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Subject to parliamentary approval, we will begin making payments of Winter Heating Payment in February 2023. We are reliant on DWP meeting their commitment to provide us with the right data by 31 January so that we can complete the necessary assurance and processing of payments to around 400,000 eligible people across Scotland. While it will therefore not be possible to make payments sooner this winter, we have committed to exploring the feasibility of bringing forward the payment date in future years.

Separately, in response to the energy crisis we have doubled the Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million to ensure support continues to be available to people affected by the rising energy costs and struggling with their bills this winter.

The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group discussed these issues at their meeting in November 2022, which was attended by a Scottish Government official.

In the Chamber on 15 December the First Minister said that we will undertake to ensure that discussions take place directly with the sector.

The Government plans to introduce a new Housing Bill this year. The timing and scope of that Bill is subject to ongoing review an consideration as we continue to deliver our emergency response to support tenants through the ongoing cost of living crisis.

CMAL scores foreign and domestic shipbuilders the same. The evaluation criteria cannot discriminate against any bid as each compliant bid is valued on its own merit.

Social Landlords are required to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which is monitored by The Scottish Housing Regulator(SHR). SHR wrote to all Social Landlords on 1 December 2022 on the importance of having appropriate, proactive systems to identify and deal with any reported cases of mould and damp timeously and effectively. The Regulator will also be working with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) to identify and promote good practice in the management of mould and dampness. Scottish Government officials will keep in close touch with the progress of this work.

The £2m was committed to be spent over this parliament (to March 31 2026). Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

Final decisions on how the remaining unallocated funds will be spent will be made following stakeholder engagement and a thorough review of the global commitments made at COP27 to ensure that the Scottish Government creates maximum impact with our approach and does not duplicate funding efforts elsewhere.

We expect around 400,000 people to receive our Winter Heating Payment each year, more than double the 185,000 people who on average have received Cold Weather Payments over the last 7 years.

Data on deaths from all causes in Scotland are available from National Records of Scotland: Vital Events - Deaths | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk).

We continue to implement our Heart Disease Action Plan which seeks to ensure that everyone with suspected heart disease has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care.

The Network for Inherited Cardiac Conditions Scotland (NICCS) is a National Managed Clinical Network which supports improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of people with inherited cardiac conditions (ICC).

Scottish Government are key partners in the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership who are working to deliver the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Strategy 2021 to 2026 . A key aim of this strategy is to increase survival from OHCA to 15% in Scotland by 2026.

Within the South Region of Forestry and Land Scotland, since 2007, the following estimated number of trees (based on normal planting densities per hectare), have been planted by Forestry and Land Scotland in each Local Authority Area: