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Scotland has the most comprehensive public charging network in the UK outside of London, with close to 3,000 public charge points. The Scottish Government has invested over £50 million to develop the ChargePlace Scotland network, with over a third of charge points installed in rural areas. Dumfries and Galloway Council has received £1.65 million to develop public electric vehicle charging.

In January we launched our vision for the future of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network, and announced a new fund to enable £60 million of public and private investment in this network. We have also provided £2 million to local authorities to develop their charging strategies and expansion plans, with Dumfries and Galloway Council receiving £60,000.

Data from the 2020 Healthy Living Survey was one of the components used to determine 2022-23 Pupil Equity Fund allocations.

Due to COVID-19 disruption, the full Healthy Living Survey could not take place in 2021. The previous year’s data was therefore used to prepare funding allocations which aligned with pre-existing PEF allocations to ensure there was no major, disruptive fluctuation between years.

We have listened to headteachers and provided certainty to support long term planning to build on the excellent work we know headteachers are doing by setting PEF allocations for the next four years. In response to fluctuating demand brought on by the pandemic, we have increased allocations to £1,225 from £1,200.

Officials continue to review possible alternatives to Free School Meal data, and a decision on which datasets will be used will be made at the end of that four-year cycle.

Family and friends will always be involved in discussions about organ or tissue donation. If a person is in hospital and dies in circumstances where donation may be possible, a Specialist Nurse would check if the person has registered a decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR). The Specialist Nurse would then discuss any registered decision, or lack of one, with family and friends in order to ascertain the potential donor’s most recent views, which may have changed since the recording of any decision.

These discussions help to ensure that people don’t become donors if that would be against their wishes. This is why, as well as recording any decision on the ODR, individuals are encouraged to let family and friends know about their decision and latest views.

The Scottish Government is a member of the UK Government ME/CFS Delivery Plan Task and Finish Group, which is scheduled to convene in June and to meet monthly thereafter. Officials are maintaining close and regular contact with the UK Department of Health and Social Care regarding this work, with the UK Government planning to publish its draft Delivery Plan later this year.

Bus service provision in Scotland operates in an open de-regulated market, as established by the Transport Act 1985. Individual bus operators use their own commercial judgement to decide on service routes, fare structure and frequency. Additionally local transport authorities can provide subsidy for services that are not provided on a commercial basis.

Under the Transport Act 1985 local bus services must be registered with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner. The registration of services is devolved and subject to the Public Service Vehicles (Registration of Local Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2001. The regulatory regime is designed to ensure that bus service operators are of good repute and that services are introduced, varied or cancelled in an orderly fashion and operated safely and reliably as registered. As part of the registration process, operators are required to notify local transport authorities in advance of registering, cancelling or varying a service.

If the Traffic Commissioner considers that an operator is failing to run a service in line with their registration she has the power to take action against them. This could include issuing a fine, imposing conditions on their PSV license, or rejecting a future service application from the same operator.

Data from the 2014 Healthy Living Survey was one of the components used to determine 2022-23 Pupil Equity Fund allocations for Primary 1 to 3 pupils.

In 2015 the Scottish Government introduced free school meals for all Primary 1 to 3 pupils. The 2014 Healthy Living Survey therefore represents the last dataset fully capturing how many pupils were registered for FSM on income-based criteria before universal entitlement.

We have listened to headteachers and provided certainty to support long term planning to build on the excellent work we know headteachers are doing by setting PEF allocations for the next four years. In response to fluctuating demand brought on by the pandemic, we have increased allocations to £1225 from £1200.

Officials continue to review possible alternatives to Free School Meal data, and a decision on which datasets will be used will be made at the end of that four-year cycle.

The Institute of Economic Affairs report is one independent report and should not be used to draw conclusions on the effect of the policy.

Public Health Scotland are leading a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing, details of which can be found on their website. The evaluation is over a five year period and a final report will be produced in 2023. The evaluation will consider a wide range of evidence and reports regarding Minimum Unit Price (MUP).

We will review the final evaluation report from Public Health Scotland before drawing overall conclusions, this will include the impact MUP has had on health and social benefits.

The Scottish Government recognises that recruitment and retention of nursing staff is key to the provision of safe and high-quality health care services. We published our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in March 2022, which outlines our shared vision: a skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do.

We are investing £11 million over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system. There are record high numbers of nursing and midwifery staff, up by 14.8% since September 2006, and numbers of student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-2023, the 10th successive increase in recommended student numbers.

We are firmly committed to supporting a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable health and social care workforce, with a strong leadership that promotes wellbeing. There is no place for bullying or harassment in the NHS - or anywhere else - and we have made it clear to Health Boards that this behaviour is unacceptable and expect them to ensure any reported incidents are taken seriously and fully investigated.

There is also no place for discrimination; we will publish a refreshed overarching Fair Work action plan later this year focusing on minority ethnic and disabled people’s employment and tackling the gender pay gap. We will also publish a new ethnicity pay gap strategy which will set out our approach for employers in addressing racial inequality in the workplace and will underpin our actions related to this within the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan.

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care detailed the launch of a new National Leadership Development Programme (NLDP) which will work to influence culture change across health and social care. It also included establishing a National Minority Ethnic Forum for the NHS and a new proposed accelerated development programme for minority ethnic staff working in the NHS and Social Care.

The Scottish Government’s consultation on proposals for a Circular Economy Bill, published on 30 May 2022, proposes that Scottish Ministers should have powers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses in order to improve data capture and public transparency and help businesses measure and take action on their waste and surplus. The consultation also set our intention that the initial priority for subsequent secondary legislation, with further consultation, would be to introduce mandatory public reporting of food waste and food surplus.

Subject to the outcome of our consultation, we will work with stakeholders to develop detailed assessments and proposals for further consultation, including on the type and size of business that should be subject to any reporting requirements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09005 on 23 June 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 .