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The £20 million referred to is a provisional estimate from the Resource Spending Review for the financial year 2023-24. The costs of the Supreme Court referral are being met from the 2022-23 Government Business and Constitutional Relations budget line.

Annual budgets continue to be set through the annual parliamentary budget Bill process and the annual budget will be based on the latest fiscal information to support our priorities across Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting islands investment and will continue to review this as part of that annual budget process.

As outlined in the response to question S6W-10712 , £300,000 had been allocated to the delivery of the Islands Bond in the 2022-23 Financial Year. This funding will support the delivery of projects that will, in turn, influence the development of our Addressing Depopulation Action Plan.

The Islands Bond was a capital funding commitment. In this context, it is important to highlight that our capital allocations have been significantly restrained as result of the UK Government’s own spending review. The impact of this is that the Scottish Government received £175 million less than we had expected. The capital allocations that Scottish Government are receiving are flat, and will fall over the course of the next few years. As such, we must prioritise as best we can within that context.

However, it is important to understand that the Islands Bond was not the sole intervention aimed at supporting our island communities. This financial year, the Scottish Government has announced a £4.45 million funding package to help improve infrastructure on Scotland’s islands.

This capital investment is supporting all six island local authorities to fund the improvement, creation or safeguarding of locally developed infrastructure projects that align with the Strategic Objectives of the National Islands Plan.

The largest single award for 2022-23 will support a major new nursery development on mainland Orkney, benefitting all of Orkney’s islands. This project is linked to population retention and growth, whilst also addressing child poverty and providing practical training opportunities for employment in an industry facing severe shortages locally.

Historic Environment Scotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB). Under Treasury rules, any underspends generated by NDPBs within a financial year forms part of the wider Scottish Government budget position. NDPBs cannot hold their own reserves from Grant in Aid.

Please be assured that the Scottish Government engages in regular financial discussions with Historic Environment Scotland, as we continue to monitor the impacts of the pandemic and to work within the constraints around current public spending.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11355 on 1 November 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

Information on how many midwives there have been in the NHS in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board area, in each year since 2016, broken down by (i) headcount and (ii) full-time equivalent terms can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Neither the Scottish Government nor Public Health Scotland (PHS) currently gather data on paediatric audiology waiting times. You may wish to contact NHS Highland directly to request this information.

We held a public consultation for the new cancer strategy from 12th April – 7th June. Anyone who wished to submit a response was welcome to through Citizens Space, this includes members of the public, professionals working with cancer services, and organisations. The results of the consultation will be published shortly and will feed into the development of the next cancer strategy.

Early insights from the initial consultation report show that organisations in the cancer sector welcome a long-term strategy with broad overarching aims to help achieve structural changes in the delivery of cancer care.

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a UK Government scheme. Last year Scottish Ministers proposed a more flexible approach to how the new ECO4 scheme would operate in Scotland. Unfortunately the UK Government did not agree to this and has repeatedly failed to engage with us on these matters.

We continue to work with local councils, energy suppliers and stakeholders to ensure as many households as possible benefit from the scheme in Scotland. Further information about delivery of ECO4 financed measures in Scotland will be published on the UK Government website: Household Energy Efficiency Statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government would welcome a meaningful discussion with UK Government Ministers about how ECO4 can better tackle fuel poverty in Renfrewshire and more generally across Scotland. We will be writing again to UK Ministers seeking a dialogue about these issues, following the most recent changes in UK Government policy and Ministerial responsibilities.

PHS collate data on Direct Cancer Referrals. This includes self, GP or NHS24 referral to A&E or other, where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed as per the Scottish Referral Guidelines. Data on these patients are only available from PHS from 2010 onwards as outlined in the following table.

Table 1: Number of direct cancer referrals 1,2,3 on the 31 day pathway since data-set began

The requested information on how many nurses have (a) joined and (b) left the NHS in Fife each year since 2007 is not centrally available.

Information on how many Nursing & Midwifery staff have (a) joined and (b) left the NHS since 2012 can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence .