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Pre COVID-19, 100% of NHS National Services Scotland's (NSS) PPE sources were overseas, now nearly half of all PPE issued by NSS was manufactured here (based on September 2022 figures). This rises to 88% when nitrile gloves are excluded from the figure.

In line with the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report on PPE, a resilient Scottish PPE supply chain is a key consideration as we start to look beyond the current pandemic and plan for the long term future of PPE provision in Scotland. We are committed to supporting the domestic manufacturing PPE base through the Pandemic PPE Supply Implementation Project as far as allowed by procurement and subsidy control rules.

This work aims to provide a more resilient supply across Health, Social Care and the wider public sector for the long term, with due priority given to the need for robust supply chains and reductions in environmental impact. More broadly the Scottish Government offer extensive support to develop the manufacturing sector through our Making Scotland’s Future Programme. This includes £75 million in the world-leading National Manufacturing Institute (NMIS), already operating with the HQ due to open next year. NMIS, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service and our enterprise agencies stand ready to assist companies in exploiting new opportunities or in responding to production challenges.

Scottish Ministers continue to engage with Orkney Islands Council on a regular basis with regard to ferries, including my visit to Orkney in August to meet with the council on these matters.

We have made an offer to all 4 ferry operating local authorities to share learning and explore efficiencies from CMAL’s Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

We have provided more than £56m to Orkney Islands Council for internal ferry services over the last 5 years.

At present, free school lunches are available during school term-time for all 281,856 children in primaries 1 to 5 and special schools, as well as eligible pupils from primary 6 to secondary 6. We are working with our partners in local government to plan for the expansion of free school meal provision to primaries 6 and 7, and this work is being supported by £30 million of capital funding in this financial year to support expansion of catering and dining facilities to prepare for the anticipated increase in uptake.

I recognise the current cost of living crisis is having an adverse impact on many household budgets, therefore we will be offering further support to low income families through an increase in the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per eligible child, per week starting from 14 November. On this date, the Scottish Child Payment will be extended to include families with older children aged 6 to 15. This support is not available anywhere else within the United Kingdom and I would urge all eligible families to apply for it in the coming weeks in order to start receiving it.

The Scottish Government is committed to making universal free school lunches available for all primary school children during the course of this parliamentary term. In addition, we are committed to a pilot of free school meals in secondary schools to support our consideration of further expansion.

We have recently updated the Recruitment and Retention Allowance payments to independent dental contractors providing NHS General Dental Services.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving access to NHS dental services, which is why we have included several areas in the Scottish Dental Access Initiative grant (SDAI). This financial grant enables dentists to open a new or expand an existing dental practice in areas where there is a particular and protracted problem with patient access to NHS dental services.

The areas currently included in the grant are:

• Dalmellington and Patna within NHS Ayrshire and Arran;
• Kelso and Berwickshire (exc. Eyemouth) within NHS Borders;
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway;
• Auchtermuchty within NHS Fife;
• Banff, Fraserburgh, Huntly and Moray within NHS Grampian;
• Isle of Bute, Islay and Jura, Lochgilphead, Mull and Iona, and Tarbert within NHS Highland;
• NHS Orkney;
• NHS Shetland;
• NHS Western Isles.

Officials are in regular contact with NHS Boards about areas which may benefit from having the SDAI and the areas can be updated as and when required.

The effect of the provisions in The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 are that new hosts cannot operate without a licence after 1 October 2022. The effect of this is that it placed a statutory duty on local authorities to have licence schemes opened in their areas by 1 October.

As set out in my letter to local authorities, dated 21 September, I explained that while there are no penalties under legislation for local authorities that failed to meet this deadline, there is of course a risk that local authorities could be challenged by new hosts, or anybody acting on their behalf, if they are unable to submit an application for a licence due to their local authority’s scheme not being open.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11301 on‎ 21 October 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
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Since the answers to S6W-10436 and S6W-10437 on‎ 21 September 2022 were published, a small number of local authorities informed us that their elected members would not be able to meet to ratify their draft short-term let policies until after 1 October 2022. In these cases local authorities have ensured their websites have supported prospective applicants by having information about their licensing scheme including the draft policy, draft application forms, and an email address to submit enquiries to.

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 does not hold this information centrally, however each NHS Board will hold information on dental capacity for their respective areas.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11288 on‎ 19 October 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility of which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website