The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads on local authorities. It would not be for the Scottish Government to comment specifically on a local authority’s liability for damages to vehicles.

However, in general a local authority may compensate for damages to vehicles caused by road defects if the road defect is deemed as a hazard that would create a significant risk of an accident to a careful road user and it can be shown that the local authority was a fault for failing to deal with the road defect in line with its procedures.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21155 on‎ 22 September 2023. 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’s 2019 5G Strategy included an action to develop a series of 5G use cases across several industrial sectors, including health and social care. The Scotland 5G Centre has led this work through their network of 5G Innovation Hubs and developed the following use cases:

• “Gro Health” app Dumfries is a personalised treatment platform proven to support sustainable weight loss, blood glucose control, and improvements in mental health and wellbeing.
• “Care Reality VR Training Environment” is Scotland’s first Virtual Reality immersive learning platform using 5G that creates a tailored training environment for health and social care staff.
• “Care Reality Virtual Choirs” is an Extended Reality therapeutic singing intervention with a mental health focus that uses 5G to enable participants to be part of a choir in real time regardless of their physical location.
• “Safehouse Monitoring & Anomaly Detection device” is a 5G-based solution focusing on at-home social care that alerts carers to fall incidents.
• “Smart Walls” project at The Ladyfield at the Crichton is a 5G-based solution which offers potential to improving health and well-being for residents as well as cost savings to the NHS.

The Scotland 5G Centre will also launch a Digital Healthcare Innovation challenge in partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre later in 2023.

We are working to increase the number of publicly funded placements so that by 2026, at least 1000 people are publicly funded to go to rehab every year - a 300% increase on the number prior to the launch of the National Mission.

Public Health Scotland have been monitoring the number of publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements in Scotland. Publications are available for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023: Public Health Scotland Publications . The latest report, published 27 June 2023, reports a steady increase in the number of placements approved and that there were 812 placements for residential rehabilitation approved in 2022-2023.

Alongside this, we are investing in capacity to increase the number of residential rehabilitation beds by 50% which is an increase from 425 beds to 650 beds by 2026.

There has been no specific assessment and it is important to note that these data only reflect Considerate Contractor members.

Scottish Government monitor the market dynamics through our data dashboard which was developed by the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) and can be viewed on the CLF website https://www.constructionforum.scot/ .

We work closely with the construction industry through the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF), chaired by myself, which is the main forum for Scottish Government/Industry interaction and meets every two months.

No NHS Forth Valley buildings have been assessed as containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The NHS Scotland Assure survey programme has identified eight buildings in the NHS Forth Valley estate with two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC. These buildings were included in the list of NHS Scotland buildings which was provided in the response to answer S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023. This list has also been made available on the NHS Scotland Assure website: RAAC -List of Properties v1 Jul 23 (nhs.scot). This list forms the NHS Scotland Assure RAAC survey programme, which commenced in July 2023.

Since 2000-2001, the Scottish Government has funded a total of £4,785,000 of hardship rates relief. The Scottish Government funds 75% of the value of hardship relief, with the remaining 25% funded by councils. For properties affected by the Glasgow School of Art fire, the Scottish Government’s contribution was increased to 95% to reflect the exceptional circumstances.

We are unable to reliably estimate the number of awards granted; numbers of properties receiving any relief are derived from the annual Billing System Snapshot, and due to the nature of hardship relief, the final number awarded per year is not well reflected in snapshot data. The latest non-domestic rates relief statistics, derived from snapshot data, can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-relief-statistics-2022/ .

Hardship relief is a discretionary relief provided for in section 25A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966 which specifies that a council can award Hardship relief if it is satisfied that the relief applicant would sustain hardship if the council did not award the relief, and if it is reasonable for the council to do so, having regard to the interests of persons liable to pay council tax set by them. It is for councils to determine the criteria to ensure these requirements are met when awarding Hardship relief.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The list of NHS Scotland buildings which have two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC was provided in the response to answer S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023. This list has also been made available on the NHS Scotland Assure website: RAAC -List of Properties v1 Jul 23 (nhs.scot). This list forms the NHS Scotland Assure RAAC survey programme, which commenced in July 2023. The eighteen NHS Lanarkshire buildings on this list have not yet been surveyed and there are no indications any NHS Lanarkshire buildings may have to temporarily close due to the presence of RAAC.

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 have commissioned NHS National Services Scotland to establish a National Strategic Network to ensure the development of our approach to supporting people living with long COVID is informed by evidence and expertise. As part of this activity, NHS National Services Scotland has commissioned the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) to facilitate a long COVID Lived Experience Network to support people affected by long COVID to engage with and inform the activity of the Strategic Network.

An Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) has been conducted for the Lived Experience Network to inform its approach and identify issues impacting on people with protected characteristics, including those from minority ethnic communities. When individuals join the network, they are asked to complete a voluntary equalities monitoring form to support with monitoring representation. Regular audits of the membership of the network are conducted to highlight any gaps in representation. This informs where further targeted outreach is needed and to identify areas for improvement.

NHS Boards’ use of the C-19 YRS digital screening tool will provide disaggregated data on who is accessing services, including by ethnicity and other protected characteristics. The collection of health data through the tool will be used to map the provision and effectiveness of long COVID services.