The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care launched at the beginning of October, and is currently focused on delivering a programme of work designed to improve the capability of rural, remote and island primary care and community services, and support the improvement and retention of a more highly skilled rural health workforce.

The Centre will be delivered by NHS Education Scotland and is backed by £3m until 2026. The Centre, will be both virtual and local to ensure its availability to all communities, and will provide a resource to support Health Boards and Health and Social Care partnerships in their responsibilities and drive essential improvements in sustainability.

The report will set out various facts in relation to quota allocated to incentivise selective fishing gear and low impact techniques such as: the number of vessels involved; tonnages of various species caught; area of landing and proportion for each quota stock in relation to the entire allocation for said stock.

While the Scottish Government has not sought confirmation from energy companies relating explicitly to Energy UK’s vulnerability commitment, I have written to all major suppliers raising concerns regarding consumer protection and fuel poverty levels. With energy prices remaining significantly higher than two years ago, we have called upon all suppliers to take meaningful action to better support those consumers who need help the most. Continued engagement with suppliers has highlighted the measures they are taking to improve customer service standards and support for consumers who are struggling to pay their bills. I also recently chaired three working groups, all of which Energy UK was a member. While these groups were short-lived, members continue to progress collaborative actions to support consumers across Scotland including working with Energy UK, Ofgem and energy companies.

The Scottish Government had regular engagement with Circularity Scotland (CSL) as part of preparations for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Circularity Scotland Ltd went into administration in June 2023 following the UK Government’s decision not to grant a full exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act.

It is not possible to provide a list of all verbal engagements between Scottish Government officials and CSL staff due to the frequency of these working-level engagements and the fact that many of them were informal discussions rather than scheduled meetings. However, the main meetings between CSL and Scottish Ministers or officials are as follows:

1. CSL met with the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity on a monthly basis, [link] .

Breaches of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct are a matter for the independent Ethical Standards Commissioner. The member can obtain this information by contacting the Commissioner directly.

Our aim is to maximise the number of green jobs and we are considering how we can best work collaboratively with the renewables sector to do that.

The latest report from the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) [June 2023], predicted jobs in this sector in the UK could grow to over 100,000 by 2030. This OWIC report also shows a 4% increase in offshore wind jobs compared to 2021-22, showing that the sector currently supports over 32,000 jobs, almost 30% of which are in Scotland.

This £500m investment will help to support market certainty, creating the environment that will deliver these jobs, whilst creating a highly productive, competitive economy, embedding innovation and boosting skills.

As stated in Everyone’s Story: A New Dementia Strategy for Scotland , dementia affects an estimated 90,000 people in Scotland, an estimated 3,000 of whom are under 65. However, every person with dementia is unique. Dementia affects people in lots of different ways, depending on the type of dementia they have as well as personal factors such as their social situation.

These figures are based on predictive modelling which we are in the process of updating to ensure we have an accurate picture on the numbers of people living with dementia in Scotland.

Our new strategy committed us to ensure we have robust data on our dementia communities, and this has come through as an important area to progress in our initial delivery work. We are committed to working with partners to identify ways to address this in our initial 2-year Delivery Plan for our Strategy.

Our previous three dementia strategies consistently maintained a focus on improving the quality of care for people living with dementia and their families through work on diagnosis, including: post-diagnostic support; care co-ordination during the middle stage of dementia; end of life and palliative care; workforce development and capability; data and information; and research into better understanding of the condition. Commitments within each of these strategies and our Covid-19 Action Plan were subject to independent evaluations.

The findings of these evaluations informed Everyone’s Story: A New Dementia Strategy for Scotland , including ‘The Difference We Need to Make’, which clearly sets out our ambitions by which we will hold ourselves accountable to delivering on through the lifetime of this new strategy.

We also heard a huge range of experiences and perspectives on people’s experiences of care and support via our National Conversation. This has also given us a large evidence base on the impact of previous strategies on people’s lives and experience.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving terms and conditions for the adult social care workforce, both through our current work and the development of a National Care Service.

The Scottish Government is working through the relevant issues on terms and conditions, including SSSC fees, in partnership with stakeholders. This joint consideration will include looking at priorities and affordability on various options and whilst we cannot provide a timetable on concluding the work we will endeavour to update the sector as soon as is practically possible.

The First Minister announced in March that the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) would be tripled to £30 million this year. As part of that, £8.5 million from the emergency crisis Fund has been allocated to the Fuel Bank Foundation to deliver support to thousands of vulnerable households, including those with prepayment meters and at risk of imminent disconnection, through its Fuel Bank Network and Heat Fund projects in Scotland.

Their Fuel Bank Network supports eligible pre-payment households with emergency fuel vouchers - over 99% are made the same-day. Households are also assessed for energy saving advice and further signposting to other support based on their needs. The Foundation works with a number of referral partners to provide support to households who must be verified as:

• being pre-payment energy customers;
• already in financial crisis – at risk of self-disconnection or have already self-disconnected;
• be unable to fund the basic essentials for everyday living;
• and have some additional level of need identified by an expert independent third party referral.

Direct payments to fuel suppliers can be made through the Foundation’s Heat Fund strand for eligible households who often have to ‘pay in advance’ for unregulated fuels including oil, coal, LPG, and biomass. Alongside this the Foundation offers additional support measures like, for example, the provision of heated throws for clients in crisis.