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The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults has been a positive development in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our local communities, with approximately 3300 grants made to local projects across Scotland in the first two years alone.

We are committed to providing this Fund going forward and are currently in the process of finalising mental health budgets for 2024-25. We will be able to confirm the amount of this funding once the budget allocations have been approved.

Responsibility for delivery of Primary Medical Services rests with Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships, and delivery plans should take account of local population health need. To assist local partners, in November 2023 the Scottish Government published The General Practice Access Principles [ General Practice Access Short Life Working Group: access principles - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ]. This report sets out a clear framework for the core principles of how general medical services should be delivered. To support general practice, we have significantly expanded the primary care multi-disciplinary team workforce to support GPs and practice teams ensuring more people get the right care in the right place at the right time.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing more in General Practices servicing disadvantaged areas through targeted action like the Inclusion Health Action in General Practice project in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, with £1.3 million funding dedicated so far, and stabilising our Community Link Worker capacity in Glasgow, with £3.6 million funding already confirmed for three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27.

The Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) have approved up to £24.5m in grant funding to the Sumitomo Electric UK Ltd high voltage cable manufacturing project. This comprises £19.37m in Scottish Government funding, £4.6m from HIE and £0.53m from SE.

The project will create around 330 jobs and bring £350 million inward investment to Scotland. This major investment in the Highlands will support the delivery of the First Minister’s flagship commitment of up to £500 million over five years to anchor our offshore wind supply chain and create good, green jobs.

The grant support was essential to progressing this significant investment into our renewable energy future. As a global player in the offshore cable market, Sumitomo’s decision to invest in Scotland required support to ensure that the case for the creation a new facility in Scotland could be considered competitively alongside alternative locations across the globe. Sumitomo’s Scottish Highlands investment is their first in Europe, and an indicator of the attractiveness of Scotland as a place to do business in what is a globally competitive market.

The first 30-minute reduction in the working week for all Agenda for Change staff should start on 1 April 2024.

In the event, that a local Health Board cannot fully implement the agreement in a particular department or within a particular speciality due to service pressures, safe staffing or wellbeing staff will be recompensed accordingly until the service can accommodate their reduction. As full-time hours are reducing to 37, any time above this will be at time and a half as per the current terms and conditions.

Analysis of this initial 30-minute reduction will be used to help inform the best way to roll out the remaining reductions in the working week in future years.

Further details, including implementation guidance on each of these areas will be issued to the NHS prior to 1 April 2024.

I am grateful to both Trade Union and Employer representatives for working in partnership with us to develop these reforms to help modernise our service.

Open general export licences (OGELs) are reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not hold data or information on OGELs.

In a wider context, the First Minister has recently asked the Prime Minister for a ban on licencing of arms exports from the UK to Israel, which would also extend to any relevant products currently manufactured in Scotland.

The UK Government publishes statistics on strategic export licences at: Strategic export controls: licensing data annual reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) However, these data sets do not identify where the licenced items are produced.

Statistics on Scotland's public sector finances are published in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) publication; however, statistics for Scottish public sector net debt are not available. The latest GERS publication is available at: Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Figures on UK public sector net debt are published by the Office of National Statistics. In January 2024 the UK's public sector net debt was 96.5% of GDP.

I visited the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity’s (ECHC) wellbeing centre, The Hub, based in the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, on 24 October 2023. During my visit I met with some of the charity’s team members and spoke to them about their new wellbeing and resilience service, The Haven, based in East Lothian.

In addition, Scottish Government officials are currently liaising with ECHC staff to arrange a visit for the Cabinet Secretary of NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, who has recently been invited to the service.

The Scottish Government welcomes the model of early intervention being piloted as part of the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC) ‘No Time To Wait’ project. We will continue to engage with ECHC as the ‘No Time To Wait’ pilot continues and look forward to learning more from the evaluation of the model in due course.

We recognise the important role third sector organisations, such as ECHC, play in supporting and improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. That is why we fund a variety of organisations and services with a focus on prevention and early intervention to ensure all of Scotland’s children, young people and families receive the right care and support, at the right time, in settings which best meets their needs. In this financial year (23-24) we have invested a further £15 million into community mental health services for children, young people and families through our local authority framework to achieve this aim.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on how much a psychological therapies appointment costs the NHS.

Every presentation for psychological treatment represents a unique individual with their own specific needs. Treatment can often involve working with multidisciplinary professions as needed, meaning it is not possible to provide a cost per appointment.

The range of this psychological treatment is described in detail in the Scottish Psychological Therapies Matrix and how this treatment should be delivered is set out in the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions.

Engagement between Scottish Enterprise and Gibson's Engineering Ltd led to a Business Gateway referral in 2022. In addition, the Find Business Support website ( findbusinesssupport.gov.scot ) provides information on the advice and funding offered by Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway and I would encourage Gibson’s Engineering to consider the full range of support available.

Specialist support is also available through the Rail Cluster, an initiative designed and funded by Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland which is being delivered by Scottish Engineering. The aim is to connect Scottish SMEs with the country’s top manufacturing innovators and supply chain partners to help deliver the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railways. I understand that Gibson’s Engineering has already engaged with the Rail Cluster.