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The Scottish Government has always been clear the triangulation of learning from complaints and incidents must be a corner stone of clinical governance and improvement and that is why we wrote to NHS Board Chief Executives about the British Academy of Audiology (BAA) reports in December 2021.

In their returns Boards outlined specific actions which included the development of local action plans, review of protocols and guidelines, additional training and professional development sessions. All Chief Executives confirmed a Lead Director and single point of contact in the service for the Independent Review of Audiology which will examine governance and quality assurance arrangements for audiology services in Scotland as a part of its remit.

The Scottish Government meet regularly with NHS Lothian in relation to their current status on the NHS board performance escalation framework, this involves the Board working through and reporting progress against a formal Recovery Plan that covers all the BAA recommended actions. The telephone helpline, established by NHS Lothian, also continues to be in operation to allow families to make direct contact with NHS Lothian about any audiology concerns.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The National Audiology Review Group convened on 3 May 2022 and on 28 June 2022. Review Group members were invited to share their key priorities for development of the Terms of Reference to help shape the future of audiology services in Scotland.

The Terms of Reference were agreed by the Group on 7 July 2022 and will be published on the Scottish Government’s website alongside minutes and a current membership list. Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Following the publication of the review findings in December 2021, NHS Lothian has had extensive interactions with a wide range of professionals who work with children and young people to highlight the key findings in the report and this has included Speech and Language Therapists, Health Visitors, General Practice, Ear Nose and Throat clinicians, Community Paediatricians and teaching staff, with further communication to the Director of Education. This has involved individual meetings with professionals as well as the development of a staff briefing document, which was widely circulated across key networks. As part of this process, those working with children who had any concerns about a child's hearing were encouraged to contact the Audiology department directly or to refer the child through the normal referral route (e.g. Health Visitor, Speech and Language, GPs).

The Scottish Government supports the principles underpinning the green taxonomy, especially the need to establish criteria for sustainable economic activity, to give investors certainty on the sustainability of projects, and to combat greenwashing, and we look forward to continuing to work internationally with our partners in the European Union and its Member States to combat climate change.

The Scottish Government position on nuclear power is clear – we do not support the building of new nuclear power stations in Scotland under current technologies. Given that new nuclear power will take years, if not decades, to become operational and will be expensive, we do not believe classifying nuclear as sustainable or transitional should be our focus.

The best pathway to net zero is through increased investment in renewables, storage, hydrogen and carbon capture. Concentrating growth in these technologies is better for both energy security and the climate. As the UK taxonomy is a reserved matter, we are working with UK government to ensure the forthcoming UK taxonomy reflects the level of climate ambition the Scottish Government has set. We will be publishing our Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan later this year, including energy scenarios that will set out how Scotland can achieve our climate targets and meets our energy needs in a sustainable manner by 2050, and will provide a long term basis for investment in energy generation in Scotland.

All territorial NHS Boards were invited to submit proposals to the Strategic Network on managing the long term effects of COVID-19 for how they intended to utilise long COVID Support Funding across 2022-23. Returns were received from 13 Health Boards.

Following review by the Network’s Strategic Oversight Board, the funding allocations outlined in the table below were confirmed to these Boards on 19 May 2022 to support the delivery of activities identified within their proposals.

The Scottish Government welcomes any activity that can lead to a positive impact on the health of our veteran community.

As the armed forces are subject to the reserved responsibility of the UK Government, the Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund is open to applications from Scottish projects as well as projects from the rest of the UK.

It is a one-off fund being administered by the Defence and Security Accelerator on behalf of UK Office of Veterans’ Affairs and is open to projects – including in Scotland – that will drive forward innovation in techniques and pathways for meeting veterans’ physical and mental health needs. It aims to ensure treatment is informed by the latest research and developments in clinical care.

The Scottish Government is a member of the fund’s steering board. The steering Board will determine which projects are successful against set criteria and be put forward for UKG ministerial approval.

The information is not held centrally.

Some data are available for Revolve certified organisations. Revolve is Scotland’s National Reuse Quality Standard and Revolve stores are supported to work to key standards, and are committed to quality.

In 2020-21 sales through Revolve certified community stores reported to Zero Waste Scotland were over £22 million. The 95 Revolve stores which reported to Zero Waste Scotland recorded 680 full time staff employed and 52,873 volunteer hours from 1,095 volunteers recorded in those same organisations, and approximately 22,000 tonnes of material was estimated to be diverted from landfill. It is not appropriate to compare these totals directly with those of previous years, as a different proportion of stores provided monitoring data and, because of COVID-19, stores were operational for only a fraction of the year.