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Revenues from the UK Government’s Building Safety Levy in England will be small in relation to UK GDP and so the Levy is not expected to have any significant macroeconomic impact. As set out in the 2023-24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government intends for a devolved Building Safety Levy to apply in equivalence to the Levy that is being introduced in England and so it does not expect the macroeconomic impact to be materially different in Scotland.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium accepted tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah ® ) for routine use in NHS Scotland in February 2019 for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a very rare type of cancer of the white blood cells.

It is used to treat children and adults under 25 years-old, where the cancer has not responded to treatment (refractory); has come back after a transplant (relapsed); or has come back after treatment for the second time. National Services Division does not currently commission a paediatric CAR-T service in Scotland, but all eligible children and young people under 16 years of age have access via referral to a specialist unit in England.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes incidence and mortality data on leukaemias, Hodgkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma annually.

PHS previously published survival data on these same cancers. However in the 2023 release, a different approach was taken to assess the short-term impact of COVID-19 on cancer survival for a select few cancers. It utilised a much smaller cohort than the usual methodology which meant an estimate of survival for rarer cancers could not be calculated. Some estimates for blood cancers are available for the 2016-2020 cohort upon request to PHS.

In future cancer survival publications, these same blood cancers will be included again, as survival publications will revert back to previous methodology.

This is a matter for NHS National Services Scotland National Services Division. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce such a register. We are working with Local Authorities, Health Boards and other public sector partners to understand the extent to which RAAC is present in buildings and any actions necessary in response.

The Scottish Cancer Registry does not capture whether a cancer was detected following presentation at an Accident & Emergency (A&E) department. The details in the Scottish Cancer Registry and the lack of clinical information included in the A&E attendance data leaves the relationship between cancer diagnosis and A&E attendance uncertain.

Public Health Scotland completed a study to describe emergency and non-emergency routes to cancer diagnosis in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. A decision on whether to include an expanded list of cancers in the emergency vs. non-emergency routes to cancer diagnosis reporting will be made ahead of a planned publication in March 2024. However, this would be using the emergency/non-emergency definitions and so presentation at A&E would not specifically be defined as a route to diagnosis.

The Scottish Government’s Home Report Review is expected later in the current parliamentary term. The review will take account of the recommendations outlined in the five-year review published in 2015 and be informed by work on wider housing considerations including Housing Standards.

Since being established in the winter of 2020 as part of the wider Winter Support Fund, the Scottish Government has made available a total of £48.47 million to date, to our third sector partners to deliver the Fuel Insecurity Fund. We have agreed a flexible approach to the delivery of support which ensures the Fund can be distributed quickly to those households who are at risk of self-rationing or self-disconnecting their energy use.

The Scottish Government does not hold the breakdown by local authority area, of individual fuel vouchers or household support payments made through our partners.

Our Fund partners work with their network of Scotland-wide referral partners to carefully assess eligible households for crisis support based on their individual circumstances and actual need.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.

As set out in the Policy Memorandum, accompanying the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, the policy intention is that a local authority can establish exemptions to a visitor levy scheme in its area as it believes are appropriate. The Bill therefore provides for a local authority to put such exemptions in place, which will be informed by advice in national guidance being developed by local government and business organisations in the Visitor Levy Expert Group.