This budget provides funding for local Primary Care Improvement Plans and core primary care support. Funds that are allocated are based on need, and final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

The majority of this budget relates to Corporate Running Costs (CRC) which supports staffing and other costs of central functions, with this allocated out across all portfolios, as set out in annual budgets. The remainder of the spend is fully allocated in support of staffing costs within two Health and Social Care Directorates – Health Finance, Corporate Governance and Value and Directorate of Chief Operating Officer. Final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

NHS Forth Valley has been unable to demonstrate the necessary governance, leadership and culture required to drive sustainable improvements in poor performance.

The Scottish Government has established an Assurance Board, chaired by Christine McLaughlin, co-Director of Population Health. The Assurance Board is supporting NHS Forth Valley in determining what steps are necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality governance, leadership and culture in, and in doing so is intended to support improvements in performance in out of hours, unscheduled care, mental health, and integration.

The ongoing work to address the underlying issues impacting poor performance is even more crucial as NHS Forth Valley faces one of the toughest winter periods ever experienced.

This budget covers the purchase of pandemic influenza vaccine on behalf of NHS Scotland as part of the UK four Nation agreement. Funds that are allocated are based on need with the majority of spend occurring later in the financial year. Final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

My officials in Transport Scotland are currently considering the most appropriate route for continuity of these services. I will consider this advice as soon as I receive it. The most important factor for passengers and staff will be seamless provision, irrespective of future models considered.

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the regulation of health and safety in the off and onshore wind sector. This regulation includes, where appropriate, the investigation of accidents and incidents.

Incident reporting requirements can be found on the Health and Safety Executive website - Dangerous occurrences - RIDDOR - HSE

The total number of NHS patients that have been treated in private (independent) hospitals in each of the last five financial years and reported to PHS is presented in the following table.

The information requested on how many NHS shifts have been covered by private agency staff in each of the last 10 years is not centrally available.

Information on Medical & Dental and Nursing & midwifery bank and agency spend by NHS Board since March 2014 can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence Bank and Agency) tab.

The majority ofthis budget is directly allocated to Health Boards to support international recruitment and domestic recruitment. All of this budget is earmarked for allocation by financial year end, with £4.5 million of this funding already allocated thus far. A further £0.3m supports other initiatives including refugee doctors and nurses, marketing of NHS Scotland, and employability programmes.

We are working closely with NatureScot and Scottish Forestry in exploring the best approach to developing a new National Register of Ancient Woodlands. A new National Register of Ancient Woodlands is part of a suite of initiatives that will be underpinned by a new biodiversity strategy which we recently consulted on this summer.