Using satellite data and computer modelling, Forest Research have recently issued a revised estimate of around 8,000 hectares of forests impacted by the winter storms. This equates to around 16 million trees that have been blown over or otherwise damaged.

After Storm Arwen at the end of November, Scottish Forestry and Confor brought together the industry to take a strategic and collective view and co-ordinate the recovery of the fallen wood so that it can get to market in a safe and timely manner. Many landowners are still clearing up and this will continue for months to come, and will continue to be supported in that work by the Scottish Government and its agencies.

We recognise the significant pressure on Orthopaedic Waiting Times, and actions to address this are being considered within the wider context of planned care recovery.

We are working closely with Boards to finalise planned care activity plans, including for orthopaedics, for 2022-23, which will be critical to stabilising and improving our health and social care system in the medium term.

The National Treatment Centre (NTC) Programme will deliver the single biggest increase in protected planned care capacity ever created in NHSScotland. The network of 10 NTCs, will deliver capacity for over 40,000 additional planned procedures and diagnostic care across 12 specialities. Within next 18 months, NTCs will open in NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Highland and at NHS Golden Jubilee specialising in orthopaedic surgery. On 13 April, we also announced £1.8m of funding to purchase a private hospital in Ayrshire (Carrick Glen) to be developed into a new National Treatment Centre specialising in orthopaedics.

As well as significant investment in new infrastructure, the new NHSScotland Centre for Sustainable Delivery is also leading work to explore new and innovative ideas to reduce In Patient / Day Case and Outpatient waiting times. Examples include:

• The rollout of Active Clinical Referral Triage, to provide patients with information about non-surgical interventions and self-management options;
• Patient Initiated Reviews, enabling patients to be escalated if their condition deteriorates and reduces routine appointments while supporting patients in a safe and clinically appropriate manner; and
• Enhanced Recovery after Surgery pathways, designed to support patients achieve faster recovery after surgery.

Discussions are also progressing with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to build clinical leadership across all specialties to help innovate and drive productive opportunities to support the recovery of planned care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05015 on 7 January 2022. 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

We set up the super sponsor scheme to remove the need for displaced people from Ukraine to have to apply for a visa with a named person as sponsor. When applying for their visa, displaced people can only select one sponsor – so they can select the Scottish Government as their sponsor or a specific individual host. Selecting the Scottish Government allows people to apply for their visa straight away, and not wait to be matched with an individual host. It also ensures that people are accommodated safely when they arrive, before being matched to longer-term accommodation.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times warehouse to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case under the Treatment Time Guarantee. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait, the procedure(s) that was planned may not always reflect that actually performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the warehouse. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards.

Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for inpatient or day case treatment at specialty level are published up to 31 December 2021 and can be found using the link below:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11657/ipdc_feb22.xlsx .

The Skills Action Plan for Rural Scotland (SAPRS) is a joint initiative supported by Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Government, Plan stakeholders and partners.

I refer to the response I gave on 7 March 2022 (S6W-06724). An evaluation of the SAPRS is currently underway; it will be published in Summer 2022.

This evaluation will help inform what future action is needed to drive forward co-ordination and delivery of skills for rural Scotland.

Anyone experiencing long term effects following vaccination should speak to their GP or clinician involved in their care. They should expect an equal level of care for their condition to those with similar conditions not caused by vaccination. Those experiencing side effects from the vaccination can report these using the MHRA yellow card scheme.

Currently there are no plans for a separate public inquiry into the alleged historic abuse at Fornethy House Residential School. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has the remit to consider the extent to which institutions and bodies with legal responsibility for the care of children failed in their duty to protect children in care in Scotland from abuse, regardless of where that abuse occurred.

Curriculum for Excellence does not prescribe specific approaches or pedagogies for any aspect of the curriculum including learning to read but in practice, systematic synthetic phonics and other phonics approaches are widely implemented across Scotland's classrooms.

The exchange of factually accurate patient information is pivotal to the delivery of high quality, safe, patient centred healthcare whether it takes place locally, regionally, nationally in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK. Normal practice would be that where a patient is referred by a specialist team in Scotland to a specialist team in another part of the UK, the clinician responsible for their care would write a formal referral letter which would include details of the patients diagnosis, investigations already undertaken, treatments pursued so far and any proposed treatment plan or specific request of the team to which they are referring. It is also often the case that the referring clinician may provide some further detail as part of a Multidisciplinary Team Discussion, Virtual Consultation or telephone call.

On the occasion that the treatment is unplanned, the NHS facility providing the treatment should contact the individual’s GP Practice, in Scotland, directly to exchange key information from their patient record. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) are available to support Scottish practices and the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to facilitate the sharing of records and or important information about the patient.

Systems integration and providing greater access for the public to their health and care data is a priority for Scottish Government and our ambitions are set out in our Digital Health and Care Strategy which was published in October 2022 and available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-digital-health-care-strategy/