While statistics on vaccination rates among those who are housebound are not published, we continue to see very high uptake across all eligible cohorts in the winter vaccination programme.

Housebound patients are identified through their local GP and have been vaccinated in their homes, with some health boards utilising the Scottish Ambulance Service to support this. For those who weren’t identified via their GP, their appointment letter contained information on how to request a home visit.

Our aspiration is for uptake to be as high as possible across all groups, this includes health and social care workers.

Vaccination uptake for Frontline Health & Social Care workers is currently at 40% for Covid-19 vaccines. The uptake for Flu vaccines for all healthcare workers is currently at 49%.

We have been working closely with Health Boards to increase uptake in this group. Specific interventions include drop in clinics for workers, outreach vaccination teams visiting workplaces, tailored local and national communications to encourage uptake. We are also conducting surveys to gather insight on why some people are choosing not to get vaccinated this winter.

We recognise that rises in the cost of living are putting a huge strain on some families and they are facing unforeseen challenges. We are working with our partners in local authorities to fully understand the issue of school meal debt.

Councils have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, who do not meet the regular eligibility criteria. We would urge local authorities to continue to do all they can to resolve any payment issues without withdrawing meals from pupils.

Decisions on non-domestic rates beyond 2022-23, including any reliefs, will be considered in the context of the Scottish Budget and in line with the Framework for Tax, prevailing economic conditions and other government priorities.

The Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan was published in July 2022 and sets out the actions the Scottish Government are taking to improve care and services for people with chronic pain.

The Implementation Plan acknowledges the importance of specialist pain management services and includes a number of specific actions to improve access and quality of care provided by these services. This includes convening an expert working group to review pathways into specialist care and identify opportunities to share and promote best practice as well as piloting new digital pathways to improve how people access specialist services.

As part of this work it is expected that challenges around staffing of specialist services will also be explored. This activity will also be informed by a new national pain service managers network which will help to identify and prioritise key issues affecting the resilience and quality of specialist pain services, including workforce. In addition, the Scottish Government will publish, for the first time, projections of required workforce growth across health and social care as part of the National Workforce Strategy. Once generated these will be reviewed annually.

Appropriate resources are in place to support the Gluten-free Food Service which has been delivered by community pharmacies since 2014. There are no plans to change this service which provides patients with a range of staple gluten-free food products without the need to request a prescription from their GP practice.

There is no specific financial support to assist with the purchase of gluten-free food products. However, people who have been clinically diagnosed with coeliac disease or dermatitis herpetiformis can receive a range of gluten-free food on prescription at no charge.

There is a monthly unit allowance and people may choose to use all or part of that allowance to access gluten-free items through their local community pharmacy if they wish. To help with costs, patients may choose to order their maximum number of units each month.

I understand how important infusions and injections are for those patients receiving them, and that work is needed to improve care for people with chronic pain and the sustainability of our pain management services.

It is our intention that people can access safe, effective, evidence-based care and support. Therefore, as set out in the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan which we published in July, we are taking action to develop a more consistent, nationally agreed approach to the provision of specialist medical interventions, such as infusions and injections.

This will take into account existing clinical evidence, the variation in approach between Health Boards and seek to reflect the views and needs of both the patient and clinical community.

The Scottish Government has taken forward a range of measures to support the efficient delivery of Scotland’s Redress Scheme, which is survivor led with feedback encouraged and acted upon.

The scheme was established to provide acknowledgement and tangible recognition of the harm that has been caused to those who experienced abuse in care, with the commitment that it would be less adversarial and swifter than civil court action. The redress payment reflects part of that tangible recognition and is not considered compensation in the same way as a sum awarded by a court.

In direct response to feedback about timescales the number of case workers has increased from 12 in December 2021 to 23 in November 2022, and as a result we will see swifter allocation of completed applications to case workers from January.

The operating model was changed in April 2022 to ensure all applications received are initially triaged by the case work team and applicants are then advised what further information is required to progress their application. With applicants consent, case workers make referrals to the Redress Support Service to progress applications where additional information is required. This can include support from organisations specialised in record searches. To date, 834 referrals have been made to this service.

A group has been established which is considering ways in which we might be able to improve the process of applicants accessing care records as it is recognised that some applicants are having challenges in this area.

The Survivor Forum, which was established in March, has reported on its first survey and feedback on the scheme has been provided to both the Scottish Government and Redress Scotland, the independent decision making body. The forum will also increase its activity and engagement with applicants in early 2023, providing further opportunities to provide feedback on what is working well and what could be done better or differently.

The Scottish Government works closely with the SFC and Scottish Universities on an annual basis to review and deliver sustainable funding for universities and the whole tertiary sector when setting the budget allocation. This flexibility allows the numbers of funded places for eligible students to respond to university and student demands, so that in 2022-23 there are 121,917 full-time equivalent funded places, compared to 115,987 for 2019-20, the last academic year prior to the pandemic.

Scottish Universities are autonomous institutions and as such, with the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government and Government Ministers do not direct individual universities on the number of funded places made available for specific subjects for eligible Scottish and EU domicile students. Universities are allocated a finite amount of money and it is then for the universities themselves to decide: how to distribute these places between faculties; the courses they offer; and how many of the total funded places will be available on each course. To give universities additional flexibility in student recruitment, the Scottish Funding Council allows universities to recruit up to 10% above the number of funded places awarded.

The Scottish Government firmly believes that access to university should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay, however there is a need to exert a level of control over the higher education budget, which means that the number of students able to access a funded place is not unlimited. Our commitment to free tuition means that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, Scottish students studying in Scotland do not incur additional debt of up to £27,750, and average student loan debt for Scottish students is the lowest in the UK.