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NHS National Services Scotland is currently conducting a procurement process to robustly assess digital products available to support the assessment and screening of people with long COVID, and determine which one is best placed to meet the needs highlighted by NHS Boards.

This national procurement process is expected to identify a preferred supplier shortly, after which licences for the selected product would be procured.

The Scottish Government plans to continue to support and reform community eyecare services, recognising the capacity in the sector to further help sustainably reduce pressure on hospitals and GPs. These plans include a new national Community Glaucoma Service which will begin to be rolled out in some areas of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde from January 2023.

In accordance with the requirements of the Railways Act 1993 and the Scottish Ministers’ Franchising Policy Statement, consideration is being given to the successor arrangement for the continued provision of Caledonian Sleeper services.

The Heat in Building Strategy shows that including fabric upgrades the estimated average building-level cost of installing a zero emission system, such as an air source heat pump, is just over £12,000. The cost for an individual dwelling can vary depending on the building type, materials, existing levels of energy efficiency and type of heating systems being replaced; and we recognise that retrofit costs for hard-to-treat properties are likely to be higher than the average.

Further analysis of the estimated capital and running costs of zero emissions heating systems has been undertaken as part of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Heat in Buildings Strategy, which can be accessed at: Heat in buildings strategy: business and regulatory impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We continue to develop the evidence base on the costs of different low and zero emissions heat options suitable to different properties across the Scottish building stock. For example, we are undertaking research to better inform our understanding of the cost of installing energy efficiency measures and replacing direct emissions heating systems in homes. While there is no fixed definition of a HTT home, this research includes traditional tenements and homes off the gas grid. This research is due to complete early next year.

As set out in the answer to S6W-12343 on 5 December there is a range of support available to all properties including for older and hard-to-treat off-gas-grid properties.

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

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS is committed to continuous development of its employees to provide high-quality services through a skilled workforce and to meet its strategic goals. As part of this commitment, SPS aims to develop new recruits through the Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks provided by Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

The following table shows the actual number of apprenticeships being started in the SPS each year since 2016.

The Island Communities Impact Assessment for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme, published on 16 March 2020 and available here: Islands Communities Impact Assessment - Deposit return scheme for Scotland: islands communities impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , considered the impact of online takeback on island communities and concluded that this aspect of the scheme would be vital to ensure access to the scheme for consumers in island areas who were unable to access a physical return point. These considerations also apply to rural areas in terms of ensuring equality of access to DRS.

First introduced during the pandemic, Cytosponge is an excellent example of innovation in diagnostic services, supporting patients to access cancer checks closer to home and helping to reduce demand on health services.

Cytosponge has now been implemented in all mainland Health Boards, and collaborative discussions are ongoing between the NHS Scotland Centre for Sustainable Delivery and Island Health Boards to support implementation of a tailored model for Barrett’s Surveillance cohorts.

The most robust method for reporting ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operational performance across the current contract to-date is by presenting the average daily number of non-operational charge point units. The following table provides a monthly breakdown of this information across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network under the current contract. The transitional period immediately after the migration to the current operator focused on network stabilisation, including resolving technical issues across the network, hence the disparity in operational performance in the months of August and September.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention by an engineer.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area. However, CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will be continuously updated with detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, such as uptime by Local Authority area.

In addition to extensive stakeholder communications already undertaken, the national marketing campaign for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was launched in autumn 2022. This has helped to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme and encouraged more young people to apply.

The following table provides the national marketing spend (inclusive of VAT where applicable) broken down by type of marketing activity. This spend includes marketing and PR activity undertaken during COP26 between October and December 2021 in addition to the main campaign.

This information is not held centrally; it is a matter for the individual territorial and national Health Boards that make up NHS Scotland.