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Ensuring that we have a suitably qualified workforce in place will be imperative for delivering a smooth rollout of energy efficiency and zero emission heating measures which will support us to achieve our net zero ambitions.

We currently offer support to the sector through a number of schemes which includes the Low Carbon Skills Grant which is available to heating and plumbing apprentices’ to undertake heat pump training as part of their qualification.

To further ensure the quality of works carried out we also provide funding to assist Scottish SMEs installing heat pumps in achieving MCS certification for the first time through the MCS Certification Fund.

We will continue to keep our offers of support under review to ensure that they are aligned at a local level with business needs and future local demands.

Delivery partners for each scheme, including local authorities where relevant, are currently responsible for the coordination of suppliers to ensure they have sufficient capacity in place to deliver schemes. It is likely that this arrangement will continue but we are committed to working with delivery partners to support the development of local and national supply chains and skills.

The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Cancer Network is funded by the Scottish Government to increase, support and sustain clinical trial activity in cancer care within NHS Scotland. The fundamental aim of NRS Cancer is to support the recruitment of cancer patients into clinical research and to thereby contribute to improving the quality of cancer care for patients across Scotland, including those diagnosed with ovarian cancer. https://nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/cancer

The Scottish Government also works with Cancer Research UK to support the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC's) in Glasgow and Scotland. These are part of a UK-wide ECMC Network of 18 adult centres and 11 paediatric locations https://www.ecmcnetwork.org.uk/ Glasgow’s Adult ECMC and Paediatric ECMC, together with Edinburgh’s Adult ECMC receive around £1 million annually to help doctors and scientists develop the cancer treatments of the future for both adults and children, including in ovarian cancer. The funding is split 50:50 Scottish Government / Cancer Research UK

On 13 February 2023 we published an Independent Report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials. We will be working closely with the cancer research community here to prioritise the report’s recommendations.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/improving-equity-access-cancer-clinical-trials-scotland/

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme was launched in April 2020 to support landlords with the cost of installation for energy efficiency improvements, renewable systems and energy storage systems.

The funding allocated for the scheme is set out in the following table:

The Scottish Government welcomes the work of organisations like Coeliac UK who are already undertaking communications work to increase awareness and knowledge of coeliac disease. We supported their messaging on Coeliac awareness week by sharing their twitter campaign raising awareness of lesser-known symptoms of the disease.

NHSinform.scot provides clear and accessible information on Coeliac Disease including, symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17929 on 30 May 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

Our Equally Safe strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG) emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place.

The Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Every secondary school in Scotland is eligible for ESAS. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that currently 77 schools are registered with an ESAS account. Rape Crisis Scotland is continuing to work with local authority education leads, VAWG partnerships and other third sector partners across Scotland to encourage and support schools to engage with ESAS.

We also fund and support other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and the attitudes which perpetuate it such as; the Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to take note of the Scottish Health Technologies Group recommendations, published on 23 March 2023, and take steps to ensure that any woman who requires access to placental growth factor (PlGF) based tests as part of her maternity care can do so. We will continue to work with the Scottish Perinatal Network and will write to NHS Boards again in June to assess how implementation of PlGF testing is progressing.

This information has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under BiB No 64215.

There is no single crime of human trafficking and it may be recoded and prosecuted under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004.

Table 1 shows crimes related to 'human trafficking' recorded by the police, 2007-08 to 2021-22; Table 2 shows the number of people prosecuted where the main crime/charge was related to human trafficking, 2007-08 to 2020-21.

Please note: Care should be taken when comparing different data sources relating to the criminal justice system. A crime can only be recorded if it is reported to the police and can only then be prosecuted in court if the crime is reported to the procurator fiscal and a decision taken that court proceedings are the most appropriate course of action. In addition, recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland, while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases once they have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. In addition, a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime, or a set of crimes with more than one victim, in a proceeding, but only a single conviction for the ‘main charge’ (the one receiving the most severe sentence) would be counted in the court proceedings statistics. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings.

Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

The update to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme process and procedures guidance note has been a detailed piece of work comprising a number of elements. While this has taken longer than expected to complete, the updated guidance will be published shortly.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication and recommendations of The Nursing Workforce in Scotland report by RCN Scotland.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring they have local policies in place to recruit effectively and retain their staff. They are supported in this through the Scottish Government’s National Workforce Strategy, which sets out the actions it will take in partnership with Boards to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture the health and social care workforce.

This has included completing a review of career pathways for healthcare support workers and publishing a national education and development framework, in November 2022, which provides information on how to progress into a registered practitioner role.

Our recently established Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce will also build on efforts to make Scotland the best place for nurses and midwives to work by developing plans for recruitment and retention. The Nursing Workforce in Scotland Report, and its recommendations, will be considered by the taskforce as a part of its work.

Over the summer we will continue to work with stakeholders, including the Royal College of Nursing, to develop a Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan.