Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland indicate that as of the end of November 2022, a total of 3,444 referrals have been made to the charity’s long COVID Support Service since its inception in February 2021.

Scottish Government funding of £156,924 has been made available to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland to support the continuation and development of the service over 2022-23. This funding has not been drawn from the long COVID Support Fund.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with NHS Lothian in relation to their current status on the NHS board performance escalation framework, this involves the Board working through and reporting progress against a formal Recovery Plan that covers all the BAA recommended actions.

Of the 36 BAA recommendations that NHS Lothian are progressing 81% have been completed. The remaining recommendations are well in progress with NHS Lothian ensuring that these are fully embedded with the evidence to support that prior to considering them as completed. All of the urgent recommendations are complete, over 70% of the high status recommendations are complete and almost 80% of the medium status recommendations are complete.

The Scottish Government continue to work to support and monitor the progress towards the completion of the remaining recommendations.

The Scottish Government supports the development of Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage as a decarbonisation infrastructure for hard to decarbonise sectors. Its deployment must enable decarbonisation at pace and cannot be used to justify unsustainable levels of fossil fuel extraction or impede Scotland’s just transition to net zero. Scottish planning policy states that the construction of new thermal generation power stations may be acceptable where that proposal includes or commits to carbon capture and storage. Any application made to the Scottish Ministers for the construction and operation of such power stations in Scotland is determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into account responses from key consultees and representations made by members of the public, and in light of careful consideration of the benefits and environmental impacts of the proposal.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13019 on 16 December 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 .

A breakdown of the £191 million was provided in the Guide to the Autumn Budget Revision which is available on the Finance and Public Administration’s website here https://www.parliament.scot/~/media/committ/4489

This guide document will also be published on the Scottish Government’s website following the consideration of the Autumn Budget Revision by the committee.

The National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 Act places a broad general duty on the Scottish Ministers to improve health in Scotland and confers functions which assist in performing that duty. However, that duty and those functions cannot be viewed in isolation. Per the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Ministers cannot exercise their functions in a manner which would be outside of devolved competence.

Although the Scottish Government is taking a public health approach to drug dependence, if the Scottish Ministers were to exercise their functions (including functions which relate to health improvement) in a way which conflicts with the subject matter of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 then that would be outside competence.

The work being done by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to explore the possibility of a Safer Drug Consumption Facility in Scotland, within the current legal framework, has been done carefully with the benefit of their independent legal advice. In the event of a positive outcome to work carried out by partners, we will quickly establish a Safer Drug Consumption Facility in Glasgow.

According to Supplementary Report to the Benchmarking Report published on 2 August 2022 the following areas are yet to fully implemented MAT 3:

NHS Shetland - Shetland ADP area

NHS Grampian - Moray ADP area

NHS Highland - Argyll & Bute ADP area

MAT 3 states that ‘Each service within the drug treatment system should have a documented procedure to identify and follow-up people at high risk of severe drug-related harm, including death’. These areas are as follows:

In January 2023 the Scottish Government will be publishing a formal response to the Taskforce report – Changing Lives – which includes an action to address inconsistencies in implementing near-fatal overdose (NFO) pathways under MAT standard 3.

Additionally, local areas have been directed by Ministers to have standards 1-5 implemented by April 2023. The Government continues working with identified areas to support them to progress the implementation in line with this timeframe.

Published information on drug-related (or drug-misuse) deaths can be obtained from the National Records Of Scotland website - Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2021 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk). Information on Local Authority Wards is information that is not held.

The following tables provide the information by Local Authority.

All drug misuse deaths by Local Authority

The number of drug-related deaths by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) data zone quintile is not information that is held, but the following table provides the rate.

Drug misuse deaths in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) Quintiles, age-standardised death rates per 100,000 population, 2010-2021

The ScotRail Passenger Assist Service is available at all stations in Scotland, whether stations are staffed or unstaffed for all or part of the day. The ScotRail website provides details on how Passenger Assist can be requested and obtained.

Details can be found via the following link:- Accessible travel | ScotRail .

The Scotland Act 2016 empowers the Scottish Parliament to legislate for a devolved tax to replace the UK Aggregates Levy. This is an environmental tax that aims to reduce extraction of primary – fresh or new – aggregate, mainly crushed rock, gravel and sand, used as bulk fill in construction.