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The 2022-23 Scottish Budget provides investment of £18 billion for the Health and Social Care Portfolio, delivering on the commitment to pass on frontline health and care Barnett consequentials in full.

The Scottish Government’s 2021-22 Programme for Government contained a commitment to introduce a Good Food Nation Bill. The purpose of this Bill, introduced on 7 October, is to provide a clear, legislative framework introducing a statutory requirement for the Scottish Ministers and specified public authorities to publish good food nation plans. Those plans must set out the main outcomes they want to achieve in relation to food-related issues; the policies needed to do this; and the indicators or other measures required to assess progress.

The Bill underpins the work we are carrying out as part of the Good Food Nation programme of measures, delivering outcomes which support our nation’s social and economic wellbeing, the environment, people’s health and economic development. The subsequent plans will link together all the areas of food policy work that are addressed within the Programme for Government. Examples of such policies include our commitment to update and develop the Local Food Strategy following the recent consultation; plans to legislate for restrictions on unhealthier food and drink promotions; and a commitment to bring forward a plan to end the need for food banks and support people experiencing food insecurity.

Under criminal proceedings statistics, the category of homicide contains a wide range of different criminal offences. The offences include murder, culpable homicide through to causing death by careless driving.

Sentencing in any given case is a matter for the independent court within the overall legal framework. The court will take into account the full facts and circumstances of a case before deciding sentence.

The latest available information is for the financial year to 2019-20. Our records show that in 2017-18 and 2018-19 there were 3 people and 6 people respectively, who were convicted of homicide in a Sheriff court who received a fine, as a main penalty. All of these convictions relate to the offence of causing death by careless driving. There were no Justice of the Peace Court fines imposed in respect of homicide offences nor any of the items listed (c) to (f) issued for homicide.

Information on the main penalty issued for a crime prosecuted in a Scottish court can be found in table 8a of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin, which can be viewed here: Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

The Scottish Government recognises the scale of the challenge facing NHS Scotland and is working closely with partners to accelerate domestic and international recruitment to Scotland. On 5 October, I announced a £300 million investment in health and social care as a direct response to winter planning and systems pressures. This includes funding of £15 million for health boards to recruit 1000 new health and care support staff by March 2022. The Scottish Government is also supporting boards to recruit at least 200 international nurses by March 2022 through an additional £4.5 million of funding.

The wellbeing of our health and social care workforce, wherever they work, remains a key priority. This year we have made £12 million available to support the wellbeing of the workforce. This includes £8 million from the NHS Recovery Plan to provide ongoing wellbeing support for the workforce alongside an additional £4 million to provide further support to address winter pressures. We have also made available the National Wellbeing Hub, a 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service, and funding for additional local psychological support.

Remuneration is clearly a crucial element in retaining staff, and earlier this year the Scottish Government agreed a NHS pay deal which represents an uplift of at least 4% for most NHS staff, higher than the 3% uplift being implemented in England and Wales. Agenda for Change staff in Scotland were already the best paid in the UK and the 2021/22 pay deal has enhanced this position further.

We know that career progression is another attraction of working in NHS Scotland. The NHS Scotland Academy is currently developing a range of accelerated education and training programmes for existing staff which will enable them to enhance their existing knowledge and skills. This will open up access to new roles and additional opportunities for career progression.

In addition, there are a range of programmes in place to support nurses and midwives at various stages of their career under the Scottish Preceptorship Framework for nursing and midwifery. This framework sets out the additional support and guidance offered to nurses and midwives during their transition or adaptation, to a new role.

Sport scotland has followed Scottish Government guidance on rent charges for tenants.

sport scotland have been clear that the COVID support fund was there to support any Scottish governing bodies (SGBs) that were in financial difficulty, this includes both tenants and non-tenants. In addition to the COVID support fund, sport scotland released its full annual investment to all SGBs and allowed them to use this flexibly.

sport scotland meet regularly with tenants to discuss both short-term access to offices, in the context of the latest Government guidance, and establish medium to longer-term requirements for office space. These meetings have been well attended and well received by tenants. Going forward, sport scotland is also offering a 10% discount to tenants on next year's rent. This is in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding how often office space will be used.

Significant financial and non-financial investment has been made in capercaillie conservation by Scottish Government, its partners and agencies, NGOs, landowners, communities and individuals. While the status of the capercaillie population in Scotland remains vulnerable, without the investment that has been made it is likely that we would have lost capercaillie from Scotland.

Support has included funding from NatureScot towards research and conservation of capercaillie in Scotland since 2011 as well as funding via the Forestry Grant Scheme specifically to support capercaillie populations.

Other Scottish Government funding in support of habitat management is likely to have benefited capercaillie but where not specifically provided for this species no breakdown is available.

Booster information was made available in the international travel section of the NHS Scotland Covid Status App on 9 December, and on paper/pdf certificates from 13 December.

Local teams look at available space within their area when considering appropriate locations for COVID-19 vaccination centres to meet local requirements, that have the right reach and size of venue for their population. Pop-up clinics can be located in a variety of venues with local health boards considering, amongst other things, the flow of queues; the time of year; and the health and safety of staff and the public when scoping out new locations.

Since the vaccine rollout began, we have made the vaccine as accessible as possible and drop in clinics are available throughout Scotland’s mainland health boards. The most up to date list of which can be found at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccinedropinclinics.

It is not possible for the Scottish Government to quantify nor confirm the total mileage of all roads constructed anywhere and by anyone for these purposes in each of the last ten years. However, on Scotland’s national forests and land, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) constructs roads for use on a multi-purpose basis e.g. timber transport, tree planting, environmental improvement works, recreational access. FLS does not hold data that ascribes a particular use to sections of forest road, nor does it hold specific data as to what lengths of road have been constructed by windfarm developers. Over the past ten years levels of forest road construction by FLS have been as follows:

2012: 46 Miles

2013: 52 Miles

2014: 43 Miles

2015: 34 Miles

2016: 37 Miles

2017: 37 Miles

2018: 44 Miles

2019: 32 Miles

2020: 27 Miles

2021: 24 Miles

The consultation on the National Care Service closed on 2 November 2021. We are currently analysing the consultation responses and will develop specific policy proposals, including on commissioning, once that analysis has been completed.

There is a commitment to co-design of a future National Care Service with people with lived and living experience of social care support, including those who access care, carers and care workers. The geography and demography of Scotland, including the unique circumstances of islands, will need to be central to that future co-design process.