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Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Scottish Academy Trainee Doctors' Group, to discuss areas of mutual interest.

The Pancreato-Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project (PHCC PIP) was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and did not commence until last year. The pilot is now in its second year.

More information on the project, including how to make specific enquiries, can be found at the following webpage: Pancreato-Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project (PHCC PIP) – SCAN Scotland .

Our original intention was to consult on the final draft biodiversity strategy and delivery plan in Spring 2023 with a view to publishing the final strategy and delivery plan in in Summer 2023. The time frame was put back by 3 months to allow key elements of the proposed Natural Environment Bill to be included in the consultation. The expanded consultation will be launched shortly with a view to final publication of the strategy and delivery plan later this year.

The Scottish Government-led Lyme Disease Awareness Raising Group has met regularly since being set up following a Ministerial round table event held in June 2021.

The meetings are informal and provide members with the opportunity to share information and to collaborate on ideas of how best to raise awareness of Lyme disease. The Group have met 4 times, most recently on 16 March 2023.

The group co-designed the Scottish Government led Lyme Disease awareness raising campaign which ran in July 2022, and were most recently involved in the 2023 campaign which has seen posters and information cards in all community pharmacies across Scotland throughout May. The group were also involved in the proposal to run a follow up campaign, which will see posters in GP practices, libraries and leisure centres in the summer.

Data on the possession of a National Entitlement Card by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintiles comes from the Scottish Household Survey, which asks questions regarding concessionary bus travel on alternate years.

The Scottish Household Survey 2021 was published in April 2023 but covers the year prior to the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme coming into force in January 2022.

Work is now underway on the one year evaluation of the Young Person’s Free Bus Travel Scheme. The evaluation will include questions looking at barriers to bus travel and to accessing, or using, the scheme. It will collect information from children, young people and parents (both users and non-users of the scheme) about their experiences. The evaluation study will also draw on scheme cardholder data on young people in various data zones, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Scotland is not alone in regulating short-term lets globally. We are doing this in two ways. The first, licensing, has been introduced to ensure short-term lets are safe and the people providing them are suitable. Guests can have confidence that licensed hosts and accommodation have reached a recognised standard of assurance complying with mandatory conditions for fire, gas, water and electrical safety. Many hosts are already complying with these through existing law or best practice, and we do not consider them onerous. Licensing authorities may also apply additional conditions to address local issues such as noise, antisocial behaviour and littering. Licence applications must be granted unless there are grounds to refuse them, for example, if anybody named on an application is not a fit and proper person. We are unable to comment on the specific short term let licensing policy in Edinburgh, due to ongoing legal proceedings.

The second, control areas, can be designated by councils where short-term lets are causing problems for neighbours and making it harder for people to find homes to live in. From the point of designation, the change of use to provide short-term lets in accommodation that is not a host’s only or principal home will always require planning permission. It is for councils to decide whether a control area is needed to help them manage high concentrations of short-term lets.

The Scottish Government encourages wide use of the PickUpMyPeriod app to highlight where free period products are available both within and outwith the scope of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021.

Any organisation that offers publicly accessible free period product pick-up points can request, through the app or myperiod.org.uk website, to be listed as a location. This includes non-public authority facilities, a number of which are already included as locations on the map.

The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme – offering vouchers worth up to £5,000 for eligible properties - currently has 50 suppliers registered to deliver services.

The list of registered suppliers is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is only listing suppliers who are actively participating in the scheme and is kept up to date here: Find a supplier | Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband .

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, to discuss areas of mutual interest.

Council tax is a local tax and responsibility for collection and enforcement rests with individual local authorities. Ministers are encouraging local government to adopt the best practice in debt assistance and collection identified in the Collaborative Council Tax Collection Guide, published jointly by Stepchange and The Improvement Service, whilst the Council Tax Reduction Scheme means nobody should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford.