Chamber and committees

While the powers to take meaningful action in regard to energy pricing sit with the UK Government, we are doing everything we can to support households with high energy bills.

We recently tripled our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £30m for 2023-24, to support anyone at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use. That fund continues to provide a lifeline to households at risk of self-rationing or self-disconnecting their energy. We also made an additional £1.2 million available to help our advice services meet increasing demand last year.

Our new Winter Heating Payment replaces DWP’s Cold Weather Payment and provides a stable, reliable annual £55 which will help around 400,000 low-income individuals with their heating expenses each winter.

We have allocated £350m to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures in 2023/24, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households, while our £1.4m Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund is supporting those in our island communities who traditionally see higher costs for food and fuel.

We have called repeatedly on the UK Government to provide additional, targeted support for consumers in vulnerable circumstances. I am due to meet with the UK Government Minister for Energy Consumers later this month and will raise again the need for further action to support those who have been most affected by the ending of the Energy Bills Support Scheme ending as well as the need for a social tariff for energy consumers.

The Scottish Government has not had specific conversations with trade unions regarding self-driving buses but we are aware that concerns have previously been raised about the possible future impact on jobs. Whilst the longer term impact of the adoption of CAV technologies on jobs is uncertain, Scotland will not be isolated from this and our involvement in Project CAVForth ensures we are at the forefront of developing the technology.

Even in a future that has fully autonomous vehicles, the work to date of my officials with partners on Project CAVForth supports the view that bus operators must continue to provide a focus on customer experience to provide assistance, ensure appropriate personal safety and comfort. This will be delivered during the CAVForth trial by the provision of both the legally required safety driver and an additional ‘Bus Captain’. The safety driver will be ready to take over the driving task at any time, whilst the Bus Captain will provide support and assistance to customers e.g. ticketing, travel advice etc.

The Scottish Government believes that the development and deployment of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles has the potential to bring transformative change to peoples’ lives, not just in how we travel, but in how we work, where we live, the environment, and road safety. Our National Transport Strategy 2 highlights that we will use beneficial innovation to improve our transport system and seek to make Scotland a market leader in the development and early adoption of beneficial transport innovations. This Government wants Scotland to be at the forefront of developments in CAVs and we are excited to see how this technology can help to support our vision for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system.

71 GP practices in Scotland are currently staffed by a single GP.

The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy (December 2022) sets out our cross-government approach to carer support and recognition, including through collaboration with different partners spanning local government, the Third Sector, the NHS and the wider public sector. The Strategy specifically considers the importance of all employers being positive about carers in the workforce, and sets out our intentions regarding carers and employment at chapter 4. This includes our commitment to fund and promote the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme.

The Scottish Government funds Carers Scotland to run the scheme, raise awareness and engage with public services and other prospective employers, for example through direct engagement, speaking at networks and events and one-to-one support. The Scottish Government Ministers will continue to promote the scheme, working with Carers Scotland.

A full list of Carer Positive employers, including a significant proportion of public bodies is published on the Carer Positive website .

The next set of affordable housing investment benchmarks will be included in an update to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme process and procedures guidance, which is in the process of being finalised. We expect to publish this guidance shortly.

There is no reliable data held or published which we can refer to answer this question: Whilst Public Health Scotland publish the total number of patients waiting for specialist mental health services, detail of the individual types of assessment or diagnosis is not held.

The publications for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting times for the quarter ending December 2022 can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government’s National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs receive the support that they require. The Specification is purposefully inclusive and includes support for those who may be identified with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The following table sets how many Gastroenterology training posts were advertised and filled in Scotland in each year since 2019. The 2023 recruitment cycle is currently underway; results will be available later in the year.

There is no requirement for patients to pay a deposit on registration, you can find details of this on the following link Dental treatment - NHS Scotland | NHS inform .

There are 111.9 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) Gastroenterology consultants in post in Scotland, with 10.1 WTE vacancies. This data is accurate as of December 2022.

There are 47 training posts across all years of the Gastroenterology training programme, all of which are filled. There are no vacant training posts. This data is accurate as of December 2022.