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The Scottish Government notes the findings from the Diffley Partnership report on Understanding Scotland - Economy.

The survey shows that Healthcare and the NHS has remained a high priority for survey respondents in recent years and has now overtaken the Cost of Living / Inflation as the top priority.

Improving access to healthcare is a key priority for this government. Our 2023-24 Scottish Health Budget provides record funding of over £19 billion, providing new investment of over £1 billion and supporting recovery and reform to secure sustainable public services.

We are committed to ensuring that every school-aged child has access to a device to support their learning by the end of this parliament in 2026.

We have already provided £25m to local authorities, which supported the purchase of 72,000 devices and 14,000 internet connections for school children across Scotland.

The Capital Spending Review, published May 2022, set out high level spending plans for capital and provided an indicative allocation of £140 million to support the rollout of digital devices.

The budget published in December 2022 allocated £13 million budget for 2023/24. We will continue to develop delivery plans in partnership with Cosla and local authorities, including phasing and funding options for this commitment.

As the inherited Independent Living Fund (2015 Fund) is a closed scheme, no new applications have been made since 2015. The following provides information on the number of applications to ILF Scotland’s Transition Fund since launch in December 2017.

The Scottish Government is committed to re-opening the 2015 Fund when affordability and sustainability can be assured. We will continue to actively consider re-opening the Fund as part of the annual budget setting process.

(a) In 2014, the Deputy First Minister committed to re-opening the Fund and provided £5.5 million per annum to enable ILF to re-open to new applicants for the first time since 2010.Through an extensive process of co-production, the ILF Scotland Transition Fund was developed as an alternative to re-opening the 2015 Fund. The Transition Fund was designed to support young disabled people with the transition to adult life. This entirely new fund opened to applications in December 2017.

(b) The Cabinet Secretary wrote to the ILF Scotland Board on 16 December 2022, 26 January 2023 and 27 February 2023 stating his support for ILF Scotland but indicating that re-opening the 2015 Fund could only progress when affordability and sustainability could be assured.

The Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care wrote to the Chair of ILF Scotland’s Advisory Group on 23 January 2023 stating that he remains committed to re-opening the 2015 Fund but is unable to do so due to financial constraints.

There are 3 dental schools in Scotland at Aberdeen, Dundee, and Glasgow Universities. There are no plans for any new dental courses to be introduced at the current time.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Information about Scottish Government funding since 2000 is not available from a single source or held in a single location. Records retention policy may also affect availability of records over this timescale.

The Scottish Government currently provides funding to the Scottish Refugee Council to support Refugee Festival Scotland.

The funding allocated for the 85 per cent funding floor from the introduction in 2012-13 up to and including 2023-24 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64023

The Local Government Finance settlement also includes a main funding floor however that is self-funding which means that the 85 per cent funding floor is the only funding floor mechanism where the Scottish Government provides additional funding. The purpose of the main funding floor is to provide a degree of stability for all local authorities where the alignment of funding with relative need results in a lower-than-average change in the year-to-year funding. The main funding floor forms part of the needs based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all their members each year.

The Scottish Government does not have access to this information at this time. As set out in the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will produce and maintain a list of registered producers prior to the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) already has a range of civil sanctions, such as fixed monetary penalties or enforcement undertakings, which it can impose as part of its enforcement of a wider range of existing environmental legislation.

Civil sanctions mean that SEPA has a flexible range of enforcement tools available to deal with any breach of environmental legislation. The Lord Advocate has issued guidance to SEPA on its use of civil sanctions which can be found at Lord Advocates guidelines to SEPA: use of enforcement measures under the regulatory reform (Scotland) act 2014.

In terms of criminal remedies, SEPA would refer such instances to Police Scotland or the relevant police service elsewhere in the UK.