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While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for delivering safe, effective, person-centred care at a local level.

The Scottish Government published the National Personal Footcare Guidance https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/ , which sets out clearly the difference between personal footcare and clinical podiatry in NHS Scotland and offers help and support to individuals, carers and families in the provision of personal footcare, including older and at-risk people.

People with the most urgent clinical need are seen by a registered podiatrist to ensure they are prioritised for treatment, and those that require personal footcare are advised how to self-manage their footcare or are signposted to other more appropriate services. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, those with the most essential or urgent clinical podiatry needs continue to be seen. We are working with NHS Boards to remobilise and reform services, including the development of services across Scotland to support future service sustainability and addressing the backlog of treatment.

Michael Russell, the then Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs met with Simon Coveney, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs on 14 January 2021 to discuss the Scotland Bilateral Review. Culture was one element of this meeting.

Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture met with Catherine Martin, Irish Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media on 8 March 2022.

Scottish Ministers attended the 36 th British Irish Council (BIC) Summit hosted by Welsh Government which had the theme of Indigenous Minority and Lesser-Used Languages. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, attended a virtual work sector meeting on 17 November 2021, and Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister and Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy attended the Summit on 19 November, when Ms Forbes gave her update on economic recovery to the pandemic in Gaelic.

It is important, in line with the principle of healthcare being free at the point of use, that lateral flow device (LFD) tests should remain free of charge for any circumstance in which testing is required as part of clinical care.

The COVID-19 Strategic Framework Update, published on 22 February, sought input from public health specialists who support a move to focus on protecting those at highest clinical risk, supporting patient care and responding to outbreaks, as we move towards the endemic phase.

A transition plan setting out the next steps for Test and Protect in Scotland will be published later this month.

The Scottish Government understands the important role independent music festivals play in Scotland’s cultural scene, and wants to help ensure festivals will be able to take place in 2022. Support for music festivals that is provided in 2022 builds on the previous £240 million of financial support which the Scottish Government has provided to the culture, heritage and events sector to support its recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government recently announced £2 million of events sector funding through VisitScotland’s National and International programmes. Depending on their circumstances, independent music festivals could have been eligible to apply to the 1st round of the National Programme which closed on 11 February. This is for events taking place from 1 April to 31 August 2022. Round 2 is now open and covers the period 1st September – 31st December. Grants of up to £25,000 are available.

The Scottish Government would also encourage Scottish Music Festivals to apply to Creative Scotland’s Open Fund. This Fund is open to projects from across the Culture sector, and as music is one of the creative industries, music festivals are able to apply.

The £750,000 Scotland on Tour fund, managed by Active Events, will support musicians, venues and festivals to bring new and additional concerts to venues and festivals in Scotland during 2022. The Scotland on Tour working group consisting of representatives from the music sector, Creative Scotland and the enterprise and skills agencies, will actively be looking at how the project can support festivals in future funding rounds.

The Scottish Government is also working with partners to consider what more we can do to support public confidence to return to events and cultural performances.

The Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers opened on 6 January and closed on 21 January. It provided much-needed support to creative freelancers experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The total number of applications received by Creative Scotland was 1,946. The number of approved applications was 1,766. Of these approved applications, so far 1,763 have been paid in full.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06927 on 4 March 2022. 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 .

The 2018 advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), our statutory advisers, was that over the next decade government policies should only support biomass use where this

a) provides cost-effective abatement whilst avoiding ‘lock-in’ to sub-optimal uses, and/or

b) develops key technologies and sustainable supply chains.

They recommend that we limit support for bioenergy use in buildings to biomethane produced from anaerobic digestion and other niche uses (as part of hybrid heat pumps systems in hard to treat off-gas homes, local combined heat and power systems and small-scale district heat networks) - whilst minimising air quality impacts.

Overall, the Scottish Government’s aim is to see bioenergy used where it has the greatest value in reducing emissions. We are currently working to understand the most appropriate and sustainable use of bioresources across the whole energy system in Scotland and intend to publish a Bioenergy Action Plan in 2023.

Biomass in a low-carbon economy - Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) previously considered Kuvan ® (the branded version of sapropterin) in August 2018 and the medicine was not recommended for use in NHS Scotland because the submitting company’s justification of the treatment’s cost in relation to its health benefits was not sufficient; in addition, the company did not present a sufficiently robust clinical and economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC. The SMC would welcome a resubmission of this medicine, the submitting company (BioMarin).

The first generic version of sapropterin has recently received a Marketing Authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and we are currently considering how best to provide advice to Health Boards on whether it should be made available for routine use in NHS Scotland, based on the latest available evidence. Meantime, doctors can request access to medicines that are not generally available on the NHS on an individual case-by-case basis through the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process, where the treating clinician considers there would be a clinical benefit for their patient.

Funding for devices was provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. As such, local authorities undertook their own procurement exercises and devices purchased became assets of, and are managed by individual local authorities. Decisions on their use, including around security, are taken locally.

Official Modern Apprenticeship (MA) statistics are published by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) quarterly, including the number of starts.

The following table shows the number of MA starts over the last five years on the Youth Work Framework: