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Pandemics and infectious disease threats feature in both Scottish and UK risk assessments which are used to inform our response to these risks.

Responsibility for service delivery, including recruitment and retention of medical and non-medical staff in primary care, sits locally with Health Boards and health and social care partnerships and their GP practices.

The Scottish Government recognises that in order to attract health and social care staff locally, it is important that locally accessible training opportunities are provided at an early stage. The NHS Scotland Youth Academy host regional huddle groups that are focused on raising awareness and attracting young people/parents into health and social care careers.

Since 2015, 663,670 households have accessed the Home Energy Scotland advice service in the following local authority areas:

We are developing a new 10 year cancer strategy that will launch in Spring 2023 and takes a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. We are considering the specific needs of blood cancer patients.

We plan to publish a new cancer strategy in Spring 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15536. on‎ 17 March 2023. Any update of progress of this independent review would require to come from NHS Highland as the responsible agency for implementation.

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

Further meetings with Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie, NHS Highland, elected members of Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross and the wider public community have built on the recommendations in the original (2018) report. Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie issued his written view of assessment of progress, with further recommendations and qualifications to the respective local Chairs of Implementation of the SLSWR OOH Review Report and NHS Highland Board, following in-person visits to Skye in December 2018 and May 2019 and a virtual assessment of progress in October 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The Scottish Government monitors a range of data sources on job vacancies in Scotland, as part of wider analysis of labour market trends. These include official and experimental statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and data from external partners.

In November to January 2023, Scotland’s employment rate was 76.5 per cent and it was the second highest since the series began in 1992. The unemployment rate was 3.1 per cent, down 0.6 percentage points since December 2019 to February 2020 (pre-pandemic) and the inactivity rate was 21.0 per cent, down 0.6 percentage points since pre-pandemic.

ONS produce experimental job advert indices at Scotland level, using online job postings from Adzuna. This source indicates that online job postings in Scotland in the week to 3rd March 2023 47.1% higher than February 2020. This data source is available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/onlinejobadvertestimates

ONS also produce experimental estimates of labour demand volumes in Scotland by profession and local authority, based on analysis of Textkernel data on online job adverts. The most recent data suggested that there were 78,925 online job vacancies in Scotland in December 2022. Of these, 13 per cent were classified as Healthcare job postings, while 9.4 per cent were classified as Information & Communication Technology postings. This data source is available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourdemandvolumesbyprofessionandlocalauthorityukjanuary2017todecember2022

The Scottish Government also monitors labour demand through the RBS Report on Jobs, which provides an overview of changes in recruitment demand by sector in Scotland as reported by recruitment consultancies. In February 2022, permanent staff demand growth was strongest in the monitored sectors of Nursing/Medical/Care and IT & Computing. For temporary staff demand growth remained strongest in IT & Computing. This data source is available at:

Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs – February 2023 | NatWest Group

The Scottish Parliament approved the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations in 2020. The Regulations are wholly within devolved competence. There is an agreed and published process between UK Government and devolved governments for excluding certain areas from the UK Internal Market Act.

We have been following that process for excluding the deposit return scheme regulations from the Internal Market Act and this has been the subject of discussion with the UK Government for many months. I will keep Parliament updated on the exclusion process.

On single-use vapes, we expect Zero Waste Scotland to submit its report on the review of the environmental impacts and management of single-use vapes in May, and we will consider its findings. Should our preferred course of action require an exclusion we will follow the agreed process.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout, as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter is now giving detailed consideration to all evidence before making recommendations to the Scottish Ministers for a decision.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.