Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21195 on 19 September 2023. In the meantime, we are focussing on the successful implementation of Fair Work First conditionality in public sector grants. 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 Onshore Wind Sector Deal includes an industry commitment to making community benefit agreements binding at the point of Financial Investment Decision, and to maintaining community benefits and shared ownership agreements as a condition of sale or transfer of a wind farm.

This is supported by a joint Scottish Government and industry commitment to establish a standard approach to the management of community benefits funds and to establish a national register of community benefits and community shared ownership, to ensure transparency and effective reporting.

Building on the recommendations of the Investor Panel, the Scottish Government is creating a new Housing Investment Taskforce, which meets for the first time today. The work of the Taskforce will include identifying actions to build investor confidence, attract further mobile capital investment into housing and unlock existing financial commitments.

All patients who access NHS Pharmacy First Scotland do so by self-referral. In some cases though they will have been advised to attend a community pharmacy by NHS24 or another healthcare service.

Public Health Scotland has published data on the number of patients who used NHS Pharmacy First Scotland during its first full year of operation, 2021/22. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, twenty-three percent of the Scottish population (1,242,801 people) accessed Pharmacy First Scotland services at least once. This data is not published as a breakdown by Health Board. More information can be found at NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - NHS Pharmacy First Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The figures for 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 (up to September 2023) will be published on 16 April and will be available at the same link.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many primary care appointments were cancelled in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government is aware of the pressures facing businesses due to inflation, energy costs and the cost crisis. While Scottish Ministers are sympathetic to calls to replicate the non-domestic rates relief available to businesses in England in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, doing so would have meant that the Scottish Government could not provide the NHS, schools, or emergency services with the funding they require.

The Scottish Government estimates that over 60% of properties in the hospitality sector across Scotland will be eligible for 100% relief from Non-Domestic Rates in 2024-25 (including from the Small Business Bonus Scheme, the new islands and specified remote areas hospitality relief, and others).

The Scottish Government have recently corresponded with the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on this question. See Electronic patient record | Scottish Parliament Website . To support our ambitions set out in the 2021 Strategy - Digital Healthcare Scotland % (digihealthcare.scot) we will be publishing our Delivery Plan for 2024-25 in late April 2024.

The Scottish Government welcomes the research published by the University of Aberdeen. We recognise that this data covers the time period between 2007 and 2017 and that there will have been continued service innovation in recent years including, for example, the roll out of Near Me.

However it is clear that improvements are needed. Our strategic aim, as reflected in the Cancer Strategy for Scotland (2023-33), is to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care. One of our 11 ambitions in the strategy is Tackling Inequalities.

A Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the cancer strategy and plan was published in August 2023. A planned external evaluation will focus on inequalities, particularly social deprivation and geographies.

We are committed to understanding patients’ experiences, gaining opportunities for improvement and sharing good practice examples to ensure equitable cancer care. The first mail out of our latest Cancer Patient Experience Survey was sent on 14th February helping us work towards this aim.

The Deputy First Minister has confirmed in a letter on 6 March to COSLA that £62.7 million of additional funding will be provided in 2024-25 and local authorities will have full autonomy to allocate the funding based on local needs and priorities. While all new funding has to be discussed and agreed through the formal financial governance process including the Settlement and Distribution Group (SDG) and COSLA Leaders, Aberdeenshire Council's provisional share of the additional £62.7 million is estimated to be around £2.9 million.

In addition, Aberdeenshire Council will receive around £8 million following the Council’s decision to freeze Council Tax and all Councils will receive their fair share of the currently undistributed sum of £201.1 million following agreement with COSLA.

The number of medical training places is calculated by the training year they are advertised/filled rather than by financial year. Most posts start in August to September of each year, with a smaller number from a subsequent recruitment round starting in February. The figures quoted in the following table are specific to training years, with data for 2024 not yet available.