The remit of the Women’s Health Champion , Professor Anna Glasier, is to drive change and share best practice and innovation in the improvement of health services and health outcomes for women.

Professor Glasier is working with partners in the NHS and across the public and third sectors to drive forward the ambitions, aims and actions in the Women’s Health Plan .

Professor Glasier’s particular priorities were set out in the recently published report on progress and include specialist menopause services, menstrual health with a focus on endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome, and heart health.

Professor Glasier recently published her first quarterly blog , highlighting her initial work and priorities for the months ahead.

Any requests should be directed to [email protected] .

The Pancreato-Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project (PHCC PIP) was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and did not commence until last year. The pilot is now in its second year.

More information on the project, including how to make specific enquiries, can be found at the following webpage: Pancreato-Hepatocellular Cancer Pathway Improvement Project (PHCC PIP) – SCAN Scotland .

The Scottish Government remain committed to delivery of quality health and care facilities on Barra. However, the Scottish Government's ability to fund capital projects has been affected by a reduction in the amount of capital grant from the UK Government over the next two years, and unprecedented levels of inflation as a result of Covid, Brexit, uncertainty in the supply chain and the war in Ukraine.

The Outline Business Case for the provision of new health facilities at the Barra Health and Social Care Hub has been submitted, however detailed design work of the proposals has been unable to start due to the budgetary pressures across the capital investment programme.

Scottish Government officials will engage with NHS Western Isles and the Scottish Futures Trust to consider the timing of the construction and will work closely with partners to identify alternative options.

Scotland is not alone in regulating short-term lets globally. We are doing this in two ways. The first, licensing, has been introduced to ensure short-term lets are safe and the people providing them are suitable. Guests can have confidence that licensed hosts and accommodation have reached a recognised standard of assurance complying with mandatory conditions for fire, gas, water and electrical safety. Many hosts are already complying with these through existing law or best practice, and we do not consider them onerous. Licensing authorities may also apply additional conditions to address local issues such as noise, antisocial behaviour and littering. Licence applications must be granted unless there are grounds to refuse them, for example, if anybody named on an application is not a fit and proper person. We are unable to comment on the specific short term let licensing policy in Edinburgh, due to ongoing legal proceedings.

The second, control areas, can be designated by councils where short-term lets are causing problems for neighbours and making it harder for people to find homes to live in. From the point of designation, the change of use to provide short-term lets in accommodation that is not a host’s only or principal home will always require planning permission. It is for councils to decide whether a control area is needed to help them manage high concentrations of short-term lets.

The Scottish Government supports the position set out in S6W-16710, which outlined the Scottish Government’s commitment to being guided by the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Scotland on these matters.

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 evidence gathered through the call for evidence will help inform future policy on how to reduce the use of single-use food containers and other single-use items in order to align, where we are able to do so and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards, with the EU Directive on single-use plastics and to tackle Scotland’s throwaway culture.

Circular Economy Business Support, provided by Zero Waste Scotland, continues to provide support for textile businesses wishing to develop circular models. Scottish Enterprise also recently published its Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Guide , https://unlockingambition.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scottish-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem-Guide-April-2023.pdf

which provides an overview of the range of support available to new and growing companies in Scotland including incubators, accelerators, specialist industry programmes, co-working spaces and networking organisations. This support is available to any early-stage innovative business.

As set out in the letter dated 2 nd May to the Education Children and Young People Committee, the additional £46 million (£26 million for colleges and £20 million for universities) was identified as a necessary saving in Financial Year 2023-24. This is part of our wider duty to balance the budget and ensure fiscal sustainability. As you will know, the previous Cabinet Secretary also wrote to the Committee on 22 February confirming we have had to make difficult choices in meeting new pressures on the Education and Skills portfolio since the 2023-24 Budget announcement, including the recent agreement regarding teachers’ pay.

This information is set out in our response to the second report from the review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland: Decarbonisation of Residual Waste infrastructure in Scotland, published on 5 May 2023.

Our response is available here: Decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 came into force in June 2022 as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to move to a more circular economy and tackle the environmental impact of the most problematic single-use plastic products.

Over seven hundred million of these products were estimated to be used in Scotland every year before the Regulations came into force, including three hundred million single-use plastic straws and over two hundred and fifty million pieces of single-use plastic cutlery.

Now that the regulations have been in place for almost a year, we will evaluate progress and this will inform our approach to continuing to support businesses to comply with requirements.