and Fife region by year, month and road between May 2016 and December 2021. The statistics cover Clackmannanshire, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Stirling local authority areas. Road casualty figures for 2022 will be published on 24 May 2023.

We continue to invest in our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, of which public education and empowerment is a key work-stream. We launched a new campaign – Be the Early Bird – in March 2023 to empower those with possible symptoms to act early. This included sharing stories of those that have been diagnosed and successfully treated with ovarian cancer via press and digital channels, to prompt others to take early action.

We will continue to work with the Scottish Cancer Coalition – which Target Ovarian is a member of - as well as the primary care community across NHS Scotland, to raise awareness of possible symptoms. Work is also underway to redesign DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) – this will reflect ovarian cancer content, including additional survivor stories and signposting to Target Ovarian for more information.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to supporting carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) and we have set out a positive vision for this in our Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan. Since taking up office, I have held a roundtable with the Scottish Cluster to seek industry’s view on how best we can support, accelerate and scale up CCUS following recent UK Government announcements. I have also met with the UK Government Minister Andrew Bowie to discuss the Energy Bill, to ensure this vital piece of enabling legislation best reflects Scotland’s interests. Yesterday I also met with the Carbon Capture and Storage Association to discuss the opportunities around Track-2 and the development of the sector.

We remain wholly committed to supporting the advancement of the Scottish Cluster and CCUS, and also stand firmly behind our commitment to make available £80 million of financial support. We continue to urge the UK Government to provide a clear timetable for when the Scottish Cluster will be awarded.

The Scottish Government engages closely with NHS Highland on dental service delivery matters and has put in place a framework of support to facilitate local solutions.

This includes Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grant support, which pays out a potential £100,000 for the first surgery, and £25,000 per additional surgery to practices setting up a new practice, or extending an existing practice; and making available recruitment and retention allowances with payments of up to £37,500 over a three year period. Both mitigations apply across the whole of the Highland Health Board area.

In this particular case the Board is working with the practice to facilitate recruitment resting on the incentives available. In the meantime a locum dentist will provide cover at the practice, pending recruitment.

Unregistered patients can access emergency and urgent dental care via the Public Dental Service, Argyll & Bute Dental Helpline.