There are currently 7 Boards receiving enhanced support and over the next 6-12 months we intend to extend our programme of enhanced improvement support to all Boards that need it. We have asked all Health Boards to provide trajectories outlining how they will meet the 90% waiting times standard and these trajectories are used to monitor performance and drive improvements.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

I am pleased to see Royal Society of Chemistry highlighting this important issue through its recent report.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency. The shift to a circular economy represents an enormous economic and industrial opportunity for Scotland.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government and environmental groups to develop a route map to deliver our waste, recycling and climate change targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and circular economy across a range of waste streams.

In October 2020, we published our Inward Investment Plan, which identifies the transformation of the chemicals industries as one of Scotland’s nine opportunity areas for inward investment.

Partnering with Scottish Enterprise, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) supports the advancement of bio-based solutions across all sectors. This includes supporting members of IBioIC to develop sustainable solutions for the paint industry.

Scotland’s chemical sciences R&D is consistently ranked top 3 in the world. R&D expenditure on chemicals & chemical products and pharmaceuticals totalled £192 million in 2019, 13.7% of the Scottish total.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03956 on 15 November 2021. 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

In year one, the Fund will be split evenly between Capital and Financial Transactions. Detail of what each can be used for is available in HMT’s consolidated budget guidance, the most recent version of which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consolidated-budgeting-guidance-2021-to-2022

A full public consultation into proposed restrictions on the advertising and promotion of vaping products was launched on February 3. The consultation will run for 12 weeks and all responses will be independently analysed.

NHS Boards are expected to assess their patients’ travel needs and can, if required, direct them to appropriate support this will include local volunteer groups and charities who they have engaged with. For example NHS Ayrshire and Arran has a service level agreement with Ayrshire Cancer Support which provides transport for patients.

The Scottish Government acted on requests by retail organisations not to launch the consultation in the run-up to Christmas which is the busiest trading period and may not have allowed retailers the full opportunity to share their views. We took the opportunity to liaise with a short-life working group and update the consultation in line with the most recent emerging evidence.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06307 on 28 February 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

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with kidney diseases are able to access the best possible support and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. We expect NHS Boards to adhere to current guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment options from authorative sources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the UK Kidney Association (UKKA).

In Scotland we are at the forefront of using service and performance data to improve care and diagnosis of kidney disease. This includes the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which reports on patients receiving renal replacement therapy and promoting excellence in renal care in Scotland through best practice audits.

The National Cancer Quality Steering Group (NCQSG) has responsibility for the development and oversight of tumour specific national quality performance indicators (QPIs) to measure the quality of care for patients, this includes a set specifically for renal cancers.

We have also invested in research which is intended to inform new approaches for earlier diagnosis of kidney disease through the Scottish Chief Scientist Office: Kidney function and cancer risk: An analysis using creatinine and cystatin C in a cohort study (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8413238/ .