The Scottish Government payment system confirms that no funding has been provided to Stream Bioenergy in the last 5 years.

The Scottish Government is working closely with NHS Education for Scotland (NES), to identify and deliver training opportunities for health and social care workers in rural and island areas. Through the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, housed within NES, 30 practitioners have undertaken the MSc in Rural Advanced Practice in 2023 and 2024, supporting career development, increasing equity in education and supporting the sustainability of primary healthcare services. The Centre will continue to develop new rural specific recognised qualifications to address skills gaps and drive innovation.

We are currently funding a dedicated resource in NES to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with the aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers.

The Open University already provides distance learning Nursing degree education, which is accessed by Healthcare Support Workers already employed by NHS Boards, enabling them to train in their local area and continue to work.

Further, work is being explored via the Allied Health Professional and Healthcare Science education reviews’ recommendations and the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce on how best to diversify the delivery and flexibility of education programmes.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing requirements are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant Health Board. As such, recruitment is a matter for Health Boards. The National Health Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2004 has created a duty on Health Boards to co-operate with each other to secure and advance the health of the people of Scotland, enabling the arrangement of travelling consultants

Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) has hosted 12 local community drop in engagement sessions within the Calton and surrounding area focused on allowing local residents the opportunity to raise concerns, ask questions and engage with the project leads. Local residents who use drugs and family members were also included. The drop in sessions were advertised locally via posters, via leaflet drop and via social media. Questions from the sessions informed a Frequently Asked Questions document (available here - SDCF - Frequently asked questions) and Glasgow ADP also created a ‘You Said We did’ document to demonstrate the actions taken following feedback which is shared at all in-person sessions.

These sessions were in addition to several attendances by the ADP at Community Council meetings, local Area Partnership meetings, and Local Engagement Forum meetings.

To allow ongoing community engagement, the ADP have also established the Thistle Community Forum, including local residents, local business, Police Scotland, the Recovery Community and other key stakeholders which will support people to raise concerns and facilitate a coordinated response.

In addition, Glasgow City Council organised 2 additional deep cleans of the surrounding area in response to local residents complaints about the poor state of the streets. The independent evaluation researchers were invited to attend in response to questions about how the impact of the service on the local community would be measured.

Glasgow City ADP will continue to engage with local residents, businesses and their staff in the run up to the opening of the facility and once it is established.

The duty to carry out Island Communities Impact Assessments came into force on 23 December 2020. All ICIAs and decisions not to carry out an ICIA are published by the Scottish Government and are readily available to access online.

While the Scottish Government provides the overarching guidance/framework for patient travel expenses reimbursement, NHS Boards are responsible for developing local policy to best meet the needs to their populations, and for assessing eligibly for financial support and level of that support. The cost of reimbursement is met from Boards’ budgets and all Boards must balance value for money with patient need, ensuring that patients are supported in identifying and accessing available support and that patient care is at the centre of all decisions.

The Scottish Government has committed to a review of the overarching patient travel expenses reimbursement guidance. However, a start date for the review is not confirmed at this time; it is important that the review is considered within the context of wider reform on access to health care.

It is recognised that transport to health is a key enabler to ensure equitable access to healthcare, and work to bring travel/transport and health planning closer together is in progress. This work will include bringing local bodies together at a regional level to consider the options for transport to health. This work will also inform how and when a review of the overarching patient travel expenses reimbursement guidance is taken forward.

The Scottish Government is working closely with key stakeholders, including NHS Scotland and third sector to ensure that health professionals embed conversations about alcohol consumption and the risk it carries in developing a range of cancers, for example through Alcohol Brief Interventions, into their daily practices. The Scottish Government also worked closely with Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) to disseminate SHAAP’s guidance, highlighting the link between alcohol and cancer, to health professionals across Scotland.

Cancer remains a national priority, within the Scottish Government and across NHS Scotland. That is why we published our Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 in June 2023.

Protecting the planet is a clear government priority which is why we must ensure that resourcing matches the scale of work required to deliver a net zero Scotland by 2045, balancing that with a need to ensure efficiencies in our public services.

We continually review staffing and resourcing, to support our commitments and ensure that the government’s ambition for tackling climate change is delivered as part of our regular assurance processes.

In addition, there is oversight of resourcing of climate change activity through the Global Climate Emergency Programme Board.

We have been engaging with the shareholders of the Grangemouth Refinery business over many years on future options for the site, demonstrated in a track record support for low carbon technologies at the site. Via Scottish Enterprise, since 2021 we have supported a range of studies which explored the feasibility a bio-refinery at Grangemouth, as well as the use of low carbon hydrogen for fuel switching purposes. These studies are predecessors to the Project Willow study, which the business approached the Scottish Government with in early 2024 and is considering the enablers and blockers to deploying a range of low carbon technologies at Grangemouth.

The draft route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car use published in 2022 outlines our approach to achieving this. A period of engagement and consultation followed publication, and the analysis and consideration of the consultation responses are shaping the updated route map which will be published in due course.

The route map is co-produced with CoSLA, in recognition of the joint commitment to a just transition to reducing car use and we are continuing to work closely with local and regional partners to update the route map and we will publish it on completion of that engagement.”