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The £3 million funding was part of the emergency COVID-19 support for culture, protecting jobs and addressing some of the financial pressures facing the three organisations. It was announced on 17 January 2021, comprising £1.4 million for Aberdeen Performing Arts, £800,000 for Eden Court Highlands and £800,000 for Capital Theatres. Funding is being delivered through Creative Scotland. The funding agreements with the three organisations require that the funds must be used in addressing the problems linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in order to enable the organisations to be financially stable in order to develop and present cultural activity when restrictions allow. Later in 2021 Creative Scotland will require the organisations to provide information on the use of funding, including how they have spent it, whether it has allowed them to maintain their workforce and stabilised their financial position.

The Scottish Government has no plans at this time to amend the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 in order to limit peat extraction for those with valid planning permission. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 does however include a requirement for the Scottish Ministers to have regard to the desirability of preserving peatland when preparing the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4). The Scottish Government’s NPF4 Position Statement (Published November 2020) outlines an intention to rebalance the planning system so that climate change is a guiding principle for all plans and decisions, and states that the Scottish Government will aim to restrict commercial peat extraction for horticulture purposes.

(a) NHS Lothian recently submitted an updated Outline Business Case for the development of eye care services. This will be reviewed by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group at their next meeting.

(b) The Scottish Government provided a progress update on major capital projects, including NHS infrastructure projects, to the Public Audit Committee by letter dated 23 June 2021 which can be accessed here:

Infrastructure Investment Major Capital Projects Progress Update 23 June 202 | Scottish Parliament Website .

Cancer continues to be a top priority for this Government. On 28 June I announced £10 million of funding to support cancer waiting times improvements during 2021-22. This funding will support targeted diagnostic activity, including for breast cancer. We have also provided five mobile MRI scanners and four mobile CT scanners to increase diagnostic capacity across NHS Scotland.

Our approach is for people to have access to the support they may need for assessment, diagnosis, care and rehabilitation in a setting that is as close to their home as possible. This is being supported through local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and secondary care investigation where needed.

NHS Boards, including our Island Boards are developing pathways according to local services and the needs of their respective populations, to support people with long COVID. We continue to engage with Boards to identify their support needs in relation to delivering care and support to people with long COVID.

In addition, we have invested over £460,000 in Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to enable them to deliver their ‘Long COVID support service’ which complements the support being provided by NHS Scotland.

A publication by Public Health Scotland on 26th January 2021 showed the total number of GPs in Scotland was 5,134 as at 30th September 2020, a rise of 89 compared to 2019.

Public Health Scotland are currently analysing data collected from the 2019 Workforce Survey, which will show the Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) figure for GPs in Scotland. Scottish Government are planning to collect WTE data on an annual basis going forward.

Network Rail continues to progress early, on site, construction activities whilst the necessary development work for the complete project is progressed.

In June 2021, Network Rail announced as part of the East Kilbride Enhancements Project, Hairmyres station is moving to a new site off Redwood Avenue – approximately 600-metres to the west of its existing location.

Scotland’s Railway, South Lanarkshire Council and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) continue to work collaboratively to fund and develop the expanded transport interchange at Hairmyres to encourage more people out of their cars and onto trains.

Future updates can be sourced via the dedicated project pages in the Scotland’s Railway website:-

https://scotlandsrailway.com/projects/east-kilbride-enhancements

The timing for restarting the over-70’s self-referral scheme is regularly reviewed. The Breast Screening Programme Board (BSPB) agreed criteria to resume the option for women over 70 to self-refer in line with the programme’s recovery route map. The option for women over 70 to self-refer into the breast screening programme will resume once all screening centres are able to offer those aged 53-70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening. Progress towards this criteria is being closely monitored, and the National Screening Oversight, National Screening Committee and BSPB continue to work with Health boards to increase the number of available appointments within the programme.

Regardless of their age, women should remain symptom aware and report any symptoms to their GP immediately for these to be investigated.

The Scottish Government does not routinely provide funding for Public Access Defibrillators (PAD). The purchase of PADs is usually through fundraising in the community, from charitable sources or business resources. Charities and organisations including the British Heart Foundation provide access to subsidised defibrillators.

In March this year, the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership published an updated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest strategy and a key part of this programme of work is to ensure mapping, maintenance and accessibility of defibrillators.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is committed to supporting and improving the use of defibrillators across Scotland. SAS support and advice on Public Access Defibrillators (PAD) is available to any council, community, organisation or business from their community resilience teams. Further information can be found at:

www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/Default.aspx .

We would encourage anyone wishing to install a PAD to work with a community group, if possible a specific community PAD group, who will offer support should a PAD be vandalised.

The Scottish Government held a meeting with key stakeholders, including Scottish Swimming, on 11 August to discuss water safety.

Discussions included the provision of lessons and also water safety education.

More discussions on how to move forward are scheduled for the coming weeks.