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The Scottish Government regularly engages with the Scottish Ambulance Service and is kept informed of performance against a range of operational processes, including subject access requests (SARs).

The Scottish Ambulance Service deals with a number of SARs every month with the majority of these requests processed within timescales.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is committed to ensuring continued improvement in responding to such requests.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. NHS dental services are provided by independent contractors/high street dentists and any management information on waiting times will be held by each practice. There is no central consolidation of this information.

Deposit Return Schemes operate in 44 territories and many companies have developed Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) for use with these schemes.

The Scottish Government and other organisations engaged with other countries operating deposit return schemes through the design, business case development and consultation process for Scotland’s DRS including schemes in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany as well as organisations with broad expertise in international Deposit Return Schemes, such as Reloop. As part of this work, it was clear that many companies would be able to provide RVMs that would work with our scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-15375 on 10 March 2023. 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 .

Social Security Scotland routinely produces information at application level and not by household type, such as on behalf of couples or individuals.

Information relating to applications received for benefits is routinely published by Social Security Scotland as part of Official Statistics releases and includes both monthly and financial year breakdowns of data.

These statistics are available at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

The Joint Working Group membership includes the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party, and COSLA.

The core membership of the group is:

• Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth
• Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights
• Minister for Social Security and Local Government
• COSLA President – Cllr Shona Morrison
• COSLA Vice-President – Cllr Steven Heddle
• COSLA Resources Spokesperson – Cllr Katie Hagmann
• Representative from Local Authority Directors of Finance
• Representative from Institute of Revenue Rating and Valuation Representative

Social Security Scotland works to progress applications as quickly as possible.

Decisions for the majority of people who applied for Scottish Child Payment, or added additional children to their award, between 14 November and 31 December 2022 have now been issued and this will be reported on in the next round of statistics. As previously announced, all successful awards will be backdated to the date that the application was received.

Around 143,000 school age children benefitted from the Winter 2022 Bridging Payment of £260, with over £37.1 million of payments awarded to families. We do not hold information on the number of people who applied for Scottish Child Payment who also received Bridging Payments.

The latest available information on new applications for Scottish Child Payment is contained in the most recent official statistics release, covering the period to 31 December 2022 - https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/scottish-child-payment-high-level-statistics-to-31-december-2022 .

The information requested on how many NHS Scotland staff are currently employed in primarily equality and diversity-focused roles, and how much of the NHS budget has been allocated towards employing equality and diversity staff in each year since 2020 is not centrally available.

Social Security Scotland received 91,225 new applications for Scottish Child Payment between 14 November and 31 December 2022. This does not include applications from existing clients looking to add additional children to their current award.

The majority of people who applied or added additional children to their existing award during this period have now received a decision. People who made new applications and received an award decision received their payment by the end of February. For people who were adding additional children, payments will follow their existing payment cycle.

Where someone applied for Scottish Child Payment before 31 December 2022 and has not received a decision, this is because additional information or evidence is required to process their application. Social Security Scotland has been in contact with everyone in this situation.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Statistics on rheumatology patients waiting to receive treatment by homecare medicines services are also not held by Public Health Scotland (PHS). More detailed information on the treatment or procedure(s) that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards.