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As a result of increased demand and changes to service delivery, we have increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m this year for additional recruitment and the addition of a new call centre in Dundee, which opened in December.

This is supporting the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

Engagement with patients has shown NHS 24 that a focus on ensuring patients receive the appropriate advice, first time, rather than answering their call as quickly as possible is preferable. However, patients with serious and urgent conditions will always be a priority.

Callers to NHS 24 will initially have their symptoms triaged by a call handler before being passed on to a clinician within the Service or to another area of the health service best placed to meet their needs as appropriate.

Both Scottish Government and NHS 24 is committed to ensuring that the patients journey through the health care system is a quick as is possible and patient safety remains the key focus as we continue to enhance the 111 service.

COVID-19 vaccines are procured on a four nations basis via the UK Vaccines Taskforce. As Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we are not in a position to share vaccines with our international development partner countries. We will continue to engage with the UK government on this matter.

On 8 December, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to urge the UK government to end its opposition at the World Trade Organisation and to join over 100 countries who are now supportive of a temporary Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver.

We have also provided international development support to our partner countries to support their COVID-19 responses, including vaccine preparedness. This includes the following examples of relevant recent funding.

In December 2020, we provided £2 million to UNICEF to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries of Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.

In September 2021, we provided £250,000 from our International Development Fund to leverage the provision to our partner countries of £11.2 million worth of PPE - our single biggest ever donation - to aid COVID-19 responses as part of our strategic response.

In February 2022, we provided £1.5 million to UNICEF to support equal access to COVID-19 vaccines in our partner countries. The funds will support vaccination programmes in Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia, their provision of safe oxygen supplies, and help the agency deliver equipment, resources and technical support in response to the pandemic.

NHS 24 has played a key role in the response to Covid-19, completely altering the way in which they deliver their Service from a predominantly out of hours Service to 24/7 advice and support for patients both for Covid and in support of the re-design of unscheduled care.

In response to the re-design of unscheduled care programme, the Scottish Government has also successfully launched national media campaigns to help ensure clear and concise public information is delivered to support a reduction of unscheduled ED attendances by directing the public to access the right care from the most appropriate service for their needs.

Callers to 111 are encouraged to seek help from their own GP or from 999 in an emergency, if this is more appropriate and to access NHS inform for information and advice on seasonal illness information and self-help guides.

An application from ScottishPower Renewables was submitted to the Scottish Ministers on 23 December 2021 for the proposed Carrick Windfarm development. Adverts were placed in the local newspapers Ayrshire Post, Ayr Advertiser, Carrick Herald, and national newspapers The Scotsman and Edinburgh Gazette between 25 January and 8 February 2022 to provide notice that the application has been submitted. A consultation was issued to Barr Community Council, Crosshill, Straiton and Kirkmichael Community Council and Dailly Community Council dated 25 January 2022, requesting comments be provided to the Scottish Ministers by 28 February 2022, unless an extension to this date has been agreed. The consultation is currently ongoing and the public can make representations to Scottish Ministers.

The 2018 advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), our statutory advisers, was that over the next decade government policies should only support biomass use where this

a) provides cost-effective abatement whilst avoiding ‘lock-in’ to sub-optimal uses, and/or

b) develops key technologies and sustainable supply chains.

They recommend that we limit support for bioenergy use in buildings to biomethane produced from anaerobic digestion and other niche uses (as part of hybrid heat pumps systems in hard to treat off-gas homes, local combined heat and power systems and small-scale district heat networks) - whilst minimising air quality impacts.

Overall, the Scottish Government’s aim is to see bioenergy used where it has the greatest value in reducing emissions. We are currently working to understand the most appropriate and sustainable use of bioresources across the whole energy system in Scotland and intend to publish a Bioenergy Action Plan in 2023.

Biomass in a low-carbon economy - Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)

The following table shows how many school-aged children are in each local authority (as at September 2020) and how many devices have been distributed by councils using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those approaches, therefore, the following table only shows devices distributed through the funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children and young people in Scotland have access to a digital device by the end of this parliament.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) previously considered Kuvan ® (the branded version of sapropterin) in August 2018 and the medicine was not recommended for use in NHS Scotland because the submitting company’s justification of the treatment’s cost in relation to its health benefits was not sufficient; in addition, the company did not present a sufficiently robust clinical and economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC. The SMC would welcome a resubmission of this medicine, the submitting company (BioMarin).

The first generic version of sapropterin has recently received a Marketing Authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and we are currently considering how best to provide advice to Health Boards on whether it should be made available for routine use in NHS Scotland, based on the latest available evidence. Meantime, doctors can request access to medicines that are not generally available on the NHS on an individual case-by-case basis through the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process, where the treating clinician considers there would be a clinical benefit for their patient.

Funding for devices was provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. As such, local authorities undertook their own procurement exercises and devices purchased became assets of, and are managed by individual local authorities. Decisions on their use, including around security, are taken locally.

The Scottish Government understands the important role independent music festivals play in Scotland’s cultural scene, and wants to help ensure festivals will be able to take place in 2022. Support for music festivals that is provided in 2022 builds on the previous £240 million of financial support which the Scottish Government has provided to the culture, heritage and events sector to support its recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government recently announced £2 million of events sector funding through VisitScotland’s National and International programmes. Depending on their circumstances, independent music festivals could have been eligible to apply to the 1st round of the National Programme which closed on 11 February. This is for events taking place from 1 April to 31 August 2022. Round 2 is now open and covers the period 1st September – 31st December. Grants of up to £25,000 are available.

The Scottish Government would also encourage Scottish Music Festivals to apply to Creative Scotland’s Open Fund. This Fund is open to projects from across the Culture sector, and as music is one of the creative industries, music festivals are able to apply.

The £750,000 Scotland on Tour fund, managed by Active Events, will support musicians, venues and festivals to bring new and additional concerts to venues and festivals in Scotland during 2022. The Scotland on Tour working group consisting of representatives from the music sector, Creative Scotland and the enterprise and skills agencies, will actively be looking at how the project can support festivals in future funding rounds.

The Scottish Government is also working with partners to consider what more we can do to support public confidence to return to events and cultural performances.

We know that the pandemic has been exceptionally difficult for the mental health and wellbeing of many children, young people and their families, and that there has been increased pressure on mental health services as a result of this.

As part of our £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, we have made an additional £40 million available this year to improve CAMHS and to clear waiting list backlogs by March 2023. Long waits are unacceptable and we remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. We are directing support to those Boards with the longest waiting lists to clear backlogs by March 2023 and are monitoring progress closely.

Additionally, in our NHS Recovery Plan we have committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years. This will have the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000.

We have also provided an additional £15 million to local authorities this year to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities, providing alternative treatment options and pathways to CAMHS and ensured access to counselling support services in all secondary schools.