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This publication’s Supporting Documents include a spreadsheet file titled ‘General Practice recorded diagnoses’. Table 4 in this spreadsheet shows GP recorded diagnoses of neurological conditions, by sex and age, for each neurological condition shown . In some cases small numbers have been suppressed to help maintain patient confidentiality. Taking into account the suppression of small numbers, the approximate split of diagnoses for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is as follows: (a) Female – 69% (b) Male – 31%.

Please note that that this percentage breakdown draws on figures which do not cover the whole of Scotland. The general practices whose data are included represented 72.7% of registered patients at the time of the data extract.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Water are in regular dialogue about a number of issues, including the potential for burst water pipes.

I was briefed in person by Scottish Water on the expectations that the recent thaw would bring a substantial increase in the number of bursts across Scottish Water’s network and I was reassured that additional response teams were ready to tackle that anticipated situation.

The following table details the number of full-time equivalent staff, broken down by grade, who have worked on tobacco policy within Health Improvement Division since 2017-18.

Please note the following:

• numbers do not equate to head count within Health Improvement Division.
• vacancies have not been included.
• numbers have been compiled using historic Scottish Government HR records
• during 2020/21 some staff would have focused on COVID pandemic response work

Scottish Government officials had discussions with the Existing Homes Alliance during 2022 as part of the Alliance’s work to develop a Rural Homes Just Transition Package .

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce meets on a bi-monthly basis with the last meeting taking place on 2 November 2022. All meeting summaries and action points of the Green Heat Finance Taskforce are published on the Green Heat Finance Taskforce webpage following confirmation of Member's approval at the following meeting. Therefore, the action points of the November meeting will be made available on the website in January 2023.

The UK currently faces a rapidly escalating cost crisis, an emergency on a similar scale to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential that the response from government at every level is commensurate, in scale and speed, to the nature and magnitude of the emergency.

We are using the powers we currently have and our finite resources to support businesses through the cost crisis, whilst also building a more resilient, sustainable, fair and prosperous economy. The Scottish Government will do everything in its power to help those affected by any forthcoming redundancies through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE).

The recently established Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) comprises senior business representatives, trades unions and industry groups. The ILG will deliver an increasingly sustainable retail sector, promote the delivery of all aspects of fair work across the sector and ensure those working in retail have the skills necessary to be successful.

ScotWind is at the very early stages, with Option Agreements setting out a potential development of 27.6GW. We are also awaiting the results of Crown Estate Scotland’s evaluation of the INTOG applications, which could deliver a further 5.7GW of targeted oil and gas decarbonisation projects. The need for future offshore wind planning and leasing rounds will be subject to ongoing evaluation of the current programme and the outcome of supporting assessments, such as the Iterative Plan Review, that take into account the further development of a just transition, new and emerging technology and our net zero commitments.

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 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.

Data is only available from 2015-16. Since 2015-16 a total of 1,531 pharmacist trainees have stayed in Scotland to complete their pre-registration training year.

The following table shows number of pharmacist trainees who have stayed in Scotland to complete their registration broken down for each year since 2015-16.