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The Scottish Government is working closely with developers in the assessment of buildings in the Single Building Assessment pilot to identify and remediate unsafe cladding. The Scottish Government is not providing direct financial support to housing developers. We will work with developers to implement the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord which will set out the expectation that developers will make financial contributions to remediate their buildings.

A full breakdown of the implications of the Emergency Budget Review (EBR) measures on the Scottish Budget was included within the guide to the Autumn Budget Revision (ABR) provided to the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

Of the initial £560 million line items included within the Deputy First Minister’s letter to the Committee in September, £369 million is included within the ABR as either a return of budget or a funding change. The balancing figure of £191 million are reductions to previously unfunded pressures which have emerged since the Scottish Budget was published and savings which will come through the SBR exercise.

The new commitments detailed in the EBR document published earlier this month are also reflected in the ABR position. The additional savings outlined will be processed, where necessary as part of the Spring Budget Revision.

Should the Scottish Government become aware that a Health Board was reportedly not ensuring in-person patient access to GPs, where clinically appropriate, was maintained, my officials would engage with the Health Board in question and establish the situation. I recently wrote to all GP practices setting out my expectations on patient access and announcing the General Practice Access Group to establish key principles for access to general practice

Health Boards have a statutory duty to deliver primary medical services.

The impact of the reallocations in the Emergency Budget Review, including public sector pay, will have a significant bearing on the 2023-24 Scottish Budget. Further details of the effect of these considerations on proposed portfolio allocations will be published within the Scottish Budget document in December.

The Scottish Government is not removing funding for Primary Care implementation plans. Reserves that have been built up over four years by HSCPs are now being used so that recurring funding for recruiting multi-disciplinary teams can be maintained. It is prudent to reinvest these public funds given that these reserves have been steadily accumulating over a number of years, especially at a time of considerable inflation. At the same time, we have increased the recurring funding for primary care improvement to £170m in 2022-23.

Reserves held by Integration Authorities, comprising Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) funding from previous years, have been utilised in funding this year's PCIF allocation, resulting in a one-off benefit. The distribution of these reserves is set out in the following table:

As advised in the letter I wrote to you on 26 October 2022, funding will be made available to health boards to boost workforce and recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. Early indication from Boards suggest the breakdown will be 634 nurses, 17 midwives and 99 allied health professionals. These numbers may vary as pipelines are developed and dependant on Boards service requirements. We will continue to work closely with Boards to monitor progress and provide support where required. Health boards are currently building their pipelines for international staff and will negotiate start dates with candidates and agencies.

In addition, 250 band 4 non-registrant posts have been identified and we are working with Boards to support the recruitment and training of staff into these posts, which are across acute, primary care and mental health settings.

Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Health Boards are responsible for delivering Primary Medical Services, usually through contracting with independent GP practices. Health Boards should be satisfied that GP partners are sufficiently engaged in providing Primary Medical Services as a condition of the contract.

113 paramedics will be recruited as a result of the investment of £45 million by the Scottish Government, as outlined in the Winter Resilience Plan.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its plans for public awareness campaigns. We do not intend to run a public awareness campaign for deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, venous thromboembolism and thrombosis at this time.

NHS 24 will have recruited an additional 41.81 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff by 1 December 2022. These additional posts support the recruitment priorities set out in the Winter Resilience Plan.

The following table shows the breakdown by role of the total number of WTE staff joining NHS 24 through to 1 December 2022. The role of Call Operator was re-created in September 2022 to supplement NHS 24's call handling capacity.