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The launch date for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme is set in the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020. This can only be changed by amending Regulations approved by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government has spent £187,547 (£225,058 including VAT) on administering the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme over the period 2019 to 2023, as set out in the following table. This funding has helped to install various measures across private rented properties, including many types of insulation, double glazing and air source heat pumps.

Energy efficiency and zero direct emissions heating is a priority for the Scottish Government to tackle low energy performance, to help to make the heating bills of those living in those homes more affordable and to make the homes warmer and greener.

Regulation of the nursing profession is reserved to the U.K. Parliament. Making the word “nurse” a protected title in law is problematic due to its historical use in a broader context than today’s graduate profession, as regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Such protection would require an amendment to the Nursing and Midwifery Order (2001). SG is working closely with DHSC on a programme to modernise regulation of healthcare professions and the protection of titles will be carefully considered within this agenda.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the overseas recruitment and considers this to be on track. As announced in October 2022 up to 750 overseas nurses, midwives and allied health professionals are to be recruited by the end of March 2023 and it is our aim to publish the results of that exercise shortly after.

The Scottish Government spent £886 on the MCS Certification Fund in the 2021-2022 financial year, and £14,987 so far over the 2022-2023 financial year as set out in the table below. The total spend since the scheme started until 15 February 2023 is £15,874. This scheme has helped increase the total number of MCS heat pump installers in Scotland by around 10% (calculated using MCS Scottish heat pump installer data from: https://datadashboard.mcscertified.com/InstallationInsights ) with 17 gaining MCS certification through the fund over the scheme’s lifespan.

In regards to the Scotland-specific overview, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13419 on 23 January 2023.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government recognises that while more people are being diagnosed with cancer, more people are also being cured and living longer with the illness, thanks to the many new and established treatments now available. The increasing numbers of cases is also a simple reflection of the fact that people are, overall, living longer. Clearly our NHS remains under pressure, but more patients are being treated on cancer pathways than was the case prior to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is developing a new 10 year cancer strategy to launch in Spring this year, which will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. This will be supported by an initial 3-year action plan.

The strategy will include a new earlier diagnosis vision for Scotland as well as a robust workforce strategy and ambitions aimed at strengthening research and innovation and eradicating inequalities.

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

As the draft Strategy sets out, irrespective of the climate imperative, due to the maturity of the North Sea basin, planning for a just transition to a net zero energy system and diversifying employment and economic opportunities for workers is essential. Scotland’s energy transformation is therefore urgent and inevitable.

In establishing a renewed policy position on oil and gas, whilst licensing is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is consulting on whether, in order to support the fastest possible and most effective just transition, there should be a presumption against new exploration for oil and gas.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan is an open consultation and as such requires statutory assessments to be undertaken. Some assessments have already been published and the others will be available with the final document.

The funding allocated to the National Wellbeing Hub was £141,759 in financial year 2020-21 and £203,362 in financial year 2021-22.

The Zero Waste Scotland website pages for the Scotland Deposit Return Scheme were launched in May 2019. Data on the number of visits to these pages has been made available to the Scottish Government for the period between September 2019 to 9 March 2023, totalling 348,175 visits across this period. These pages received 21,176 in 2019 (from September), 45,956 in 2020, 72,053 in 2021, 97,691 in 2022 and up to the 9 March 111,299 visits in 2023.

Public Health Scotland collect Management Information on the number of adults receiving Hospital at Home. However, no data is collected on children receiving this service or on patients receiving a Hospice at home services, although some of the patients receiving hospital at home may be receiving end of life care.

The following table shows the total number of adults (16+) who have been supported through Hospital at Home services by calendar year and Health Board, and shows a 60% increase in patients treated since 2015. A patient could have one or more admission to Hospital at Home services within the year. However, individual episodes are not counted, and the same patient is not counted more than once within the same year.