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The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) has been available since July 2021. We ask NHS Boards to report on the number of claims, including successful claims, which have been made to the fund.

In 2021/22, NHS Boards reported that 4,983 claims were made under the YPFF and all claims were successful.

For reporting period 2022-23, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18948 on 21 June 2023. 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

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice when providing psychosocial care for people with chronic kidney disease.

We published our new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy on 29 June 2023. The Strategy sets out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for the mental health and wellbeing of the population. We will subsequently publish a Delivery Plan in the Autumn to set out the work we will do over the coming years to make progress towards those outcomes and set out how we will measure that progress.

This will include consideration on how the Strategy will set ambitions and actions to support people living with long term conditions like chronic kidney disease. One of our key outcomes for the Strategy is to ensure people with mental health conditions, including those with co-existing health conditions, experience improved quality and length of life, free from stigma and discrimination

In order to achieve this, we will work with partners to develop actions that will see improved provision of services and support to people with long-term physical health conditions for their mental health and wellbeing.

There is no recommended minimum distance between onshore wind turbines and residential properties. Policy 11: Energy of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) states that potential impacts on communities, nature and other receptors will be important considerations in the decision-making process. Additionally, the policy requires that project design and mitigation demonstrate how impacts on communities and individual dwellings, including residential amenity, visual impact, noise and shadow flicker and cumulative impacts will be addressed. All applications are subject to site-specific assessments.

Cumulative impacts are specifically referenced in Policy 11 and are a consideration in the determination of wind farm proposals. Furthermore, Planning Circular 1/2017: Environmental Impact Assessment regulations sets out guidance relating to the consideration of cumulative effects.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, local authorities are required to keep an up-to-date record of the location of asbestos in their schools.

Although Health and safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government, we take the issue of asbestos within schools very seriously and expect local authorities to strictly follow Health and Safety Executive recommendations. Moreover, we remain in close contact with the Health and Safety Executive regarding asbestos in schools.

The New Scots refugee integration strategy has been developed and is led in partnership by the Scottish Government, COSLA and Scottish Refugee Council. The current strategy was published in 2018.

All partners have committed to refreshing the strategy and to ensuring that it continues to be shaped by refugees and people seeking asylum, as well as those with expertise supporting them. We are currently developing professional and lived experience engagement events, which will take place throughout Scotland this Autumn to inform the next iteration of the Strategy. Publication of the strategy itself will follow after these events have taken place to ensure the views of those the strategy seeks to serve are properly reflected.

We are making available £3 million from our £10 million long COVID Support Fund over this financial year 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.

Initiatives being supported by the funding include provision of single point of access for assessment and co-ordinated support from services including physiotherapy and occupational therapy. These services aim to support people with the impact of their symptoms on their day to day lives and to achieve personal outcomes which are important to each individual, which can include support to return to, or maintain employment.

The Scottish Government also invests in a range of further initiatives to support people with health conditions to sustain or return to work, such as through the NHS delivered Working Health Services Scotland and the Public Health Scotland led Healthy Working Lives resource. They provide advice and support on work related physical and mental health promotion, ill health prevention and return to work practices.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20206 on 14 August 2023. 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 .

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of children and young people who have a nicotine addiction.

However, it monitors smoking and vaping prevalence in these groups, drawing on surveys like the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Scotland study; the Health and Wellbeing Census ; and the Smoking Toolkit Study (STS).

For example, from the Health and Wellbeing Census , undertaken for the first time by Local Authorities in Scotland between October 2021 and June 2022 among secondary school pupils in Scotland (S2 around age 13 and S4 around age 15). This shows that:

• 2.7% of pupils said they were regular smokers. Prevalence was higher in S4 (4.3%) than in S2 (1.6%).
• 6.7% of pupils said they vaped regularly (once a week or more). Prevalence was higher in S4 (10.1%) than in S2 (4.3%).

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Building safety is a matter for the owner – who in this case would be individual local authorities - acting in accordance with the relevant health and safety legislation. Moreover, health and safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government.