I wrote to the Local Government Housing and Planning Committee on 27 October 2023 to set out the scope of the implementation update on short-term let licensing. In this letter I have committed to provide an update to Parliament in early 2024. A copy of this letter is available on the Scottish Parliament website at:

https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/local-gov/correspondence/2023/shorttermlets27oct.pdf

The Scottish Government understands the importance of physical activity in Scotland and the positive impact that has on physical, mental and social health and wellbeing. We should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of being active.

It is the responsibility of local authorities, under the Local Government and Planning Act 1982, to ensure that there is adequate provision of facilities for recreational, sporting, cultural and social activities within the local authority. This should include the provision of gym facilities that are accessible and inclusive, with a fair pricing structure.

sportscotland’s 2022-23 annual review of local authority charges for sports participation in Scotland highlighted 27 local authorities, offered a concessionary scheme for disabled people which provided reduced or free use access to sports and leisure facilities.

The Best Start emphasises parents as key partners in caring for their baby and aims to keep mothers and babies, and families together as much as possible in the crucial early weeks, with services designed around them.

The new model of care aims to minimise the separation of families, and to support parents with babies in neonatal care. We have a number of measures already in place to support families:

• Providing accommodation for parents to stay on or near neonatal units;
• Roll out of the Young Patients Family Fund (formerly the Neonatal Expenses Fund) to support families with the costs of travel, accommodation and food whilst their baby is in neonatal care;
• and
• Repatriating babies to their local neonatal units as soon as clinically possible.

Under the new model of care mothers in suspected extreme pre-term labour are transferred before they give birth (in-utero) to maternity units in the hospitals that have neonatal intensive care units. Experience from the Early Implementer Boards indicates that this will happen in the vast majority of cases. On occasion when it is not possible to transfer mothers before they give birth, the baby will be stabilised and transferred to a NICU by the specialist neonatal transport service ScotSTAR, and the mother will be transferred to the maternity unit in the same hospital as her baby.

The Options Appraisal Report , published on 25 July 2023 describes the process undertaken to determine the three final Neonatal Intensive Care Units, and the feasibility analysis and testing that followed the conclusion of that process. Annex A of the Report includes the criteria and weighting used for the Options Appraisal Process. Annexes C and D of the report outline the data that supported the Options Appraisal process.

Further detail on the methodology and the scoring of individual units can be found as part of the following Freedom of Information request:

Information relating to Options Appraisal Report: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The 5 reports from the Neonatal Early Implementers have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (BIB number 64669).

The Best Start Report, published in 2017 followed a review of maternity and neonatal services in Scotland, and was based on research evidence, the views of clinicians and the views of service users. Based on data on birth data, the report recommended that we move to a model of three intensive care units in Scotland.

The process of determining which units should provide Neonatal Intensive Care followed an Options Appraisal process undertaken by an expert group, including clinical leads and service user representatives. The Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital scored highest based on an agreed short list criteria, definitions and weighting. The group were asked to recommend three units and there was no consideration given to including a fourth unit.

In Scotland there are 55.3 dentists per 100,000 of the population, compared to 42.7 in England and 46.2 in Wales.

Information on the number of dentists per 100,000 of the population in Scotland can be found in the data tables of the NHS Scotland workforce statistics on NHS Education for Scotland’s website: All official statistics publications | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) .

Information on the dental workforce in England and Wales is available online at: NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2022-23, Annual Report - NHS Digital and NHS Dental workforce by local health board, age group, gender, contract type and dentist type (gov.wales) and p opulation estimates by UK country can be found at: Population estimates - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) .

NHS Lothian resubmitted the OBC for the Reprovision of the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in July 2021.

The document Redesign of Eye Services in NHS Lothian formed part of that submission.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22531 on 13 November 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/written-questions-and-answers.

In the most challenging budget settlement since devolution we are providing nearly £13.5bn in the Local Government Settlement 2023-24. We are increasing the resources available to Local Government by over £793m, which represents a real terms increase of £376m or 3%.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is, however, to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Local Government Financial Statistics for 2021-22 showed that local authorities spent around £6.9bn on education in Scotland, and that 2021-22 was the seventh year in a row education gross revenue expenditure saw a real terms increase.

The Scottish Government provides additional revenue funding to local authorities to support Gaelic medium education through the Gaelic Specific Grant Scheme. Information on funding from 2012 has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. No 64655.