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NHS Scotland works in partnership with Integrated Authorities, Local Authorities, the third sector and other service providers to deliver care, services and support to people with eating disorders and their families funded from the overall resources they receive from the Scottish Government. The total anticipated spend, including by NHS Scotland on mental health, in 2021/22 is estimated to be in excess of £1.2 billion.

The Scottish Government’s £262.2 million programme budget for mental health and autism in 2021/22 is more than double when compared to the previous year and funds implementation of key priorities and commitments which span different types of need, including many which will contribute directly and indirectly to the treatment of eating disorders.

For example, through NHS Lothian, we continue to fund a national peer support service for those with an eating disorder and their parents and carers at nearly £38,000 this year. Implementation of other commitments to improve care and access to both psychological therapies and children and young people’s mental health services will also have a positive impact on eating disorder services. The Government’s response to the National Review of Eating Disorder Services will also be considered in due course.

Weddings, civil partnerships and funerals are recognised as life events within Scottish Government guidance. Weddings, civil partnerships and funerals are of particular importance to people and society and are protected under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Wedding receptions and funeral wakes mark the social and personal importance of these protected life events. Additionally, there are very practical reasons why funerals cannot be postponed for any length of time. Therefore, these events have been given particular exemptions within the Levels Table compared to the general guidance on other life events.

There are no specific exemptions at this time for birthday parties amongst adults, or gatherings to mark a wedding anniversary or other life event, which remain subject to the general restrictions on people gathering.

Therefore, other events such as birthday parties for adults, wedding anniversary celebrations and celebrations after a religious life event should only take place in line with the general rules for meeting others indoors and outdoors.

The full guidance on protection levels and what individuals can and cannot do at each level can be viewed here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) protection levels: what you can do - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Currently 2089 single track kilometres of Scotland’s Railway are electrified. This allows some 75% of Scottish passenger journeys to be made by electric train.

Works to electrify the East Kilbride and Barrhead Routes have commenced, though electrification of these routes will not be completed within 2021. Development work for electrification of the Borders Line and Fife Circle routes is also underway.

Early medical abortion at home and the changes adopted in March 2020 to enable women to take the first abortion drug, mifepristone, at home where this was felt to be clinically appropriate for them and where the patient wished to do so has been an important measure to ensure abortion services continued to be delivered throughout the pandemic, without delays. The ‘Pills by Post’ service is an English service, which is not provided in Scotland. While many NHS Boards in Scotland are following similar arrangements, medication is in most cases delivered or collected from a clinic, rather than being sent by post.

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the future arrangements for early medical abortion at home on 30 September 2020, which closed on 5 January 2021. Responses to the consultation have been published on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space website. The future arrangements for early medical abortion at home are being considered in light of the findings from the consultation and other available evidence and the Scottish Government plans to confirm our approach this summer.

The Scottish Government supports the development of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) as a common whole-system decarbonisation infrastructure with the flexibility to adapt over time to play a central role across the decarbonisation strategies of key sectors such as heat, industry and power. A proven technology, there are more than 50 CCUS facilities worldwide, with an estimated combined capture capacity of 96 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The Committee on Climate Change describes CCUS as a “necessity, not an option” to achieve net-zero emissions; indeed, the swift development of CCUS as a cornerstone of our energy transition is vital to achieving Scotland’s net zero emissions reduction targets.

Scotland is the most cost-effective place to begin CCUS in the UK, with existing oil and gas infrastructure available to repurpose for CO2 transport and storage. The development of CCUS could offer a range of transition opportunities for Scottish oil and gas firms and domestic supply chain companies.

We are already supporting efforts to deploy CCUS in Scotland, including through our Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, which will provide £80m over the next five years to support the development of CCUS and negative-emissions technologies. We have also provided funding and policy support to the Acorn CCS project in Aberdeenshire, considered the most advanced CCS project in the UK.

The need for enhanced infection prevention and control measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus in a dental setting has had a serious impact on the level of clinical training that students have been able to undertake during the 2020-21 academic year. Due to this, schools have had to make the difficult decision to require dental students to repeat a year in order to prioritise student learning and patient safety.

We recognise that this is disappointing and that it is a significant ask of students, which is why we are providing an enhanced bursary, of up to £6,750, during the 2021-22 academic year. Students will have the opportunity to apply for a bursary to the value of their normal student loan award which they will not have to repay. Students with particular circumstances will continue to be eligible for other sources of bursary support such as the Dental Student Support Grant (DSSG) and SAAS bursaries.

Answer: As detailed in the SNP manifesto, the new administration is committed to publishing a refreshed Energy Strategy to map out Scotland’s energy transition.

The cost for training a student in dentistry is comprised of a number of components, including costs for university training, clinical outreach, and vocational training. The university costs for Scottish-domiciled undergraduates are approximately £32,641 for Year 1 (pre-clinical) students and £42,989 for students in Years 2-5 (clinical). For students in Year 5 there are also additional clinical outreach costs of approximately £31,467. The costs for the one-year vocational training that dentists must undertake after graduation is approximately £61,201 per dentist.

The Scottish Government’s Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan, published in July 2020, sets out how domestic passenger services in Scotland will be decarbonised by 2035.

Public control of ScotRail will facilitate the integration of rolling stock and train service plans with infrastructure works and thus improve the efficient whole system delivery of the Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan.

The Scottish Ministerial Code outlines a code of conduct for members of the Scottish Government (the First Minister, Cabinet Secretaries and Law Officers) and junior Scottish Ministers, including on the use of personal social media accounts. No other Scottish Government guidance has been issued to Ministers in this regard.

Further information

The Scottish Ministerial Code outlines a code of conduct for members of the Scottish Government (the First Minister, Cabinet Secretaries and Law Officers) and junior Scottish Ministers.

Section 10 concerns Ministers And The Presentation Of Policy. There is reference here to the use of social media, which states:

10.10 Ministers may retain personal social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), provided that any activity on their account is not at variance with their obligations to Parliament or their duty to observe the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility. It is Ministers’ personal responsibility to ensure that social media activity in their name does not breach these requirements or bring the Government into disrepute.

10.11 If Ministers wish to use social media for official policy communications, they should use an appropriate Government account.

The Scottish Ministerial Code can be found online at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-ministerial-code-2018-edition