Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government did not set the ScotWind seabed lease Option Agreement fees. The advisory note prepared for the Scottish Government recommends that any new, higher, levels be appropriately justified. Crown Estate Scotland (“CES”) proceeded to satisfy those requirements through, in this case, appropriate consideration of externally procured advice. CES explained to SG the rationale for the pricing structure adopted. No further information is held relating to that recommendation.

Crown Estate Scotland is responsible for the ScotWind seabed leasing process, including setting Option Agreement fees and rent prices. Crown Estate Scotland informed Scottish Government of its pricing structure based on its own evidence gathering and information available at the time. Once projects are under seabed leases and wind farms are generating energy, rental payments are annual – these are separate from the Option Agreement payments.

The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to develop an online platform for members of the public to access information on the average waiting times for a range of treatments within their health board area. We expect the platform to be available this summer.

Patients will continue to receive communication from their Health Boards when they are added to a waiting list which will provide details of their point of contact for updated wait times should they be unable to access the online platform.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08571 on 30 May 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 working with Public Health Scotland to develop an online platform for members of the public to access information on the average waiting times for a range of treatments within their health board area. We expect the platform to be available this summer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08571 on 30 May 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08571 on  30 May 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

There are no immediate plans to make any changes, the resource will be kept under continual review and we intend on evaluating its effectiveness this summer.

The Scottish Government allocated £5 million in the financial year 2020-21 to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work. This money was allocated to the following services;

• Coaching for Wellbeing
• Digital Resources
• Formal Psychological Interventions
• Workforce Specialist Service

The NHS Recovery Plan highlights our ambitious plans to expand and grow the workforce, in particular to assist with the additional procedures we intend on undertaking through our NTC's.

Significantly, we are recruiting more staff throughout the NHS so our ambitious recovery can be fully realised, with this plan outlining our commitment to:

Recruit 1,500 new clinical and non-clinical staff for National Treatment Centres by 2026 .

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors.

We continue to actively listen to colleagues across Health and Social care to understand where the current pressures are, and what actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.