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Offers of grant funding to councils and Registered Social Landlords under the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are not time limited. While the vast majority of affordable housing projects are delivered as planned following approval, any decision to withdraw an offer of grant following approval would only be taken in close consultation with the council or Registered Social Landlord and following determination that this was the best course of action under the circumstances.

We constantly monitor the flow of approvals through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. While council and Registered Social Landlord projects which are seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant affordable housing investment benchmark are subject to a detailed value for money assessment, which can take longer than the streamlined approval process which applies in cases where projects can be delivered with grant funding at or below benchmark, there is no evidence to suggest that this is having a material impact on the speed of programme delivery.

Once approved, we continue to work closely with partners to check that projects are progressing as planned.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12786 given previously.

I have accordingly asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a reply to his question in writing.

The UK Government has yesterday announced a decision taken to defer obligations under Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging payments from October 2024 to October 2025. The Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging is being progressed by the UK Government, working in partnership with the Scottish and other devolved governments.

The deferral is intended to provide stakeholders with additional time to prepare for the upcoming requirements, and to ensure a further opportunity to engage on the design of EPR policy and initiatives. This includes more open scrutiny with stakeholders on the main piece of legislation bringing forward these reforms, which will be laid as a UK Statutory Instrument and come to the Scottish Parliament for consent.

The Scottish Government delivered this commitment on 12 July 2023 when the enhanced Forestry Grant Scheme support for planting trees around rivers and streams was announced and became operational. The ‘Woodlands for Riparian Benefits’ grant is targeted to areas of land around rivers which has the greatest potential to deliver multiple benefits. Approximately 175,000 hectares are now eligible for enhanced grant support for tree planting where there can be benefits for enhancing biodiversity and reducing river temperatures, diffuse pollution, and flood risk.

The Reaching 100% (R100) programme is ensuring that all homes and businesses can access superfast broadband. This is being delivered through three strands of activity – the £600 million R100 contracts (North, Central and South), our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) and commercial coverage.

As of 31 May 2023 the Reaching 100% contracts have delivered to 24,194 premises. Of those premises, 20,666 were in rural and remote areas.

As of 01 July 2023 the R100 SBVS has delivered to 3,288 premises. Of those vouchers, 2,807 vouchers in remote and rural areas.

Information regarding superfast broadband coverage in Scotland can be accessed on Ofcom’s website. Ofcom’s most recent figures, published in May 2023 , show that as of January 2023 the percentage of residential and commercial premises able to access superfast broadband (30 Megabits per second or above) in each local authority area in the Highlands and Islands region was as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19557 on 26 July 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’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland. NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally have responsibility for both service delivery and people’s care.

The 2023-24 Scottish Budget delivers record funding of £19 billion including increases in funding for community and primary care health services such as GP practices where the vast majority of people with chronic pain seek support. Detail on how funding has been used specifically for the assessment and treatment of chronic pain would require to be requested from NHS Boards.

In August 2021, the Scottish Government published Reset and Rebuild, a recovery plan for sexual health and blood borne virus (SHBBV) services. This plan was co-produced with NHS and third sector partners, to take stock of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on SHBBV services and people that use them.

The Scottish Government’s SHBBV plan for 2023-2026, which is due to be published towards the end of summer 2023, will include a focus on improving access to SHBBV services across Scotland.

In addition, as noted in response to S6W-19566 on 26 July 2023, work is on-going to understand and put in place the necessary governance and infrastructure to support a national online testing service for sexually transmitted infections and bloodborne viruses.

The Scottish Government has also provided funding to support the development of an ePrEP pilot and a national publicity campaign to address HIV stigma to be developed by a multi-agency partnership.

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 .