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The Fair Fares Review was undertaken to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares that supports the future long-term viability of a public transport system that is accessible, available, and affordable for people throughout Scotland.

The review considered the scope of both the Young Persons’ Scheme and Older and Disabled Persons Scheme, which provide free bus travel and were established under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005.

The Fair Fares Review was published on 22 March 2024 and is available on the Transport Scotland website Fair Fares Review | Transport Scotland .

The Scottish Government welcomes the results of the More in Common survey. Nature is important to everyone. It is our world’s life support system. The twin crises of climate change and nature loss need urgent action across Government and society. The 2023 State of Nature report for Scotland shows the effect that a changing climate is having on our natural world. We face twin reinforcing crises – a decline in biodiversity will make the climate crisis worse and a changing climate will increase the rate of biodiversity loss. Halting and reversing biodiversity loss is critical for adapting to climate change and to ensure we can all continue to enjoy nature's benefits, on which we all depend.

The evidence tells us that Scotland, in common with the rest of the UK, has not done enough over the last 20 years to prevent the continuing decline in biodiversity. We remain firmly committed to tackling the twin crises by taking decisive actions to protect and restore the natural environment. Our ambitious new biodiversity strategy sets out our goals to halt nature loss by 2030 and reverse it by 2045 and provides a long-term vision of what our natural environment needs to look like in order to reverse biodiversity decline. We have committed to invest at least an additional £500 million in the natural economy over the course of this Parliament. Our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund is a key lever in delivering our Biodiversity Strategy, alongside investment in nature-based solutions, like peatland restoration and woodland creation, to tackle the twin crises, and create green jobs.

The Scottish Government approved £21 million of funding for the 2021-2024 period to support equality and human rights in Scotland through the Equality and Human Rights Fund Equality and Human Rights Fund: projects funded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Of that total, nearly £5.5 million is specifically allocated to fourteen organisations delivering a range of activities to engage with and support black and minority ethnic organisations and communities in Scotland. Overall, the funded organisations have provided support to 4,168 people, and 747 organisations.

The Scottish Government also established a short term Anti-Racism Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racism Infrastructure (AIGG), which was comprised of academic experts, young people and community leaders with specific expertise in anti-racism in Scotland. An important part of the group’s work was commissioning participatory community research Community-Report-_-Executive-Summary-September-2023.pdf (antiracismobservatoryforscotland.org) to engage with racialised communities across Scotland to ensure they are informed and engaged with the work being done to progress anti-racism in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has long-standing and continued engagement with a variety of organisations in the minority ethnic sector, including our strategic partners BEMIS, CRER and CEMVO, to collectively drive change for our diverse communities across Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s recent investment into diabetes technologies will allow all children living with Type 1 diabetes to get access, should they want it. This funding will also support increased provision to adults. Exact numbers in each NHS board area will be determined by local delivery plans being developed by NHS boards, working with the National Diabetes Technologies team in the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, based on waiting lists, staff capacity and affordability.

The new investment from the Scottish Government to support new access to technologies is in addition to baseline funding provided to NHS boards. It is not being allocated to boards to pay for their current delivery plans.

The Scottish Government is supporting housing associations to retrofit their housing stock through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund. We are making available up to £200m this Parliamentary Session to support clean heat and energy efficiency projects in socially rented homes.

‎ Projects are eligible for up to 60% of the costs of clean heating systems and 50% of energy efficiency measures, including Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) which also helps to prevent the occurrence of mould and condensation.

The Scottish Government monitors grant funded projects closely, requiring frequent updates to ensure they are implemented effectively and that benefits are realised.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard requires social landlords to meet minimum energy efficiency standards and to have in place satisfactory ventilation, as well as ensure that there is no rising or penetrating damp. The Scottish Housing Regulator wrote to all Social Landlords in December 2022 on the importance of appropriate systems to identify cases of mould and damp.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government consulted on a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard. This included proposals to require landlords to devise a ventilation and monitoring strategy to accompany energy efficiency interventions where mechanical ventilation isn’t installed. We are now considering the consultation responses received before progressing.

The Programme for Government will be presented to Parliament at the earliest opportunity following the UK General Election.

Provision for the regulation of independent ambulance services already exists in the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, but Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS’) functions in relation to independent ambulance services have not yet been commenced. The commencement is being considered as part of the next phase in the regulation of independent healthcare.

Scottish Government is engaging with HIS on this topic and stakeholder engagement will be undertaken to gather first hand insight into the requirements for effective regulation of private ambulances. Additionally, the definition of an ‘independent ambulance service’ within the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 may need revised to ensure it meets current needs.

Stakeholder engagement will also be undertaken to consider appropriate and proportionate next steps, in the potential regulation of independent first aid services.

Once the scope of further regulation has been developed, a public consultation will be required.

The Scottish Government was only able to officially confirm and announce the programme after the completion of the tender process in early June therefore initial work has been limited to a small planning group comprising the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards. As we are now able to confirm cohorts and launch plans, we are working closely with PHS to engage a range of partners to raise awareness of the programme and encourage those eligible to come forward. The Scottish Government, working in partnership with PHS, has engaged with a range of key stakeholders including Health Boards, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), National Services Scotland (NSS) and maternity services throughout this process. Promotion and engagement is also ongoing through charities such as Age UK.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28344 on 15 July 2024. 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 .

As part of the 2023-24 COVID-19 and Flu winter vaccination programme the NHS in Scotland delivered over 3.57 million vaccines, including 1,647,596 adult flu vaccines and 538,580 child flu vaccines.

Vaccination uptake rates in the 65 years and over group reached 79.8%, which is above the World Health Organization’s target ambition of 75%.

A detailed breakdown of the seasonal flu vaccination 2023-24 uptake figures for each cohort can be found via the Public Health Scotland vaccination surveillance dashboard PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

RSV is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in the first year of life and can also cause severe complications for older adults which may require hospitalisation. Protecting infants by vaccinating pregnant women and birthing people, and the adult RSV vaccination programme are therefore expected to prevent a significant number of GP consultations, hospitalisations and ICU admissions per year.

While estimates of vaccine uptake are not currently available, the Scottish Government will continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and other key stakeholders to maximise uptake of the vaccine across both programmes, which will have a positive impact on winter pressures across the NHS. Health Boards collect data using local IT systems, which vary across Scotland, and PHS is currently working to collate data to record vaccination events.