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My deepest sympathy goes to all those affected by the loss of a loved one through alcohol. In the most recent data, we are starting to see the profound impact the pandemic has had on those with problematic alcohol use. We will use this information to understand how we can better support those who need it.

We are working collaboratively with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) across Scotland to understand and help resolve local issues and support them in identifying ways to improve services, such as monitoring waiting times. Last year, £106.8 million was made available to ADPs, and nationally there is ongoing work including the upcoming UK Alcohol Treatment Guidelines, development of alcohol treatment targets for April 2024 and the expansion of our Residential Rehab capacity by 50% by the end of the current Parliament.

We remain determined to reduce alcohol-related harm. That is why we have introduced initiatives such as Minimum Unit Pricing, which recent research estimated has saved more than 150 lives a year and led to 411 fewer hospital admissions.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”) obliges Integration Authorities to publish an annual performance report setting out an assessment of performance in planning and carrying out the integration functions for which they are responsible. The content of these reports is prescribed in the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Content of Performance Reports) Regulations 2014 which states that the reports must include an assessment of performance in relation to the national health and wellbeing outcomes.

Under the 2014 Act, the Health Board and the local authority must provide such information as the Integration Authority might reasonably require for the purposes of preparing a performance report to the Integration Joint Board or the authority as appropriate to the model of integration chosen.

Engaging with people with lived experience, including autistic people, and other neurodivergent groups, is essential to the work of the Scottish Government and we have put person-centred approaches at the heart of our work.

We have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to support local areas to involve a range of neurodivergent voices in planning, decision making and delivery of neurodevelopmental pathways. NAIT will also set up a neurodevelopmental community of practice for professionals and will continue to work with neurodivergent people. This will support local practitioners in developing local practice in co-production.

In addition, the Scottish Government has involved people with lived experience in the development of a new leadership and engagement framework and in policy design around mental health support for autistic people and people with learning disabilities. This new way of working is based on the belief that the most effective and sustainable change is made by the people who need and use supports and services, in equal partnership with decision makers at all levels.

The total estimated value of applications received to the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund since it was established is £62,951,713 for capital funding and £1,105,865 for development funding.

The applications include projects submitted under Theme 1 for Zero Emissions Heating Systems for Social Housing across Scotland and Theme 2 for “Fabric First” Energy Efficiency Only Projects.

The Scottish Government understands that details of the Deposit Return Scheme are matters of public interest and should be properly scrutinised and debated in parliament. We are committed to transparency and openness in our administration of the Deposit Return Scheme, and going forward we aim to proactively publish on a monthly basis key information such as notes of meetings, letters, and other information which will help people understand how decisions are made.

This commitment to publish information must be balanced against the continued need to protect peoples personal data, and meet our commitments to protecting commercially confidential information. This is in line with the General Data Protection Regulation, Environmental Information Regulations, and other legal obligations.

The Charity Brain Tumour Research currently funds five Centres of Excellence for Brain Tumour Research (at the Institute for Cancer Research in Surrey, the University of Plymouth, Queen Mary University London, Imperial College London, and the University of Portsmouth).

Centres of Excellence | Brain Tumour Research

Brain Tumour Research has a UK-wide remit and Scottish Institutions are eligible to apply for Centre of Excellence status.

Centre of Excellence designation is awarded by Brain Tumour Research based on a process of independent expert review. This process is not a matter for the Scottish Government.

With limited powers and a constrained budget the Scottish Government has already increased Scottish Child Payment by 150% in less than 8 months over 2022. Since its extension to under 16s in November 2022, 385,000 children are now eligible for the benefit.

As part of 'Best Start, Bright Futures', the Scottish Government published a Cumulative Impact Assessment in March 2022, estimating the impact in 2023-24 of a range of policies designed to reduce child poverty. This included lifting an estimated 50,000 children out of poverty in Scotland in 2023-24 through the Scottish Child Payment at £25 per week per child, a five percentage point reduction in relative child poverty.

The context for those policies has changed since this analysis was published, with a constantly moving, uncertain economic outlook, and a series of policy announcements, retractions, and further announcements by the UK Government.

The Scottish Government will publish the annual progress report on child poverty, covering the period 2022-23, by the end of June. This will set out progress in implementing 'Best Start, Bright Futures', the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: 2022-26, and against the ambitious targets set through the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has received various applications from local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) since its inception in 2020.

To date the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has received 65 applications since 2020 for capital funding, of which 55 applications have been awarded funding. 10 applications have been rejected, invited to resubmit following feedback or have been referred to alternative funding sources.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund also funds a stream of pre-capital projects for development funding and has received 20 applications for development funding, with 12 applications being funded, and 8 being rejected, invited to resubmit or referred to alternative funding sources.

We are committed to finding ways to make alternative travel modes more attractive, and supporting people to take fewer journeys by car. The Scottish Government’s plans to encourage the use of public transport and active travel alongside plans to reduce car use, are set out in the draft route map on 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA. We have also set out our future transport infrastructure priorities in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published on 8 December 2022 which includes a focus on active travel, mass transit and bus priority for mode shift away from the predominance of cars.

However, the evidence is clear that incentivising sustainable alternatives alone will not be sufficient to bring about the behaviour change to deliver the scale of 20% car KM reduction. Therefore as outlined in our draft 20% route map, we have commissioned research exploring equitable options for demand management to discourage car use.

The most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are currently reserved, and the recent rises in the cost of motoring underline the unfairness of the current, regressive motoring tax regime. As such, we will continue to press the UK Government for a fair and progressive future transport tax system that better incentivises the transition to zero-emission vehicles, reduces unnecessary journeys and raises revenues to fund policies to support a shift to more sustainable travel.

The final version of the route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car km in Scotland by 2030 will be published alongside the public consultation analysis of the responses to the draft version of the route map, and the commissioned demand management research, in the coming months.

People living with Parkinson’s should be responsible for the administration of all their medicines, including during a stay in any health or care setting, unless a risk assessment indicates otherwise. There are several tools to help people to remember to take their medication, including using alarms on a digital watch, or setting a reminder on a smartphone, using medication reminder charts, using pill timer boxes and multi-compartment compliance aids. In health and care settings, including hospitals, organisational policies will define who can administer medicines, or the appropriate delegation of the administration of medicines, within that setting. This should include a policy for self-administration of medicines.

All registered healthcare professionals who administer medicines, or - when appropriate - delegate the administration of medicines, are accountable for their actions, and this includes recording when a dose of medication may have been missed. This is in line with professional and regulatory standards and guidance. Non-registered healthcare professionals are appropriately trained, assessed as competent and meet relevant organisational guidance on medicines administration.

The administration of Parkinson’s medications vary from person to person and does not always correspond with hospital ward medicine administration rounds for people who are not able to self-administer, and so the roll-out of a Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicine Administration (HEPMA) system across Scottish hospitals will help to reduce any missed doses, as well as providing a record of any omissions which provides data to support improvement in the administration of medicines. In addition, there are additional tools in use in some hospitals which can provide alerts as reminders to administer Parkinson’s medicines.