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Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grants are currently available in certain areas within 12 NHS Boards, as follows:

• NHS Borders;
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway;
• Dalmellington and Patna within NHS Ayrshire and Arran;
• Auchtermuchty, Leslie, Newburgh and Tayport within NHS Fife;
• Stirlingshire within NHS Forth Valley;
• Banff, Fraserburgh, Huntly and Moray within NHS Grampian;
• Inverclyde within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde;
• NHS Highland;
• NHS Orkney;
• NHS Shetland;
• Arbroath, Dundee, Forfar, Monifieth and Kinross within NHS Tayside; and
• NHS Western Isles.

Under this Government, spending on additional support for learning has reached a record high of £830m in 2021-22 and the number of pupil support staff in Scotland has reached a record high of over 16,600. We have invested an additional £60m since 2019-20 (£15m per year) and provide over £11m of funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.

We do not hold information regarding the allocation of specific additional support needs budgets in each local authority or a breakdown of the expenditure of these budgets.

The Additional Support for Learning Act places duties on education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. It is for individual authorities to determine the training required for all staff to ensure pupils reach their full potential and to manage their budgets accordingly.

All initial teacher education programmes must align with the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Standard for Provisional Registration. The Standard sets out that student teachers are required to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of additional support needs and to take account of learners with such needs.

No funding has been specifically allocated to the Pain Management Task Force and associated Short Life Working Groups for either the 2022-23 financial year or the 2023-24 financial year.

The Pain Management Task Force is comprised of Scottish Government employees and external members, including NHS employees who are on Service Level Agreements (SLA) to develop and deliver work outlined in the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery - Implementation Plan.

There has only been one active Short Life Working Group (SLWG) so far and there were no separate costs to Scottish Government for this.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 is an emergency response to provide additional protection to people who rent their home during the cost crisis. It aims to ensure that the majority of tenants - including those who are part of a joint tenancy in the private rented sector - are protected by the temporary emergency measures, by capping in-tenancy rent increases.

Joint tenancies are subject to the cap on in-tenancy rent increases. The Scottish Government do not hold details of the turnover of joint tenancies in Scotland so are unable to estimate or model how many such tenancies may be ended due to some joint tenants moving out while others remain in the property.

Colleges are responsible for their own operational decisions, including course provision, and must adapt and respond to the current economic constraints flexibly.

The Scottish Government, despite the unprecedented fiscal challenge, has maintained college and university resource budgets at last year’s levels and I understand that Fife College will continue to offer counselling courses in Academic Year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government has not yet committed further funding for the pilot Pancreatic and Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project. Initial evaluation is scheduled to take place over the summer with outputs due to be reported in September 2023. Decisions on long term funding will be made as the pilot’s impacts and outcomes are fully evaluated.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17658 on 18 May 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/questions-and-answers .

The recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy places strong focus on prevention, early intervention and recognises the importance of a diversity of service provision.

Later this year we will publish the accompanying Delivery Plan and the Workforce Action Plan. Thereafter, we will publish actions to support students.

Under the Animal Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (the “2006 Act”), Scottish SPCA inspectors have certain powers to investigate relevant offences relating to animals which are suffering and in the control of a person.

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill contains an enabling power to allow the Scottish Ministers, by way of subordinate legislation, to extend the powers of inspectors authorised under the 2006 Act to investigate relevant offences relating to wild animals, as set out in section 8 of the Bill, should they deem it appropriate to do so in the future.

This is unlikely to include environmental destruction, disturbance or harm to a wild animal as a result of environmental destruction would constitute a wildlife crime and would be investigated as such by Police Scotland.

In his answer, the First Minister identified a need to understand the scale and scope of the problem before discussions on any fund that might or might not be necessary. This remains the case.

We are engaging with public sector organisations to seek reassurance of both their awareness and any action identified on this issue.