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The Scottish Government agrees that training should include knowledge of the Muirburn Code.

About 1 million people in Scotland live with hearing loss and an estimated 70% are over 70 years old. Unaddressed hearing loss can cause distress due to cognitive decline and reduced social interaction, communication and education. Hearing loss is often accompanied by tinnitus, vertigo and balance problems and can be a contributing factor in dementia. Deaf people and people with hearing loss are less likely to be employed and have a lower household income than people with normal hearing. Hearing loss may also be a contributing factor to early retirement and could cost the UK economy £38.6 billion by 2031 (NHSE, 2017).

Please see the following table outlining the funding made available to the Association of Chief Officers or Scottish Voluntary Organisations and the objectives associated with that funding for each of the last five financial years.

The Government is currently working on commencement of the Act. The ability to provide democratic engagement funding is intended to support involvement in elections and improve democratic participation. The Government made clear during the passage of the Bill that it would be necessary as a first step to secure funding.

We are monitoring the automatic registration pilots in Wales so we can factor the results into our planning. All innovations will be:

• proposed in consultation with the electoral community,
• piloted on a temporary basis and
• fully evaluated before being put to Parliament for a decision on whether to make the reforms apply generally and to be made permanent.

I will keep Parliament updated on our plans.

To date, there have been 27 referrals to secondary services including housing, addiction recovery and mental health services. In addition to these referrals, the facility continues to support individuals in accessing appropriate recovery pathways and re-engaging with services they had previously accessed but had since disengaged from.

The Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) decisions are clinical decisions taken independently of Ministers and Parliament and remain a matter for Health Boards.

There is a requirement for Health Boards to maintain accurate and up to date information on PACS Tier Two requests and their outcomes. Health Boards are required to capture and share data as retrospective in confidence summary reports with the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis. The data is retained for internal management purposes only and is not formally validated.

Following our declaration of a national housing emergency in May last year, we set out a response plan to focus in the short term on housing supply. This includes delivering more high quality, permanent homes - growing the economy and supporting affordable housing as a vital public service through increased private and public sector investment across all housing tenures.

The 2025-26 budget allocation of £768m represents an increase of over £200m when compared to the original 2024-25 published budget of £556m. This investment will help tackle the housing emergency while contributing towards our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.

Alongside our Housing Emergency response work, the Housing Investment Taskforce will identify actions that will unlock both existing and new commitments to investment in housing – across all tenures – by bringing together key interests of investors and investees.

There are strong legislative protections that protect tenants living in the private rented sector, including the right to seek an independent adjudication of a rent increase.

It is critical that tenants are aware of their rights. We have therefore launched another wave of our Renters Rights Campaign to support private tenants understand their housing rights and exercise them.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that anyone living with arthritis is able to access the best possible care and support. We expect health care professionals and NHS Boards to deliver high quality person-centred care to those living with arthritis in line with best practice guidance. The NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines on management of arthritis are available on its website and can be found at: Arthritis | Topic | NICE.

We will work collaboratively with other partners, including the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), to ensure there are appropriate pathways for women with arthritis.

Guidance on the Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS) Tier Two process was published on 29 March 2018. This guidance remains valid for all Health Boards in Scotland.

The regulation of manmade materials and chemicals that are present or can be used in the production of construction materials is complex and largely reserved to UK Government. The Construction Products Regulation lays down rules to ensure products perform to a designated standard and is being revised by UK Government. This will introduce a requirement for construction products to be safe, create a safety critical list of products, and strengthen existing market surveillance and enforcement powers.

Scottish Government provides funding to Construction innovation centre BE-ST1. A 2023 report2 commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland and BE-ST that looked at the availability, performance, manufacturing supply chains and market analysis of Natural Fibre and Circular Insulation options also considered adverse effects for people from available manmade insultation materials.

1https://www.be-st.build/

2 https://www.be-st.build/media/d4gdyucy/sustainable-insulation-products-in-the-scottish-construction-industry.pdf