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Every six years, when preparing Flood Risk Management Plans, SEPA assess measures for reducing flood risk against a range of criteria and consider the priority to be given to each measure. The availability of Scottish Government funding is not one of the criteria used to prioritise measures.

It is for individual local authorities to take forward the design and construction of schemes proposed in the Plans ensuring that the schemes meet the necessary statutory requirements for approval set out in Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. To support this work, the Scottish Government provides a minimum of £42million per annum through the General Capital Grant. An additional £150million has been committed over the next 5 years.

NHS National Services Division is establishing a Strategic Network bringing together clinical experts, NHS Boards and lived experience to support the ongoing development, resourcing and implementation of services for people with long COVID. When established, the Strategic Network will have a key role in identifying and ensuring that the £10m long COVID Support Fund is targeted at areas where support is most needed and can make the biggest impact.

We anticipate that the long COVID Support Fund will be allocated and spent over the next three financial years, providing Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

For this financial year, 2021-22, total health portfolio funding exceeds £16 billion, with a further £1.9 billion provided to address pressures related to COVID-19. This substantial investment is already benefiting a range of NHS services which are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID.

The Scottish Government has provided £240m to the culture sector over the pandemic, including £65m to help alleviate the financial pressures that individuals and organisations face following cultural venue closures and event cancellations in light of the Omicron variant.

Cultural organisations employing workers are eligible for the £25m COVID-19 Cancellation Fund for Cultural Organisations, administered by Creative Scotland. We would expect any organisation who applies to the Creative Scotland Cultural Organisations Cancellation Fund would use any money they receive to pay all their workers.

The Animals and Wildlife, Penalties, Powers and Protections (Scotland) Act 2020 recently introduced higher penalties for a range of wildlife crime offences including offences related to hare coursing. The Act increased the maximum penalty for killing or injuring hares in their close season under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the maximum penalty for hunting a hare with a dog under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, from six months imprisonment and/or a £5,000 fine to five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The new maximum penalties are available for offences committed after 30 November 2020.

With the sentencing regime having recently been updated and strengthened, we have no plans to review the sentences given to people found guilty of hare coursing under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002.

Data on birth delivery methods are not collected or held centrally. Public Health Scotland collects and publishes data on method of delivery at NHS Board level in its annual Birth in Scottish Hospitals report. The most recent report, for the year ending 31 March 2021, is available online and provides data on method of delivery by NHS Board of residence for live singleton births. The report is available via the following link: Births in Scottish hospitals - Year ending 31 March 2021 - Births in Scottish hospitals - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 provide local authorities with powers to issue fixed penalty notices to drivers of parked idling vehicles who refuse a reasonable request to switch off their engines. It is for individual local authorities to decide how to make use of their powers. The Scottish Government provides guidance and financial support to assist authorities in undertaking these duties.

The Government's new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone', which was published in July 2021, sets out a wide range of measures intended to deliver further air quality improvements over the period to 2026.

Following the publication of The Best Start – caesarean section rates: review report on 2 September 2021, the Scottish Government has asked the Maternity and Children’s Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC), part of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme, to lead on work to improve our understanding of the variation in caesarean section rates in Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to work with senior leaders and clinicians across Scotland to prioritise improvements to care through the implementation of The Best Start programme. The programme is driving a transformation in maternity care in Scotland, with women receiving continuity of carer throughout their pregnancy, resulting in improved relationships and outcomes.

For more detail on data relating to echocardiograms, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05550 on 21 January 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

Information on outpatient referrals can be found here ( Waiting times - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org) . Waiting times information is not broken down by diagnosis code.

In April 2021, we commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme, this includes the collection of data on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant, and Adult Cardiac Surgery in Scotland, both of which are relevant to the management and treatment of heart valve disease.

Further development of this audit programme and decisions around any future data to be collected will be undertaken in collaboration with clinicians and people with lived experience of heart disease in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy in this parliamentary term. Funding allocations to individual portfolios for 2022-23 will be confirmed following the passage of the Budget (Scotland) Bill. Decisions on future spending will also be considered within the context of the Resource Spending Review which will publish in May 2022.

(a) We would refute the assertion that the planting of non-native tree species is contributing to the biodiversity crisis. In Scotland, over the last 6 years, an average of 40 per cent of all new planting has been of native species, with the rest being productive conifers. Non-native productive tree species in well-designed woodlands can provide a valuable habitat and are an important part of tackling the twin climate and biodiversity crises. Scotland needs to plant both native trees and productive non-native conifers for climate, economic and environmental outcomes.

The current Programme for Government increased the target of new native woodland creation from a minimum of 3,000 hectares per year, to a minimum of 4,000 hectares. This target will be reviewed during development of the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy which is due to be published in October this year.

(b) Protecting our ancient woodlands is a priority for our biodiversity and forestry strategies. There is no current published evidence to suggest ancient woodland is being lost to non-native tree regeneration. The most significant threat to our ancient woodlands is from selective browsing by deer, which we are tackling as part of the Scottish Government response to the Deer Working Group Report.