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Scottish Ministers take decisions on wind farm applications that are made to them under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. The three most common reasons for refusing consent to a proposed wind farm, made to Scottish Ministers in the last five years, were landscape and visual impacts, impacts on the qualities of a National Park or National Scenic Area and impacts on the qualities of a wild land area.

More detail on the reasons for the decisions can be found in the decision letters which are published on our website Scottish Government - Energy Consents Unit by using the search tool to find wind farm applications that have been refused.

Wind farms that generate less than 50 megawatts of electricity do not require section 36 consent from Scottish Ministers but are instead determined by the local planning authority. Information on the reasons why wind farm applications were refused planning permission by local planning authorities is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The right to appeal certain decisions made by local planning authorities is an important part of the planning system. The vast majority of appeals are decided by an independent reporter from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government. The three most common reasons for refusing an appeal relating to a proposed wind farm in the last five years were: landscape, visual and residential amenity impacts.

The Scottish Government accepts that this statistic needs revising and we have already committed to undertake further work to quantify Scotland’s offshore wind potential. In response to the issues raised in the UK Statistics Authority’s letter, dated 7 December 2022, the Scottish Government has engaged directly with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) setting out the steps that have been taken to ensure the statistic is not used further, and provided an update on the analytical work that is underway to produce a replacement statistic.

The Statement of Dental Remuneration has been amended over the time period since January 2017 and now. The list of treatments in January 2017 is reflected in Amendment 133 and the current list is described in 158. These can be viewed at Statement of Dental Remuneration | Scottish Dental .

In summary, the range of care and treatment is broadly similar in both versions, however, a significant reform was delivered in February 2022 (amendment 155) which aligned child and adult examination appointments through an enhanced fee.

The Scottish Government fully supports Food Standards Scotland (FSS) winter campaign to raise awareness of vitamin D and to encourage people to take vitamin D supplements to maintain bone and muscle health.

The campaign will run until February 2023 and builds on the previous FSS social media campaigns and other work by FSS, Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland to raise awareness of vitamin D. A campaign toolkit is available and we continue to encourage stakeholders to share and promote the campaign messages.

The Bioenergy Expert Panel is still to be assembled. However, in the meantime, interested stakeholders and expert parties can engage with policy officials. Stakeholders can get in touch via email: Stephen.Corrie@gov.scot

Work is currently underway in the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group to assess needs and agree priority actions in relation to the public health workforce. A programme of leadership development has already started with local Directors and Deputy Directors of Public Health, along with Public Health Scotland, working with Scottish Government. A further programme of succession planning will be developed this year.

Scottish Directors of Public Health have been prioritised within the Scottish Government Leading to Change Programme for bespoke and sustainable leadership development support. Their knowledge, expertise and leadership are recognised as central to Scotland’s success in the recovery and re-building of the health of the nation post COVID.

Within Leading to Change we are also developing a programme of NHS Board CEO, Executive and Director Succession Planning. The Succession Planning workstream aims to create a diverse, values driven senior health workforce, by supporting existing and aspiring CEOs, Executives and Directors, and developing and implementing a consistent national approach to NHS Board Succession Planning that ensures a pipeline of candidates for future senior leadership roles, who are equipped to realise our ambitions as set out in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan. We have created a Leadership Success Profile (LSP) for NHS CEO roles and will be creating an LSP for Executive and Director level roles in early 2023.

The National Clinical Skills for pharmacists programme supports registered pharmacists take on new and extended clinical roles, however it is the Independent Prescriber course which allows community pharmacists to qualify as Independent Prescribers. In 2020-2021 NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) commissioned a total of 115 Independent Prescriber (IP) places for Community Pharmacists to undertake an IP qualification during 2021.

In 2021-2022 NES commissioned a total of 222 IP places for Community Pharmacists to undertake an IP qualification during 2022.

The Pharmacist Independent Prescribing qualification takes on average 12 months to complete and courses run 4 times a year, therefore to date 111 community pharmacists from these cohorts have qualified as an Independent Prescriber.

The Scottish Government is not involved in provision or installation of smart meters. Regulation of energy markets is reserved to the UK Government and subsequently the smart meter programme is owned and led by them.

There are currently no rights for a prospective tenant at the point of signing a (a) private residential and (b) Scottish secure tenancy to request that a (i) credit and (ii) smart meter be installed in the property.

It would be for the account holder to arrange with the energy supplier to install the required equipment. In the majority of cases the account holder would be the tenant.

Smart meters have an important role to play in helping the Scottish Government achieve our aim of increasing energy efficiency across Scotland as well as helping consumers manage their spend on energy. At the recent energy summit chaired by the First Minister, we committed to working with partners to increase the number of households with smart meters in Scotland, with a focus on rural areas, by highlighting the benefits they can deliver in terms of both energy bills and energy efficiency. As part of this work, we will continue to call upon BEIS and Ofgem to take the necessary action to ensure all households eligible for a smart meter have the opportunity to install one in their home.

The number of patients that have been or are on the active kidney transplant waiting list as of 31 March each year since 2016 in the NHS Ayrshire and Arran and the Inverclyde local authority postcode areas is as follows:

The Scottish Government are currently working with a steering group comprised of key stakeholders from across the sector to develop an updated Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) Framework. It is anticipated that the Framework will be published in Spring this year.