Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Canadian Ambassador to the EU and I held a positive meeting in May last year, in which we spoke about trade and cultural links between Scotland and Canada, as well as both countries' energy and climate change priorities.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions, 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.

The Scottish Government has committed to funding this audit and a letter setting out the details has been sent to the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

Data from Scottish Colleges covering Successful Completions and Destinations are collected and published as National and Official Statistics by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

• College Performance Indicators (CPI) – – College Performance Indicators 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)
• College Leaver Destinations – College Leaver Destinations 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)

Under the Code of Practice for Statistics, publications undergo systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations of the data.

As an example of the continuing work in this area, SFC has initiated collection of students’ reasons for withdrawal (RfW) from colleges. The first year of collection of the data in 2021-22 was during the Covid-19 pandemic and is therefore considered experimental data. SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network (CDN) to improve the capture of student withdrawal data in future years to enable publication.

Over the coming months SFC will also be undertaking a review of the definitions of college student outcomes metrics, to ensure that they provide the most appropriate measures of success for students.

The Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the EU and I held a positive meeting in June last year in which we spoke about the Czech Republic's priorities for the Presidency of the European Council, including energy policy.

The subject of Scottish independence was not an agenda item in discussions, however Scottish ministers will always be polite enough during 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.

The annual Scottish Budget document sets out the detail of the health, including Scottish Government funding for NHS boards. Budget documents are available from the Scottish Government’s website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise investment in frontline NHS services, with funding increasing by over £1.4 billion since 2021-22 – well ahead of our trajectory to increase funding by 20% over the life of the Parliament.

Public Health Scotland Publish information on the number of GPs and patients by Health Board and this is available at:

General Practice - GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2012 - 2022 - General Practice - GP workforce and practice list sizes - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Table 2 sets out the number of GPs in each board area and Table 4 shows the registered number of patients in each health board, over the past 10 years.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) are the official producer of statistics relating to deaths, including where the cause was related to COVID-19. The information they hold is restricted to that recorded at death registration and therefore they do not hold sufficient detail to identify where a person had in place a do not resuscitate order.

A one off analysis of COVID-19 deaths by disability was made possible by linking information on death registrations to data on long-term health problems and disabilities from Scotland’s Census 2011. This is publicly available on the NRS website: Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Week 11: Report (nrscotland.gov.uk)

There is no ongoing or planned work to look further at the level of detail outlined in the question.

In addition to the health and care information services that are already available to the public, we are currently in the process of developing a Digital Front Door. Digital Front Door acts as a direct response to Scottish National Party’s commitment to develop a ‘’MyNHS’’ App.

A key deliverable within the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy, the Digital Front Door will provide a way for people to access health and care information and control their data. It will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online, including communicating with their health and care providers and managing their appointments.

Key workstreams are in place to develop changes to services, communications and engagement approach, undertake impact assessments and scope requirements for key areas such as identity verification. We have also considered the approaches taken internationally and within other parts of the UK.

Scottish Government has commissioned NHS Education Scotland (NES) as main delivery partner and initial planning, design and development is underway. The current commitment is to have the first version of the Digital Front Door in place by the end of this Parliament.

More information will be made available on this development here - https://www.digihealthcare.scot/our-work/digital-front-door/.

The R100 contracts, which are delivering full fibre, gigabit capable connections across the length and breadth of Scotland, are currently expected to conclude during 2027-28.

For those properties beyond the reach of the R100 contract build or commercial coverage plans, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme – offering vouchers worth up to £5,000 – remains available to help secure a superfast broadband connection.

Ministers meet representatives of civil society organisations from time to time to discuss matters of common interest. Meetings with Amnesty International have been held on a number of occasions since May 2021.

Information about ministerial engagements is proactively released and is publicly available on the Scottish Government website .

Civil society organisations contribute in other ways to the development and delivery of public policy in Scotland, for example through participation in working groups and advisory boards.

Amnesty International is a member of the steering committee for the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship, which is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the University of Dundee in collaboration with Amnesty International and other independent civil society organisations.