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The Scottish Government has made a 14.5% pay offer to Junior Doctors covering the period of 2022-24. This represents a £61.3 million investment in junior doctor pay - the largest in the last 20 years and the best offer in the UK. This will be funded from within the Health and Social Care budget.

Access to green and blue spaces in Scotland is underpinned by the rights of responsible access to land and inland water enshrined in Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 . From a marine perspective, as part of our Blue Economy Vision for Scotland , by 2045 our ambition is for thriving, resilient, regenerated, healthy communities to have more equal access to the benefits that ocean resources provide.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was approved by the Scottish Parliament and adopted by the Scottish Ministers in February 2023. Through a number of policies, it sets out the long-term spatial strategy for Scotland.

National Planning Policy 20: Blue and Green Infrastructure , National Planning Policy 15: Local Living and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods , and Open Space Strategies , support access to green and blue spaces. This is reflected in two National Performance Framework indicators: Visits to the Outdoors , reporting the proportion of adults making one or more visits to the outdoors per week; and Access to Green and Blue Space , reporting the proportion of adults who live within a 5 minute walk of their local green or blue space.

National Planning Policy 4: Natural Places , National Planning Policy 7: Historic Assets and Places , and National Planning Policy 8: Green Belts , support protection of areas of outstanding scenic quality and enhancement of landscape features. Both the Historic Environment Scotland Green Recovery Statement and the recently refreshed strategy for the historic environment in Scotland, Our Past Our Future , highlight the heritage sector’s ambitions for sustainability and accessibility in our historic landscapes through regeneration and responsible land management.

Building on the success of the piloting of Green Health Partnerships (GHPs) through NatureScot’s Our Natural Health Service partnership, the Scottish Government is working with the NHS and other partners to expand the use of nature based solutions in health practice, including increasing the use of green and blue spaces to deliver mental health outcomes. This includes an action within the NHS Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy to establish and embed GHPs and similar approaches.

Access matters are devolved and the Scottish Government has no liaison with the UK Government in relation to these.

Academic year (AY) 2021/22 represented the first graduating year for ScotGEM, of those who graduated there were four students who took up a bursary but did not take up a place within Scotland for foundation training. Of these four students:

• One is on a repayment plan.
• One has paid their bursary back in full.
• Two are delaying their payment until the beginning of speciality training which starts in August 2024, as they may return to Scotland which will change the amount due to be repaid.

For those graduating in AY 2022-23 confirmation of where the students will be taking up a place after graduating has only recently been received. There are five students who have taken up the bursary and who do not now intend to remain in Scotland for foundation training and discussions have begun regarding repayment.

The Scottish Government places great importance on swimming pools. They are crucial to the wellbeing of all our country and most importantly, for our children and young people to be healthy and active.

The financial package announced by the UK Government to support swimming pools in England has resulted in consequentials being added to the overall Scottish block.

We will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming and local government partners to consider what additional support can be provided to swimming pools and the wider sport and leisure sector in Scotland. At present, no additional funding has been provided to local authorities.

The latest Experimental Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) were published on 24 May 2023, available at Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . There are methodological limitations with the Scotland level results being presented given the influence of the restrictions on in-tenancy rent increases introduced through the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection)(Scotland) Act 2022 which has been in force since 28 October 2022. Users of the results are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries. The following cautionary text is included in this ONS publication:

“The rise in annual rental price inflation for Scotland since this (Cost of Living Tenants Protection Scotland) bill was passed will largely reflect increasing rental prices from new lets as they continue to feed into the Scotland IPHRP stock measure. There are also compositional differences between the Scotland rental data and Scotland's rental sector. Measures for Scotland are mainly based on advertised rental data, along with assumptions on average periods between rent price increases, so changes in rents for existing tenants are largely estimated. The IPHRP methodology assumes that rental price remains constant for up to 14 months if updated rental data for that property is not available. The Cost of Living (Tenants Protection) Scotland Bill could lead to an increase in the average length of time that rental price remains unchanged. If the average time between rental price changes is above the assumed 14 months, then IPHRP methodology will present higher estimates of rising rental costs in the overall market in Scotland. This is because only a small proportion of the sample is based on updated rental data from existing lets, and replacement data will be predominantly based on uncapped newly advertised rents. Users are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries.”

The Scottish Government does not therefore consider that these experimental statistics are sufficiently nuanced to draw valid comparisons between Scotland and England and Wales.

The review has now been completed. The report is currently being finalised and will be published later in 2023.

Any considerations for HST replacement including timescales must take account of the conclusions of the Carmont Steering Group, and must be informed by the available budgets and the business case for change. The procurement of new rolling stock forms an integral part of Transport Scotland’s Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Questions regarding day-to-day operational matters of Historic Environment Scotland, including information relating to any maintenance and monitoring works, are best answered directly by Historic Environment Scotland.

I have asked Historic Environment Scotland to respond directly to the member with a full reply to his question in writing.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for inpatient and day case procedures.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for inpatient / day-cases in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year, over 217,000 patients were seen as an inpatient or day case. This reflects a 15.3% increase from the previous year.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Prior to 2017, reports of alleged illegal fishing held by the Scottish Government were routinely disposed of in line with data protection legislation where – following investigation - no offence was found to have been committed, such reports were otherwise found to be unsubstantiated, or where there were no other legitimate operational grounds for retention.

No information on reports of alleged illegal fishing are therefore held for the period from 1 January 2009 to 25 February 2017 inclusive.

Recognising increased public and parliamentary interest in such information, however, and in compliance with Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 the Scottish Government began the retention of some information relating to reports of alleged illegal fishing on a strictly limited basis.

In line with that, the following table shows the number of reports of alleged illegal fishing made to the Scottish Government between 26 February 2017 and 6 June 2023.