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The health and welfare of all displaced people from Ukrainian staying in Scotland remains our priority.

The Scottish Government Mental Health directorate worked closely with our partners such as Heads of Psychology Scotland, NHS Scotland, COSLA, the Scottish Refugee Council, amongst others, to develop and then publish wellbeing packs for displaced people from Ukraine arriving in Scotland. There was a specific pack full of helpful resources and guidance for displaced people from Ukraine on physiological wellbeing – Ukraine psychological wellbeing advice pack: guidance for Ukrainian arrivals - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We've amended legislation so there will be no charge for NHS Scotland services for people who have fled Ukraine, services such as maternity care, mental health services and treatment for specific conditions.

Anyone in Scotland, regardless of their nationality, residence status or length of time they will be in the country, is already entitled to receive emergency treatment at an A&E or casualty department, and can register with a GP Practice to receive general medical services, at no charge.

We continue to take forward a range of actions in schools, including the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme, which tackles gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls; and piloting a whole school approach to tackling gender-based violence with Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance.

The Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group is developing a national framework document for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender-based violence. This will set out the practical prevention and intervention measures that can be used to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children and young people. This work is expected to be completed in 2023.

On 22 September 2022 we published spending at Independence referendum Supreme Court referral: legal costs - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Of that £113,824.04 was spent on counsel. There has been no spending on external solicitors. An additional £350 has been spent on Supreme Court filing fees.

We will be publishing updated costs of the reference in December.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the uptake of free school meals broken down by year group.

The Schools Healthy Living Survey Supplementary Statistics provides a breakdown of school meal uptake by pupils in primary, secondary and special schools dating back to 2006. Previous School Healthy Living Survey Supplementary Statistics datasets, back to 2012, are available through the following web link: School Healthy Living Survey supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The uptake of free school meals as a percentage of the total number of pupils since 2006 is contained within the following table:

Free School Meals uptake by school sector 2006-2022

The priority benchmark descriptors in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme have been used consistently since 2019.

Moving forwards, we are now developing new criteria in line with recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway and upcoming refreshed Stroke Improvement Plan. These will be reported on in the next annual Stroke Improvement Programme Report, published in 2023.

The Scottish Cancer Network (SCN) has engaged collaboration from clinical staff across Scotland to draft a National Clinical Management Pathway for all breast cancer patients, to achieve consistent care across Scotland. The CMP is currently in draft and out for consultation and is expected to be launched in 2023.

The Scottish Cancer Network is hosted by NHS National Services Scotland. The Network is a dedicated national resource to support and facilitate a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to cancer services which will assist in enabling equitable access to care and treatment across Scotland.

£10 million of funding has been directed to support Cancer Waiting Times improvements in our NHS across 2022-23, targeting the most challenged specialties, including breast. Significant funds are going towards up-skilling nurses and investment to support extended working days and weekend working to increase capacity and treat patients as timely as possible.

The Scottish Cancer Network (SCN) has engaged collaboration from clinical staff across Scotland to develop a clinical management pathway for breast cancer to ensure patients achieve consistent care across Scotland, expected to be launched in 2023.

There is no mechanism for increasing the frequency of benefit payments. We have set payment cycles already in operation. Any new payment cycles would not be recommended as they would be complex to implement and have detrimental impact on operational services.

The Scottish Government funds health and care research through the Chief Scientist Office. We are not currently funding any inflammatory breast cancer clinical trials.

Researchers can apply directly to the Chief Scientist Office for funding. The CSO’s Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committee each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website and the role of these committees is well-known across the health and care research community in Scotland

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/grant-funding/response-mode-funding-schemes/

Applications to the CSO funding committees on the underlying causes, diagnosis, treatment and management of Inflammatory Breast Cancer are welcomed. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO’s standard independent peer review process to enable funding decisions to be made.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Team supports Managed Clinical Networks to evaluate Board performance, identify areas of concern and work with them to implement local action plans with strong managerial support to improve the delivery of stroke care across Scotland.

This support includes visiting all NHS Boards at least once per year to review stroke care with NHS Board representatives to assess performance, highlight achievements and good practice and to formulate an improvement plan for areas of concern where necessary.

The Scottish Government has not set a minimum standard of performance but expects NHS Boards to deliver the best possible care for those who have experienced a stroke. We expect care provided to be safe, effective and person-centred and reflect the needs of local populations.