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The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. The funding and commissioning of specialist and general palliative and end of life care services, including workforce planning and allocating resources for staffing, is a matter for Integration Joint Boards. A wide range of specialist and generalist staff in hospitals, care homes, primary care, social care, hospices and the third sector, will be involved in providing palliative care to people and their families.

An underlying principle of the new National Strategy for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland being developed will be equitable and timely access to palliative care as needed, by each person of any age, living with any illness, in all places.

The Strategy Steering Group has established a number of working groups to address priorities, including a Workforce, Education, Training and Resources Working Group, to support the workforce and ensure care is delivered by a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency workforce that is trained, skilled, valued and supported.

A consultation on the Bill’s proposals ran from 29 August 2022 to 5 December 22, where a wide range of views were received. On 22 June 2023, the Scottish Government published the Agriculture Bill - Analysis of Consultation Responses which details the findings of this extended engagement.

As is convention, following consultation on proposed legislation, Ministers are considering the views received to inform a new Agriculture Bill which will be introduced in 2023. In turn, Parliament will consider the proposals and provide further comment on draft proposals, accordingly.

The Scottish Government do not currently have plans to add a section on chronic UTIs to NHS inform at this time. The NHS 24 Clinical Change Governance Group (CCGG) routinely assess new and updated clinical guidelines to ensure the clinical content on NHS inform is underpinned as far as possible with current clinical evidence. The group will continue to consider what improvements are required regarding information on UTIs based on any new evidence or changes to clinical guidelines or pathways that arise.

NHS inform does advise that if acute symptoms do not improve, get worse, or come back after initial treatment, the patient should return to their GP for further advice. Thereafter the GP should follow relevant clinical guidelines that outline how to treat and manage chronic UTIs for individual patients.

As set out in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: Progress Report 2022-23 , the Scottish Government has reviewed existing evidence and engaged with stakeholders in order to understand the challenges to be addressed through a Parental Transition Fund.

This has informed exploration of what support it is possible to deliver using powers available to the Scottish Government, however as a result of the devolved settlement and the Scottish Government’s powers, along with the interaction with reserved tax and benefits, it is not possible to deliver the Parental Transition Fund as originally envisaged.

The Scottish Government remain fully committed to delivering on the ambition of the Parental Transition Fund and to tackling the financial insecurity faced by families when parents and carers enter employment. Working together with partners, we will continue to take action to improve uptake of existing supports and to further strengthen the help available through devolved employability services. Through these actions we will leverage existing investment to tackle child poverty by supporting more parents and carers into sustainable fair work.

The Scottish Government is able to confirm that the ScotRail Peak Fares Removal Pilot will operate between 2 October 2023 and 29 March 2024 in a move which will make rail travel more affordable and accessible over the pilot period and encourage modal shift from private car to rail.

This trial is an exciting and unique opportunity to encourage more people to choose a safe, reliable, and green form of public transport. We know that there is much to be done in encouraging people back to rail if we are to achieve our net zero targets.

The Scottish Government will consider carefully the impact of the pilot and the long-term sustainability of such a proposition before committing to any reinstatement of the pilot after 29 March 2024.

During the pilot, ScotRail will ensure that all fares and products set and controlled by it which are valid in the off peak are valid to travel all day.

On 22 June 2023, the Scottish Government published the Agriculture Bill - Analysis of Consultation Responses which details the findings of this extended engagement and total number that attend the events.

The following table shows the number of homes approved from applications received from (a) registered social landlords (b) local authorities since the National Acquisition Plan was announced on 19 July 2023. This information is to 24 August 2023:

The information requested is not held by Scottish Government.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) have also informed SG that they do not hold the requested data. PHS have explained that they collect episodic data on both the waits that patients experience for treatment being provided by NHSScotland and the episodes of care that arise when these patients are treated within Scotland. However, data are not available on patients who personally choose to seek treatment that is not provided or funded by NHSScotland, whether this be NHS-funded treatment elsewhere in the UK or non-NHS funded healthcare within the UK or abroad.

Furthermore, the National Waiting Times Datamart, which captures some information related to the removal of patients from an NHSScotland waiting list, does not identify when a patient has been asked to be removed because they are seeking alternative arrangements for their treatment due to waiting times.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium ( SMC) has collaborated with The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on a multiple technology appraisal (MTA) of all COVID-19 treatments (known as TA878). NICE guidance for technology appraisal TA878 was published on 29 March 2023. The SMC published equivalent guidance in Scotland, recommending nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid ® ) for restricted use within NHS Scotland, for the treatment of patients with increased risk for progression to severe COVID-19 as defined in the independent advisory group report commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care .

The NICE and the SMC are currently collaborating on a partial rapid review of TA878 , and considering whether to recommend nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid ® ) for the treatment of additional risk groups. The draft guidance from this partial rapid review, published on 17 August 2023, recommends that access to nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid ® ) is extended beyond the current cohort, to individuals aged 70 years and over, and those with diabetes, obesity (BMI of 35 kg/m 2 or more), or heart failure. If there are no appeals from key stakeholders, the final NICE guidance is expected to be published on 13 September 2023, and will be incorporated into the original NICE technology appraisal guidance TA878. Following this, the SMC will publish equivalent guidance for NHS Scotland.

This advice is based on an assessment of the clinical and cost effectiveness of nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid ® ) at a population level based on the best available evidence. The Scottish Government continues to closely monitor the outcomes of any further research to ensure that any decisions to make nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid ® ) available to eligible individuals in Scotland in the future are based on the best available evidence.