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As a statutory inquiry, The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is independent of the Scottish Government.

Questions concerning the conclusion of the inquiry, including its timeline, are a matter for the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry team and Lord Hardie.

We are aware of the update on inquiry’s website advising that Lord Hardie’s report has been handed over to the publishing company and is due to be with them for several weeks. We look forward to receiving Lord Hardie’s report when it is ready.

Governance of the veterinary profession is a Reserved Matter and the number of registered veterinary surgeons in the UK is available from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, the Chief Veterinary Officer Scotland chairs the veterinary delivery landscape forum, a cross-sector group that examines recruitment and retention of veterinary surgeons in Scotland.

The Scottish Government also supports the provision of veterinary services in the rural and remote rural areas of Scotland through the Highlands and Islands Veterinary Services Scheme. The Scheme ensures the provision of an adequate veterinary service to detect, prevent and eradicate animal diseases for all animals kept for agricultural purposes and belonging to crofters and others of like economic status.

The TSI Scotland Network is not a formally constituted group; it is a grouping of organisations with a shared purpose namely the TSIs. It does not have Office Bearers.

Some TSIs are partnerships where the role is shared across two or more organisations, others are single entities. Most of the organisations which form TSIs are registered charities, and often they are also registered companies. More information about the Network can be found at www.tsi.scot .

A list of the organisations which make up the TSI Network is given in the following table.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control.

Our Neurological Care and Support Framework 2020-25 sets out our vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition, including ME/CFS, can access the care and support they need to live well.

Through the Framework we have funded Action for ME and partners to disseminate an online learning module on ME/CFS for GPs and health professionals, authored by Dr Nina Muirhead, which aims to support person-centred care, informed by good practice and current research.

In addition to Scottish Government activities, we understand that NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are currently finalising a Practice Based Small Group Learning (PBSGL) CPD module for GPs, Pharmacist and Nurses working in General Practice/Primary Care.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) signals a turning point for planning, placing climate and nature at the centre of our planning system and making clear our support for all forms of renewable, low-carbon and zero emission technologies. NPF4 policy 11 makes clear that potential impacts on communities, nature and other receptors remain important considerations in the decision-making process. All applications are already, and will continue to be, subject to site-specific assessments.

Technical requirements for assessing potential wind turbine impacts such as noise, or interactions with aviation or defence interests, are set out in topic specific guidance and more general information on the status of these issues can be found in our Onshore Wind Policy Statement (Dec 2022), Chapters 6&7.

The Scottish Government welcomes the increase in uptake of breast screening, set out in the latest available data published by Public Health Scotland. However, we recognise that work is required to address the inequalities arising those from more deprived areas being less likely to attend for screening.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Public Health Team are currently examining the available data to establish areas where there are potential inequalities present that could reduce access to the Breast Screening Programme. This is likely to highlight areas of social and financial deprivation, and geographical isolation, which will allow for more targeted approaches to increasing uptake to take place.

The South West breast screening programme has an active social media campaign to raise awareness of the breast screening programme. In addition, appointments are available in the morning and evenings during the week to help accommodate access to screening. Alongside this, the Breast Screening Modernisation Programme and Equity in Screening strategy will consider inequality in uptake in the programme more generally.

The 2022 Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data tells us that 79% of P7 pupils achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level for reading by the end of primary school, which represents an increase of around 4 percentage points on the previous year. 2022 also saw increases in overall pass rates for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher English since the last exam year in 2019.

Education Scotland continues to support teachers’ understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in the area of reading at national, regional and local levels. Their literacy networks, the National Literacy Network and the Literacy and English Curriculum Network, provide the forums to share effective literacy practice with local authorities and schools.

A National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) co-led by Education Scotland, Scottish Government and ADES, is underway to identify excellence as well as opportunities for improvement in literacy. The NRIL programme board consists of representatives from a range of stakeholder organisations including each of the six Regional Improvement Collaboratives and The Scottish Council of Deans of Education.

In addition, the Scottish Government also funds the Scottish Book Trust to deliver a range of programmes aimed at improving a young person’s literacy levels and encouraging a reading for pleasure culture in schools, at home and in the community.

I recognise the impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities and I am committed to investing in our ferry services. Indeed, my focus currently is on building resilience within the network.

I have noted the calls for compensation however, any such scheme would need to be carefully considered. It would require stark choices around how such a scheme would be prioritised for funding, over efforts to provide that network resilience.

The Bute House Agreement includes a commitment to further protect Scotland’s ancient woods through establishing a National Register of Ancient Woodlands. We are discussing with NatureScot and Scottish Forestry the best approach to developing a new National Register of Ancient Woodlands, which will build upon the existing Scottish Ancient Woodland Inventory, and be published when that work is complete. A new National Register of Ancient Woodlands will be an important element of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery plan which we will consult on later this year.