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The Scottish Government recognised in 2021 that partial implementation of the pharmacotherapy and community treatment and care services, on a national level, meant that general practice was facing a difficult winter without all of the support Scottish Government and the BMA had agreed it should have in 2018.

GP practices will receive £10 million in Sustainability Payments this year in addition to their regular funding (Global Sum and Income & Expenses Guarantees) of £696,549,007, to which an uplift will be applied backdated to April 2022.

We also now have more than 3,220 healthcare professionals recruited to support general practice since 2018 and are committed to investing at least £170 million a year on growing primary care multi-disciplinary teams.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12117 on‎ 28 November 2022. 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

As the Deputy First Minister made clear in parliament, given the inflationary pressure on our budget it is currently difficult to identify at this stage where underspends will emerge.

Full details of all 2023-24 funding assumptions, including the Scotland Reserve, will be detailed in the Scottish Budget document when it is laid before parliament in December.

The full list of the savings generated, and new commitments made, through the Emergency Budget Review was outlined in the EBR document and published on the Scottish Government website. The Deputy First Minister wrote to the Finance and Public Administration Committee in September providing a line by line analysis of the first phase of these savings.

In addition the nature of each line item and its effect on the Scottish Government Budget was outlined in the Guide to Autumn Budget Revision document provided to the Committee. Within this document an analysis of the items included within the ABR is included along with detail of the transfers expected to be included within the Spring Budget Revision.

(a) CalMac Ferries carry out bi-annual timetable consultations with nominated ferry groups ahead of each timetable period (summer/winter). During this community consultation the groups are expected to liaise with their respective communities and submit the consensus view from that community.

(b) On Serco NorthLink Ferries (SNF) services, island communities can influence changes to both the passenger and freight vessel timetables through regular stakeholder engagement with SNF and Transport Scotland, such as the Shetland and Orkney External Transport Forums, or they can contact SNF directly with any proposals.

The 2022-23 Autumn Budget Revision, and the associated guide, details how all Barnett Consequentials and other funding movements have been formally allocated to date.

The net funds available for deployment following the conclusion of the Autumn Budget Revision are £94 million. However all of these funds are being held against a number of pressures on the Scottish Government Budget, including the conclusion of some public sector pay agreements and the costs associated with resettlement of Ukrainian refugees.

The Spring Budget Revision will detail the final Scottish Budget allocations, utilising all funding that remains available.

The guide to the Autumn Budget Revision details how our funding received reconciles to the allocations provided in budget revisions.

The requested information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 in the financial year (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21 and (d) 2021-22, including a breakdown by (i) call handlers and (ii) nurse advisers is not centrally available.

Information on how many whole time equivalent staff working for NHS 24 since 2012 can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

According to the most recent year for which there is complete data, April 2021 to March 2022, a total of 792 studies were active and open to recruitment across these portfolio areas. Details for each portfolio area are indexed in the following table.

Table 1. NRS studies active between April 2021 to March 2022.

Table 1 presents the latest published number of patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) that were waiting within an inpatient or day case setting in Scotland at 30 June 2022, and the number waiting over two years (104 weeks), 2 years and six months (130 weeks), and 3 years (156 weeks) for an Orthopaedics procedure.

Table 1 - Number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case admission for Orthopaedics by length of wait in NHSScotland, at 30 June 2022