We welcomed the opportunity to participate in the first Less Survivable Cancers Awareness Day and joined the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce in raising the profile of less survivable cancers, including neurological cancers, through our video of support on twitter.

We know that the earlier cancer is detected the greater the chance of survival, this is particularly important across rapidly-advancing diseases like the less survivable cancers, which include brain tumours. Our Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme adopts a whole-systems approach to diagnosing and treating cancer as early as possible. This £44m programme received an additional £20m in August 2021 and is being developed and supported by a new Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme Board.

Scotland’s first three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) are now live in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. These Centres provide primary care with a new referral route for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer (including weight loss, fatigue and nausea), which do not meet Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer for specific cancer types, including brain tumours.

On 1 February £4m of additional funding was announced to boost in-person Easter study support provision in schools and colleges. This funding should allow schools and colleges – or local authorities through authority-wide initiatives – to offer targeted sessions for learners over the Easter break, particularly for those from the most deprived backgrounds. Where an existing Easter study offer already exists, this funding could allow schools or colleges to broaden their existing offer for targeted learners or, through promotion, encourage those learners to attend existing sessions.

In addition, the National e-Learning offer continues to deliver a strong package of resources for learners, teachers and practitioners. This includes a supported study programme with real time webinars and nearly 3,000 on-demand recorded lessons for the senior phase during the academic year and an online Easter study support programme offering over 60 courses. Senior phase learners from all 32 local authorities are accessing these opportunities.

The amount of funding allocated to, and paid to successful applicants to the Forestry Grant Scheme in each year from 2016 to 2021 is shown in Table 1.

Claimed grant is normally lower than the total grant award as a result of contracts that were not delivered on time due to a range of circumstances including weather conditions during the planting season, succession of land ownership during the contract delivery period and requests for contract variation to subsequent years.

I am not aware of any reports that glass captured through our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) could be processed outside Scotland.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-07104 on 18 March 2022, DRS will significantly increase the quantity and quality of glass recyclate. Local authorities will continue to collect glass not captured by DRS in line with the duty in the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

I am therefore confident that DRS will have a significant positive impact on the quality and quantity of recycled glass that is available to manufacturers in Scotland.

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 .

We currently have three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (EDCD) live in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. The Centre in NHS Dumfries and Galloway has been operational since 17 th May, NHS Fife since 6 th June, and NHS Ayrshire and Arran since 21 st June 2021.

The University of Strathclyde has been contracted to undertake independent evaluation of the ECDCs, to help inform wider roll-out across Scotland. The full evaluation will cover a two-year period (this is in line with wider UK nations’ evaluation of similar rapid diagnostic centre models), and will report in September 2023. Additionally, an interim report will be provided in September 2022.

In January 2021, the First Minister announced an additional investment of £250 million to tackle drug deaths, £100 million of which was allocated to develop residential rehabilitation services and associated aftercare over the next five years. Alongside this, the Scottish Government provided Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) with a £13.5 million uplift per year, over the next five years, £5 million of which has been allocated to support additional residential rehabilitation capacity across Scotland. However, this uplift did not start until the 2021-2022 financial year.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has published an interim monitoring report on statutory funded residential rehabilitation placements between 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. The figures for the Highlands and Islands region are as follows:

Argyll and Bute 9 placements (total cost £78,111),

Highland 48 placements (£222,797),

Shetland number of placements unavailable due to data suppression (£29,450).

Orkney and the Western Isles submitted nil returns.

Public Health Scotland are due to release a further monitoring report on statutory funded placement figures in April 2022, which will cover the period of October to December 2021.

Since the Drug Deaths Taskforce was established in July 2019, there have been 20 meetings of the core Taskforce, with the next meeting taking place on 13 April. There have also been a significant number of working groups, sub-group and deep dive sessions.

The remit of the Taskforce is to provide evidence based advice, and a link to the remit and the terms of reference can be located here - Taskforce Mission and Terms of Reference | Drug Deaths Taskforce

The key outcomes of the Taskforce meetings are the recommendations which they make to Government and other partners. The recommendations the Taskforce has made to date can be found here - DDTF - Recommendations | Drug Deaths Taskforce . The Taskforce will be producing their final recommendations by July 2022.

An update on the progress towards each recommendation was recently provided to the joint committee of the Criminal Justice, Health Social Care and Sport and Social Justice and Social Security Committees on 2 February 2022, this evidence can be found here - CJS6225 | Scottish Parliament Website . Further updates will be made to Parliament in due course.

In January 2021, the First Minister announced an additional investment of £250 million to tackle drug deaths, £100 million of which was allocated to develop residential rehabilitation services and associated aftercare over the next five years. Alongside this, the Scottish Government provided Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) with a £13.5 million uplift per year, over the next five years, £5 million of which has been allocated to support additional residential rehabilitation capacity across Scotland. However, this uplift did not start until the 2021-2022 financial year.

The distribution from the ADP uplift within the Highlands and Islands region in 2021-22, from the £5 million allocated for residential rehabilitation, is as follows:

Argyll and Bute: £95,095

Highland: £234,516

Shetland: £24,422

Orkney: £25,066

Western Isles: £33,425.

This brings the total amount of funding allocated so far to ADPs within the Highlands and Islands region to £412,524.

We have kept the wholesale sector closely involved in discussions relating to the development and implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), in particular through engagement with the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA).

As table 1, page 12, paragraph 46 of the amended Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for DRS makes clear, the SWA was consulted as part of the policy-development process that led to the amended BRIA.

Our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is complementary to extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, which we are working with the other UK administrations to introduce. Both DRS and packaging EPR will drive higher recycling rates for glass, creating a significant opportunity for the Scottish glass reprocessing industry.