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The additional £30 million for planned care, initially announced in April, will support health boards across the country deliver around 12,000 inpatient procedures, over 40,000 extra diagnostic procedures and around 12,000 new outpatient appointments.

Funding will target reductions to pandemic backlogs, including orthopaedics, ophthalmology, diagnostics for cancer referrals and patients waiting the longest time.

The funding will be allocated to health boards for the activity set out above based on delivery. We are working closely with health boards to monitor progress.

Since the Budget, the Scottish Government has had exploratory discussions with a range of business and public health stakeholders. This includes Alcohol Focus Scotland, British Heart Foundation, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems in their roles as members of the NCD Alliance Scotland.

The Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group’s 2020 report noted that there was some evidence that rehabilitation programmes of 12 weeks had led to more successful treatment outcomes. However, the recommendations were also clear that further research was required on the length of rehabilitation programmes and their correlation to outcomes across Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s current position is that all placements for residential rehabilitation should be assessed on an individual needs basis, and it is ultimately for professionals and clinicians to make the decision locally as to whether a shorter or longer programme is effective for the individuals involved.

As part of our work on developing the residential rehabilitation evidence base, the Scottish Government published a literature review in 2022 which looked at existing evidence and research gaps. As noted in Page 14, residential rehabilitation encompasses a diverse range of treatment models, and there is no one programme which has proven to produce routinely better outcomes for individuals.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland have worked collaboratively with stakeholders to establish a core minimum dataset to support the monitoring and evaluation of residential rehabilitation. It is expected that the first extracts will be published in December, where a greater level of insight and data will be available, including average treatment length and associated outcomes, as the dataset continues to develop and mature.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving the care and wellbeing of people through the best use of digital technologies. We work closely with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), who manage the rollout of the new national GP IT System, ‘Vision’ supplied by Cegedim Healthcare Solutions. Our focus always is on patient safety and the resilience of such systems. The recent performance issue referred to was quickly identified as due to bandwidth capacity and was quickly resolved, since when there has been stable and consistent service for GP practices using Vision.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review the current rules on the use of netting on buildings to prevent birds from nesting or roosting, with a view to requiring the use of alternative approaches and reducing harm to birds.

There is no legislation that specifically sets out rules on the use of netting on buildings to prevent birds from nesting or roosting. However, it is an offence to obstruct or prevent any bird from using its nest during the nesting season, under Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside (Scotland) Act 1981, and this would include the use of netting to prevent access to a nest.

Enforcement of the law in relation to wildlife crime is the responsibility of Police Scotland.

There is no legislation that specifically sets out rules on the use of netting on buildings to prevent birds from nesting or roosting. However, anyone obstructing or preventing any bird from using its nest during the nesting season through the installation of netting, would be committing an offence under Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside (Scotland) Act 1981.

Bird netting can be an effective and lawful measure when used correctly. Guidance is available on the RSPCA webpage , the NatureScot webpage , and the RSPB webpage on how and when to use bird netting.

Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) annual Acute Hospital Activity and NHS Beds information publication will include data on National Treatment Centre (NTC) admissions up to and including 31 March 2024. This publication will be released in September 2024 and will be available to view here: All releases of Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual)

The 2018 GP Contract was negotiated on a national basis with the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee which represents all Scottish GPs. The Contract is based on the transfer of some services to Health Board delivery to allow GP practices to focus on what only GPs can do. This means that GP practices are no longer the default providers of vaccinations.

The Scottish Government agreed a process with the GP committee to allow the continued delivery of vaccines, and other services intended for transfer, by GP practices where, due to remoteness and rurality, Health Board delivery would be difficult.

The seven key principles of service design are that any redesigned services should be:

? safe for patients and staff;

? person-centred;

? equitable;

? outcome focussed;

? effective;

? sustainable; and

? affordable

The vast majority of vaccinations are now delivered by Health Board employed staff with a consequent release of capacity for GP practices.

If vaccination rates drop in any Health Board area, the Scottish Government would expect that board to examine its vaccination arrangements and make any necessary adjustments, including the full use of the flexibilities provided under the GP contract, to ensure a proper level of vaccination. This is a continuation of the expectation the Scottish Government would have had of Health Boards when delivery was mostly in the hands of GP contractors; Health Boards were still responsible for ensuring that a proper level of vaccination was met.

The decline in childhood uptake we are seeing nationally is of course a cause for concern. On 16 July, Public Health Scotland published a report on ‘Understanding and addressing declines in childhood immunisations’. This research provides valuable insights into various aspects of childhood immunisation delivery in Scotland.

The Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme are working together to take forward the recommendations in the report. This will ensure that the learning and good practice highlighted in this report is put into action to improve uptake, and ensuring that the delivery of immunisations across all childhood programmes is equitable and accessible.

The Scottish Bracken working Group last met on 27 June. The next meeting is due to take place on 19 September.

More information on the group, including meeting minutes, can be viewed at the following link: Bracken: Scottish Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .