Seòmar agus comataidhean

The expenditure by the Scottish Government in each of the last five years on TikTok is as follows:

2018: £0

2019: £0

2020: £71,179

2021: £127,372

2022: £112,508

2023: £27,474 (up to 31 March 2023)

There has been no changes to the maintenance periods following these comments. Every vessel within the CalMac fleet requires regular maintenance work and CalMac are contractually obliged to ensure annual overhauls are completed successfully.

Planned maintenance will be carried out on each vessel on an annual basis in line with other vessels in the CHFS fleet. The timing of these inspections and necessary dry docks is for the operator to manage.

Scottish Government continues to support practices to maintain access to GP services for residents. The General Practice Access Group is working towards developing a set of principles to share with all practices this Spring.

Scottish Government continues to support practices in the Edinburgh area to maintain access to GP services for residents. The General Practice Access Group is working towards developing a set of principles to share with all practices this Spring.

The Scottish Government recognises the continuing rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses, and we are grateful for the efforts of the dedicated clinicians who continue to work to find and treat affected individuals.

We acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on service capacity and levels of routine testing. That is why the upcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Strategy, which will be published this Spring, has a strong Covid recovery focus, and why we have invested over £500,000 into development of online STI testing. A pilot of this has begun in NHS Lothian, and we will continue to work with our NHS partners to understand how it may be further expanded.

I refer the member to our response to S6W-14599 on 28 February 2023. It is for individual Health Boards to decide if additional support is needed. The General Practice Access Group principles are currently being consulted on with publication anticipated for late Spring. 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 .

Pay negotiations are held in a confidential space through the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee and it would not be appropriate for the Government to publish correspondence between Ministers and individual parties. The full scope of the agreement, containing detail on the wider review of Agenda for Change, has been published on the Scottish Government website ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-agenda-for-change-review-scope/ ).

Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered a range of initiatives on the Scottish Government's behalf and has been allocated the following funding since 2016 to enable it to do so:

2016-17: £11,147,463

2017-18: £11,152,455

2018-19: £11,131,472

2019-20: £8,642,939

2020-21: £10,054,598

2021-22: £1,227,428

2022-23: £609,000

The reduction in funding to KSB from 2021 is due to the Climate Challenge Fund coming to an end. KSB delivered the fund on the Scottish Government’s behalf until their contract ended in June 2021. The previously reported funding for 21-22 of £1,555,145 reduced due to underspend linked to the CCF being returned to the Scottish Government.

There are approximately 1.5 million new trees planted alongside the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. No further tree planting is planned other than replacement planting which may be required in future where insufficient numbers of trees have become established to satisfy the environmental objectives and the Indicative Landscape Design.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16183 on 5 April 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