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This budget covers the purchase of pandemic influenza vaccine on behalf of NHS Scotland as part of the UK four Nation agreement. Funds that are allocated are based on need with the majority of spend occurring later in the financial year. Final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

Information on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) or Not for Profit Distribution (NPD) projects in Scotland, including NHS projects is available online from

Infrastructure investment - Government finance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The following table presents how much has been paid for NHS projects delivered through Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Not for Profit Distribution (NPD) in each of the last 10 years.

The information requested on what the highest amount paid to private agencies for a (a) nursing, (b) consultant and (c) care assistant shift has been in each of the last 10 years is not centrally available.

Information on Medical & Dental and Nursing & midwifery bank and agency spend by NHS Board since March 2014 can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence Bank and Agency) tab.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much has been paid to private social care providers by any of the bodies as referenced within the query.

Social Care services are commissioned by Local Authorities and information on their expenditure can be found in the annual publication of the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics report.

Should the information requested not be available from this resource then a direct enquiry should be made with the relevant local authorities.

This budget provides funding for local Primary Care Improvement Plans and core primary care support. Funds that are allocated are based on need, and final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

I am aware that Recycling Technologies Ltd. and Group Plc, which are involved in the Scottish recycling project, Project Beacon, have recently gone into administration.

Zero Waste Scotland awarded Recycling Technologies £1 million on 24 August 2017 as part of the Circular Economy Investment Fund. There is a two-stage application process for this Fund. Each stage includes financial due diligence including a credit check at stage 1 and commercial review at stage 2.

Given the ongoing administration process, it would be inappropriate to comment further on this matter at this stage.

The information requested on what percentage of the total number of doctors have permanently left NHS Scotland in each of the last five years is not centrally available. We do not hold data on the number of staff that have permanently left NHS Scotland.

Information on the number of leavers by financial year, broken down by job family and NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

This information is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-10389 on 20 September 2022 and S6W-09658 on 4 August 2022. 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 will continue to protect free tuition for Scottish-domiciled students undertaking under-graduate courses in addition to stepping in to address specific workforce challenges directly related to government workforce policy ambitions . At present there are no plans to extend bursaries to those studying on allied health professions’ courses outside of Paramedic Science.