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Officials meet NHS Boards regularly to discuss local issues, potential solutions and manage risk, which the Director of Dentistry attends. This includes Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) provision in the Tayside area.

The Chief Dental Officer wrote to Health Boards on 2 September 2024, confirming our intention to introduce a more targeted and evidence-based approach to SDAI provision, ensuring those areas with clear unmet need are supported.

The report from the Scottish Veterans Commissioner recognised the progress made in bringing forward the homelessness prevention provisions within the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which builds on the existing strong rights for people who are homeless, including veterans.

The number of homeless veterans in Scotland remains low and homeless veterans are a relatively small proportion (2%) of homeless households. However, we recognise that when veterans do become homeless they may have particular needs and we will continue to work with partners, including Veterans Scotland, both to prevent homelessness and improve housing outcomes for veterans.

As the Health Board makes the arrangements with independent dental contractors and bodies corporate, it is for the Board to have direct discussions with the rural practices.

Each NHS Board has a Director of Dentistry. Officials meet all NHS Boards regularly to discuss local issues, potential solutions and manage risk, which the Director of Dentistry attends.

The Scottish Government also regularly meet with the official representative body, British Dental Association Scotland, to discuss a range of matters including recruitment and retention across rural and island Scotland.

Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grants are Health Board led and are subject to continuous review.

The purpose of SDAI grants is to provide targeted additional funding to those areas in Scotland where there is clear evidence of unmet need in NHS dental service provision.

The significant national policy intervention was made on the 1st November 2023, to increase fees and make NHS Dentistry more attractive to providers. This clearly benefits and supports NHS dentistry in rural areas.

This information is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland publish information on the number of Dental Practices in Scotland and this can be found at:

Dental Practices and Patient Registrations - Datasets - Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data (nhs.scot)

The following below shows the number of practices that have received financial support through Scottish Dental Access Initiative grants in each of the last five years.

The aim of the most recent phase of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB 2) is to support the implementation of new, innovative business models into Scotland's bus market, so that zero-emission buses become the default choice for operators, and that public subsidy is no longer required. Bus operating companies have the freedom to choose which manufacturers to purchase buses from, as best suit the needs of their routes and operations. Fair Work sits at the heart of our ambition to move toward a wellbeing economy and is central to supporting economic recovery and renewal, and a just transition to net-zero. UK based employees working on delivering the ScotZEB 2 project must be paid at least the Real Living Wage, and have an effective forum for employees’ voices. Suppliers from different countries will operate within different economic, social and legal contexts. The real Living Wage is UK-specific and cannot be applied to workers based in foreign countries. Scottish Ministers are required to comply with the terms of the Subsidy Control Act which prohibits the favouring of domestic over non-domestic manufacturers when offering public subsidy.

Since 2020 the Scottish Government has made available more than £23 million in R&D grant funding to Alexander Dennis Ltd to support the company’s capacity to secure orders for ultra low emission and zero emission buses.

Ethical commissioning was defined in the Bill, as introduced, as making arrangements for services in ways which were consistent with the NCS Principles. As a consequence of the agreement reached on shared accountability for the NCS these specific provisions were removed. There will be other requirements placed on relevant bodies to comply with the NCS Principles more widely which will achieve the same intent for ethical considerations to be embedded in commissioning and procurement of NCS services. Therefore the intent within the Bill remains unchanged.

We will carefully consider the responses to the Scottish Parliament’s call for views.

It is important to acknowledge that vaccines are medicines and like all medicines they can have side effects and, on rare occasions, cause injury. Thankfully, most side effects are mild and short lived, but the Scottish Government recognises that some are not.

The Scottish Government has corresponded with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group on several occasions, and has routinely signposted members of the public to the vaccine damage payment scheme when they have raised issues of vaccine–related injury. The safety of medicines, including vaccines, and the subject matter of the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme are matters which are reserved to the UK Government, therefore we are unable to comment on individual cases.

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry is currently underway and the forthcoming Module 4 of the UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry on Vaccines and Therapeutics will consider vaccine safety and other aspects, such as potential reforms to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group is a core participant of both the UK and Scottish Inquiries and as such has a central role. Due to the group’s involvement with the Inquiries, it would not be appropriate for Ministers to meet with them at this stage.

I advised through recent correspondence with the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group that I would be open to meeting with representatives of the group once Module 4 of the UK Inquiry has concluded, and after Baroness Hallett has issued my recommendations. This would facilitate a full and open discussion to take place between both parties, where recommendations could be discussed, especially if there were any the group felt weren’t full addressed as part of the inquiry.

The speaking note used to address attendees at the launch of the third New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy Delivery Plan 2024 to 2026 on 19 August 2024 can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-scots-refugee-integration-strategy-minister-for-equalities/

The actual speech given is likely to have differed to the copy of the speaking note provided.

The Scottish Government has no plans to ban the installation of uPVC windows in conservation areas.

Following extensive consultation, and taking account of the need to address the cost and climate crises, new permitted development rights (PDR) were introduced in May this year. These PDR allow for (amongst other things) the alteration or replacement of windows without the need to apply for planning permission. The measures strike an appropriate balance between allowing owners/occupiers to improve the environmental performance of their properties whilst safeguarding the overall character and appearance of the historic environment.

Reflecting the importance of conservation areas, PDR for the alteration/replacement of windows on buildings in such areas, are subject to prior approval arrangements in some cases where the windows are located on the building’s front elevation or side elevation fronting a road. This enables planning authorities to consider the design and external appearance of proposed replacement windows

The new PDR do not apply in World Heritage Sites, and they do not remove any need for listed building consent. Additionally, planning authorities have the power to use an Article 4 direction to restrict PDR in certain locations should they consider that appropriate.