Seòmar agus comataidhean

Phase 3 of the Creative Communities programme ran between August 2021- August 2022 and provided funding to 24 organisations across 17 local authorities. Led by Inspiring Scotland, the programme has: engaged with 56 volunteers, employed 112 artists, 22 community support workers, assisted 10 young people to complete internships and facilitated over 3,500 hours of arts workshops and creative activities. The third phase of the programme received a total of £600,000 in joint funding from Scottish Government’s culture and justice portfolios.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of appointments offered per full time equivalent GP.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) will publish data on activity levels in General Practice on 6 December 2022. This will include activity by encounter type. Encounters are recorded each time a member of the practice team enters information into the GP electronic health record. These include face to face consultations, telephone consultations, e-consultations, medicines management and administration.

The data will be published as experimental statistics, reflecting the developing nature of the data in relation to quality and ability to meet user needs.

PHS will also publish the GP In Hours General Practice Workforce Survey on 29 November 2022, which will provide estimates of GP workforce numbers.

The National Partnership for Culture published its recommendations on 16 March 2022. These 14 recommendations were underpinned by principles for meaningful delivery such as pooling of experience and resources across different fields. In response we are taking forward a range of actions, which are detailed in full in our publication of 27 September 2022, available at: National Partnership for Culture recommendations: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes strengthening cross-portfolio links in areas such as health and wellbeing to harness opportunities for collaboration, as well as taking forward actions with partners to support cohesive working between national and local organisations. The National Partnership for Culture will meet to discuss its future plans on 14 December 2022.

This year’s winter vaccination programme has enjoyed very high uptake to date. According to the latest data, 87.8% of older adult care home residents, and 83.0% of those aged 65 and over, have received a winter COVID-19 vaccination.

Nevertheless, we are continually exploring ways to build on these very promising levels of uptake. We have undertaken a range of national communications and engagement activity to further encourage uptake, as well as supporting Health Boards and other partners with local activity.

We have embedded inclusivity as a key aspect of the vaccination programme from its outset, working alongside health boards and other partners to encourage uptake, remove barriers and respond to evidence of low uptake in certain communities, including those from more deprived areas.

There is capacity right across Scotland to get vaccinated, and I would encourage all those eligible for COVID-19 and flu vaccinations this winter to come forward.

There are two principal types of carbon in marine carbon habitats: organic carbon (can be digested by microbes and hence converted back to CO ₂ - approximately 15%), and inorganic carbon (microbially indigestible and chemically stable shell and coral - approximately 85%).

Estimates of carbon stored in the marine environment have large uncertainties due to incomplete mapping of habitats, sparse direct measurements and assumptions used in predictive modelling. The uncertainties result in estimated values being updated as new data becomes available meaning there are no definitive values, only best current estimates.

The current best estimate of carbon stored in Scotland’s marine environment is 5,616,100,000 tonnes CO ₂ -eq..

Details are set out in the following table:

Current estimates of carbon stored / sequestered in Scotland’s marine environment

The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a right that we all have and the Scottish Government wants to encourage the exercise of that right wherever possible. While it is not an absolute right - and conditions and prohibitions can be imposed where required and in the interests of a democratic society - the Scottish Government is clear that it should not be dependent on the ability to pay.

For each march or parade, local authorities and their partners, including Police Scotland and Transport Scotland (where the event is to take place on a trunk road), will consider traffic management issues and the various powers available to the agencies involved to regulate traffic, including Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs).

In their report, published on 2 November 2022, the Independent Short-Life Working Group on Facilitating Peaceful Assembly in Scotland has made a range of recommendations including on traffic management issues as they relate to assembly. The Scottish Government will work with partners to consider these recommendations, including those on costs, in due course.

Due to issues with global supply chains Ministers are advised the process may take of the order of 36 weeks.

Ministers are seeking urgent options on the next steps and expect all possible measures to be taken to deliver the vessel to serve islanders as soon as possible.

Officials will continue to engage with Ferguson Marine as they assess the full impact of this with partners, including any financial implications which Ferguson Marine will share with both the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament once this has been confirmed. This engagement is ongoing.

While GP sessions have sometimes been defined for the purposes of various payments, there is no overall contractual definition of GP sessions.

GP contract regulations require practices to ensure provision of services from Monday- Friday, 08:00 - 18.30. It is up to the practice partners to agree how that is covered by GPs and the number and length of sessions.

Asthma patient hospitalisations, age-sex standardised rate per 100,000

We recognise the importance of engagement in developing the Climate Change Plan. We are planning for engagement with stakeholders in 2023. This is in advance of the draft Climate Change Plan being laid by the end of 2023 – for a period of at least 120 days of scrutiny - and a public consultation which will commence at the same time. In addition, we will publish an engagement report alongside the new draft Climate Change Plan to 2040 to provide detail around this engagement.

The Scottish Government’s Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change - Climate change - Net Zero Nation: public engagement strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) - sets out the importance of widespread participation and engagement in addressing the climate emergency.

Achieving our emissions reduction targets requires a societal transformation that goes beyond incremental behaviour change. There are currently 29 research projects being managed through ClimateXChange, totalling £1.2million. Many of these will inform our approach to the Climate Change Plan, including a project to identify points of intervention with the potential to influence multiple, interlinked social practices.