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A total of 22,635 dental staff are registered on the Vaccine Management Tool (VMT). This includes both dentists and dental nurses.

These staff would register voluntarily, as independent contractors, on the relevant staff bank of their health board, and book shifts via that system, which does not constitute secondment.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with dystonia are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

While the Scottish Government’s role is to set the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally have responsibility for both service delivery and people’s care. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that patients, including those who require care and support for dystonia, have access to a range of professionals to provide the appropriate management of their condition.

Dystonia UK, a leading charity that provides supports for people living with dystonia, is a member of the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS). The NAoS are key members of our National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions which is working to drive improvement in outcomes for people with a range of neurological conditions, including dystonia.

In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – National Framework for Action, with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition, including dystonia, can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

We are investing £4.5 million of funding to implement the 17 commitments in the framework, supporting innovative practice in neurological care for people with conditions such as dystonia. No applications have been received to date for projects in relation to the direct support and care of people affected by dystonia and we would welcome future applications.

Through Commitment 13 of the Framework, the Scottish Government will support neurological research by promoting the work of the Chief Scientist Office, third sector organisations’ research and Scottish neurological research networks; encouraging opportunities for people with neurological conditions to become involved in research trials; and highlighting the need for further qualitative research on the impact of living with a neurological condition.

The Chief Scientist Office research funding committees are open and applications on the underlying causes, diagnosis, treatment and management of dystonia are welcomed - Response Mode Funding Schemes – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Throughout Storms Arwen and Barra the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division maintained daily contact with the power companies and close engagement continues.

It must be noted that resilience of the electricity networks is reserved and is the responsibility of the UK Government. The Scottish Government will be engaging with both the upcoming Ofgem and UK Government Storm Arwen reviews.

In addition, the Deputy First Minister requested that the Scottish Government’s Resilience Division begin work on the scope and terms of a review into the Storm Arwen response on 30 November 2021, and on 14 December 2021 he formally commissioned the Scottish Resilience Partnership to collate evidence from local resilience partnerships to inform the findings of the review.

The Scottish Government will also gather evidence from other relevant groups, for example the voluntary sector and utilities companies, including power companies.

‎This work is already well underway and we aim to publish a review paper with recommendations in mid-January.

As stated in the answer to question S6W-04876 on 20 December 2021 we have committed to establishing an independent taskforce to consider investigatory powers of the Scottish SPCA. The taskforce’s remit will cover the Scottish SCPA’s role in investigating wildlife crime and will involve engaging with the Scottish SPCA, alongside other relevant stakeholders, as it conducts its review.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has regular discussions with stakeholders, including the Scottish SPCA at both official and Ministerial level. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as work on the taskforce develops.

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

Teachers’ pay negotiations are a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), comprising membership from local authority employers, teacher unions and Scottish Government.

The last SNCT pay negotiation meeting was held on 17 November. The next meeting will be arranged at the appropriate time.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a fair pay offer for teachers and remains committed to working with our partners in the SNCT to bring these discussions to a successful conclusion.

Information on the amount of people living with dystonia in each NHS board area is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or Public Health Scotland (PHS).

The Scottish Government has submitted a request through NHS Scotland’s Scottish Primary Care Information Request (SPIRE), which holds information from GP patient records, to better understand prevalence amongst neurological conditions including dystonia. We expect this data to be collected in 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04922 on 17 December 2021. 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 Scottish government does not include its long COVID estimates in the COVID-19 in Scotland dashboard, because they are instead published in the weekly Scottish Government Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series of publications ( Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The estimates reported in the weekly Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic series are based on data and simulation, so are inherently uncertain and therefore this weekly modelling report is the most appropriate location to publish them.

Estimates of the number of long COVID cases in Scotland are also generated by the Office for National Statistics ( Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) ). These estimates are caveated in a similar manner; “this is analysis of new, recently collected data, and our understanding of it and its quality will improve over time. Long COVID is an emerging phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. The estimates presented in this release are experimental statistics, which are a series of statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.”

The COVID(O) committee met on 14 December (attended by myself, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer) and all 4 nations agreed to remove all 11 nations (including Angola) from the red list. This came into effect from 0400 on Wednesday, 15 December. Thus there is no requirement for an exemption being arranged

As per the answer to S6W-04540 on 1 December 2021, we expect that 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will incur a net financial benefit from the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). This figure is calculated for the first year in which the scheme target is set at 90%, so savings will be realised by 2025.

Local authorities are also expected to benefit from a reduction in the impact of litter, and from efficiencies to collection services following the implementation of DRS. Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) is engaging with the three local authorites currently projected to not to make savings, to explore how such efficiencies may be realised.

These results have been calculated based on commercially sensitive data shared with ZWS by individual local authorities in confidence. It would therefore not be appropriate to provide a breakdown of these results publicly.