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As set out in answer S6W-32799 on 14 January 2025 when the Softer Landing, Safer Care programme was introduced health boards agreed with NES to implement the programme for International Medical graduates (IMGs) starting their first hospital placement in NHS Scotland. The programme is part of a coordinated offer that sits alongside the training pathway and is devolved for local implementation and oversight at local board level. IMGs, like other trainees, feedback their experience through established quality assurance processes such as the Scottish Training Survey. As such, the Scottish Government does not oversee the initiative.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

There are no mobile community pharmacies providing NHS Pharmaceutical Services in any part of Scotland. There are 1248 community pharmacies with fixed locations across the country.

The following table sets out the number of requests where there has been no disclosure of any information (fully exempted):

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. This question as currently framed cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As our national skills body Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish high level statistical information relating to completion of apprenticeships. You can find this information within the following links

• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeships statistics - published 23 May 2023
• Skills Development Scotland - Modern Apprenticeship statistics - published 21 May 2024

Land and nature apprenticeships fall into a range of occupational groupings. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, to write to you on this matter.

The following table represents funding Sustrans has received directly from the Scottish Government or Transport Scotland, and does not reflect any monies that Sustrans may have secured from indirectly. In future years Active Travel funding will be distributed through Local Authorities for Infrastructure Investment and through Regional Transport Authorities for Behaviour Change initiatives.

The breakdown of support split by year

Public Health Scotland publish information on drug related hospital admissions. Data from 1996-97 to 2022-23 is available at https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/. The release of data covering 2023-24 is expected in the spring. The accompanying Data Explorer Dashboard provides a more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics, including by age.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need.

We have increased funding for oncology services to ensure cancer treatments and appropriate care are more equitably accessible.

We are also currently working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme. The programme will ensure that every person with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide financial, emotional and other practical support to those who need it most.

Financial support for travel is also available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements. Boards are expected to support patients to identify and access support available, taking account of individual circumstances and ensuring that patient care is at the centre of all decisions.

The Lord Advocate’s instructions for non-prosecution of victims of human trafficking | COPFS were first published in May 2016 and the manual collation of data commenced at that stage.

As of 6 January 2025, proceedings involving 188 individuals, who were reported to the National Lead Prosecutor for Human Trafficking in accordance with the instructions, were not raised or were discontinued on the basis that the two-part test in the Lord Advocate’s instructions was satisfied.

The information is provided under the caveats that:

?A decision to discontinue proceedings can be taken at any time during a proceeding. Therefore, although the National Lead Prosecutor has not discontinued proceedings against an accused person, that may not be the final decision. Should further information become available, such as a positive Conclusive Grounds Decision, the National Lead Prosecutor may decide to discontinue proceedings on receipt of that information.

• The data is manually collated and so whilst the data is as accurate as it can be, full accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
• The data changes constantly depending on when new information is received.

The following table shows the number of criminal cases reported to COPFS with a first substantive marking for court proceedings.