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Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03618 on 8 November 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

There are no current plans to lower the age limit in relation to COVID-19 certification scheme. We continue to keep the scheme under regular review.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and I issued a joint statement to all practices on face-to-face appointments as a result of multiple discussions between both parties.

For many years now, in person face-to-face appointments form part of a hybrid model of options that are offered to patients including video consultations, telephone consultations and in person face-to-face appointments. The pandemic changed the balance between these appointment types. While we are clear that face to face appointments must increase we also recognise that for a number of patients they will wish to continue with telephone or video consultations. Changes to physical distancing guidance will assist practices to safely increase more face to face appointments.

Importantly the type of appointment offered should be agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and autonomy, and practice circumstances/capacity and clinical judgement.

I last met with the BMA on 25 October 2021.

Any reported increase in Pay to Use ATM’s away from Free to Use ATM’s is a matter of great concern as it undoubtedly adds to the uncertainty faced by communities and businesses on their ability to access cash and other banking facilities.

The Scottish Government has delivered a number of reliefs for ATM sites. This includes ensuring that sites in rural areas are exempt from business rates where the building is only used for the ATM and, more widely, that there is up to 100% rates relief through the Small Business Bonus Scheme. Also, local councils have wide-ranging powers to create rates reliefs to reflect local needs under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

The regulation of financial services is reserved to the UK Government and as such Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene directly in the commercial decisions made by financial services companies. The Scottish Government stands ready to work constructively with the UK Government, banks and other stakeholders to ensure that customers, communities and businesses have access to the banking facilities they need. The Scottish Government will continue to urge banks and ATM providers to listen to, and address, the very real concerns customers have on their ability to access cash and banking services when engaging with the Financial Services industry.

We are working with the other administrations on the introduction of an extended producer responsibility system for packaging that will require producers to cover the full net cost of their packaging when it becomes waste. This will encourage producers to reduce unnecessary packaging and improve the sustainability of their packaging.

Public bodies already have a legal duty to take account of how they can improve social, economic and environmental wellbeing in their procurement activities. We have published guidance on waste and efficient resource consumption on our Sustainable Procurement Tools platform to support public bodies in reducing waste in their supply chains. This guidance highlights packaging as an example of where significant waste may arise, and provides examples of where reducing/ eliminating packaging can be included in the Contract Notice and Specification. In January 2021 we published SPPN 1/2021: Taking account of climate and circular economy considerations in public procurement. This policy note signposts the guidance published on the Tools and clarifies expectations with respect to circular economy considerations in procurement, outlining that procurement professionals should consider whether they can buy refurbished, repaired or pre-used rather than new.

The Scottish Government frequently includes requirements for recycling and recycled materials in our frameworks and contracts. Our IT Consumables Framework - a national framework that can be used by all public bodies across Scotland - requires the supplier to recycle all inbound packaging and encourage their partners to reduce packaging. Our Facilities Management Services Framework requires the supplier to sustainably source materials including packaging, and promote waste reduction and the circular economy through including recycled content in materials, including packaging.

We are considering a range of options on how to take the steel sector forward in light of our net zero ambitions, including electric arc furnaces. These are large-scale ambitions that need large-scale solutions and will require significant private sector investment, and the Scottish Government is discussing these potential opportunities with industry partners.

We are working to implement our ‘ Framework on Recovery and Rehabilitation from COVID-19’ , which puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings. A National Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation has been convened to oversee the implementation of the ‘Recovery and Rehabilitation Framework’. The board meets regularly, and minutes of these meetings can be viewed on our webpage here .

The rehabilitation programme has undertaken a significant scoping exercise through a self-assessment process to understand the current status of rehabilitation services in Scotland, from the perspective of the staff working in them.

The self-assessment tool has been circulated to all NHS Boards, Health & Social Care Partnerships, COSLA, third sector organisations, and Leisure Trusts as part of Local Authorities. The outputs from the self-assessment tool along with demand and capacity data will help us shape priorities, understand challenges and opportunities and inform funding decisions.

We will develop and implement a rehabilitation plan that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it, including those with a neurological condition.

As previously set out, the Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland introduced a Carbon Metric for waste from 2011, making Scotland the first country to measure the carbon impact of its waste in this way, and delivering on our commitment set out in Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan.

The first metric of Scotland’s waste carbon footprint was published in 2013 by Zero Waste Scotland. The metric measures the whole-life carbon impacts of Scotland’s waste, and is a vital tool in our work to address the climate emergency.

The metric was developed by Zero Waste Scotland on behalf of Scottish Government, with input from SEPA and a steering committee formed from experts belonging to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04136 on 16 November. 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.