As the Deputy First Minister set out in her Budget Statement on 19 December 2023, the financial position across Scottish Government is extremely challenging and work is ongoing to identify measures to address the continued challenges in 2024-25 and beyond.

Integration Joint Boards are responsible for the governance, planning, and resourcing of adult palliative care services, including hospices, using the integrated budget under their control. We will therefore continue to work with Integration Joint Boards and independent hospices to explore solutions and options for longer term sustainable planning and commissioning for the independent hospice sector.

Last year, Scottish Enterprise (SE), working with Innovate UK, invested £15m to establish the state-of-the-art Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre. The facility works with a range of partners in the pharmaceutical industry to conduct research and development, creating leading edge solutions for the manufacture of medicines.

In addition, just a few weeks ago, SE committed around £10m to support the creation of a new oligonucleotides manufacturing innovation centre, that will help pharmaceutical companies to undertake critical phase I and phase II trials to manufacture these highly effective new medicines.

In combination, these centres establish Scotland as a key player in the rapidly growing advanced manufacturing sector and we expect that they will act as a powerful magnet for inward investment and the creation of highly skilled jobs. This is already producing results e.g. Valneva will manufacture its world-first vaccine for the mosquito-bourne Chickungunya virus, in its new manufacturing facility in Livingston.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care.

We are currently developing a new National Strategy for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland. As part of this work, we are reviewing the information and evidence we have, and need, to develop the strategy. This includes gathering data on current and projected needs for palliative care at a population level, mapping governance, services and support across Scotland, and building on our understanding of people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care.

The outputs of this work will give us a clearer picture of the delivery and accessibility of palliative care across Scotland, and will inform a new strategy that reflects what really matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care.

We have appointed a National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care to drive this, supported by a Clinical and Practice Advisory Group and a wide-reaching Strategy Steering Group.

The Steering Group is currently reviewing the information and evidence we have and need to develop the strategy, including mapping services and support across Scotland.

Following the Scottish Government’s 2020 consultation on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures (that pierce or penetrate the skin), officials are working on introducing secondary legislation to enable HIS to regulate independent healthcare services, including non-surgical cosmetic procedures, provided by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from premises other than registered pharmacies, and/or which are provided outwith the terms of NHS contracts.

In addition, officials are engaging with the UK Department of Health and Social Care in regard to their recent consultation and working with stakeholders including healthcare professionals, hair and beauty industry representatives and Environmental Health Officers to consider the potential scope of further regulation in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that Social Isolation and Loneliness is a public health issue, which has been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be affected by the ongoing cost crisis.

The Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, and associated delivery plan, highlights a number of actions we are taking to tackle this public health issue, including funding support to 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs. Priority groups targeted by the Fund are young people (aged 16-24), disabled people, people with a mental health condition, older people (aged 75+) and people living in areas of deprivation or on a low income.

Since 2021, we have invested £51m in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, with 3,300 grants being made to local organisations across Scotland to tackle issues including social isolation. This complements action underway funding 53 community organisations who are delivering befriending services and providing opportunities for people to connect.

This Government continues to respond to these public health issues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21151 on 19 September 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-21151 on 19 September 2023. 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/questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government did not provide any funding directly to Relationships Scotland Borders in 2022.

Relationships Scotland operate a network of 21 Member Services across Scotland, including Relationships Scotland Borders.

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided Relationships Scotland with core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund and with grant funding to provide child contact services.

The best available data about long COVID prevalence among children and young people comes from the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) 2022 (respiratory chapter) , published in December 2023, which reported on people who had ever had long COVID. This data shows that 4% of children aged 0-15 were reported to have ever had long COVID. This is the lowest prevalence rate among all age groups shown in this survey. In January 2024, a breakdown will be published to distinguish between people who were currently experiencing, and had ever experienced, long COVID.