Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Digitisation of records is an operational responsibility of individual Health Boards and GP practices, therefore, it may be available from local Health Boards.

The Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP), to be published in summer, will include the Scottish Government's updated policy position on offshore oil and gas exploration and production, among other matters. The Strategy will set out a clear pathway to deliver on global commitments and capitalise on the enormous opportunities offered by becoming a net zero economy. Our focus remains on reducing emissions in line with climate goals, meeting our energy security needs and ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas workforce as North Sea resources decline.

Alongside finalising the ESJTP, we continue to engage with the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance as part of a wider programme of analysis and engagement with a range of organisations and stakeholders. The final ESJTP will also build from the substantial independent evidence base on domestic energy transition in the context of the global Paris Agreement goals that was developed and published in support of the draft version.

This relates to indicative figures provided by universities at the start of the academic session. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) will publish the 2023-24 academic year Official Statistics data in 2025. These will provide the most accurate figures on enrolments into modern language Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes.

This information is informing the work of Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail together with work to improving the promotion of teaching as a valued career.

Both the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council have offered to work with universities to develop alternative routes into subjects which have traditionally been difficult to recruit to.

Our Teaching Bursary Scheme is offering a £20,000 payment to career changers who are looking to undertake teacher training in hard to fill STEM subjects – physics, maths, technical education, computing science, chemistry and home economics. The scheme was also extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.

There is only one high street ophthalmologist (ophthalmic medical practitioner) listed to provide General Ophthalmic Services in Scotland.

However, community optometrists have been increasing their role to support the care of NHS patients and this is continuing. NHS Education for Scotland funded training is enabling more optometrists to become independent prescribers each year resulting in more care for patients without the need for hospital referral or general practice support. Scotland is also the first country in the UK to embed independent prescribing into the undergraduate optometry course from this autumn.

Additionally, community optometrists are also becoming accredited around Scotland to safely manage the care of patients with lower risk glaucoma, enabling the discharge of these patients to high quality care nearer to home, freeing up much needed hospital eye service capacity.

Transport Scotland's involvement in Project CAVForth demonstrates the Scottish Government's belief that a modern transport system is fundamental to sustainable and inclusive economic growth and has the potential to deliver economic and societal benefits.

Transport Scotland’s involvement in Project CAVForth, as a partner, came to a conclusion at the end of July 2023 when the funding period for the project ended. The project aim of delivering an autonomous bus service was successfully achieved and my officials obtained considerable operational knowledge relating to the steps required to support the safe implementation of such a service. As Transport Scotland was only a partner for a 12 week period of the trial service, there was a constraint on the amount of evaluation that could be undertaken within that time period. Nevertheless, through Transport Scotland’s involvement, my officials met regularly with City of Edinburgh Council and Fife Council to provide updates on the project, in addition to sharing learning at a number of industry events that representatives from various local roads authorities attended.

As the trial service continues until March 2025 under the successor project (CAVForth 2), the project partners (which does not include Transport Scotland) are continuing to evaluate the project including via Stagecoach as the operator of the service. In Transport Scotland’s role as the roads authority for the majority of the route, my officials will continue to support the project and share further learning with other Scottish Transport Authorities. Most recently this was done through the delivery of a presentation by my officials at an ITS UK event, which was attended by Glasgow City Council on 8 February 2024.

My officials also continue to actively engage with partners to gain a greater understanding of the impact that the deployment of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, the benefits that they bring and opportunities to share this knowledge more widely.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to maximising the important contribution forestry and tree nurseries make in tackling the climate emergency, in the face of the most challenging budget settlement since devolution from the UK Government. The funding provided will support approximately 9,000 ha of new woodland creation; the highest figure in the UK.

Scottish Forestry is in discussion with the sector and will continue to meet with the forestry and nursery sector to ensure we make the most of the resources available. Scottish Forestry is supporting the industry as best we possibly can, including encouragement to increase using plants for restocking and to access other markets outside of Scotland for their high quality stock, helping to create a more resilient business model for the longer term.

The Scottish Government's approach to rare conditions and diseases is not condition-specific. As there are over 7,000 rare conditions it is unfortunately not feasible for NHS Inform to host and maintain individual pages for each condition.

We are absolutely committed to ensuring that people living with a rare condition like Aplastic Anaemia will benefit from our approach. Our Action Plan for Rare Disease (published December 2022) set out our wider priorities and actions, including raising awareness of rare conditions among healthcare professionals.

The current NHS Inform page for rare conditions, developed to improve awareness of rare conditions and signpost to sources of support, is by no means final. We will continue to listen to rare disease community feedback and shape our web content around the needs of all rare condition communities.

As set out in answer S6W-26209 on 19 April 2024, the information requested on how many cancer nurses have been employed in each year since 2011-12, broken down by NHS board area is not centrally available. 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 .

It is for each individual NHS Board to determine how they plan to meet the needs and priorities of their local populations. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing access to diabetes technologies. We are continuing to work with key stakeholders to determine the best way to do this and how to fund it.

The future investment in our transport network will be set out in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) Delivery Plan. This will align with the sustainable mode and investment hierarchies. New roads projects will normally only be taken forward where they reduce the maintenance backlog; address road safety concerns or adapt the network to deal with the impacts of climate change or benefit communities such as bypassing settlements.

The impact of climate change is built into Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) with a specific Climate Change criteria introduced in the latest update. As part of this approach two transport modelling scenarios in transport appraisal ensure that the 20% car km reduction target is a key part of the appraisal of transport projects, including road project appraisal. As such, climate change impacts are a key part of our investment decision making processes, including prioritising investment in line with the sustainable investment hierarchy.

We will publish a final 20% reduction in car use route map by autumn 2024 which includes a timeline for implementing demand management. This will include consideration of how local government action can further incentivise the switch to EVs in addition to reducing overall car km.

We will carefully consider the UK Climate Change Committee report recommendations and provide a Scottish Government response in due course.