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Officials from the Scottish Government are in touch with MG ALBA every week on detailed items of business. In addition, the Scottish Government has had more formal meetings with MG ALBA on 22 June 2022 and 15 March 2023.

These meetings covered a wide range of business outcomes including staffing, funding, performance figures, programme plans, projects and wider discussions with Ofcom, BBC and DCMS. For the year ahead the Scottish Government has arranged quarterly meetings with MG ALBA and these will continue to focus on our support for the channel.

Good engagement is essential to good service planning. And there is no doubt that greater participation brings better outcomes for communities all round.

Scotland's national and local governments are committed to involving people and communities in the decision-making that affects them. Nowhere is that more vital than in the development of the health and social care services, which we all rely on.

Listening to the views of people who use services, and involving them throughout the process of planning care delivery, is a key improvement recommendation of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care in Scotland.

As part of our commitment to these aims, a revised version of Planning with People has been published. Planning with People has been updated to take account of recommendations and feedback from people working in and using health and social care services, community and equality groups, and the third sector. We would like to thank everyone who took part in the review for their time and input.

Planning with People promotes real collaboration between NHS Boards, Integration Joint Boards and Local Authorities. It sets out the responsibilities each organisation has to community engagement when services are being planned, or changes to services are being considered, and supports them to involve people meaningfully.

We encourage everyone in Scotland to get involved in shaping the care services they receive. Ultimately, it is their experience that will be the real measure of what impact it is making.

The Scottish Government does not plan to conduct an inquiry into recorded incidents of assault against on-duty Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) workers. SAS has assured the Scottish Government that they have a range of measures in place to help protect staff, including training and risk assessments. We will continue to work closely with SAS to monitor the safety and wellbeing of their staff.

NHSScotland has joined the multi-agency Your Safety Matters (YSM) initiative, led by Police Scotland. YSM aims to minimise incidents of violence and aggression in workplaces, through campaigns, sharing resources and good practice.

Abuse towards NHS staff is unacceptable, and the courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with those who carry out such appalling behaviour on emergency workers.

The information requested is published by the Scottish Social Services Council and is already available in the public domain. The details can be viewed via the following link:

Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2021 Workforce Data (sssc.uk.com)

At the end of 2022 the Scottish Government reached agreement with social landlords that average rent rises across the social sector in Scotland for 2023-24 would be around 6%, recognising the balance to be struck between acute cost pressures faced by tenants and the need for social landlords to cover the costs of services and invest in new and improved homes. Whilst most social sector landlords expected to raise rents below this level it was recognised that there may be individual circumstances where a higher increase would be made.

In practice, social landlords have kept rent increases below the agreed level with an increase of around 5% on average and well below inflation. Individual landlords will have rents above or below that average, depending on their own service and investment plans and their own consultation with tenants.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why last year and this, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis. This includes £68.1m to fully mitigate the bedroom tax, helping over 91,000 households in Scotland to sustain their tenancies. We would encourage anyone struggling with rent or other costs to visit our website for information about the help available Cost of Living Support Scotland and to contact their landlord who can provide them with specific support and advice.

In Scotland gaming addiction in children and young people is treated as a compulsive disorder and not as a standalone condition. The Scottish Government understands that compulsive disorders such as gaming addiction can be both debilitating and distressing. We expect children and young people in Scotland with any compulsive disorders to receive the appropriate help and support that they need when they need it.

Since 2020 we have invested over £300,000 to provide a range of resources for children, young people and parents on healthy use of screen time, social media, online gaming and their known impacts on sleep and emotional and mental wellbeing. This includes the ‘Mind yer time’ web resource, created in partnership with the Scottish Youth Parliament and Children’s Parliament, and advice hosted on ParentClub.Scot .‎

In common with other issues classed as addiction or compulsive behaviours we would direct children, young people and their families who have concerns around gaming addiction to seek support from their GP in the first instance.

Treatment for compulsive disorders or addiction is delivered by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and ongoing support for those children and young people facing these issues is provided through local NHS boards.

The Scottish Government has not provided any guidance specific to the Care Inspectorate for the financial year 2023-24. As a non-departmental public body (NDPB), the Care Inspectorate follows the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Government Financial Reporting Manual. The 2023-24 Public Sector Pay Strategy was also published in March 2023, and applies to the Care Inspectorate as a NDPB.

The Director General and I had a constructive meeting in November last year during which we exchanged views on the depopulation challenges that both Scotland and Spain face and, following from the work done recently by officials in the Scottish Government’s Population and Migration team, proposed a policy exchange so that we can learn from the expertise in both countries.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussion. However, Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during international meetings to answer any questions put to them about the Scottish Government's stated policies, including a legal, constitutionally sound referendum, as set out in our Programme for Government.

While the decision to use rail is for the freight customer and its logistics provider, the Scottish Government has shown leadership in facilitating modal shift to rail with significant investment and innovative regulatory targets for 2019 to 2024 and 2024 to 2029.

The rail freight target is measured in net tonne miles and, due to the commercial nature of freight, tends to vary considerably from year to year. Currently, there has been an overall 7.6% drop in net tonne miles since 2018 due to a general contraction in the markets for various reasons, including the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and the global economy.

New traffic to rail was 2.9 million net tonne miles in 2019-20 and 48.8 million net tonne miles in 2022-23. This reflects the five new rail freight services which have started in Scotland in the last twelve months including a cross border express logistics services .

The Scottish Government receives quarterly financial reporting from IJBs which includes information on the funding received from their Local Government and NHS partners. The reports consolidate information already in the public domain as published by individual IJBs, and are published on the Scottish Government website. This exercise began in 2018 and no data collection was performed by the Scottish Government in respect of IJB funding prior to this.

The funding figures, taken from the IJB reports provided have been collated below. The totals include reported figures from all 30 IJBs and the position in respect of the NHS Highland Lead Agency arrangement. Any information regarding IJB funding prior to 2018-19 can be found in the annual accounts published by individual IJBs.