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Any decisions to scale back elective activity, including decisions to cancel consultant clinics, are being taken on an evidence basis and where the need to support COVID-19 patients and provide urgent care exceeds capacity for elective care.

However, the NHS in Scotland continues to work to deliver appointments in new and innovative ways to avoid as many cancellations as possible. For example, Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), which is being supported within NHS Scotland via the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, enables Senior Clinicians to triage patients to the most appropriate pathway for their individual needs. For example, some patients will receive written clinical information outlining treatment options, including self-care and the option to ‘opt in’ for a face-to-face discussion if required (e.g. EQuIP pathway for Inguinal Hernia). Other patients, where appropriate, will be offered a virtual consultation or may be sent straight onto a diagnostic test. By embedding the ACRT process within routine care, it will support clinical prioritisation and enable services to provide patients with the optimum pathway to meet their needs, and lead to fewer appointments being cancelled.

Importantly, ACRT also facilitates the continuous monitoring of patients awaiting review e.g. Endoscopy Services continue to validate both new and routine waiting lists using a 3-stage validation and clinical guidelines where appropriate.

The Net Zero Technology Centre has not provided any funding directly for the benefit of any of the three Operators in question.

The Net Zero Technology Centre model provides funding for developers with a prerequisite that the project has industry support in order to provide match funding, industry engagement and access to the facilities and expertise that is required to prove the technology. This is in line with the Business Case approved as part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, in which joint Government funding of £180m over ten years was to be matched by industry and academia to a target amount of £174.1m.

After suffering a substantial cyberattack in December 2020, SEPA enacted business continuity arrangements and implemented procedures to ensure priority planning and business critical cases were responded to.

SEPA worked with planning authorities and other consulting bodies, providing practical planning advice. By August 2021, SEPA had processed the backlog of cases and to date have responded to 1597 consultations.

The number of patients who have waited over 12 weeks for Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Ayrshire and Arran are published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on a quarterly basis. These details are available on PHS’s website and can be found in table 1.2 through the following link: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/8811/newop_aug21.xlsx

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) liaises closely with colleagues from National Services Division (NSD) in NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to share intelligence on emerging new medicines that may require a companion diagnostic test. NSD has commissioning responsibility for the Scottish Genetic Laboratories and is currently conducting a review of NHS Scotland genomics services which includes the Scottish genomic test directory and genomics infrastructure. The review is expected to be complete by the end of March 2022.

The SMC also provides early horizon scanning reports to the Molecular Pathology Evaluation Panel on medicines in clinical development and shares information on the anticipated timelines for these medicines to be granted a marketing authorisation and then be assessed by the SMC. The SMC horizon scanning reports are also supporting ongoing work with NSD, the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group and the Scottish Genetics Laboratory Consortium to understand the laboratory capacity requirements for current and future medicines requiring a companion diagnostic test.

As announced by HM Treasury on 14 November 2016, the Scottish Government's population-based settlement from the UK Government's Apprenticeship Levy was £221 million in 2017-18, £230 million in 2018-19 and £239 million in 2019-20. This funding was allocated as part of the block grant.

From 2020-21 there has been no notional allocation of Apprenticeship Levy revenue included in the block grant and the normal operation of the Barnett Formula has provided a similar outcome. The UK Government collects the Levy and has details on who is liable to pay it and what revenue is accrued, with the Scottish Government not being responsible for this information.

Future allocations from the Apprenticeship Levy will be received as part of the block grant, and we have no advance notice of what this will be.

Pension Credit is reserved to the UK Government and, therefore, the Scottish Government has not corresponded with local authorities or COSLA in relation to raising awareness about claiming pension credit or supporting people to do so.

The Scottish Government funds the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland to deliver the Money Talk Team Income Maximisation Service. This is a money advice service that includes advice about all benefits, including pension credit. We have undertaken three national marketing campaigns to make people aware of the service.

The NHS Recovery Plan, launched on 25 August and backed by over £1 billion of additional investment, strives to recover NHS performance over the 5 years of this Parliament in order to ensure Treatment Time Guarantees and other waiting time standards can be met by every Health Board across Scotland.

Dealing with the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic has resulted in the most significant challenge in 73 year existence of the NHS.

While it is not possible to anticipate when NHS Scotland will begin meeting the TTG in all instances, we know that it will take time and a series of targeted actions to build back capacity and redesign patient pathways to bring waiting times back within targets.

The National Services Division (NSD) in NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) have commissioning responsibility for the Scottish Genetic Laboratories. NSD are currently conducting a review of NHS Scotland’s genomic services which includes a review of the Scottish genomic test directory and genomics infrastructure. The review is expected to be completed by the end of the 2021-2022 financial year.

The outcomes from the review will be considered by the Scottish Genomics Leadership Group (SGLG), chaired jointly by Professor David Crossman, Chief Scientist for Health for the Scottish Government, and Susan Buchanan, NSD Director, who are supporting the Scottish Government in ensuring appropriate planning and robust decision-making processes are in place for genetic testing availability in Scotland.

In addition, the SGLG and NSD are working closely with the Scottish Genetics Laboratory Consortium and the Scottish Medicines Consortium to understand the laboratory capacity requirements for current and future medicines requiring a companion diagnostic test.

Recovering our NHS is our top priority. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, is the central aim of our NHS Recovery Plan.

The Plan is backed by over £1 billion of additional investment to support delivery of improvements throughout the 5 years of this Parliament. Amongst other things, it will increase primary care investment by 25% and restore face to face consultations in GP surgeries. It will reduce A&E attendances by 15% to 20% and increase outpatient capacity by 10% compared to pre-Covid levels.

While it is not possible to determine when NHS performance will return to pre-pandemic levels, we will continue to work to identify ways of adding additional activity, through new facilities or through improvements to existing ways of working in order to reduce the length of time patients are waiting and bring waiting times back within standards.