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The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to introduce such legislation. However our new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone' sets out a series of actions intended to deliver further air quality improvements over the period to 2026. Amongst these actions are several which focus on reducing emissions from domestic fuel combustion.

An expert working group, which met for the first time in January 2022, has been established to advise the Government on taking forward these actions. Further information will be made publicly available as this work proceeds.

Anyone concerned about the standard of care provided by a registered service can raise a complaint with the Care Inspectorate, the independent scrutiny and improvement body for social care and social work across Scotland. The Care Inspectorate have a statutory duty to deal with complaints made about registered care services, including private care homes. Complaints upheld are published on the Care Inspectorate’s website.

The Scottish Government has activated the Bellwin Scheme which offers additional revenue support to local authorities to assist with immediate and unforeseen costs that meet the qualifying criteria in the aftermath of emergency incidents such as the storms referenced. However, payments are only made once a local authority has exceeded its Bellwin Threshold which represents 0.2 per cent of their net revenue budget for the year in question, for Aberdeenshire Council this is £1,075,171. This is the amount that all local authorities are deemed to set aside to cover unforeseen emergencies

My officials are in regular contact with Aberdeenshire Council and the Council is aware that any interim Bellwin claim should be submitted to the Scottish Government within 4 months of the date of the incident. I can confirm that, to date, the Scottish Government have not yet received a Bellwin claim from Aberdeenshire Council.

However, in 2021-22, Aberdeenshire Council will receive £479.2 million to support local services, which includes an extra £19 million or 4.1 per cent to support services compared to 2020 21. Further funding of almost £521.3 million will be provided in 2022-23, which includes an extra £44 million or 9.2 per cent for vital day to day services.

The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (the Care Inspectorate) was established on 1 April 2011 following the commencement of the Public Services Reform (Scotland Act) 2010 (“the 2010 Act”) and encompassed other bodies such as the Care Commission. The statutory role and functions of the Care Inspectorate are as set out in the 2010 Act and does not extend to a role in the distribution of public or private funding across care homes.

Information on the numbers of metastatic breast cancer patients who have had access to a breast cancer specialist nurse is not held centrally.

As part of the National Cancer Plan, we are providing up to £2.5 million to NHS boards to support 12 pilot programmes across Scotland to deliver a single point of contact for cancer patients. These points of contact will support patients throughout their journey to discuss questions or anxieties related to their clinical care from the point of diagnosis.

The statutory responsibility for delivering and commissioning care home placements at a local level lies with local authorities and integrated health and social care partnerships. The agreement on the rates paid for care home placements is determined by the contractual relationships in place. Scottish Government provides funding through the local government settlement but is not a contractual party to these arrangements.

The Scottish Government has allocated £862 million to Health Boards to support with costs arising from the pandemic, this will include additional costs for the adult social care sector. The current arrangements for additional financial support for the sector are in place until 30 June 2022.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06927 on 4 March 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 .

The 2018 advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), our statutory advisers, was that over the next decade government policies should only support biomass use where this

a) provides cost-effective abatement whilst avoiding ‘lock-in’ to sub-optimal uses, and/or

b) develops key technologies and sustainable supply chains.

They recommend that we limit support for bioenergy use in buildings to biomethane produced from anaerobic digestion and other niche uses (as part of hybrid heat pumps systems in hard to treat off-gas homes, local combined heat and power systems and small-scale district heat networks) - whilst minimising air quality impacts.

Overall, the Scottish Government’s aim is to see bioenergy used where it has the greatest value in reducing emissions. We are currently working to understand the most appropriate and sustainable use of bioresources across the whole energy system in Scotland and intend to publish a Bioenergy Action Plan in 2023.

Biomass in a low-carbon economy - Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)

All three and four year olds and around a quarter of two year olds in Scotland have a statutory entitlement to up to 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year. Our funded ELC offer is the most generous across the United Kingdom.

Unlike the UK Government’s funded ELC offer for England which prioritises children with two working parents, our aim in Scotland is to ensure that every child benefits from high quality early learning and childcare. Regardless of their parent or carer’s working status, all children have a right to play, to learn and to access experiences that meet their physical, social, emotional and cultural needs; and a right to associate with their peers.

Where national guidance, including in the form of Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), does not exist, as in this case, NHS Boards develop guidance using up to date evidence, including NICE guidelines through their existing Board governance structures.

We would expect the information in the updated NICE guideline, NG207, to be used by NHS Boards to assist pregnant women when making decisions about induction of labour.