Since the publication of the Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland (RCAP), the Scottish Government has established the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee (SRAC) to oversee its implementation.

Since publication of the Plan, the SRAC identified three initial areas of focus: child to adult transition, pulmonary rehab and respiratory data.

The Child to Adult Transitions subgroup has produced a set of recommendations to ensure children with asthma and other respiratory conditions have the best possible care and treatment as they move into adult service.

We are continuing to focus on improving access to pulmonary rehabilitation. The British Thoracic Society recently published a refreshed quality statement on pulmonary rehab . We are working closely with services across Scotland to identify improvements in delivery and to ensure more people have access.

Public Health Scotland have been commissioned to begin scoping work to develop a respiratory audit programme. This will allow us to monitor the delivery of the RCAP and ensure people are receiving the best possible care, treatment and support for respiratory conditions.

In addition, the Respiratory Specialist Delivery Group (SDG) at the Centre for Sustainability Delivery (CfSD) is progressing significant improvements across a vast range of services, teams, and NHS Boards. This work aligns with the commitments in the RCAP, and we are working closely with the CfSD to ensure that these links continue.

The monthly passenger carrying statistics on each route in the Northern Isles Ferry Services contract with Serco NorthLink from January 2023 up to the latest available figures can be found on Serco NorthLink Ferries’ website here: NorthLink Statistics | NorthLink Ferries .

The Endometriosis Referral Care Pathway for Scotland was published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery in January 2023 and distributed to NHS Scotland Boards.

The Diet and Healthy Weight Monitoring report was not published in 2022 and, as set out at the time, we have engaged with users to decide on the future of this publication. An announcement will be made shortly informed by the outcome of user engagement. Most of the data previously included in the Diet and Healthy Weight Monitoring report is now presented in the Scottish Health Survey with the remaining few indicators available in other publications. Results from the 2022 Scottish Health Survey will be published on 5 December 2023. Data for the indicators on sales of soft drinks with added sugar, confectionery, biscuits, cakes and pastries are available on the Food Standards Scotland website and type 2 diabetes prevalence is available in the Scottish Diabetes Survey report.

HMP Highland will expand provision of custodial services available within local community and reduce reliance on accommodation in other locations. Its completion will allow the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to better serve the local community, meet the needs of people in their care and support staff.

Enabling work commenced on site in 2021-2022 and further advance works have been carried out during 2022-23 and are continuing into 2023-24. Work has completed on site with the archaeologists finding significant evidence of roundhouses. Site clearing and substantial ground work is complete for the ground source heating system. An advance work contract was awarded to secure the perimeter concrete panels, which are now being installed, as well as the modular cells.

The March 2023 update to the Infrastructure Investment Plan sets out that HMP Highland is estimated to cost £139.5m and construction completion estimated in spring 2025. These time-scales and costs will be updated when the main construction contract is awarded late 2023/early 2024.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-22110 on 30 October 2023. 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 .

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) has been available since July 2021. We ask NHS Boards to report on the number of young inpatients (and therefore families) who benefit from the Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-16109 on 3 April 2023 in relation to families supported through YPFF in 2021-22.

Since YPFF was established in 2021 NHS Boards reported that 6887 families were supported through YPFF.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manage 204,782 hectares of woodland within the rainforest zone, of which 17,960 hectares are considered to be rainforest habitat, or of high potential to be restored to rainforest habitat. These consist of PlantLife IPA, and other areas of ancient woodland sites. Within the Rainforest zone 13,297 hectares of Scotland’s National Forests and Land are classified as plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS).

FLS will begin restoration of up to 780 hectares of priority rainforest area this year in Cowal, Argyll (Kintyre & West Loch Awe), Loch Lomond Basin, Wester Ross. Activity will include INNS control, PAWS restoration and deer management.

It is anticipated natural colonisation will occur within PAWS under restoration and generally throughout rainforest habitat following a reduction in deer densities, buffering zones for natural colonisation are being planned within Land Management Plans.

The Scottish Government is working to take forward the action in the Women’s Health Plan that seek to enable all patients to access mid-trimester abortion care locally or regionally. Progress has been made, with all mainland NHS Boards now offering services up to at least 20 weeks’ gestation as recommended by the 2022 Healthcare Improvement Scotland Sexual Health Standards.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a specification to deliver a national service for abortions between 20 to 24 weeks gestation within Scotland. NSS has been discussing its specification with NHS Boards and is also exploring other delivery options for the service.

We are also working with individual NHS Boards to support clinicians who wish to receive training to deliver later stage abortions to be granted funding to do so, and to encourage NHS Boards to ensure that patients close to 20 weeks’ gestation are prioritised for appointments.

In the previous avian influenza outbreak season (October 2022 to September 2023) 31,570 gamebirds have either succumbed to avian influenza or have been humanely culled for animal welfare and disease control reasons, due to being present at an infected premises. 19,570 of these birds were pheasants, and 12,000 were partridges. There have been no instances of gamebirds infected with HPAI in the current AI outbreak season which began on 01 October 2023.