Chamber and committees

We will set out our approach to the future electricity market in an Independent Scotland in the forthcoming Net Zero prospectus paper.

CMAL is fully supportive of Scottish Shipbuilding industry and supply chain, both through support to delivery of the vessels at Fergusons and its role in the Scottish Maritime Cluster. Procurements for vessels include consideration of local content but are open to tender on a wider basis than Scottish suppliers.

A national marketing campaign for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was launched in autumn 2022. This has helped to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme and encouraged more young people to apply. PR and marketing activity was also undertaken during COP26 between October and December 2021 to promote the scheme ahead of its launch.

The following table provides the spend as at 15 November 2022 (inclusive of VAT where applicable) for the two campaigns.

In addition, stakeholder communications to over 300 public, transport, private and third sector organisations has been undertaken throughout 2022 at no additional cost.

I understand how important infusions and injections are for those patients receiving them, and that work is needed to improve care for people with chronic pain and the sustainability of our pain management services.

It is our intention that people can access safe, effective, evidence-based care and support. Therefore, as set out in the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan which we published in July, we are taking action to develop a more consistent, nationally agreed approach to the provision of specialist medical interventions, such as infusions and injections.

This will take into account existing clinical evidence, the variation in approach between Health Boards and seek to reflect the views and needs of both the patient and clinical community.

Appropriate resources are in place to support the Gluten-free Food Service which has been delivered by community pharmacies since 2014. There are no plans to change this service which provides patients with a range of staple gluten-free food products without the need to request a prescription from their GP practice.

Novavax Nuvaxovid is currently available in all Health Boards as an alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and is only to be used in exceptional circumstances. This means that when mRNA vaccines are not considered clinically suitable, the Novavax vaccine may be used for booster vaccination of adults over 18 years. Not clinically suitable means that you can only have Novavax if you have a specific history of allergies to the mRNA vaccines or its ingredients, or your condition makes it unsuitable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11865 on 17 November 2022. Our New Build Heat Standard will apply to all new buildings seeking building warrant approval from 1 April 2024, as well as conversions of existing buildings – however, only where certain criteria are met. Installing new zero direct emissions heating systems will reduce the exposure of consumers to the costs associated with volatile fossil fuel prices.

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 does not hold Cytosponge diagnostic service data broken down by individual Health Board, however the following press release provides detail on the national total delivered by NHS Scotland as at 15 November 2022: https://www.gov.scot/news/innovative-health-technology-helping-patients/ .

In accordance with the requirements of the Railways Act 1993 and the Scottish Ministers’ Franchising Policy Statement, consideration is being given to the successor arrangement for the continued provision of Caledonian Sleeper services.

The most robust method for reporting ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operational performance across the current contract to-date is by presenting the average daily number of non-operational charge point units. The following table provides a monthly breakdown of this information across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network under the current contract. The transitional period immediately after the migration to the current operator focused on network stabilisation, including resolving technical issues across the network, hence the disparity in operational performance in the months of August and September.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention by an engineer.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area. However, CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will be continuously updated with detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, such as uptime by Local Authority area.