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The operation of company law is reserved to the UK Government. The Companies Act 2006 is the main legislation which governs the operation of companies within the UK including in Scotland. This includes the law relating to where trading certificates may be required in order for a company to trade.

The Insolvency Service, which is an executive agency of the UK Government and sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, includes information as to their role in dealing with 'phoenix companies' on their website. The role of the Insolvency Service includes investigating potential examples of director misconduct in the context of phoenix companies.

Phoenix companies and the role of the Insolvency Service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government is taking appropriate steps to ensure we have the necessary staffing in place to support our NHS services. Over the lifetime of this parliament we are committed to investing more than £11 million in further domestic and international recruitment to support NHS staffing levels.

Student nurses and midwives entering funded degree programmes will increase in 2022-23 to a total recommended intake of 4,837. This will be the tenth successive increase, doubling the number of students who were funded in the last decade.

To ensure appropriate shift cover where there is increased demand the majority [54.9%] of temporary staffing cost comes from the NHS Staff Bank. Bank staff are NHS staff, on NHS contracts at NHS rates of pay.

The usage of bank and agency staff was vital during the height of the pandemic, the most pressured time our NHS has ever seen. The use of short term staff in an organisation as large and complex as the NHS is inevitable and is not related to one specific issue.

Their use helps ensure service continuity during times of planned and unplanned staffing gaps including sickness absence and leave. Boards receive monthly agency spend reports and each Board has identified an Executive Lead to take overall responsibility for this area.

The £400 Energy Bills Discount Scheme will provide important relief for consumers. However, the Scottish Government believes that much more action is required at UK Government level to help mitigate the impact of the energy price crisis, especially for those most vulnerable. The First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister ahead of her statement in the House of Commons on 8 September, making it clear that the UK Government must target additional financial support to those most in need, over and above measures already announced. We will continue to argue this case.

Local Authorities are responsible for street lighting on public roads and footways that are within their statutory list of public roads, Motorways and Trunk Lighting are maintained by Transport Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many street light electric vehicle charge points are currently in operation broken down by local authority area. However, the majority of public charge points installed to date in Scotland, including through the Scottish Government’s £50m investment in the ChargePlace Scotland Network, are unlikely to be connected or integrated to lampposts.

The Scottish Government expects all health and social care services to provide high quality care that is safe, effective, and sustainable, and has the person and their family and carers at the centre. Where possible, we want people to receive this care where they feel most comfortable.

The Scottish Government has no plans to develop a specific “No One Dies Alone” strategy. We are, however, committed to developing a new end of life and palliative care strategy.

We continue to work jointly and engage closely with delivery partners to develop a new strategy to achieve the very highest standards of care right up to the end of life, and to ensure that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.

The number of deaths where malnutrition was the underlying cause in any death over the past 10 years is as follows (TABLE 1):

The questions used in the next Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey will be relevant to all cancer patients including those with blood cancer. The data collected will be broken down by cancer type and published as it has been in previous years.

No, I attended the Astley Ainslie Hospital on 25 August to visit NHS Lothian’s Mental health After Covid Hospitalisation (MACH) service. During the visit, I met with staff from the MACH team, service users who have been involved in group therapy delivered by MACH, and members of the MACH National Specialist Advisory Group.

The Scottish Government does not have policy control over the eligibility for rebated fuels, such as red diesel. This is a reserved policy. Changes introduced by the UK Government in April 2022 restricted the eligibility for use of rebated fuels.

An emergency budget review has been announced to assess any and all opportunities to redirect additional resources to those most in need, reduce the burdens on business and stimulate the Scottish economy. More than £4.7 billion in support has been provided to businesses since the beginning of the pandemic, including around £1.6 billion in rates relief.

Ultimately, the Scottish Government believes that all tax powers should be devolved to this parliament so that we can provide the support that Scottish businesses need.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the impact that the recent price rises in the cost of energy will have on people, especially those using medical equipment at home, such as CPAP machines for the treatment of sleep apnoea.

Decisions about the reimbursement of energy costs associated with CPAP machines and other medical machines in individuals’ homes are made by NHS Boards. The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Boards to address financial pressures across the healthcare system, including the impacts of the increase in energy costs. In May 2022, we published our Resource Spending Review that set out investment of £73 billion in health and social care to 2026-27.

The Scottish Government will also use the Emergency Budget Review to increase the Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million in 2022-23. The Fuel Insecurity Fund is aimed at helping people who are at risk of self-rationing their energy use, or self-disconnecting entirely because they cannot afford their energy bills.