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Over the course of this parliament, we are working to increase overall residential rehabilitation capacity by 50%, which is an increase from 425 beds to 650 beds. We aim to increase the number of publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements by more than 300 per cent so that, by 2026, at least 1,000 people every year are publicly funded for their rehab placement.

In addition to a £13.5 million uplift to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP), we have provided £18 million so far over the next five years to support the development of several new residential rehab projects through the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme. We recognise that there are structural differences around funding and availability of residential services in different parts of the country, but we are working to address this by exploring options around regional and national commissioning of residential rehabilitation placements.

While it is the role and responsibility of local ADPs to assess and allocate placements we are committed to increasing transparency and accountability for these services. This is why we have tasked Public Health Scotland with producing a quarterly report on funded placements. The next report will be published April 2022 and will cover the period of October to December 2021.

We recently published a suite of reports on the current pathways into, through and out of residential rehabilitation. We will be working closely with ADPs to aid the development of clear pathways into residential rehabilitation, which will facilitate an increase to publicly funded placements across the country.

The Scottish Government will invest £60 million to renew play parks in Scotland, so children have access to high-quality outdoor play in their own communities. This funding is for public, free-to-access parks and will be distributed to local authorities over the course of this parliamentary term.

The renewal of play parks builds on our commitment to improve outdoor play opportunities for all children and families and to realise our ambition to make Scotland the best place to grow up.

Local authorities have an existing responsibility to maintain play parks that serve their communities and this investment provides a boost in funding to accelerate local plans and improve play experiences for all children in Scotland. We have already committed £10 million since May 2021 with a further £50 million to come in this parliamentary term.

South Lanarkshire Council received £298,000 funding in 2021-22 and will receive £296,000 in 2022-23. We have worked constructively with COSLA on the first two years of funding and will continue that work to agree the allocation of the remainder of the funding.

As of 28 February, general population self-isolation guidance states that if you test positive, you should pause routine LFD testing for 28 days after self-isolating. Count the 28 days from the day your symptoms started, or the date of your positive test if had no symptoms. If you are identified as a close contact during this time, you do not need to test or self-isolate as long as you do not have any new symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. If you develop new symptoms, self-isolate and book a PCR test.

Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government has kept self-isolation policy under review in line with the most up to date scientific evidence and clinical advice. We continue to balance the need to dampen transmission of the virus whilst limiting the impact on the economy and critical public services.

The number of confirmed strokes discharged during 2021 showing total length of stay and length of stay in a stroke unit is in the following table.

For some of the figures, the length of stay in the stroke unit are longer compared to stay in the audit. The patient may have completed the stroke part of their journey, but they did not have a discharge plan, so would be discharged from the audit. However, they are still in the stroke unit, for example if they have another condition that is more important than stroke.

The self-isolation exemption guidance for health and social care staff is based on the latest clinical and public health evidence and advice, and has been updated on a regular basis as we learn more about new variants, transmission and severity of illness from COVID-19. Clinical advisors within Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) provided their expert advice to this guidance. For more information on this advice you can visit the latest PHS guidance for Health Protection Teams.

It is worth noting that as of 28 February this exemption does apply to the general population. Self-isolation guidance states that if you test positive, you should pause routine LFD testing for 28 days after self-isolating. Count the 28 days from the day your symptoms started, or the date of your positive test if had no symptoms. If you are identified as a close contact during this time, you do not need to test or self-isolate as long as you do not have any new symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. If you develop new symptoms, self-isolate and book a PCR test.

Participation of small producers is vital to the success of the scheme and we believe we have taken their needs into consideration in designing DRS.

We have consulted extensively with businesses of all sizes that will be affected by the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. We are not aware that any producers have decided to cease doing business in Scotland, although we are aware that some have expressed concerns about whether they will continue to sell their products in Scotland.

This is one of the reasons why we have applied a de minimis for the SEPA registration fee. This will remove a cost for businesses operating below the current VAT threshold, benefiting around 1,600 of the more than 4,000 anticipated producers selling into the Scottish market

Guidelines are intended as an aid to clinical judgement, not to replace it. The ultimate decision about a particular clinical procedure or treatment will always depend on each individual patient’s condition, circumstances and wishes, and the clinical judgement of the healthcare team.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) have taken the opportunity to take a four nations approach and collaborate with the Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party on the 6th edition of the Royal College of Physicians National Clinical Guideline for Stroke which is expected to be published in February 2023. This will be a collaborative national guideline which will be applicable for use in Scotland.

There are a wide range of definitions for Stroke Units and it is understandable that stroke units will look very different between, for instance, a large city hospital and island NHS Boards

The core criteria for defining a stroke unit are well described in the academic literature, including in Langhorne et al (2002). Professor Langhorne is a member of the Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) Team and has been influential in defining different models of stroke unit care.

NHS Boards are expected to describe their stroke unit models through the SSCA processes and the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Team review this information during Board Reviews (now occurring at least twice annually). This ensures that optimal and evidence based services are being delivered and demonstrates that stroke units are viewed as a core component of care.

We are analysing the text of the Act to understand how it could interact with Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), but in order to assess impact fully we need to understand the UK Government’s intentions for its own DRS. We have not yet seen their response to their recent consultation.

The timescale set out in December 2021 was for such contracts to be signed by the end of March 2022. I am aware that Circularity Scotland Ltd is currently in commercial negotiations and it would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this time.