I have had regular discussions with the Chief Executive, NHS Lothian but have not specifically met with the Chief Officer, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership to discuss the Edington Hospital in North Berwick.

On 17 January, I met with delegates from East Lothian and listened to their concerns about Edington Hospital and underlined that decisions about local provision are best made locally. The decision when to re-open Edington Hospital is to be made by NHS Lothian and East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership.

However, I expect any decision that is made to take into account the needs of the local population, and ensure an appropriate level of service are in place to meet those needs.

There has been significant pressure on mental health services throughout the pandemic, and the Scottish Government has responded with record-breaking levels of investment, including our £120 million Mental Health Recovery & Renewal Fund. As part of that work, we have made an additional £40 million available this year to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and to clear waiting list backlogs by March 2023. We are also continuing to work directly with Health Boards with the poorest performance to ensure the 18 week waiting time standard is met.

As set out in the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, we are taking a whole systems approach to improving children and young people’s mental health. Alongside investing in acute CAMHS, we are seeking to ensure community services and school counselling are also available in a responsive and timely manner. We are developing responses to young people experiencing crisis and distress, as well as investing in approaches that promote prevention, early intervention and reducing stigma.

To support this approach, an additional £15 million has been provided to local authorities this year to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities, providing alternative treatment options and pathways to CAMHS, and we have also ensured access to counselling support services in all secondary schools. Additionally, we are committed to supporting every health board in Scotland with development of Infant Mental Health (IMH) provision through £3 million of funding per annum.

This package of commitments is designed to help ensure the right help is available, in the right place, at the right time. This additional investment will contribute towards delivering our commitment to ensure that, by the end of this Parliament, at least 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with 1% going towards CAMHS.

As a result of increased demand and changes to service delivery, we have increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m this year for additional recruitment and the addition of a new call centre in Dundee, which opened in December.

This is supporting the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

Engagement with patients has shown NHS 24 that a focus on ensuring patients receive the appropriate advice, first time, rather than answering their call as quickly as possible is preferable. However, patients with serious and urgent conditions will always be a priority.

Callers to NHS 24 will initially have their symptoms triaged by a call handler before being passed on to a clinician within the Service or to another area of the health service best placed to meet their needs as appropriate.

Both Scottish Government and NHS 24 is committed to ensuring that the patients journey through the health care system is a quick as is possible and patient safety remains the key focus as we continue to enhance the 111 service.

COVID-19 vaccines are procured on a four nations basis via the UK Vaccines Taskforce. As Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we are not in a position to share vaccines with our international development partner countries. We will continue to engage with the UK government on this matter.

On 8 December, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to urge the UK government to end its opposition at the World Trade Organisation and to join over 100 countries who are now supportive of a temporary Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver.

We have also provided international development support to our partner countries to support their COVID-19 responses, including vaccine preparedness. This includes the following examples of relevant recent funding.

In December 2020, we provided £2 million to UNICEF to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries of Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.

In September 2021, we provided £250,000 from our International Development Fund to leverage the provision to our partner countries of £11.2 million worth of PPE - our single biggest ever donation - to aid COVID-19 responses as part of our strategic response.

In February 2022, we provided £1.5 million to UNICEF to support equal access to COVID-19 vaccines in our partner countries. The funds will support vaccination programmes in Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia, their provision of safe oxygen supplies, and help the agency deliver equipment, resources and technical support in response to the pandemic.

NHS 24 has played a key role in the response to Covid-19, completely altering the way in which they deliver their Service from a predominantly out of hours Service to 24/7 advice and support for patients both for Covid and in support of the re-design of unscheduled care.

In response to the re-design of unscheduled care programme, the Scottish Government has also successfully launched national media campaigns to help ensure clear and concise public information is delivered to support a reduction of unscheduled ED attendances by directing the public to access the right care from the most appropriate service for their needs.

Callers to 111 are encouraged to seek help from their own GP or from 999 in an emergency, if this is more appropriate and to access NHS inform for information and advice on seasonal illness information and self-help guides.

It is important, in line with the principle of healthcare being free at the point of use, that lateral flow device (LFD) tests should remain free of charge for any circumstance in which testing is required as part of clinical care.

The COVID-19 Strategic Framework Update, published on 22 February, sought input from public health specialists who support a move to focus on protecting those at highest clinical risk, supporting patient care and responding to outbreaks, as we move towards the endemic phase.

A transition plan setting out the next steps for Test and Protect in Scotland will be published later this month.

Scottish Ministers attended the 36 th British Irish Council (BIC) Summit hosted by the Welsh Government which had the theme of Indigenous Minority and Lesser-Used Languages. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, attended a virtual work sector meeting on 17 November 2021, and Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister and Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy attended the Summit on 19 November, when Ms Forbes gave her update on economic recovery to the pandemic in Gaelic.

Scottish Ministers have taken part in a number of ‘Exit Operations’ meetings with their counterparts across the UK. These meetings have focused on measures to prepare for and address the impacts of the UK’s exit from the EU. The meetings have dealt with a range of issues relevant to the culture and creative sectors, including the international mobility of artists, international trade and exports, and funding.

Scottish Ministers engage with their counterparts across the UK through Four Nations Ministerial Meetings, which have addressed issues of shared concern such as sectoral recovery from the pandemic and the challenges to the culture sector presented by Brexit.

Scottish Ministers attended the 36 th British Irish Council (BIC) Summit hosted by Welsh Government which had the theme of Indigenous Minority and Lesser-Used Languages. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, attended a virtual work sector meeting on 17 November 2021, and Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister and Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy attended the Summit on 19 November, when Ms Forbes gave her update on economic recovery to the pandemic in Gaelic.

Scottish Ministers have taken part in a number of ‘Exit Operations’ meetings with their counterparts across the UK. These meetings have focused on measures to prepare for and address the impacts of the UK’s exit from the EU. The meetings have dealt with a range of issues relevant to the culture and creative sectors, including the international mobility of artists, international trade and exports, and funding.

Scottish Ministers engage with their counterparts across the UK through Four Nations Ministerial Meetings, which have addressed issues of shared concern such as sectoral recovery from the pandemic and the challenges to the culture sector presented by Brexit.

The Scottish Government is represented on the Indigenous Minority and Lesser Used Languages Work Stream where we promote and support the links between our languages and language bodies. In recent times the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Scots Language Centre have both worked to ensure there are better links with the Scots and Ulster Scots Communities.

Through Colmcille 1500, there has been a partnership between Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland to celebrate St Columba’s legacy and 1500 years since his birth. There have also been many projects supported through a Creative Scotland funding stream set up to encourage activity linking Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic language and culture projects.

The Improvement Service (IS), who manage the application process, have informed us that at close of business on 1 March 2022 a total of 144,377 cards had been produced and despatched.

The latest figures that IS have provided broken down to a local council level are from close of business on 14 February 2022 and can be found in the following table.