Throughout February 2024 the Scottish Government is undertaking consultation events with members of the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group on the draft Student Mental Health Action Plan. Following this, and the completion of attendant Impact Assessments, the Scottish Government will publish the Student Mental Health Action Plan .

The draft Plan sets out our expectations for institutions on supporting student mental health and wellbeing and how the Scottish Government will work with them and the wider public sector to give effect to those. It recognises the critical importance of early intervention and prevention and ensuring effective access to a diverse range of community-based clinical and non-clinical services. It outlines the significant levels of Scottish Government investment in mental health and wellbeing support which students can access. It makes clear the importance of providing timely clinical acute care for those who require it and how we will work with NHS Boards and institutions in this area.

Improving diet and levels of healthy weight remains a public health priority for this Government. As part of a range of action to improve diet, and help create a food environment which better supports healthier choices, we remain committed to restricting promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) at the point of purchase - this is when people make their decisions about what and how much to buy and to consume, for themselves as well as for their families.

I can confirm that, on 27 February 2024, the consultation paper on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt was published on the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781835219058 and on the Citizen Space portal at

https://consult.gov.scot/population-health/restriction-promotion-of-food-and-drink-proposed .

The consultation builds on previous public consultations and Ministerial engagement with business and health stakeholders, and is supported with a partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment which has also been published today: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781835219867 .

The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on 21 May 2024.

The findings of the School and college teacher consultation on the recommendations of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment and National Discussion on Education were published at 9:30 on 27 February 2024.

The NHS Scotland Scan for Safety Programme is focused on improving traceability and patient outcomes for high risk implantable medical devices. The Programme has established pilot sites in NHS Lothian and NHS Golden Jubilee with both sites implementing Point of Care data capture in key specialities.

NHS Western Isles will commence implementation of Scan for Safety in March 2024. Work is underway to confirm further NHS Boards for roll-out in financial year 2024-25. It is planned at present to implement Scan for Safety across territorial boards by the end of March 2026.

The Scottish Government recently provided details of plans connected to electronic patient records to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee – see Electronic patient record | Scottish Parliament Website

The Scottish Budget: 2024 to 2025 allocated £2.2 million to the Scan for Safety programme. Funds available will meet initial costs of new systems and necessary licences; provide boards with advisors on implementation; meet the costs of scanning handsets; and, help to introduce scanning in services where implanted devices are used.

The Scottish Government is collaborating with four nations partners on the adoption of data standards and has representation on various UK-level groups. Through our Data Strategy for Health and Social Care we have committed to setting out the preferred standards for use across the sector to facilitate interoperability and the sharing of patient records. In progressing this aim we have recently engaged with English and Welsh colleagues on their approach to adopting and publishing standards.

The Scottish Government has no plans to reinstate the Carers Register in GP practices.

The Carers Register was previously undertaken by practices as part of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). The requirement for practices to complete the QOF was removed in 2016 and quality planning, improvement and assurance within general practice is now carried out through GP Clusters.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role played by carers and practices can continue to use markers on their patient registrations to recognise those with caring duties.

I shall lead a debate in Parliament on the recommendations of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment on 28 February 2024.

The Scottish Government fully supports rail freight and modal shift, thus this is outlined in the 2016 rail freight strategy https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/5362/ts-rail-freight-strategy-a4-aw3.pdf

In 2019 Network Rail, and the industry, developed a comprehensive Industry Growth Plan for Rail Freight and an updated Plan for longer-term growth is being developed.

Our priority for supporting Rail freight remains in facilitating more efficient operation - through investment in capacity, adjustment of passenger services and encouraging and requiring Network Rail to support rail freight. We want rail freight to be competitive without the need for subsidy.

The existing "Scottish Government Records Management Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland) 2020 has short section on dealing with health records of those who identify as transgender. This links to guidance from the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, the General Medical Council and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). It was recognised in 2020 that it was an area under development, and subsequently the Scottish Government's Chief Statistician issued guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex and gender (2021). The draft Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care, due out in the spring of 2024 aims to incorporate the Chief Statistician's guidance along with feedback from stakeholders and provide further guidance to NHS Boards.