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Ending homelessness continues to be a key priority for the Scottish Government. Our ambition can only be achieved through a shared public responsibility when government and partners all play their part.

With that in mind, I met with the Scottish Veterans Commissioner on 30 November and have agreed a number of actions to raise the profile of veterans’ housing and homelessness issues with relevant stakeholders such as local authorities and social landlords.

I have also discussed with the Minister for Veterans how we can work together to provide support to veterans and their families and I have invited him to join the Ministerial Oversight Group on Homelessness, which brings together ministers from a range of portfolios across the Scottish Government to identify the actions required to prevent and end homelessness, including for veterans.

Over the past five years, the Scottish Government has provided NHS Lanarkshire with the following Baseline funding, and Capital resource for NHS Estate Maintenance, which can be used at the discretion of individual NHS Health Boards:

The Scottish Government measures progress against the commitment to increase GP numbers using headcount data as this provides an accurate number of GPs registered on the Performers List in Scotland at the time the data is collected. Currently whole-time equivalent data is calculated as an estimate, based on returns from General Practices through the General Practice Workforce Survey.

The latest publication can be found here: General practice workforce survey 2022 - General practice workforce survey - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The Scottish Government uses both headcount and whole-time equivalent data to inform workforce planning to increase GP capacity.

My officials engage with the pharmaceutical industry on a range of matters, including the development of new medicines, and keep me updated as required.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer last met with Vertex Pharmaceuticals on 6 December 2023 and continued to impress upon them the importance of offering a revised price to address the concern that the current price of the cystic fibrosis (CF) medicines covered by the multiple technology appraisal (MTA) exceeds what the NHS would consider reasonable. She also discussed the ongoing availability of clinical trial CF medicines, including when a trial is stopped.

As set out in the Climate Change Committee’s ‘ Adapting to Climate Change Progress in Scotland ’ November 2023 report, there is a need to develop our understanding of the effects of heat on population health and wellbeing in Scotland.

Public Health Scotland, an NHS National Board, and our national public health agency, committed in their 'Climate change and sustainability strategic approach 2023–2026: working together to build a greener, fairer, healthier future ', to carrying out a study to explore the feasibility of developing climate related health indicators for heat and cold for Scotland.

The work, which is underway, will examine the potential to use routine data to report excess heat related deaths and hospitalisations in Scotland. When available, the results of this study will be reviewed, and next steps agreed with Public Health Scotland.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) also publish an annual Winter Mortality report. The report and further background information is available here:

Winter Mortality | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

An analysis of the relationship between mean winter temperatures and mortality was last published by NRS in the 2020-21 report available here:

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Winter Mortality in Scotland 2020/21 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

As previously set out in the response to S6W-16651 on 21 April 2023 recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. The re-profiling of spend means that recruitment for this programme continues to be paused in 2023-24. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund, with funding for posts continuing in 2023-24.

We continue to focus on delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy and recently published delivery plan, which includes commitments around mental health in primary care.

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

Scottish Government officials engaged with the Energy Systems Catapult in online stakeholder workshops during development of the UK Electricity Networks Commissioner’s report. In addition, the Scottish Government’s Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Division (PARD) and Energy Consents Unit (ECU) attended a meeting with the Energy Systems Catapult on 28 February 2023 to discuss procedures around the consenting of electricity transmission infrastructure. A minute of the meeting was taken by the Energy Systems Catapult.

The Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy met the UK Government Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Nuclear and Networks) on 21 November 2023 to discuss the UK Government’s response to the UK Electricity Networks Commissioner’s report, which was published alongside the UK Government’s Autumn Statement on 22 November 2023.

Following the publication of UK Electricity Networks Commissioner’s report, Scottish Government officials have engaged with the UK Government, and other key stakeholders, through the UK Government’s Transmission Acceleration Forum and Stakeholder Working Group. The Scottish Government does not publish minutes taken by other organisations.

We have been supporting Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and other partners in delivering an improvement in the GEOAmey contract which has resulted in early positive signs, with a slowdown in staff attrition and improved staff numbers.

SPS is continuing to monitor the performance of the contract carefully to ensure target thresholds are met and we see a level of service which properly meets the needs of the Scottish Justice system.

We fully recognise the importance of access to justice of all those who come into contact with the justice system. We are considering a range of practical options to support this, including increasing the use of virtual custodies. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) remain committed to returning business to the island courts and are engaged with their justice partners to achieve this.

In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government “should set specific and quantified targets for levels of resilience across Scottish society under each outcome” of the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan.

The Scottish Government is considering all recommendations from the CCC on the structure of the next adaptation plan. Public consultation on a draft of the next adaptation plan is anticipated in early-2024 and we have asked the CCC to provide further views at this stage.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23310 on 11 December 2023. All answers to 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