The topic of Scottish independence was not discussed.

A table with the information requested has been placed in SPICE bib number 65255.

The information requested on how many whole-time equivalent anaesthetists have been employed in each year since 2019 can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (Employment over time tab, anaesthetics consultants).

The information requested on how many whole-time equivalent anaesthetists have left the profession, in each year since 2019 can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (Turnover tab).

The requested information on how many whole-time equivalent anaesthetists have retired in each year since 2019 is not centrally available.

The Scottish Government has not conducted research to discover the rate of ‘false negatives’ after the application of the FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) test.

Public Health Scotland are best placed to advise on research they have undertaken. Public Health Scotland can be contacted at: General enquiries - Contact us - Public Health Scotland

Police Scotland have confirmed that the increase in claims received by NFU Mutual from Scotland for the 2022/23 period can largely be attributed to a particular 'spike' during that period including the theft of farm machinery, GPS units and an increase in quad bike thefts. A significant proportion of the machinery that was taken with investigations ongoing.

The Scottish Government continues to work with partners across the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) and through the continued expansion of the local partnerships against Crime (LPARCS) across Scotland.

These partnerships share intelligence on organised crime groups operating across borders, providing specific ‘target hardening’ information to the rural and farming community on how to best secure and prevent theft of equipment. They also demonstrate crime prevention measures in relation to the marking, tracking and securing of farm machinery and tools, including in the highest impacted areas.

We are aware of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, enforceable in England and Wales but, as yet, have no intelligence on how effective it has been in preventing this sort of crime.

The theft of agricultural plant and machinery is a significant concern to our rural communities and can have serious consequences for the agricultural sector in terms of cost and confidence. The Scottish Government continues to work with partners across the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) and through the continued expansion of the local partnerships against Crime (LPARCS) across Scotland with this sort of theft a priority for the group.

SPARC and the local partnerships share intelligence on organised crime groups operating across borders, providing specific information to the rural and farming community on how to best secure and prevent theft of equipment, as well as other crimes. They also demonstrate crime prevention measures in relation to the marking, tracking and securing of farm machinery and tools, including in the highest impacted areas.

Despite deeply challenging financial circumstances, we are investing record funding of £1.55 billion in policing in the current financial year, which is an increase of £92.7 million. It is for the Scottish Police Authority, working with the Chief Constable, to determine how to allocate its budget to meet policing priorities.

Enforcement of all traffic offences is a matter for Police Scotland, which operates independently of Scottish Ministers. However, the Scottish Government fully supports Police Scotland and its partners in dealing with the misuse of such vehicles. Local policing teams are ideally placed to identify where the misuse of such vehicles is causing distress to the public and ensure that those areas can be prioritised to prevent future incidents.

The Scottish Government was previously in contact with Police Scotland in June 2022 about the issue of quad bikes and other off-road vehicles. Police Scotland then outlined work ongoing within local policing divisions in raising awareness of the dangers of misusing such vehicles. The Scottish Government has encouraged local authority partners to continue to work closely with Police Scotland on these issues.

We launched a new Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund on 8 March 2023. This funding is helping organisations to create opportunities for people to connect with one another in our communities. 53 projects are currently operational across Scotland, delivering projects within communities that are diverse and are responding to local needs. Disabled people are one of the priority groups targeted by the Fund.

Our analysis of the fund informs us that 20 out of the 53 funded projects are targeted at disabled people and to date 1529 disabled people are benefitting from the services provided by these projects.

We will continue to evaluate the fund and learn what further interventions are required for disabled people who experience loneliness.

We recognise loneliness impacts on different demographics as stated in ‘A Connected Scotland’ and we are using this strategy to bring together the different parts of Government that can make a real difference in tackling loneliness. This is evident in approaches delivered by both Creative Scotland and Sport Scotland, both Government funded bodies, who invest and support people to connect by enabling access to inclusive activities.

The information requested is not held centrally by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government collects information on the types of temporary accommodation provided or arranged by the local authority which a household makes a homelessness application to. Information on the location of this accommodation is not collected. Temporary accommodation data by local authority is released on an biannual basis as part of the Homelessness in Scotland statistics

I met Beatrice Wishart in July 2023 to discuss the work carried out by Dogs Against Drugs (Shetland) and have corresponded with her since. Dogs Against Drugs (Shetland) receives funding from the Scottish Government-funded Shetland Alcohol and Drugs partnership and has previously received a one-off grant from the Serious Organised Crime Community Grant Scheme. I have agreed to provide a further one-off grant of £30,000 to help meet current pressures while my officials assess the longer term funding position against an extremely challenging financial climate.